Hey there, JFC-ers,

This edition of The Detour comes to you from the comfort of an SBB train through the Swiss Alps! Team JFC is full of beans this weekend, as many of us wing our way to Italy for our first-ever in-person team meet-up. But of course, true to the name, I’m taking a little detour en route to stop by Liechtenstein and spend the 10 Swiss Francs left on my Revolut card.

After 8 years of hard work finding thousands of awesome flights for you, dear readers, this trip is well deserved. But it won’t be all fun and games — we’re also looking forward to brainstorming exciting new ideas for JFC! Most importantly, though, we can finally put to bed the question of how tall all our colleagues are, having only ever seen most of them through a webcam lens!

Happy travels and safe landings,

It’s official, dear readers — you have been to some very chaotic destinations indeed. After my escapades in Ho Chi Minh City brought back more than a few memories for Detour reader Avril, she suggested we all put our heads together and come up with a list of the most chaotic cities in the world.

As always, you obliged. So, without further ado, here are Jack’s Flight Club’s top 11 most chaotic cities around the globe… well, technically it’s thirteen. Oops.

11. Paris, France

She’s busy and bustling, the City of Light, and it seems that a lot of that light comes from headlamps. Considered one of the world’s most congested cities, getting in a car there can feel like a whole adventure — especially if you’ll be passing by the Arc de Triomphe or tackling Europe’s busiest urban motorway.

Personally, I’d rather just hop on the Metro, but even there it’s a wild ride. The stations are notoriously smelly, the trains jam-packed like a tin of sardines or cancelled at short notice. 

And then there’s going by foot. Size-wise, Paris is fairly walkable, but the rules of the road for pedestrians may well confuse any level-headed visitor. In theory, jaywalking is illegal in France — but only if there’s an official pedestrian crossing within 50m — and the fine if you get caught breaking the rules is a whopping €4. Unsurprisingly, most locals don’t care and just cross where they like.

Reasons to visit anyway: It’s Paris, of course! It’s iconic, having long been a shining star of stage and screen. Aside from seeing the major sights, there’s something about the art, culture and history oozing from the city’s pores that make it undeniably appealing. You could say, it’s got a certain je ne sais quoi.

10. Rome, Italy

Much like Paris, Rome is a bustling European capital. This time, with added mopeds! 

Crossing the road here is often a challenge, as the scooters weave in and out of the cars, hurtling across pedestrian crossings without much care for those on foot.  But this site offers up some handy tricks you can employ to make sure that you reach the other side in one piece:

• Make eye contact with drivers or politely hold your hand up to signal to them that you want to cross
• Once you step out into the street, commit! There’s no turning back.
• Find an older person to cross with (sure, drivers might respect them more, but they’ve also been doing it for a good while
• Find a nun to cross with — they have God on their side, after all!

Reasons to visit anyway: Pizza, pasta, the Colosseum! Rome is brimming with alluring sights going far beyond the ones you’ve heard of. Want to see where Caesar was murdered? Or maybe you just like cats? Either way — head to the Torre Argentina. Or how about visiting an old-school bakery in the Jewish Ghetto that’s been serving up ricotta and cherry cake for 210 years? 

9. Bangkok, Thailand

The city’s hectic roads are only part of the chaos, though — the glowing neon billboards and huge malls next to ancient temples are enough to give you whiplash. The stench of durian and street food stalls mix with exhaust fumes from the city’s 7 million cars. It’s a lot by any standards!

Reasons to visit anyway: 9th place may not seem like it gives Bangkok enough chaos credit where it’s due, but the main thing that offsets it is the cracking public transportation. Getting around the city is easy once you know how, so you’ll have no problem whizzing between the markets and temples — probably not all 400 though, that’s a stretch even for us!

Plus, we JFC-ers loooove all the other cheap Southeast Asia flights you can pick up once you’re there!

8. Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Much like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Phnom Penh seems to take a “good luck out there” approach as it waves you off to cross the street. Then there’s the added fun of tuk tuks, and the extra challenge of a lack of marked crossings. But all in all, this guy makes it look pretty simple.

Reasons to visit anyway: Cambodia’s history is intense and at times grim, but visiting the Killing Fields and learning about the Khmer Rouge will give you a real insight into the country’s people and culture. It’s also home to ancient, intricate temples that are way less touristed than famous Angkor Wat, so take the time to explore them with a little more breathing room.

7. Kampala, Uganda

Reasons to visit anyway: If you’ve been a JFC-er for a while, you’ll no doubt know exactly why you should head to Uganda. The clichéd thing would be to go gorilla trekking (we're not knocking it, it's genuinely fantastic), but you might also want to spend a minute exploring Lake Victoria by boat. It's the largest lake in Africa and just teeming with wildlife. We'd suggest not swimming in it, however, unless you don't mind sharing the waters with a few hippos and crocodiles.

6. Kathmandu, Nepal

Reasons to visit anyway: You don’t have to be into Himalayan trekking to enjoy Kathmandu (although, that helps). From temples to tigers and the ‘Toothache Tree’, Kathmandu is more than just your starting point for the long road to Everest Base Camp — it’s a whole experience in its own right.

5. Ho Chi Minh City & Hanoi, Vietnam

Okay, I’m biased here because I’ve lived through it — Ho Chi Minh City was an assault on the nerves and senses. At times, we found ourselves weaving on and off pavement between mopeds, people enjoying a coffee, and actual free-roaming chickens. In the middle of the city!  It sounds like Hanoi isn’t much different:

And JFC-er Avril isn’t the only one who thinks so — every traveller I met in Ho Chi Minh who had been to Hanoi agreed that the Vietnamese capital was just as bad. Somehow, I’d imagined the ancient city with its traditional Old Quarter to offer a little respite. Apparently I was way off, and getting around there also requires Jedi mind tricks. 

