A UK seaside town was once ranked alongside North Korea and Syria as one of the worst places to go on holiday.

Skegness, Lincolnshire, is known as one of the UK’s most popular seaside towns, welcoming around 4 million visitors each year.

However, the travel website Destination Tips was less impressed by Skegness, placing it in the top 10 worst places to visit in the world.

The damning verdict was given back in 2017. The website described ‘Skeggy’ as a “pile of dirt.”

They said: “Once thought of as a quaint seaside town in northern England, Skegness is now a pile of dirt bordering the North Sea with a run-down amusement park idly resting on the land.”

This sparked outrage from the town’s mayor at the time, Dick Edginton. He branded the ranking of Skegness as “absolutely offensive”.

Mr Edginton said at the time: “There seems to be certain people who seem to do nothing but denigrate British seaside resorts.

“Skegness is one of the best resorts in the country with the highest visitor numbers. There are record levels of investment in the resort at the moment which shows confidence in business, both from local and national companies.

“How anyone can compare Skegness to North Korea – one of the most oppressive regimes – is absolutely offensive. These comments should be held up to ridicule and contempt.”

Kyiv in Ukraine topped the list of worst places to visit. Port-au-Prince in Haiti was ranked as the second worst place to visit. The city is still, to this day, ravaged by gang violence, making it one of the world’s most dangerous countries.

Damascus, Syria, was next. Syria has been left in crisis after years of conflict since 2011.

Destination Tips’ worst places to visit were as follows:

• Kiev, Ukraine

• Port au Prince, Haiti

• Damascus, Syria

• Mogadishu, Somalia

• Pyongyang, North Korea

• Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

• Bogota, Colombia

• Dhaka, Bangladesh

• Skegness, Lincolnshire

• Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea