Not every city or town is as thriving as other. Either poor city planning, the natural habitat isn't the most livable, or it just seems straight up sketchy.
Whatever the case may be, no one seems to have gone to these place on purpose, it just kind of happened.
We went to Ask Reddit to hear about the worst places people have ever been.
Redditor upmed2006 asked:
"What is the sh*ttiest place you've visited?"
You have hold off on adding these to your bucket list.
The Salton Sea.
"The Salton Sea made me sad."
"There was so much hope around this place. Now if you visit: it's a very poor town, the sand sucks your shoes off and smells awful, and the stench of dead fish permeates the air."
"Now their only bar presents as a David Lynch nightmare if you go."
"Salton Sea is amazing - it's the closest I've ever seen to a post-apocalyptic wasteland. And due to the fact that most of the rotting abandoned buildings are from the 1960s, it's eerily similar to a Fallout game."
"This documentary can save you a trip there, but it doesn't quite capture the feeling of driving through a rotting ghost town in 115F heat, completely empty except for a couple of meth heads staring at you from under an awning."
- Porrick
"I've been kinda fascinated with this place since driving through when I was road tripping in college. Apparently it was created by accident."
"At one time it had thriving game fishery of landlocked saltwater fish, as well as all kinds of marine invertebrates and stuff that hitched a ride in people's bilge water and the bottom of boats. All in the middle of what used to be desert, far from the sea, all the salt having come from salt still left In the soil from ancient times mixed with freshwater from the Colorado River. All slowly dying as they let it dry up and return to desert. (hence the smell, as the tilapia, which are the most salt tolerant, die off). I'm def going to check out that documentary. Thanks!"
"Actually took a boat out there some 40+ years ago. Wasn't much better then. The stench. Dead palm trees half rotted up the trunks stuck in the middle of that disgusting oily looking water."
"My SIL fell in the nasty water by accident. Was wearing a lot of silver jewelry (was the style). Not in the muck more than 5 minutes tops, all her jewelry turned coal black. Didn't stay long after."
"Why we even went is a mystery to this day."
Corporate office in decline.
"Ever been into an office building where maintenance quit and the real estate company hasn't hired replacements in six months? Every broad office floor of cubicles looks like it's in a zombie movie."
"Half of the fluorescent tube lights are dead or flickering from a bad ballast. Some places the air is a bit too cold and dry, while in others its too hot and humid. Enough to make you think there might be mold growing on the walls. It's like a massive fat bloated man was breathing his stinking breath on your neck."
"Oh and the bathrooms. Ohhhhh the bathrooms. I'm not even going to describe that. I'd rather not revisit the memory."
"The breakroom sinks weren't bad though. But then, people are more likely to take care of things they actually have to use. It's not as 'fire and forget' as a men's room. Except for the one breakroom where I felt someone mixed up the two types of rooms and figured 'a drain is a drain'."
"A corporation in the final stages of decline is a sad creature."
"I've always said that the most important person in any office building is the janitor."
"In any business large enough to employ full time janitorial/maintenance people they are what keeps the company from falling apart. I always treat them with more respect than I do my bosses and try to get on their good side."
"When I was a teenager my dad the head of a maintenance department for a business that owned a skyscraper in our city. He and two other maintenance men took care of light bulbs, decorating for holidays and shoveling snow and salting sidewalks. The biggest thing they did all day though was adjust the air conditioning and heat for the 300-400 middle aged female employees most of whom were going through 'the change.'"
"Those ladies knew what a pain it was and would do things like buy the guys lunch a couple of times a week and bake them cookies or make them fudge. The coolest was that the company gave my dad and his maintenance men first dips on concert, musical, Disney on Ice and other kid shows and sports tickets that they didn't use for clients. Saw a lot of concerts and hockey games as a teen for free thanks to dad's job."
Every horror movie wrapped in one.
"Zinc, Arkansas."
"It felt like I stumbled into the movie set for House of Wax, Children of the Corn and Deliverance all in one place. They had a hair salon/mechanic/courthouse/ jail all in one building. The judge's wife was the hair stylist, the judge was also the mechanic and the sheriff was his son."
"Lived in Arkansas my whole life and never heard of Zinc, must be reaaally tiny. We do have Snow, Toad Suck, and Booger Hollow, Arkansas too."
"Others have pointed out some other good ones: Smackover, Bald Knob, Weiner, Flippin, Possom Grape, Blue Ball and Goobertown are some of the others. Yes real communities/towns in Arkansas."
"Population around 100 per Google. Also first thing that pops up is an article where the residents disclaim any association with the KKK and share their town's 'true history.' Sounds like a terrifying place."
"All the references to the KKK is because some klan member hails from Zinc."
"Per Wikipedia, 'A chapter of the Ku Klux Klan operates a training and information center in Zinc.'"
"For me it is Hope, Arkansas. I was a kid and my family stayed the night at the Holiday Inn on our way to somewhere else. When we checked in they gave us a complimentary fly swatter."
"I had to stop over night in Hope moving from Michigan to Texas. All I wanted was a beer after a miserable 14 hour drive in a U-Haul. Went to a Mexican restaurant and asked the server what was on draft. 'Dry County' he said. 'Is that like an IPA?' I asked. He looked confused, I sure as f*ck was confused until I figured out what the real meaning was. I had never heard of a dry county before and I was legit offended."
- Dasfxx
Roads to nothing but sand.
"Duqm, Oman. Two hotels, a pizza hut, and a DFC (Duqm Fried Chicken). Also can't forget the hundreds of miles of new roads that led to... more sand and dirt."
"Sh*t was built like the first five minutes of a Sim City 2000 game."
"Back in the day Duqm had the only decent internet connection within a 500 km radius, so at least had that going for it. Also an hour drive from Khaluf and Ras Madrakah, some of the most gorgeous stretches of coast in the country. But yeah, the whole concept of Duqm is as if an urban planner jotted down some notes on a napkin whilst high"
"I just went there on Google Earth. It looks like they planned to build a major port and a city to serve it, but then gave up."
- mdp300
Ugliest place.
"I was helping friends move across the country and I called my husband one night when we stopped. He said, 'Where have you gotten to?' and I said, 'I don't know but it's the ugliest place I've ever seen in my life,' and he said, 'Oh, you've gotten to Midland Odessa,' and he was correct."
"I have seen a lot of the world and Midland Odessa, Texas, is by far the most terrible place I've ever looked at."
"I just popped in on google maps and I can confirm. Two things that struck me:"
- "The parking lot to building ratio is way too high. Lots of asphalt."
- "I went to downtown Midland, and it looks like it was built by someone who had only seen pictures of cities. Like there are just a bunch of office buildings plopped down and no other businesses."
Armpit of America.
"Gary, Indiana. Apologies to those who live there, but it's kinda like the armpit of America. It reeks of a town that was once a cool place to be but has just been left to the wayside."
"Came here to add Gary, Indiana. It's like New Jersey was concentrated, dipped in Detroit, and shat out the worst part of Chicago."
"I've got family in South Bend, the joke is depending on which direction the wind is blowing you can smell Gary in either South Bend or Chicago. Truly is a sh*thole."
If you're taking a trip anytime soon, you might want to avoid these place.
Or maybe check them out and see just how terrible they really are.
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