After 50 years of globetrotting, Tony Wheeler is drawing a line. The co-founder of Lonely Planet just released a list of countries he refuses to set foot in again – and his reasons are as sharp as ever.
Wheeler, who with his wife Maureen co-founded what has become the ‘travel bible’ for generations of adventurers over the past 50 years, has shared his personal ‘list of shame’, countries he currently has no desire to visit. In his latest blog post, the 78-year-old Australian outlines his reasons, which are largely political, with one exception being purely comfort-related.
He clarifies in the first paragraph that his motives are not environmental. While acknowledging travel’s impact on the environment and noting that many of his contemporaries have chosen to limit their travel in order to reduce their carbon footprint, he points out the hypocrisy of such concerns after having explored most of the world. ‘If you’d made that resolution decades ago before you’d been everywhere, I’d treat that decision with a lot more respect,’ he writes.
1. Russia: ‘Putin’s boys’
The first country on his list is Russia, which he has visited on several occasions but to which he has no desire to return ‘as long as Putin buddies up with North Korea and the USA to attack Ukraine’. He adds to his list of grievances the killing of innocent people by the country’s leader, citing the Ukrainians, but also the ‘27 Australians who were aboard the Malaysian Airlines MH17 shot down by ‘Putin’s boys’, as well as the 2018 Salisbury’s England assassination attempts ‘by more of Putin’s silly boys’.
2. Saudi Arabia: Cheetahs and Khashoggi
The second country on the list is Saudi Arabia for ‘so many reasons’. He mentions the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He also cites the black market in wild animals and an incident he witnessed during a 2022 visit to Somaliland: a group of cheetahs were about to be sent to the Hashemite Kingdom ‘to be kept as pets, and then killed when they grew too large’.
‘Who knew Somaliland had cheetahs? Who would be so stupid to think they might make good pets? Saudi Arabia? No thank you.’
3. Bali: ‘Wonderful… but the traffic’
Then there’s Bali, not so much for political or cultural reasons – he praises its ‘wonderful art and dance, great shopping’. What turned him off was the traffic. He writes that he never again ‘wants to spend another two hours of life travelling between the Kuta beach strip and Ubud’. The two locations are 32 km apart.
4. USA: ‘At the bottom of my dance card’
His latest ‘no-no’ is the United States. He is even prepared to risk never visiting the last three of the fifty states he has yet to tick off his list. Despite having lived in the country for nearly ten years and having many American friends, he writes: ‘I am currently happy to leave the USA at the bottom of my dance card. As long as Trumpistan is shoulder to shoulder with Russia and North Korea in causing chaos in the world, quite apart from crazy tariffs – sorry, but no thanks.’
Wheeler has visited all the places several times and shares fond memories of each to counterbalance his harsh criticism. If his wife Maureen’s views were included, Qatar would also be on the blacklist, with her describing it as ‘dystopian’.