While Hanoi’s Metro is still a relative novelty with only a few lines, that is a couple more than Ho Chi Minh has to offer at this point. One tip I can offer is using those Metro underpasses to get across big junctions, if you can!

Reasons to visit anyway: Both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi offer a great introduction to Vietnam’s history and cuisine. The War Remnants Museum in HCMC was a tough visit, but essential to understanding the lasting effects of the Vietnam war on the country. They’ll also give you a crash course in Vietnamese coffee and tea culture, with every second shop front hosting at least a few people with a cuppa in hand. 

4. Colombo & Kandy, Sri Lanka

We’ve already heard from you about hectic Colombo, so let’s turn to nearby Kandy:

Reasons to visit anyway: The lush jungle, epic views, stunning temples, and mouthwatering curries are incredibly popular among the JFC team — so much so that our Business Analyst Tara has returned to spend several months there yet again! You can read all about her 2024 visit here, and take a look at some snaps from Flight Finder Lauren’s recent trip here.

3. Delhi

There are nearly 35 million people living in Delhi, so it’s hardly surprising that things get a little busy. Add in the tourists flocking to the same major sites, all attempting to tackle the same stretch of road but with little understanding of how local drivers operate, and it’s sheer chaos.

You want an idea of what it’s really like to cross the road in Delhi? I feel like this video sums it up nicely. It’s not a case of standing by the side, looking out across the pedestrian crossing, and waiting for a window. There will be no window. You can hardly see the other side for the moving walls of tuk tuks that stand between you and your goal. 

Most of that chaotic energy can be found in Old Delhi, where livestock, vehicles, and street food vendors all weave frantically between one another. This truly is a city where the early bird catches the worm, and that worm is a gap in the traffic.

Reasons to visit anyway: Spectacular spots like the Red Fort and Jama Masjid make the buzz worthwhile. And you can even escape for some peaceful moments in Lodhi Gardens. It’s also an essential stop on the Golden Triangle route, a veritable trip of a lifetime.

2. Mexico City, Mexico

In the city where drivers “consider a red light to be a mere suggestion,” crossing the street on foot is inadvisable, but likely unavoidable. Lanes of traffic won’t always be going in the direction you expect, so taking your time to assess the situation in full is essential.

The Metro is a cheap and fast option for getting across the city. But there are lots of lines and, as you’d expect in a city of nearly 23 million, it’s pretty darn busy at peak times.

Reasons to visit anyway: “Mexico City can be overwhelming … One of the cheapest sightseeing things to do is ride the cablebus public transport cable car over the top of the city and see all the painted roofs and people going about their lives. Super fascinating, and there is tons of good food to be had for cheap everywhere!”

1. Cairo, Egypt

Reasons to visit anyway: Pyramids are where most of us start when we plan a trip to Egypt. And the pyramids themselves may be breathtaking, but the crowds, the pushy street sellers, and the intensity that come with them can be a bit much. Thankfully, Flight Finder Kristi shared fantastic tips on escaping Cairo’s chaos in a previous edition of The Detour — you can read all about her escape to Egypt’s nature here.

That’s your lot, readers! We had several more suggestions, too, including Lagos, Johannesburg, Dhaka, and Beijing. And if there's one thing I've learnt from this, it's that you can always find an instructional road-crossing video on YouTube to prepare yourself for the madness before touching down!

No, not Dakha in Bangladesh. This time we’re talking about Dakhla in the disputed Western Sahara region to the south of Morocco. “But why?” you might ask. Well, it just got a whole lot cheaper to travel there, so you know that our Flight Finders have suddenly become obsessed.

Ryanair recently launched flights from Spain to Dakhla, so now you can combine a Madrid city break or a Lanzarote beach week with a few days rambling the Western Saharan sand dunes and catching the waves.

The city is squeezed between the waters of the Atlantic and the Sahara desert. With 300+ windy days a year, this is the place for anyone who appreciates a sprinkling of adrenaline atop their breach holiday. Kite surfing aficionados and newbies alike will want to make a beeline for the Dakhla lagoon, if only to try and look as cool as this guy. 

Next stop, the white dunes. Now, this one isn't strictly for you adrenaline junkies — I mean, who could say “no” to a stroll along this beauty? But don't leave without trying your hand at sand-boarding, too! After a long, hard day of fun, head to the local oyster farm to sample the local speciality.

Beyond the adrenaline and aphrodisiacs, the region is also home to the Sahrawi nomadic people. The harsh desert heat sees them migrating towards the coast during summer months, while winters are spent further inland. For a traditional desert experience while there, a guided camel trek to a Bedouin camp is likely on the cards.

So if you’re in the mood for somewhere more than a little different, but not too far from the usual European suntraps, perhaps Dakhla is your next stop. And if you’ve already been, we’d love to hear all about it! Hit ‘Reply’ to share your experience with your fellow Detour readers :-)

All the important (or silly, or strange) travel news from across web this week.

• Note to self: remove turtle from pants before travel.
  
  
• After a number of incidents involving overheating power banks on planes, some airlines are cracking down and banning use on board.
  
  
• From ghost towns to graveyards, check out these creepy and fascinating abandoned spots around the world.
  
  
• And finally, today we bring the joyous (and, let’s face it, unsurprising) news that the EU’s ETIAS entry “visa” has been pushed down the line yet again. Non-EU visitors should still expect their biometrics to begin being collected from October this year, but current forecasts suggest the electronic travel authorisation won’t be mandatory until the end of 2026. Hooray?