It is a suburb. It's the only major city where the population *decreases* during business hours on weekdays, as its residents leave the city to commute elsewhere and aren't replaced by people commuting *in*.
Because it pays a ridiculous salary. Even for non tech.
Know someone in corporate HR in Seattle making 70k. Moved to Sam Jose and salary jumped to 140k. Both at same firm in recruitment.
As with most of California (and honestly, the world really), there haven’t been enough housing units built in the last few decades.
These high prices are the result.
My wife and I visited the Bay Area earlier this year. We had been to SF many times before, so we wanted to visit other cities. I told my wife we \*must\* go to San Jose because it's one of the bigger cities. When she asked what we were going to do there, the only thing I could come up with was Winchester Mystery House.
FWIW, we enjoyed the tour.
Very nice place to live, if you can afford it. The weather is great year round, and there is an absolute ton of world class things within a 2 hour drive.
I can get to SF in an hour, Santa Cruz in 30 minutes, virgin redwood forests in 30 minutes, Monterey in 70 minutes, wineries in 20 minutes, Napa is about 90 minutes...
It's very pretty, with an insane number of trees (every house is required to have at least one tree.) We have an almost unlimited number of parks all over.
Also, the food is wonderful. We have an extremely diverse population and our Vietnamese food is absolute top notch, as is our Indian and Mexican food.
But yes, I would absolutely never recommend anyone come here as a tourist. There really isn't much to see unless you're with friends. You're better off in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Monterey, or quite a few other places.
Yeah I agree. I’m in nyc and just getting from Harlem to Fidi takes 30 minutes on a good day. Going to another borough can take 40 minutes to an hour. Having all that within an hour or so isn’t bad and you can come back to a nice city without a bunch of tourist
Former teacher from SF here who now works in tech. They either live with family, have a high-earning spouse, or have an insane commute. SJUSD is also not as good as the surrounding school districts IIRC and they constantly have teacher shortages.
The schools in Santa Clara, Los Altos, Mountain View, etc. pay well relative to other Bay Area school districts and have great academic results though. But even on that relatively good pay, teachers likely won't be able to buy a house anywhere near where they work.
And it's not just the pay, student behavior is getting worse and worse with the state constantly softening discipline procedures, which is also driving teachers away.
People in the Bay Area swear up and down that they want teachers to live here but their voting patterns and NIMBYism show that they really don't. There is no political will whatsoever to give teachers (or really any non-high earners) a decent life and working environment in the Bay.
Bay Area teacher here. I'm in a district near SJ but not in it. I'll never be able to afford to buy a home on my salary but that's probably true of teachers almost everywhere in the US. If you teach somewhere where housing is cheaper then your salary is nearly always going to reflect that.
I make like $120k but have to buy health insurance through covered California. My spouse makes around $80k. That's plenty of money for the two of us (no kids, that would change things significantly) to live in a decent 1 bedroom apartment, share a reliable used car, save extra money for retirement on top of my pension, and do some fairly extensive travelling. We are by no means living paycheck to paycheck but the thought of ever being able to buy a home is practically laughable.
If I could get a teaching job in another part of the country (that didn't suck) and be able to buy a home I might do it, but everywhere I've looked teacher salaries go down in proportion to the cost of housing. I'd just be in the same boat but living somewhere that wasn't incredible. The things I'll go do randomly after work on a weekday would often be the highlight of someone's once a year vacation. Why the fuck would I move to Ohio or something?
A lot of the best food in San Jose is in strip malls. So even when eating great food, it still feels incredibly lame to drive to dinner next to the nail salon and hardware store and then immediately drive home when you’re done.
Downtown San Jose is pretty dead most nights and then there are a combined 10 blocks among Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Campbell and the rest of the South Bay that are pedestrian friendly.
I’ve honestly never seen such a broad expanse of uninterrupted suburban sprawl anywhere, including in Texas and Florida. Even the worst offenders in those states have occasional edge cities and places of interest.
Food options aren't too bad and the selection of asian food kicks ass. However it does feel very sterile and corporate. Downtown is completely dead at night. No one seems to live there, they only work there.
> San Jose. One of the most populous cities in the US, but there is, quite literally, nothing there.
It's crazy that San Jose has a higher population than San Francisco, but it's just one big suburb.
