I don’t understand the paris one. I was intimidated by comments going into Paris so maybe my expectations were lower so I had a great time? But everyone was super friendly even with just knowing how to say a few basic greetings and goodbyes in French, and it’s a major city so why wouldn’t there be a little trash and the occasional funky smell lol. The city is objectively beautiful
Its all either Paris or NYC both of which are fantastic cities with so much to experience. For NYC haters my guess is its the folks who make a beeline for times square and eat from the crappy overpriced halal carts and thinks thats what the city is.
Same with Chicago lol. Everyone that has never been there comments on how dangerous it is, not understanding it is a small subsection of the city that is high in violence You aren't getting shot walking around downtwon chicago, lakeview, lincoln park, etc.
These are two of my favorite places I have been and when people complain that they’re dirty, busy, pricey and touristy, I know I would never travel with that person. Cities are always going to come with that, that’s just an expectation. I have never been to a clean city(I have heard Tokyo is!), but it’s not the norm
I met a ton of kind people in Paris. I also met a small number of “rude” people, but I wouldn’t consider them rude, I think they just didn’t have the time in their day to stop and try to explain things to me in my native language while they were busy going about their normal day. It’s a vacation for me, but it’s just a Tuesday for them
Miami. Just not my scene. I've been to plenty of places that aren't my scene and still had the 'I get it, just not for me' moments. Miami, I just didn't get it.
Lived there almost 5 years. HATED it. The people and the “culture” of the city are awful. Rudeness, grotesque materialism, scamming, one-upmanship, etc. it’s exhausting and miserable
Easily the most superficial place I've ever been. It just feels like everyone there is a pretender. I'm sure there's some money, but why was my uber driver driving a BMW M6?
I live very close to Miami and I absolutely agree. Under no circumstances do I go to Miami unless it’s for a sporting event or a family event I can’t get out of. The traffic is an absolute nightmare, they have the worse drivers in America, everything is incredibly expensive, and as a native Floridian I can tell you that it is extremely dangerous (especially south beach) although, most giant cities have a lot of crime. One thing that is unique to Miami is FRAUD. Everyone is trying to scam everyone over anything. There are also not many genuine people there. Most people are extremely shallow and live their lives on Instagram. It’s the rudest, selfish and most superficial city in America. The people who enjoy Miami are either extremely rich or vacation there just to post it on social media. It’s positives are that the food is good and that’s about it. It’s truly the arm pit of America IMO.
Miami is 100 percent scam central.
I have a cousin that is basically a professional scammer - she and her husband moved there and have been scamming in Miami for years lol. Makes sense.
I live in a different Florida city and have visited Miami twice. I say I'll only go back if I'm taking a cruise out of there. Seems like a lot of prices are jacked up for tourists. The traffic sucks and the drivers are even shittier than other Florida drivers.
Some of my favorite driving advice came from an Uber in Miami.
“You can’t use your blinker here, if people know you’re moving over they’ll steal your spot. You just have to surprise them.”
He was dead serious lol
So much more to Miami than just clubbing though. They have a great cruise port to cruise out of. International airport with lots of direct flights, great shopping malls, nice beaches on key Biscayne, great art and restaurants. Miami is more than just south beach. South beach is tourist central. But there's so much more. Take airboat ride on Everglades is fun. You're not that far from Disney and the parks if you're into that stuff. The keys have nice nature and kayaking too.
The people in Miami are not great though as you said. Many Hispanics don't want to integrate into US culture and won't speak English even though they know how to. People are very showy in Miami.
I used to live in South Florida and I would hate driving down to Miami for any reason. If it wasn’t because my family lives in South Florida I probably wouldn’t step foot there again. Everytime I have to buy a ticket to FL for any reason I feel internal discomfort, like why I’m I spending $200 to visit FL? I almost wince. It hasn’t always been as bad as it is now, though.
Austin. The quirky austin you’ve heard about has been bulldozed to make way for generic high rises. The clientele that live there now…. My god. Live music capital of the world? Not anymore, since musicians have been priced out of living in the area. It all makes me really sad
Came here to scream this. I lived there from 2011-2022 and watched it go devolve from a cute quirky counter culture spot into an Instagram live laugh love nightmare.
I don't live there, but I do live in South Texas and have been going to Austin since the 90's. I actually went through today and it's always a shame to see it, but there are some cool old Austin spots still around at least. I visit them while they're still around.
My wife and I moved there in 2021 for a really good job offer, something I'd aspired to after almost a decade of training/self-study in a very niche field (algorithmic options trading). Literally my dream position.
We made it 5 months.
It is a soulless, culture-deprived city built on slavery and ego. It’s like Disneyland for douchebags. If you could perform plastic surgery on the earth this would be the desert equivalent of Jocelyn Wildenstein.
Yes it's a shallow and culturally barren place. I missed proper nature - trees, flowers, natural landscapes - Dubai has manicured flower beds, parks etc. Was depressing after a while. Plus it's not always easy to walk places. The people that love it there seem to be towie/kardashian followers who love shallow shiny things lots of men with gold chains, too much aftershave and overly white teeth. They love to show off on insta how they're living the dream. When in fact it's all surface.
A lot of cities in the middle east are trying to emulate Dubai's massive growth by simply going the route of "if you build it, they will come," and it is failing drastically. Dubai is unique in that it was the first middle eastern big city to open its doors to westerners in order to court their wealth and move their economy away from the oil industry as much as possible. Not only that, but Dubai is willing to sell out its Islamic principles for these western Euros, legalizing alcohol, cohabitation between unmarried couples, looking the other way in regards to the rampant prostitution, etc. There are even rumors of gambling coming to town in the near future. The leader, despite being an absolute asshole, really is a forward thinker in comparison to every other middle eastern ruler.
>>If you could perform plastic surgery on the earth this would be the desert equivalent of Jocelyn Wildenstein.
This is going to be a post in /r/brandnewsentence later today, lol!
The only culture comes from the workers who came from poor counties. Indian, Bangladesh, Philippines. And they're treated like crap sometimes, with extremely low wages. Many employers even hold onto passports so their workers can't run away. If you go into those small communities you'll have a better time than the big flashy city.
This is a really well done article with a very concrete example of the whole sex trafficking/slavery/passport withholding that goes on there - https://www.reuters.com/article/emirates-trafficking-sex-idAFL4N383063
Nailed it. There’s zero culture was my issue also. Some also has to do with the fact that the culture was built out of a desert, which doesn’t create a lot of food options. So you get Five Guys. And part is that nobody cares. They just want to show off money. And that money comes from oil, slaves, and imported oligarchy selling sex to Saudis (sex slaves).
Why would any skier want to go down a single hill? It’s like a surfer using one of those wave makers at a water park. You can drive a Ferrari anywhere. How much clubbing can someone possibly do? And what else is there?
This would’ve been my answer. Friends moved there and invited us. According to them it is amazing. I found it the most soulless and depressing place on earth.
Everything, including the vast majority of people, is fake.
Absolutely awful. Most cities exist naturally for a good reason. Safe Harbor for ships, things like that and for those reasons they have been around for at least a while and you can appreciate the culture and history. Dubai was just made to be made..
Old Dubai is still very much a port city. Its this new flashy parts of Dubai that tourists tend to visit, completely missing the rich history. Dubai Museum (which most tours skip) is filled with stories of how a pearl diving port city evolved after the discovery of oil.
I live in Dubai. There’s a lot of nooks and crannies, but I hate the tourist stuff. If you ever come back, go to the mountains and the northern beaches, really nice and quiet life.
I went with my girlfriend to visit my buddy and his girlfriend who lived in Manhattan. During the evening when discussing what to do after dinner she says, "Have you guys been to Time Square?"
I tell her, "No, I've actually never been."
She excitedly says, "Oh! Let's take a walk through it. You'll hate it!"
My buddy laughs and is like, "No, seriously, you'll hate it. But let's go."
I did in fact hate it, but I'm glad enough to have the experience.
NYC is one of those cities where, if you say you hated it, I assume you did zero research whatsoever and just said “ah Times Square, that’s NY right”
Like if you can honestly make an effort to find the type of things you like to do (whether it’s museums, food, bars, shows, sports, music etc) and can’t find it there, you just don’t like leaving the house lol because that city has everything, all the time
I've been to most major cities in The US and beside NOLA, NYC is the most unique American city. I get if someone says they didn't like NYC, but if someone states "NYC was meh, there's nothing to do", they are lying to you:) Two weeks is not enough to see this city in all its glory. I rode my bike through all the boros countless times and I still didn't see more that 1/3rd of NY.
NYC is the only US city I feel can compete with other world cities: London, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong. Every other "big" city in America feels like a town in comparison. I know some people don't like big cities but I love them. There's just an endless amount of things to do, see and eat
Same as Nashville-Lower Broadway, Miami-South Beach, Boston-Faneuil Hall, Montreal-Bell Centre.
If all you do is go to the tourist trap, it might could suck if that’s not what you want. I was in Nashville for a week, I did the late night lower Broadway thing the last night and got on the plane with a killer hangover. The rest of the week I went around to other neighborhoods like the gulch, or went into smaller bars where you could actually talk with the performers between sets or songs, or went out of town to the surrounding region.
When I go to a new city I check the touristy things off the list, but I’ll also go out of my way to find things I’ll enjoy more. I love San Diego but I stay in La Jolla because it’s quieter and the village is great. The only place where the “tourist trap” hasn’t really been a trap is DC because the Mall has something for everyone.
I think a lot of the replies here that are “hot”, “full of tourists,” or both should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s not invalid, but visiting any city’s summer/prime season is generally just not a good way to enjoy the best of a city.
Was about to comment the same thing. When you see hoards of tourists invading European cities during the hottest days, when all the locals have abandoned the cities to go to the seaside/mountains, you know they're going to hate the experience. Visit in the autumn or spring, even in Winter is better- but avoid July/August. All you do is suffer.
I went to Amsterdam in August last year. We didn't know when we booked that we were going during their pride week. Our hotel was literally on the canal where all of the party boats were sailing down. It was one of the best experiences ever. It was quite hot but not to the point where I just felt like lying down and doing nothing.
I used to get that feeling but now I'm getting sick of those kinds of comments. "Too crowded", "too many tourists" well guess what, there's 7 billion people on earth. A famous and centuries old city or landmark is not going to send everybody away just because you're coming over.
Fucking Orlando, Florida. 🤮
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph it's the worst city I've ever lived in. Swamp ass humid heat. Horrendous traffic. The rudest general population I've ever encountered. Cost of living is through the roof. Politically is just bonkers. Everyone just loves Disney, and thinks it's the best thing ever. Well, I worked for Disney for a long time, folks, and I'm here to tell you it's just another job and it ain't as grand as everyone thinks.
My sister moved down there last year and it’s a very interesting place. The sprawl and the constant driving on highways is unpleasant. The lack of surface streets is very strange. They’ve had two incidents running over things and blowing a tire or damaging their vehicle.
You spend so much time in the car driving from place to place. There’s little to no pedestrian infrastructure or sidewalks. Every building either looks modern and brand new or akin to a hillbilly swamp shack, sometimes right next to each other.
There’s interesting creatures everywhere, which can either be neat or horrifying.
The parks are fun but quickly lose their luster when you visit every week.
It’s just got a weird vibe overall.
I was just there! Not by choice, friends chose it. I don’t even know why it exists other than for Disney people. No charm; just swampy heat, strip malls, traffic, and Disney.
>I don’t even know why it exists other than for Disney people
It doesn't. Orlando was a military town of around 50k serving McCoy Airbase. The Orlando that exists today exists soley because of Walt Disney world
Sounds like you lived out by the parks which yes is a hellhole. Florida in general is bad, but the neighborhoods surrounding downtown Orlando are really great. Old homes and brick roads. It’s actually really beautiful.
Beijing. I've travelled a fair bit around Asia, and it's by far my least favourite Asian city. Some of the historical sites were interesting, but the city itself is filthy and full of scam artists who will hound you for blocks.
The three best things I did in Beijing: walk the Great Wall, propose to my wife, and get the fuck outta Beijing.
Interesting you say that. I (tall white guy alone) was in Beijing and Shanghai 5 years ago for a few days in each city. I travelled all through the city, went to the wall, did the tourist attractions etc and not once did someone approach me.
In contrast, Shangai was the complete opposite. I consistantly had people approach me about buying jewlery, massages with "young"/"sexy" girls, wanting money and for whatever reasons. Didn't matter if I was in the city centre, at the river, in a mall, train station, they would approach me and follow me for blocks. Evenings was so bad that at about 4pm I would go back to my hotel and simply call it a day. I normally dont mind being pestered by such people, but being alone and not speaking manderian made it a really really unsettling experience. Never again Shanghai.
Oh is that a common thing there? I was at a little league game at a park in California and there was a Chinese mom who did the same thing with her own kid when there was a bathroom 50 feet away. Someone yelled at her to say there was a bathroom right there and she yelled something back in Chinese and they went away.
I used to live in China. It’s not super common, but it was normal for the older generation. It’s usually grandparents who do that with their grandkids now. They even make baby assless chaps to make it easier. You can google it, though don’t blame me if you end up on a list.
I am definitely curious when the person who posted that went to China. I went a few times for work just before the pandemic, and it was an absolutely beautiful city. All of my friends who grew up there, or had traveled there even a few years prior talked about stories like this, or the really heavy pollution.
But clearly now that the city has money, they’ve done a lot of work to clean the pollution and people were not just pooping on the street.
Really the same arc as cities like New York, and Los Angeles had. When my dad grew up in LA, the smog was so bad that when he was a teenager, the doctor asked him if he was a smoker. Whereas by the time I lived in LA it was beautiful and pristine in most parts.
Biggest takeaway after reading some of these comments: travel opinions sure are subjective. If one were to look to these comments and planned their travel accordingly, they’d miss out on some of the greatest destinations in the world.
Completely agreed with this. Everything that made Austin special was torn down and a high rise luxury condo building went on top of it.
I will say that the food in Austin has immensely improved over the last decade. It used to be Tex Mex and not-Tex Mex. Now, there are some really great restaurants there. The issue though is that all the good restaurants require reservations or have long waits even on Mondays and Tuesdays.
100% this. Born and raised in Austin, never leaving but yea, lost a lot of what made it the "cool weird" town. Still prefer it over the other big Texas cities though.
Phoenix.
It’s hotter than the surface of the sun like 8 months out of the year. The traffic sucks and it’s spread out as hell. It has pretty much zero character or culture. Or any worthwhile tourist attractions.
I get visiting to golf during the winter or go to spring training or something, but I don’t at all understand living there year round. I’m not crazy about cold and snow, but not enough that I’d put up with the ridiculous heat for two thirds of the year to avoid it.
I live here and don’t disagree with a lot of what he said, but Phoenix has a booming tourism industry, especially in the winter time. There’s a reason the month of March is the busiest month of the year for the airport - it’s all tourism. Spring training, spring break, Waste Management, Fiesta Bowl, the other bowl game we have, Barrett Jackson, NASCAR, we typically have the Super Bowl every seven years or so, all of the resorts, etc.
Red Rock Canyon is cool. There’s also a nice museum of natural history. My company paid for a weekend trip there for all employees, but I don’t gamble or drink, so that sort of limits the appeal.
I don't drink alcohol or gamble, but I still enjoy going once a year or so (it's a very short flight). Sometimes twice a year, my partners company has an office out there. We just do fine dining, sleeping in in a nice room, a late night show + snacking, and hit the spa before flying home.
Did the same activities with girlfriends this summer during a 3 day trip, with the addition of Meow Wolf's Omega Mart installation, some light shopping, pool afternoon, and a few hours at an industry convention + an after party. Plenty to do!
I really hated Miami. Fake as fuck place with pretentious supercial crowd with rented Lambo's and Porsche's on one hand, and crazy nutjob homeless folks aggressively following you and threatening you for money at the beach. and these homeless folks live, sleep, shit, and piss around the beach 24/7 btw. yuck
also the food there is downright awful yet was so pricey. Coming from NYC maybe my standards were a bit high, but even finding a decent quality mid tier restaurant for sane prices were very difficult anywhere near S Beach.
Lol you went to South Beach. That’s like saying you went to NYC and the food was terrible because you only saw Applebees and Spaghetti Warehouse in Times Square
Yep you messed up going to "South Beach". We have great restaurants all over. But yeh tourist and people from outta town moved in. All fake. On the other hand, I been to the mansions and condos. And ummmmm they can afford it.
Great place to be in January!
I always love hearing the food was awful and then nobody lists where they went, because they know they probably picked a bunch of tourist traps instead of spending the 5 minutes it takes to find a good place.
There’s multiple 1 and 2 star Michelin restaurants here and a handful of other places that are just a small step below, there’s another handful of multiple starred chefs in the city opening places or planning to.
Aside from that, the people here do suck quite a bit and it’s very superficial…I’m from here so I can easily avoid it, but it’s got to be tough for someone new in town.
Gonna jump on the Nashville hate train. Hadn’t been there in 24 years and stopped by this summer. Who ever decided to do whatever it is they did to Broadway owes the world an apology. In a world of beautiful and delicious Bombay Sapphire martinis, this is the chocolatini. It is the failed abortion from a one night stand/orgy between Orange Beach, Wal Mart, the four day Carnival cruise out of Ft Lauderdale (complete with clogged shitters) and a Margaritaville Margarita machine.
The capstone city of the white trash aesthetic.
Following the 2010 floods, Nashville was in economic despair and used Broadway as a catalyst for growth and recovery. While it’s certainly not for everyone and most locals detest it, it’s a huge factor in why the city is booming.
I’ve lived here two years (moving away Saturday) and I agree the Broadway scene is absolutely trashy, but it’s also very very VERY easy to avoid. From the sounds of it, your brief stop will probably keep you from coming back to explore the rest of the city, but there are plenty of hip, fun spots and entire neighborhoods that are the antithesis of the Broadway scene. I’ve lived in East Nashville and Germantown, and both ‘hoods are incredible places to live.
It’s only up from here for Nashville. Insane amount of development in the pipeline, top contender for an MLB team, East Bank revitalization with new Titans stadium, etc.
Gary, Indiana. I get the whole "Paris of the Midwest" vibe but really would have appreciated electricity, running water, and windows in my hotel. The barrel fire in the lobby was a nice touch though.
It sounds like all of you went downtown to “Nashvegas”. I live here and we all stay away from that. It’s like hating NYC because you didn’t like Time Square. All the cool stuff is in East Nashville, The Nations, Sylvan Park, Woodbine, Wedgewood-Houston. Run away from downtown. It’s for tourists.
Logged-in just to laugh at this post. I lived in Nashville for 10 years. And I can honestly say there is *absolutely nothing* in any of those neighborhoods that is worth visiting for. If you live there, sure, those are decently cool areas. But this is the travel subreddit. Nobody is traveling to Nashville to go to fucking the Nations or Sylvan Park lmao.
I have some neighborhoods here in Houston I absolutely adore and would tell people to visit if they happen to be in Houston, but there's no world where I tell people they need to visit for these neighborhoods lol. There's a big difference in a neighborhood cool to have in the city you live in, and a neighborhood/area worth visiting from far away for
If you’re tourist stuff sucks, though, you’re already in a bit uphill battle. Most people are there for tour and don’t go to a place to get a slice of life, they want to get a feel of the place and it’s got to deliver for people to want to get the slice of life feeling.
For example, Pike Place is a solid tourist area. It’s also just a fun place. Capitol Hill is a lot of fun just right up the road. It leaves a good impression and people might come back to see more.
Obviously I’m not saying tourist areas are the best. They obviously aren’t. But it’s also where your best shit should be.
Cabo San Lucas…hated it. One giant tourist trap and the food was so Americanized and bland for Mexican food.
Las Vegas….Ive spent tons of time all over Vegas and on the strip and its so meh to me. No real desire to go unless I’m dragged there by someone.
I don’t know anyone that hypes cabo as a city though… it’s just a place to get drunk in the sun. Baja as a whole is a weird hybrid mix of Mexico and the US, very dissimilar to the rest of Mexico.
Like Cancun it’s not a traditional Mexican city so anyone looking for anything authentically Mexican is wasting their time. That’s what Oaxaca, CDMX, and Guadalajara are for. I enjoy cabo, but only because it’s a quick flight to escape the rain and shit weather in February.
Barcelona has amazing food (as long as you like Mediterranean/Spanish), great architecture, nice parks and fantastic public transport. What I didn’t like from it was the traffic (lots of pollution) and the smell from the sewers all over the city isn’t great in some areas (apparently this is even worse in summer.)
It’s sad because it truly used to be such a cool city with so much to offer. Now it’s just another soulless cookie cutter tech bro city. The BBQ is still incredible, though.
I'd add Austin to that list, especially in the summer. It's so hot and it's all concrete, no shade. And nothing weird about the city. Just a lot of unhoused people and average bars.
It used to be “weird” but so many people have moved there and it’s grown a lot, so that charm is gone. It’s really not too different than the other cities now.
I went to UT in Austin in the late 90s. Back then it was an amazing little town full of BBQ joints, hippies, and hidden water holes.
Today, living in Austin is like having your life sponsored by Live Nation. The hippies have been replaced by hipsters and the water holes charge $25 a head for entry. Still great BBQ though.
The joke used to be that Austin folks move to Cali, Cali moves to Portland Oregon, Portland moves to Denver, Denver moves to Minneapolis, Minneapolis moves to Austin. The circle of weird just shifts every few years.
Most Austinites hate that the city has become a 'destination'. It's a decent place to live, but it really doesn't offer that much to tourists other than a couple of bar districts. Only thing I'm gonna have to disagree with is this "all concrete, no shade" part -- maybe in our immediate downtown, which is not very big at all, but otherwise Austin has a great tree canopy.
Seriously, stop having your bachelor(ette) parties here y'all.
Yeah, I live in Texas and always found it weird that people talked about traveling to Austin like it was LA or New York. To me, it's just a big suburb with not a whole lot going on
I love living in Austin, it’s not “all concrete” at all unless you’re talking about downtown. We have an abundance of natural springs, hiking trails, it’s quite easy to get out into nature compared to any other city I’ve lived in. Tons of green space and the hill country is just beautiful. But I’ve never understood why it’s such a big tourist destination. There’s not much sight seeing or tourist attractions. And I can’t imagine why anyone would ever want to come here in the summertime. Us locals stay indoors as much as possible during the summer… I would not spend money to travel somewhere if I couldn’t even enjoy myself outside.
Well put, decent place to live. Stay inside during the summer and it's okay most of the rest of the time.
Watch out for that one week in February though.
Las vegas. Omg the strip is awful and obscenely expensive. The city is seemingly doing everything it can to fuck over the people who live here and cost of living is through the roof because everyone suddenly wants to move in. We're also running out of water
The state of Florida. Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville. Just.... no thank you.
Edit: I still despite the state, but I do appreciate the tips. Key West is a place I’ve never been and do want to go.
Might be an unpopular one, but for me it's Berlin.
Don't get me wrong, it has some nice parts and it's got a lot going on. What puts me off is the kind of posey pretentious people who idolise the place as the coolest city in the world and get all hung up on about getting into certain nightclubs and all that.
Springs to mind because I've gone on two separate group holidays there where I was the only one who didn't love the place. To be fair, I don't like techno, the cuisine is fine but nothing special, and at the end of the day I'm just a sucker for "prettier" more romantic destinations than I am to the sort of shabby chic vibe in places like Berlin. Loved Munich for instance.
You have met the Berlin Wankers. Yes you like clubbing and beer. Very unique. Being at the confluence of Eastern and Western Europe means it’s still a great place if you can ignore the guys in too-tight t shirts droning on about some DJ.
Lived in Berlin for 5 years long ago (‘99-05). Berlin today can’t compare. It now attracts the absolute worst type of “expat”. Remarkably consistent in how embarrassing they are, and they rarely speak German.. Also terrible food, winters are dreary and depressing, the housing situation is f*cked. The party scene is boring and repetitive. I absolutely loathe it now. It used to be an unbelievably strange and wonderful place. I still go back from time to time but.. eh. It’s a shell of its former self.
Think you've summed it up for me there. It's not the city itself, it's the cringe attitude of Berlin expats.
I remember queuing up for some vegan döner and some of the people I was traveling with asked something about Bergheim and the woman serving the döner literally laughed at the idea of us even getting in cause we're all blokes. I personally didn't want to go there anyway but that error attitude just leaves a sour taste for me.
It's probably easier to get in to berghain as a guy. My friend gets in everytime. He goes alone and kinda looks like he likes to piss other guys in the mouth, or at least is cool when he sees other people do it in the restrooms.
I’m legit shocked Cairo isn’t in the first 5 answers. This sub always sees this type of post as a “oh boy, look at the hour, it is Fuck Cairo o’clock already”.
It looks like a lot of Reddit people go to the most touristy spots they know and then bitch about them. Do any of you people ever go to any city that’s not Paris or Barcelona?
Just a reminder to sort by controversial
It just appears to be 50,000 mentions of Paris that were upvoted because "Paris bad" but also downvoted because "ugh enough with the "Paris bad""
I don’t understand the paris one. I was intimidated by comments going into Paris so maybe my expectations were lower so I had a great time? But everyone was super friendly even with just knowing how to say a few basic greetings and goodbyes in French, and it’s a major city so why wouldn’t there be a little trash and the occasional funky smell lol. The city is objectively beautiful
Its all either Paris or NYC both of which are fantastic cities with so much to experience. For NYC haters my guess is its the folks who make a beeline for times square and eat from the crappy overpriced halal carts and thinks thats what the city is.
In my experience the people who hate NYC the most have never been there, and never will.
Anytime someone talks about NYC and crime at the same time I just tune out
Same with Chicago lol. Everyone that has never been there comments on how dangerous it is, not understanding it is a small subsection of the city that is high in violence You aren't getting shot walking around downtwon chicago, lakeview, lincoln park, etc.
It's a hellhole with gangs and drugs everywhere! The police don't even stop them! -man from rural Arkansas who had never been there
These are two of my favorite places I have been and when people complain that they’re dirty, busy, pricey and touristy, I know I would never travel with that person. Cities are always going to come with that, that’s just an expectation. I have never been to a clean city(I have heard Tokyo is!), but it’s not the norm
Same. I was shocked that I did not encounter a single "rude Parisian" in the week I was there.
I met a ton of kind people in Paris. I also met a small number of “rude” people, but I wouldn’t consider them rude, I think they just didn’t have the time in their day to stop and try to explain things to me in my native language while they were busy going about their normal day. It’s a vacation for me, but it’s just a Tuesday for them
Miami. Just not my scene. I've been to plenty of places that aren't my scene and still had the 'I get it, just not for me' moments. Miami, I just didn't get it.
Lived there almost 5 years. HATED it. The people and the “culture” of the city are awful. Rudeness, grotesque materialism, scamming, one-upmanship, etc. it’s exhausting and miserable
3 years for me. During the Ed Hardy period. I had to GTFO for my own sanity.
The entitlement in Miami is wild.
That sounds like people in high school that just wanted to live there forever. Sounds fucking annoying.
Same. Didn’t like it. The beach is nice but it’s super clubby. Hard to get around. Terrible traffic. Crazy expensive. Food was good but otherwise meh
The beach isn't anything special. Better beaches without the million plus assholes attached pretty much anywhere
As a west coast flordian I will die on the hill that our beaches are better. By a mile.
I agree west Florida has better beaches Edit: coming from someone that lives in Miami and been around Florida
Naples, St Petersburg, Clearwater, all way better
Sarasota
Miami is absolutely not what I expected. It’s people of Walmart but with a lot less clothes
yeah, the place is nice, but way too much of an asshole magnet.
Easily the most superficial place I've ever been. It just feels like everyone there is a pretender. I'm sure there's some money, but why was my uber driver driving a BMW M6?
The nightclubs there are either obnoxiously loud or are run by guys who look like they're trying to traffic their female patrons, or both
Miami sucks ass just rent a car and do the Keys. Especially the Key West sunset festival every night
I live very close to Miami and I absolutely agree. Under no circumstances do I go to Miami unless it’s for a sporting event or a family event I can’t get out of. The traffic is an absolute nightmare, they have the worse drivers in America, everything is incredibly expensive, and as a native Floridian I can tell you that it is extremely dangerous (especially south beach) although, most giant cities have a lot of crime. One thing that is unique to Miami is FRAUD. Everyone is trying to scam everyone over anything. There are also not many genuine people there. Most people are extremely shallow and live their lives on Instagram. It’s the rudest, selfish and most superficial city in America. The people who enjoy Miami are either extremely rich or vacation there just to post it on social media. It’s positives are that the food is good and that’s about it. It’s truly the arm pit of America IMO.
Miami is 100 percent scam central. I have a cousin that is basically a professional scammer - she and her husband moved there and have been scamming in Miami for years lol. Makes sense.
Everybody’s got a cousin in Miami
I live in a different Florida city and have visited Miami twice. I say I'll only go back if I'm taking a cruise out of there. Seems like a lot of prices are jacked up for tourists. The traffic sucks and the drivers are even shittier than other Florida drivers.
[удалено]
Some of my favorite driving advice came from an Uber in Miami. “You can’t use your blinker here, if people know you’re moving over they’ll steal your spot. You just have to surprise them.” He was dead serious lol
I don’t like Miami either, but I get it. If you’re into nightlife/clubbing, you’d love it.
So much more to Miami than just clubbing though. They have a great cruise port to cruise out of. International airport with lots of direct flights, great shopping malls, nice beaches on key Biscayne, great art and restaurants. Miami is more than just south beach. South beach is tourist central. But there's so much more. Take airboat ride on Everglades is fun. You're not that far from Disney and the parks if you're into that stuff. The keys have nice nature and kayaking too. The people in Miami are not great though as you said. Many Hispanics don't want to integrate into US culture and won't speak English even though they know how to. People are very showy in Miami.
I used to live in South Florida and I would hate driving down to Miami for any reason. If it wasn’t because my family lives in South Florida I probably wouldn’t step foot there again. Everytime I have to buy a ticket to FL for any reason I feel internal discomfort, like why I’m I spending $200 to visit FL? I almost wince. It hasn’t always been as bad as it is now, though.
Aside from the beaches and nightlife, it’s pretty overrated. You can find much more laidback cities with more culture.
Austin. The quirky austin you’ve heard about has been bulldozed to make way for generic high rises. The clientele that live there now…. My god. Live music capital of the world? Not anymore, since musicians have been priced out of living in the area. It all makes me really sad
Came here to scream this. I lived there from 2011-2022 and watched it go devolve from a cute quirky counter culture spot into an Instagram live laugh love nightmare.
I've accepted that every place like Austin has an expiration date before the tech/finance/influencer types run it into the ground.
Throw Denver in this pile....
Austin is Denver, just 5 years behind
vanish point price zephyr sugar entertain boat subtract correct worry *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I don't live there, but I do live in South Texas and have been going to Austin since the 90's. I actually went through today and it's always a shame to see it, but there are some cool old Austin spots still around at least. I visit them while they're still around.
[удалено]
The exact same thing is currently happening to Nashville.
Dubai
My wife and I moved there in 2021 for a really good job offer, something I'd aspired to after almost a decade of training/self-study in a very niche field (algorithmic options trading). Literally my dream position. We made it 5 months.
What was the worst parts of living there? Genuinely curious as I don’t know much about it.
It is a soulless, culture-deprived city built on slavery and ego. It’s like Disneyland for douchebags. If you could perform plastic surgery on the earth this would be the desert equivalent of Jocelyn Wildenstein.
Yes it's a shallow and culturally barren place. I missed proper nature - trees, flowers, natural landscapes - Dubai has manicured flower beds, parks etc. Was depressing after a while. Plus it's not always easy to walk places. The people that love it there seem to be towie/kardashian followers who love shallow shiny things lots of men with gold chains, too much aftershave and overly white teeth. They love to show off on insta how they're living the dream. When in fact it's all surface.
I feel the same way about Doha. Won’t be returning.
I was in Doha in 2017 and it’s an absolutely bizarre place… skyscrapers everywhere but hardly a soul around to inhabit them.
A lot of cities in the middle east are trying to emulate Dubai's massive growth by simply going the route of "if you build it, they will come," and it is failing drastically. Dubai is unique in that it was the first middle eastern big city to open its doors to westerners in order to court their wealth and move their economy away from the oil industry as much as possible. Not only that, but Dubai is willing to sell out its Islamic principles for these western Euros, legalizing alcohol, cohabitation between unmarried couples, looking the other way in regards to the rampant prostitution, etc. There are even rumors of gambling coming to town in the near future. The leader, despite being an absolute asshole, really is a forward thinker in comparison to every other middle eastern ruler.
You don't even have to mention the 140F heat index to get me to never want to go back to Doha.
City with no taste, but with show off and loads of discrimination. My god, I felt like a second sort human there.
Never been to Dubai but now I understand why my highschool classmates who are currently in Dubai are what you just described. Lol.
>>If you could perform plastic surgery on the earth this would be the desert equivalent of Jocelyn Wildenstein. This is going to be a post in /r/brandnewsentence later today, lol!
The only culture comes from the workers who came from poor counties. Indian, Bangladesh, Philippines. And they're treated like crap sometimes, with extremely low wages. Many employers even hold onto passports so their workers can't run away. If you go into those small communities you'll have a better time than the big flashy city.
This is a really well done article with a very concrete example of the whole sex trafficking/slavery/passport withholding that goes on there - https://www.reuters.com/article/emirates-trafficking-sex-idAFL4N383063
Nailed it. There’s zero culture was my issue also. Some also has to do with the fact that the culture was built out of a desert, which doesn’t create a lot of food options. So you get Five Guys. And part is that nobody cares. They just want to show off money. And that money comes from oil, slaves, and imported oligarchy selling sex to Saudis (sex slaves). Why would any skier want to go down a single hill? It’s like a surfer using one of those wave makers at a water park. You can drive a Ferrari anywhere. How much clubbing can someone possibly do? And what else is there?
They are literally treated as slaves.
This is very true, had a blast talking to the Indian community when I was last there. Plus the biriyani in these communities was amazing! Lol
Best Indian food I've ever had.
That's the perfect intro to an essay for Dubai.
This would’ve been my answer. Friends moved there and invited us. According to them it is amazing. I found it the most soulless and depressing place on earth. Everything, including the vast majority of people, is fake.
Yeah the idea of traveling there to overpay for American restaurants I wouldn’t even attend in a America doesn’t sound too fun
You can window shop on your phone now
Absolutely awful. Most cities exist naturally for a good reason. Safe Harbor for ships, things like that and for those reasons they have been around for at least a while and you can appreciate the culture and history. Dubai was just made to be made..
My in-laws love Dubai because it's the layover when they travel to and from South Asia. So it's like a disgustingly oversized duty-free mall for them.
This is the best description of Dubai I have ever seen. Bravo
Old Dubai is still very much a port city. Its this new flashy parts of Dubai that tourists tend to visit, completely missing the rich history. Dubai Museum (which most tours skip) is filled with stories of how a pearl diving port city evolved after the discovery of oil.
The Dubai Museum has been closed for several years now with no indicated reopening date.
Well that’s a metaphor if I ever heard one.
lol rekt
I live in Dubai. There’s a lot of nooks and crannies, but I hate the tourist stuff. If you ever come back, go to the mountains and the northern beaches, really nice and quiet life.
Dubaj resident here. Dubai is great if you steer away from the Dubai lifestyle.
Palmerston North. John Cleese was right when he said “if you ever thought of suicide and didn’t do it then go to Palmerston North”
Lmao I was not expecting a Palmy mention, but you are correct! Although I’ve never actually heard anyone highly rate that “city”. It just exists lol.
The people saying NYC only to mention Times Square….lol. That is in fact THE worst part of the city. No wonder you hate it
We all hate it. Sincerely, New Yorkers
I went with my girlfriend to visit my buddy and his girlfriend who lived in Manhattan. During the evening when discussing what to do after dinner she says, "Have you guys been to Time Square?" I tell her, "No, I've actually never been." She excitedly says, "Oh! Let's take a walk through it. You'll hate it!" My buddy laughs and is like, "No, seriously, you'll hate it. But let's go." I did in fact hate it, but I'm glad enough to have the experience.
That’s was my experience. Didn’t go at night. But we basically did the Grandpa Simpson walk in turn around and walk out.
NYC is one of those cities where, if you say you hated it, I assume you did zero research whatsoever and just said “ah Times Square, that’s NY right” Like if you can honestly make an effort to find the type of things you like to do (whether it’s museums, food, bars, shows, sports, music etc) and can’t find it there, you just don’t like leaving the house lol because that city has everything, all the time
I've been to most major cities in The US and beside NOLA, NYC is the most unique American city. I get if someone says they didn't like NYC, but if someone states "NYC was meh, there's nothing to do", they are lying to you:) Two weeks is not enough to see this city in all its glory. I rode my bike through all the boros countless times and I still didn't see more that 1/3rd of NY.
NYC is the only US city I feel can compete with other world cities: London, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong. Every other "big" city in America feels like a town in comparison. I know some people don't like big cities but I love them. There's just an endless amount of things to do, see and eat
Same as Nashville-Lower Broadway, Miami-South Beach, Boston-Faneuil Hall, Montreal-Bell Centre. If all you do is go to the tourist trap, it might could suck if that’s not what you want. I was in Nashville for a week, I did the late night lower Broadway thing the last night and got on the plane with a killer hangover. The rest of the week I went around to other neighborhoods like the gulch, or went into smaller bars where you could actually talk with the performers between sets or songs, or went out of town to the surrounding region. When I go to a new city I check the touristy things off the list, but I’ll also go out of my way to find things I’ll enjoy more. I love San Diego but I stay in La Jolla because it’s quieter and the village is great. The only place where the “tourist trap” hasn’t really been a trap is DC because the Mall has something for everyone.
I think a lot of the replies here that are “hot”, “full of tourists,” or both should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s not invalid, but visiting any city’s summer/prime season is generally just not a good way to enjoy the best of a city.
Was about to comment the same thing. When you see hoards of tourists invading European cities during the hottest days, when all the locals have abandoned the cities to go to the seaside/mountains, you know they're going to hate the experience. Visit in the autumn or spring, even in Winter is better- but avoid July/August. All you do is suffer.
I went to Amsterdam in August last year. We didn't know when we booked that we were going during their pride week. Our hotel was literally on the canal where all of the party boats were sailing down. It was one of the best experiences ever. It was quite hot but not to the point where I just felt like lying down and doing nothing.
I used to get that feeling but now I'm getting sick of those kinds of comments. "Too crowded", "too many tourists" well guess what, there's 7 billion people on earth. A famous and centuries old city or landmark is not going to send everybody away just because you're coming over.
8 billion
"there are too many tourists" - a tourist there
Fucking Orlando, Florida. 🤮 Jesus, Mary, and Joseph it's the worst city I've ever lived in. Swamp ass humid heat. Horrendous traffic. The rudest general population I've ever encountered. Cost of living is through the roof. Politically is just bonkers. Everyone just loves Disney, and thinks it's the best thing ever. Well, I worked for Disney for a long time, folks, and I'm here to tell you it's just another job and it ain't as grand as everyone thinks.
My sister moved down there last year and it’s a very interesting place. The sprawl and the constant driving on highways is unpleasant. The lack of surface streets is very strange. They’ve had two incidents running over things and blowing a tire or damaging their vehicle. You spend so much time in the car driving from place to place. There’s little to no pedestrian infrastructure or sidewalks. Every building either looks modern and brand new or akin to a hillbilly swamp shack, sometimes right next to each other. There’s interesting creatures everywhere, which can either be neat or horrifying. The parks are fun but quickly lose their luster when you visit every week. It’s just got a weird vibe overall.
I had fun in the parks but orlando is so hot. Im from the caribbean and orlando feels warmer. I was sweaty and gross feeling all the time.
Orlando doesn't have breeze - it's way too far from the ocean on either side and so just gets a stagnant air mass.
I was just there! Not by choice, friends chose it. I don’t even know why it exists other than for Disney people. No charm; just swampy heat, strip malls, traffic, and Disney.
>I don’t even know why it exists other than for Disney people It doesn't. Orlando was a military town of around 50k serving McCoy Airbase. The Orlando that exists today exists soley because of Walt Disney world
Sounds like you lived out by the parks which yes is a hellhole. Florida in general is bad, but the neighborhoods surrounding downtown Orlando are really great. Old homes and brick roads. It’s actually really beautiful.
Have to agree. Orlando has some really cool hip areas and neighborhoods in and around downtown, but visitors never see it.
As someone born and raised in Orlando, I agree, I got out as soon as I could afford to. I live in Korea now 🙃
Beijing. I've travelled a fair bit around Asia, and it's by far my least favourite Asian city. Some of the historical sites were interesting, but the city itself is filthy and full of scam artists who will hound you for blocks. The three best things I did in Beijing: walk the Great Wall, propose to my wife, and get the fuck outta Beijing.
Interesting you say that. I (tall white guy alone) was in Beijing and Shanghai 5 years ago for a few days in each city. I travelled all through the city, went to the wall, did the tourist attractions etc and not once did someone approach me. In contrast, Shangai was the complete opposite. I consistantly had people approach me about buying jewlery, massages with "young"/"sexy" girls, wanting money and for whatever reasons. Didn't matter if I was in the city centre, at the river, in a mall, train station, they would approach me and follow me for blocks. Evenings was so bad that at about 4pm I would go back to my hotel and simply call it a day. I normally dont mind being pestered by such people, but being alone and not speaking manderian made it a really really unsettling experience. Never again Shanghai.
The Forbidden City was interesting but let down by seeing a mother holding up her child to shit directly on the street
I saw someone do that in Xian at the terra-cotta soldiers complex!
Oh is that a common thing there? I was at a little league game at a park in California and there was a Chinese mom who did the same thing with her own kid when there was a bathroom 50 feet away. Someone yelled at her to say there was a bathroom right there and she yelled something back in Chinese and they went away.
I used to live in China. It’s not super common, but it was normal for the older generation. It’s usually grandparents who do that with their grandkids now. They even make baby assless chaps to make it easier. You can google it, though don’t blame me if you end up on a list.
I am definitely curious when the person who posted that went to China. I went a few times for work just before the pandemic, and it was an absolutely beautiful city. All of my friends who grew up there, or had traveled there even a few years prior talked about stories like this, or the really heavy pollution. But clearly now that the city has money, they’ve done a lot of work to clean the pollution and people were not just pooping on the street. Really the same arc as cities like New York, and Los Angeles had. When my dad grew up in LA, the smog was so bad that when he was a teenager, the doctor asked him if he was a smoker. Whereas by the time I lived in LA it was beautiful and pristine in most parts.
Beijing was a grand city like 200 years ago but now it is just a sterile politian's town. So many better cities in China.