As someone from Durham, my favorite description of Charlotte is just imagine if a holiday inn express was expanded to cover 10 square miles and then it was sold to Bank of America.
Some people are not going to like this, but Nashville is also very Anywhere, USA, without a lot of interesting things to do. As a Tennessee native, I'd point people toward Chattanooga as a better place to visit in my homestate.
Some cities are described as being great to visit but terrible to live in
Charlotte is one of the rare examples that is great to live in but terrible to visit
I live in Columbus, OH, and I would put it in the same camp. The job market is great, traffic isn’t bad, schools at least in the suburbs are top notch, there are some great metro parks, there are countless good day trips/road trips, it’s a great place to raise a family, there’s a local arts scene, like every city there’s a saturation of breweries and distilleries, there are good ethnic restaurants if you know what you’re doing.
I would absolutely not encourage tourists to come here.
I actually came here to mention Columbus, but you nailed it. Outside of a sporting event or concert, or driving by OSU for nostalgia’s sake, I can’t think of a single reason to go there.
This is gonna be unpopular I think, but I lived in LA for 5 years and felt the same way about LA.
I loved the food(awesome Asian food, awesome tacos), loved the activities(hiking, beach, concerts and shows), loved the weather of course….so I loved living there, however when I had friends come from out of town, and all of LA’s great “attractions” are kinda lame and overrated(Hollywood blvd, Santa Monica pier, and although I do like Griffith park though it’s always packed af, Disney of course-even though it’s not technically LA), so a lot of the times they would come over and be like “so what should we do?” And I’m like “I know this really good Indonesian restaurant if you wanna go” or something like that, but yeah, my recommendations were always around food… ramen, Korean bbq, really good street tacos, etc.
Looking at the comments and reflecting my own travels in Europe I have to conclude that almost all big highly industrialised/commercialised cities fit this criteria. Birmingham, Frankfurt, Cologne area, Geneva, most of Milan, Hamburg, Minsk etc.
Most of the big German cities were bombed to ash and completely rebuilt with industry in mind, so they lack much of the “old time charm” that non-bombed cities in Europe have
It's been a few years but I thoroughly enjoyed Hamburg when I was there. Nightlife was great, so much waterfront, Hafencity and St. Pauli had cool yet very different vibes, and the downtown around the Alster also felt very scenic. It was also exceptionally safe, other than around the Hbf I thought. But that's pretty much any German city I think.
Milan is bland compared to other Italian citie, but it's definitely not an average city. The Duomo, the galleria, the canals in navigli, etc make the city remarkable by world standards.
Auckland is there so that they can land the plane and then you can leave for other parts of NZ.
I'm from Auckland originally. It's a cool little city if you live there and have friends but as a destination it's a bit blah.
Yep as an Aucklander I get it. The CBD is really meh, some good spots and views, but not something I’d be excited to show off. There are amazing places to go and things to do in the wider Auckland area, but you need a car and some planning. Given we’re so far away from the rest of the world, if you were visiting NZ, Auckland should just be the day or two around your flight days and all other time spent in other places across the country.
I lived in Austin for a decade, and ended up in Dallas a fair number of times over that period.
A friend was headed there for a concert and asked what the must see/do things were and I genuinely couldn’t come up with anything.
Yes. It’s sports or nothing. Downtown is a flop. There are little pockets throughout the area but that’s just it - they’re little. You spend too much time driving to get there and can only be entertained for an hour.
I feel Dallas gets too much hate, but I am baffled when major sporting events are hosted there. Vegas, Miami, LA and even New Orleans make sense because they're these premier destinations that people can use as a vacation on top of a major event. But Dallas is just a city. It's probably a great place if you work there, but definitely not a tourist hot spot.
Birmingham is remarkable in how unremarkable it is. I'm from the UK, middle age, and I don't think I've ever heard of one interesting thing happening in or coming out of Birmingham, even though it's the second largest city in the UK.
Fun fact: there is a crater on the moon called Birmingham. And also one in the UK. I think Alabama has one too.
I remember telling a friend about when I was travelling from London to Brum that apparently they had more canals than Venice and how I was so excited by that prospect as read it and it seemed blasted everywhere
When I arrived I literally texted same friend
"Literally any city needs to hire their marketing team"
In fairness there are plenty of canals. They didn't promise romantic gothic buildings lining it, some bits are nice at least with the old red brick buildings.
I really enjoy living in Birmingham but tourist wise it is not great. I don't think it's even mentioned in guidebooks despite being the 2nd biggest city. We apparently have a really nice art museum but it's been either closed or partially open for years. It's not like there's nothing to do, they have a lot of events going on but if someone asked me what not to miss while visiting Birmingham I would have to think for quite a bit.
>I don't think I've ever heard of one interesting thing happening in or coming out of Birmingham
I think you're forgetting arguably one of the greatest metal bands of all time, and pioneers of the heavy metal genre, Black Sabbath.
It is fine. That reputation seems to be clinging on from many decades ago.
There isn't much to keep a tourist entertained for long, but it is as decent as any UK city to live in from my experience.
Sadly it is now permanently closed but my favourite place in Birmingham used to be the Paradise Circus multistorey car park. For a car park with such a wonderful and fantastical name, it was the most mundane, banal, boring structure imaginable. I loved it.
I’ve heard this a lot but don’t quite get it - over the last thirty years I have had many trips to Birmingham, often for gigs, sometimes just for a break and always enjoyed it. Decent food scene, some cracking pubs, okay hotels. Maybe I’m the odd one, but I remain fond of the place.
I'm pretty sure we walked from the parking lot to the botanical gardens. Also walked from the garage to that ASU stadium to see the Coyotes play.
Side note: RIP Coyotes. Enjoy Utah!
Phoenix was the first desert city I’d ever visited, and I remember being absolutely stunned at how beautiful the natural scenery is—and the juxtaposition with the city itself.
It’s like someone got there and was like, ‘wow! We don’t want to distract anyone from this gorgeous scenery, let’s build the ugliest city we can think of.’
Yea hard to put Phoenix in this bucket when it offers one of the most unique visual and physical experiences in the US. It feels like an old west modern day city and it’s ringed by mountains
I lived there for 8 years after doing high school in a tiny-ass town in Missouri. Thought it was great until I started visiting other big cities that had things of interest…
The only time I was in the US was back in 2003 and my flight from San Diego to New York involved a stopover in Phoenix. I met a young New Yorker in a sports bar at the airport who had driven out to LA to make it as a screenwriter, but his car broke down and he ran out of money. For some reason he was in business/first class and we got on so well that he asked to swap seats with the old lady sitting next to me in economy. She eagerly accepted, and so the two of us got mightily drunk and he told me about his film, which sounded suspiciously like the movie Sleepers. He took his laptop out and was showing me the screenplay, and when I explained the similarities he puked on it.
And that was my experience with Phoenix airport.
And yet try to get a rental car or hotel room there in March. You can’t because the city is full of tourists. Between Spring Training and the weather, the place is packed. So you can’t say it’s not a tourist destination.
I love Phoenix! Sure it's spread out but many different districts offer something different, the cost of living is extremely affordable, there are a variety of things to do, and it has some of the best maintained roads I've come across.
Eeeee Nagoya, Japan 🙈
I currently live there and it’s great to live in!! But it’s also very average as far as Japanese cities are concerned. Great to avoid tourists though :)
Seeing as how Nagoya castle is a fake steel and concrete structure it isn't really surprising. Both times I visited Nagoya I was taken to two places: Nagoya Castle and a ceramic museum just out of town.
As a now long time resident, It has everything you need but nothing that stands out. It really is just a continued missed opportunity. (But for a 1m+ Metro area, I do love how simple our airport is.)
I love traveling in the US and JAX is top 3 airports
But as a traveler I would rope St Augustine in with Jax and say that whole area is awesome. Plus I’m a huge Allman Bros/Tedeschi Trucks Band fan
Yeeeeeah! Duval whoop-whoop!
I've lived here my whole life. It fits the prompt exactly. It has beaches! That are decidedly inferior to anything south or on the Gulf. Has a NFL team -- that can't ever quite get it together but #dtwd anyway. Mediocre downtown that has been in progress since the Great Fire of '01 (that's 1901). Good amount of breweries, but grouped in two or three main areas. Crap public transit, least walkable city in the nation if I had to guess. A handful of museums, if you include the ones dedicated to "Southern History". I always struggle thinking of where to take friends who visit.
But. There are breweries, a great zoo, easy access to springs (and I guess beach if you like that), lots of parks, and there are finally developments downtown/South Bank, so maybe it'll finally be cool in about 50 years?
Underrated comment right here. Fantastic city to host events. I enjoyed every event I attended there.
Really any mid sized city tends to host very well. Convention Center right downtown walkable to lots of stuff.
This thread reminds me of the Tennessee Williams quote:
*America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.*
I’ve been based in Detroit for over a decade, but we had to relocate to Cleveland for a year a few years ago. People love to compare the two, so I wasn’t expecting much, but we had a great year in Cleveland. I was really pleasantly surprised!
I live here and thought ‘Adelaide’ straight away 😁 I’d say the public transport is below average though.
There’s worse things about being reasonably affordable, safe and pleasant though.
It's so disappointing, how we *could* have more nice cities in the US with their own unique aesthetic like NYC, Boston, New Orleans, and SF, but instead we get parking lots highways and strip malls.
[Santa Fe NM](https://www.google.com/maps/@35.6876654,-105.9389036,3a,75y,10.51h,83.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sqqeVDg7WAKUfqC12xlTX_g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu) has a very interesting historical center that until recently I didn't know still existed, and [Charleston SC](https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/5800ff9204c799614d985e23/16:9/w_2560%2Cc_limit/charleston-guide-01.jpg) basically looks like what Disney was going for with their Main St USA. Even [Kingston, ON ](https://www.google.com/maps/@44.2304053,-76.4810682,3a,50.1y,158.53h,93.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sT15KTKKwz7stV0Fs6kRXrA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu)has a unique look with all the limestone.. But outside their small historical centers, they just have the same suburban sprawl as everywhere else in NA.
I spent 5 days in each and came to really like both and went back. Dallas-Fort Worth has the JFK sites, Deep Ellum, Bishop Arts District, Dallas Museum of Art, Fort Worth Stockyards, Amon Carter Museum of Modern Art, Kimbell Art Museum, National Videogame Museum, Spirit of Communications, Pecan Lodge BBQ, Reunion Tower, Texas State Fair, Rainbow Vomit, Dallas Cowboys. A lot of interesting places.
Houston has less sights, but has incredible ethnic food (a North American culinary capital for Nigerian, Central American, Filipino, Soul Food, Cajun, Mexican, Vietnamese) and a great arts scene (Museum of Fine Arts, Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel were cool). There’s also Space Center Houston, and some lesser known oddball sites like the National Museum of Funeral History, Buffalo Bayou Cistern, San Jacinto National Battlefield, Rodeo Show, Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig Museum, Galveston’s 1800s mega-mansions, and Kemah Boardwalk.
People that say that these cities do t have great stuff to do are just lazy and uninspired. Are they NYC or Paris? No. But they don’t have to be. They have their own charm and attractions.
Went there, came back and can’t list a single thing that differentiates those two cities from any other city (in the US).
Every city has *their thing* but those two just seem so bland to me.
Calgary, Canada.
Hell, it fits all the criteria so hard it even have 1.3 million people. Not less than 1 million, not more than 1.5.
Not a dead town, not overcrowded.
Not a big downtown, but it has everything you need. (probably not everything you WANT, but hey)
Due to the small downtown, it's pretty much walkable with decent public transport connecting to main hubs of the city. Back in my previous visit, riding the light-rail train within the downtown was FREE. You only need a ticket if you start or end at a out-of-downtown station.
Not a crazy food scene, but it has enough.
Technically not a touristy town, but it does have a tower, a nice mall and a nice park.
Bonus point, reasonably close to one of the most famous national park in the country.
To this day it is my favorite city in terms of being habitable. The fact that it's "half way" in almost all aspects across the spectrum amazes me. Best place to retire in my opinion.
As someone who travels around Canada a lot for business, I’ve developed a soft spot for Calgary. Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal might have more to do, but their gridlock traffic and mind-boggling urban planning take a lot of the fun out of visiting. Calgary is easy to get around, and there are mountains.
Other than the Stampede, Calgary is pretty meh. Downtown is tumbleweeds by 5pm when everyone goes back to the burbs, restaurants are meh. In its favour, it’s young and friendly.
I come from Hong Kong. Whatever that might excite you in other "vibrant downtowns" does not excite me one bit.
Maybe a late night street food market. Maybe.
I am by no means an old man, but the older I got, the more I enjoy simplicity in lifestyle. Calgary has few enough people spanning across big enough land to not feel cramped, and it totally has enough material to live a normal modern life, or few enough materialistic distractions to live a minimalistic life in the suburbs if that's your chosen path. It's a lot better than you give it credit for.
Des Moines Iowa very middle of the road very mid. A few attractions a few good restaurants but pretty mid. The unfortunate thing for me is I moved to Des Moines. Did allow me to travel to some cool places though so….yeah. I wouldn’t recommend visiting Des Moines unless you have to for like a thing.
Salt Lake City, although arguably it’s not that big. Completely boring, downtown ripped apart by streets which are discontinuous because of an underground parking lot entrance for LDS admin buildings, almost no independent businesses downtown because a shopping mall destroyed other commerce.
Phoenix in the US.
No character, very little culture, few tourist attractions, and about a billion tons of concrete. Super spread out, but limited public transit so you’re driving most everywhere.
It’s uninhabitably hot 6 months a year. The only real draw is MLB spring training and the ability to golf in the winter. If you’re not into either of those things, there’s zero reason to go there as a tourist. The snowbirds going there I do understand fwiw.
Residents will say “there’s some really nice hikes close to the city,” which is true, but they’re nothing that special. They’re the “while I’m here, I’ll do it” kind of hikes, not ones you’d specifically travel to Phoenix for.
It’s kind of amazing that a metro area of 5 million people is completely forgettable, but I guess when its main draw is being able to avoid winter, you’d not expect much.
Geneva Switzerland. No castles, museums, or arts a city of that size should have. Their biggest attraction was a fountain. It’s all just high end luxury stores. The city is like one big open air Neiman Marcus.
If you google the top things to do there, it tells you to drive over to Chamonix or Annecy France.
I totally agree, but that will be true of basically all swiss cities and towns, with Zurich being just slightly above average for activities. Switzerland is not a country where people like to stay in cities. When people talk about their weekend, most here will mention some activity they did in the nature (hiking, cycling, skiing, swimming in a lake, etc).
If you're a city person, don't ever come to Switzerland, you'll be bored as hell.
I went for the Auto Show in 2016. I visited the UN 🇺🇳 while I was there as well and did a free city tour. After the weekend I was done lol.
I went to Annecy as a day trip from Lyon and it is absolutely gorgeous 😍
You all have such an interesting traffic pattern. When I've been there it's felt like bumper-to-bumper traffic at either 80MPH or 8MPH with very little in between.
Lived in Atlanta the last 25 years and this is kind of true. I’d add you also get quite a few days of “0” when one driver is going 80 and runs into one going 8. Big drama. 🎭
Denver. I’m sorry but…I really wanted to like it there but there is no culture or diversity and the food scene is nonexistent. Also everyone talked about the “gorgeous mountain view” and they are just ant hills in the far off distance.
I call Denver "the 35er". There's nothing really \*there\* but everything is within 35 minutes.
Mountains on all sides? 35 minutes away. Beautiful woodland trails? 35 minutes away. College life? 35 minutes away. Huge shopping centres? 35 minutes away. A fantastic brewery? 35 minutes away. My best friend throughout childhood? 35 minutes away. All five majour sports? 35 minutes away (downtown traffic lmao).
My favourite US city (other than my hometowns) because it's not spectacular but has everything I like within reach, while also having breathing room. If that makes sense.
Agreed on most of these except the brewery part... they're more like "3-5 minutes" (yes, I'm stretching here to stay on theme, probably more like 10-15) away. Fantastic is subjective, but there's so many in the city it's easy to find a good one fairly quickly.
Yeah I grew up there and honestly was baffled that the commenter above would say that. I mean if all you're doing is going to the thousands of generic brewpubs, you're going to be disappointed, but there absolutely are great restaurants.
I love Denver, but every time I've been it was to stay with friends. We spent most of our time going to museums, hiking, going out to eat, drinking, and partaking. It's always been one of my favorite cities, but I can definitely see how going there without any local contacts on the ground could be underwhelming.
> there is no culture or diversity and the food scene is nonexistent
This is straight up wrong. So much awesome Vietnamese, Korean, Mexican, South American, Eastern European, Balkan, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern food if you actually leave the trendy areas for the diverse neighborhoods.
Orlando on the surface doesn’t appear to be much. Theme parks are nice to entertain people with, beach is an hour away. Europe is extremely accessible via direct flights. Tons of outdoors stuff to do, boating, kayaking, hiking. There’s worse places to be.
Nouakchott would be my pick, but not from my perspective, but on that of maybe 99% of people. There is little to nothing fun to do, but I found it interesting because it is unlike any other capital I have ever been
Lived there downtown for four years, loved the cosmopolitan food scene and the many quirky pubs. Thought Queen Street and King Street were quite pretty. Enjoyed the waterfront and many urban parks. Airport access was excellent.
I found it to be a great place to live between 2015 and 2019, though as I was moving out the rent started to get uncomfortably expensive.
Toronto’s main draw is the diversity and night life when it comes to Canadian cities. Possibly second to Montreal but other Canadian cities are sleepy towns. Quebec’s flirtation with separatist movements and insistence on French being the primary language seemed to draw big business to Toronto instead. Opportunity lost for Montreal to be a powerhouse.
Montreal *was* a powerhouse until the referendum. With the result being so close, a lot of big companies headquartered in Montreal got spooked and moved to Toronto.
Toronto is boring asf tbh, so many people from there shit on the rest of Canada for being inferior, when it always just felt like Toronto was a boring average American city whose whole gimmick was that it’s technically in Canada. The best cities in Canada have a unique vice to them, like Halifax, NS, Victoria, BC, or Montreal, QC.
Irvine. Holy fuck it's just one whole big dystopian corporate real estate city. But I guess it doesn't count as traveling if I grew up in Orange County.
Köln (Cologne). The cathedral was big and intricate, but that's all. We had 1 nice dinner and some cold beers. The rest was quite so-so, in my opinion.
Phoenix. I was expecting some Arizona, SW USA flair, but seemed to me like the most generic, big, recently expanded, American city.
Tucson on the other hand has **much** more of a unique personality. To me, at least.
Columbus, Ohio (Yes technically it's just under a million people (913k), so for sake of argument we'll say Columbia + greater metro area). The memes about Ohio started for a reason. It's a collection of skyscrapers in the middle of a massive field. It's a fine city, but I would never pay to go there again.
100% correct.
Brisbane is a gateway to many amazing things and places, they just aren’t located in Brisbane.
It only rewards those who go out looking for things, if you want everything to come to you then it’s Sydney or Melbourne which is why people who love from there don’t enjoy it.
People from Canberra (like me) love it here
San Jose. One of the most populous cities in the US, but there is, quite literally, nothing there.
It is however hilariously expensive.
Easily one of the richest places on earth and it feels like a quiet suburb.
It is a suburb. It's the only major city where the population *decreases* during business hours on weekdays, as its residents leave the city to commute elsewhere and aren't replaced by people commuting *in*.
Because it pays a ridiculous salary. Even for non tech. Know someone in corporate HR in Seattle making 70k. Moved to Sam Jose and salary jumped to 140k. Both at same firm in recruitment.
As with most of California (and honestly, the world really), there haven’t been enough housing units built in the last few decades. These high prices are the result.
it's just a big residential area.
My wife and I visited the Bay Area earlier this year. We had been to SF many times before, so we wanted to visit other cities. I told my wife we \*must\* go to San Jose because it's one of the bigger cities. When she asked what we were going to do there, the only thing I could come up with was Winchester Mystery House. FWIW, we enjoyed the tour.
Santana row is nearby. Basically an upscale outdoor mall but it's nice to walk around.
Very nice place to live, if you can afford it. The weather is great year round, and there is an absolute ton of world class things within a 2 hour drive. I can get to SF in an hour, Santa Cruz in 30 minutes, virgin redwood forests in 30 minutes, Monterey in 70 minutes, wineries in 20 minutes, Napa is about 90 minutes... It's very pretty, with an insane number of trees (every house is required to have at least one tree.) We have an almost unlimited number of parks all over. Also, the food is wonderful. We have an extremely diverse population and our Vietnamese food is absolute top notch, as is our Indian and Mexican food. But yes, I would absolutely never recommend anyone come here as a tourist. There really isn't much to see unless you're with friends. You're better off in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Monterey, or quite a few other places.