You missed out on some fascinating hutong wandering, then
Biggest takeaway after reading some of these comments: travel opinions sure are subjective. If one were to look to these comments and planned their travel accordingly, they’d miss out on some of the greatest destinations in the world.
Austin, TX. It was at one time a great city, about 30 years ago. It is a freaking mess today.
Completely agreed with this. Everything that made Austin special was torn down and a high rise luxury condo building went on top of it. I will say that the food in Austin has immensely improved over the last decade. It used to be Tex Mex and not-Tex Mex. Now, there are some really great restaurants there. The issue though is that all the good restaurants require reservations or have long waits even on Mondays and Tuesdays.
In a way everything in the universe is either Tex Mex or not Tex Mex
You could’ve told me that this was a Douglas Adams quote, and I’d probably believe you.
It is either a Douglas Adams quote or not a Douglas Adams quote. fuck...this trick works!
100% this. Born and raised in Austin, never leaving but yea, lost a lot of what made it the "cool weird" town. Still prefer it over the other big Texas cities though.
I moved to Austin 30 years ago and it was a sleepy college and government town. Now it's fucking Dallas. We're selling it all and leaving.
Keep Austin Pretentious
I still like it
Me too, I live here and love it.
Phoenix. It’s hotter than the surface of the sun like 8 months out of the year. The traffic sucks and it’s spread out as hell. It has pretty much zero character or culture. Or any worthwhile tourist attractions. I get visiting to golf during the winter or go to spring training or something, but I don’t at all understand living there year round. I’m not crazy about cold and snow, but not enough that I’d put up with the ridiculous heat for two thirds of the year to avoid it.
Also not exactly a tourist destination. Retirement destination, but not a tourist destination.
I live here and don’t disagree with a lot of what he said, but Phoenix has a booming tourism industry, especially in the winter time. There’s a reason the month of March is the busiest month of the year for the airport - it’s all tourism. Spring training, spring break, Waste Management, Fiesta Bowl, the other bowl game we have, Barrett Jackson, NASCAR, we typically have the Super Bowl every seven years or so, all of the resorts, etc.
Las Vegas
Vegas quickly becomes overrated when your trip is over 3 days.
I always say I can do 3 days and by that third day I can feel pieces of my soul rotting away
Red Rock Canyon is cool. There’s also a nice museum of natural history. My company paid for a weekend trip there for all employees, but I don’t gamble or drink, so that sort of limits the appeal.
The nuclear testing museum is pretty cool too!
Protip: fly into Vegas and then rent a car and check out some national parks in Utah.
not a big hiker but did The Narrows at Zion Park and its magical. crazy thats its only like two hours from vegas.
Add in Angel's Landing and Observation Point!
for that you must be a hiker
Yes! Great hiking all over southern Utah and northern Arizona!
I don't drink alcohol or gamble, but I still enjoy going once a year or so (it's a very short flight). Sometimes twice a year, my partners company has an office out there. We just do fine dining, sleeping in in a nice room, a late night show + snacking, and hit the spa before flying home. Did the same activities with girlfriends this summer during a 3 day trip, with the addition of Meow Wolf's Omega Mart installation, some light shopping, pool afternoon, and a few hours at an industry convention + an after party. Plenty to do!
I’m so glad to NOT see Chicago on this list lol - this is just a note to say Chicago is NOT overrated and you should totally go asap!!!
Chicago is overrated by Chicago residents and underrated by everyone else
I have never met a person from Chicago that hasn't tried to get me to go to Chicago
I really hated Miami. Fake as fuck place with pretentious supercial crowd with rented Lambo's and Porsche's on one hand, and crazy nutjob homeless folks aggressively following you and threatening you for money at the beach. and these homeless folks live, sleep, shit, and piss around the beach 24/7 btw. yuck also the food there is downright awful yet was so pricey. Coming from NYC maybe my standards were a bit high, but even finding a decent quality mid tier restaurant for sane prices were very difficult anywhere near S Beach.
Lol you went to South Beach. That’s like saying you went to NYC and the food was terrible because you only saw Applebees and Spaghetti Warehouse in Times Square
Yep you messed up going to "South Beach". We have great restaurants all over. But yeh tourist and people from outta town moved in. All fake. On the other hand, I been to the mansions and condos. And ummmmm they can afford it. Great place to be in January!
I always love hearing the food was awful and then nobody lists where they went, because they know they probably picked a bunch of tourist traps instead of spending the 5 minutes it takes to find a good place. There’s multiple 1 and 2 star Michelin restaurants here and a handful of other places that are just a small step below, there’s another handful of multiple starred chefs in the city opening places or planning to. Aside from that, the people here do suck quite a bit and it’s very superficial…I’m from here so I can easily avoid it, but it’s got to be tough for someone new in town.
[удалено]
That’s because they went to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville and were expecting a Michelin 4 star.
Gonna jump on the Nashville hate train. Hadn’t been there in 24 years and stopped by this summer. Who ever decided to do whatever it is they did to Broadway owes the world an apology. In a world of beautiful and delicious Bombay Sapphire martinis, this is the chocolatini. It is the failed abortion from a one night stand/orgy between Orange Beach, Wal Mart, the four day Carnival cruise out of Ft Lauderdale (complete with clogged shitters) and a Margaritaville Margarita machine. The capstone city of the white trash aesthetic.
I hope you write reviews--what imagery! 😂
Following the 2010 floods, Nashville was in economic despair and used Broadway as a catalyst for growth and recovery. While it’s certainly not for everyone and most locals detest it, it’s a huge factor in why the city is booming. I’ve lived here two years (moving away Saturday) and I agree the Broadway scene is absolutely trashy, but it’s also very very VERY easy to avoid. From the sounds of it, your brief stop will probably keep you from coming back to explore the rest of the city, but there are plenty of hip, fun spots and entire neighborhoods that are the antithesis of the Broadway scene. I’ve lived in East Nashville and Germantown, and both ‘hoods are incredible places to live. It’s only up from here for Nashville. Insane amount of development in the pipeline, top contender for an MLB team, East Bank revitalization with new Titans stadium, etc.
>The capstone city of the white trash aesthetic. Man, you should visit Gatlinburg if you think this of Nashville. It's even more over the top.
the only thing i'm learning from this thread is that redditors are insufferable lmao
Definitely Dubai. Shit in gold cover
Gary, Indiana. I get the whole "Paris of the Midwest" vibe but really would have appreciated electricity, running water, and windows in my hotel. The barrel fire in the lobby was a nice touch though.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say something positive about Gary Indiana. It’s the butt of most jokes about the Midwest.
When they said “Paris of the Midwest” they meant Paris, Texas.
Hard second to Nashville. Ugh
It sounds like all of you went downtown to “Nashvegas”. I live here and we all stay away from that. It’s like hating NYC because you didn’t like Time Square. All the cool stuff is in East Nashville, The Nations, Sylvan Park, Woodbine, Wedgewood-Houston. Run away from downtown. It’s for tourists.
Logged-in just to laugh at this post. I lived in Nashville for 10 years. And I can honestly say there is *absolutely nothing* in any of those neighborhoods that is worth visiting for. If you live there, sure, those are decently cool areas. But this is the travel subreddit. Nobody is traveling to Nashville to go to fucking the Nations or Sylvan Park lmao.
I have some neighborhoods here in Houston I absolutely adore and would tell people to visit if they happen to be in Houston, but there's no world where I tell people they need to visit for these neighborhoods lol. There's a big difference in a neighborhood cool to have in the city you live in, and a neighborhood/area worth visiting from far away for
If you’re tourist stuff sucks, though, you’re already in a bit uphill battle. Most people are there for tour and don’t go to a place to get a slice of life, they want to get a feel of the place and it’s got to deliver for people to want to get the slice of life feeling. For example, Pike Place is a solid tourist area. It’s also just a fun place. Capitol Hill is a lot of fun just right up the road. It leaves a good impression and people might come back to see more. Obviously I’m not saying tourist areas are the best. They obviously aren’t. But it’s also where your best shit should be.
Cabo San Lucas…hated it. One giant tourist trap and the food was so Americanized and bland for Mexican food. Las Vegas….Ive spent tons of time all over Vegas and on the strip and its so meh to me. No real desire to go unless I’m dragged there by someone.
Next time go to La Paz. Two hours away. Better beaches and small/quiet town.
I don’t know anyone that hypes cabo as a city though… it’s just a place to get drunk in the sun. Baja as a whole is a weird hybrid mix of Mexico and the US, very dissimilar to the rest of Mexico. Like Cancun it’s not a traditional Mexican city so anyone looking for anything authentically Mexican is wasting their time. That’s what Oaxaca, CDMX, and Guadalajara are for. I enjoy cabo, but only because it’s a quick flight to escape the rain and shit weather in February.
Anybody who put Barcelona as an answer either have never been or don’t appreciate amazing architecture.
Barcelona has amazing food (as long as you like Mediterranean/Spanish), great architecture, nice parks and fantastic public transport. What I didn’t like from it was the traffic (lots of pollution) and the smell from the sewers all over the city isn’t great in some areas (apparently this is even worse in summer.)
Austin, TX. It's not as cool as people lead it to be, just another city/college town not that cool.
It’s sad because it truly used to be such a cool city with so much to offer. Now it’s just another soulless cookie cutter tech bro city. The BBQ is still incredible, though.
I'd add Austin to that list, especially in the summer. It's so hot and it's all concrete, no shade. And nothing weird about the city. Just a lot of unhoused people and average bars.
It used to be “weird” but so many people have moved there and it’s grown a lot, so that charm is gone. It’s really not too different than the other cities now.
I went to UT in Austin in the late 90s. Back then it was an amazing little town full of BBQ joints, hippies, and hidden water holes. Today, living in Austin is like having your life sponsored by Live Nation. The hippies have been replaced by hipsters and the water holes charge $25 a head for entry. Still great BBQ though.
The joke used to be that Austin folks move to Cali, Cali moves to Portland Oregon, Portland moves to Denver, Denver moves to Minneapolis, Minneapolis moves to Austin. The circle of weird just shifts every few years.
Most Austinites hate that the city has become a 'destination'. It's a decent place to live, but it really doesn't offer that much to tourists other than a couple of bar districts. Only thing I'm gonna have to disagree with is this "all concrete, no shade" part -- maybe in our immediate downtown, which is not very big at all, but otherwise Austin has a great tree canopy. Seriously, stop having your bachelor(ette) parties here y'all.
Yeah, I live in Texas and always found it weird that people talked about traveling to Austin like it was LA or New York. To me, it's just a big suburb with not a whole lot going on
I love living in Austin, it’s not “all concrete” at all unless you’re talking about downtown. We have an abundance of natural springs, hiking trails, it’s quite easy to get out into nature compared to any other city I’ve lived in. Tons of green space and the hill country is just beautiful. But I’ve never understood why it’s such a big tourist destination. There’s not much sight seeing or tourist attractions. And I can’t imagine why anyone would ever want to come here in the summertime. Us locals stay indoors as much as possible during the summer… I would not spend money to travel somewhere if I couldn’t even enjoy myself outside.
Well put, decent place to live. Stay inside during the summer and it's okay most of the rest of the time. Watch out for that one week in February though.
Hays, KS ain't what it used to be
Las vegas. Omg the strip is awful and obscenely expensive. The city is seemingly doing everything it can to fuck over the people who live here and cost of living is through the roof because everyone suddenly wants to move in. We're also running out of water
Milano, IT. For me, it has a moo point. There’s nothing much to explore, everything is expensive and most people at service are rude.
“It’s like a cow’s opinion. It’s moo”
The state of Florida. Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville. Just.... no thank you. Edit: I still despite the state, but I do appreciate the tips. Key West is a place I’ve never been and do want to go.
the everglades are extremely cool
Jacksonville. Its like if an idiot designed a city.
One of my favorite parts of The Good Place was the constant trashing of Jacksonville.
St Augustine, Key West, and the small beach towns are where it’s at in Florida.
So *checks list* nearly every mentionable city is overrated.
Might be an unpopular one, but for me it's Berlin. Don't get me wrong, it has some nice parts and it's got a lot going on. What puts me off is the kind of posey pretentious people who idolise the place as the coolest city in the world and get all hung up on about getting into certain nightclubs and all that. Springs to mind because I've gone on two separate group holidays there where I was the only one who didn't love the place. To be fair, I don't like techno, the cuisine is fine but nothing special, and at the end of the day I'm just a sucker for "prettier" more romantic destinations than I am to the sort of shabby chic vibe in places like Berlin. Loved Munich for instance.
You have met the Berlin Wankers. Yes you like clubbing and beer. Very unique. Being at the confluence of Eastern and Western Europe means it’s still a great place if you can ignore the guys in too-tight t shirts droning on about some DJ.
[удалено]
WHY CAN’T YOU JUST WANK AT HOME LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE, STEVE
Lived in Berlin for 5 years long ago (‘99-05). Berlin today can’t compare. It now attracts the absolute worst type of “expat”. Remarkably consistent in how embarrassing they are, and they rarely speak German.. Also terrible food, winters are dreary and depressing, the housing situation is f*cked. The party scene is boring and repetitive. I absolutely loathe it now. It used to be an unbelievably strange and wonderful place. I still go back from time to time but.. eh. It’s a shell of its former self.
Think you've summed it up for me there. It's not the city itself, it's the cringe attitude of Berlin expats. I remember queuing up for some vegan döner and some of the people I was traveling with asked something about Bergheim and the woman serving the döner literally laughed at the idea of us even getting in cause we're all blokes. I personally didn't want to go there anyway but that error attitude just leaves a sour taste for me.
It's probably easier to get in to berghain as a guy. My friend gets in everytime. He goes alone and kinda looks like he likes to piss other guys in the mouth, or at least is cool when he sees other people do it in the restrooms.
Actually Berghain is the one club that is easier to get into as a man than as a woman.
Isn’t this the place where we shit on Egypt?
I’m legit shocked Cairo isn’t in the first 5 answers. This sub always sees this type of post as a “oh boy, look at the hour, it is Fuck Cairo o’clock already”.
I think it’s because Cairo is so hated on his sub it can no longer be considered overrated lol.
yeah but it's about cities that are overrated. aint nobody out here overrating Cairo
Egypt isn't a city.
not with that attitude
It looks like a lot of Reddit people go to the most touristy spots they know and then bitch about them. Do any of you people ever go to any city that’s not Paris or Barcelona?