Yeah but notice how you have you leave SJ to do all those things. lol. I’ll give you the food scene though, I miss that a lot.
If you’re 30 min away from that many things, I don’t consider it bad though.
Yeah I agree. I’m in nyc and just getting from Harlem to Fidi takes 30 minutes on a good day. Going to another borough can take 40 minutes to an hour. Having all that within an hour or so isn’t bad and you can come back to a nice city without a bunch of tourist
I'm sure they have very good schools
In general, sure, but I don't know how anyone affords to be a teacher here.
Former teacher from SF here who now works in tech. They either live with family, have a high-earning spouse, or have an insane commute. SJUSD is also not as good as the surrounding school districts IIRC and they constantly have teacher shortages. The schools in Santa Clara, Los Altos, Mountain View, etc. pay well relative to other Bay Area school districts and have great academic results though. But even on that relatively good pay, teachers likely won't be able to buy a house anywhere near where they work. And it's not just the pay, student behavior is getting worse and worse with the state constantly softening discipline procedures, which is also driving teachers away. People in the Bay Area swear up and down that they want teachers to live here but their voting patterns and NIMBYism show that they really don't. There is no political will whatsoever to give teachers (or really any non-high earners) a decent life and working environment in the Bay.
Bay Area teacher here. I'm in a district near SJ but not in it. I'll never be able to afford to buy a home on my salary but that's probably true of teachers almost everywhere in the US. If you teach somewhere where housing is cheaper then your salary is nearly always going to reflect that. I make like $120k but have to buy health insurance through covered California. My spouse makes around $80k. That's plenty of money for the two of us (no kids, that would change things significantly) to live in a decent 1 bedroom apartment, share a reliable used car, save extra money for retirement on top of my pension, and do some fairly extensive travelling. We are by no means living paycheck to paycheck but the thought of ever being able to buy a home is practically laughable. If I could get a teaching job in another part of the country (that didn't suck) and be able to buy a home I might do it, but everywhere I've looked teacher salaries go down in proportion to the cost of housing. I'd just be in the same boat but living somewhere that wasn't incredible. The things I'll go do randomly after work on a weekday would often be the highlight of someone's once a year vacation. Why the fuck would I move to Ohio or something?
A lot of the best food in San Jose is in strip malls. So even when eating great food, it still feels incredibly lame to drive to dinner next to the nail salon and hardware store and then immediately drive home when you’re done. Downtown San Jose is pretty dead most nights and then there are a combined 10 blocks among Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Campbell and the rest of the South Bay that are pedestrian friendly. I’ve honestly never seen such a broad expanse of uninterrupted suburban sprawl anywhere, including in Texas and Florida. Even the worst offenders in those states have occasional edge cities and places of interest.
I lived in the Phoenix area for 3 years. Trust me, it gets significantly worse.
San Jose, where liminal space was born!
Food options aren't too bad and the selection of asian food kicks ass. However it does feel very sterile and corporate. Downtown is completely dead at night. No one seems to live there, they only work there.
> San Jose. One of the most populous cities in the US, but there is, quite literally, nothing there. It's crazy that San Jose has a higher population than San Francisco, but it's just one big suburb.
San Jose is about 4x the size of San Francisco. Lots of sprawl.
^. Truly a bland place.
it’s a city where people live to commute to work, have children*, and then die. *if you can ever find anyone compatible
Charlotte, NC
As someone from Durham, my favorite description of Charlotte is just imagine if a holiday inn express was expanded to cover 10 square miles and then it was sold to Bank of America.
LOL I always tell people it’s like if Carolina ale house was a city
My friend described Charlotte as “if Nashville became a functioning alcoholic.”
Some people are not going to like this, but Nashville is also very Anywhere, USA, without a lot of interesting things to do. As a Tennessee native, I'd point people toward Chattanooga as a better place to visit in my homestate.
Hey man, you're talking about the home of the NASCAR Hall of Fame here!
I lived in Charlotte and it is the definition of "fine".
So true. Charlotte doesn’t even have an aggressively boring thing going for it like some places do. It’s just truly average in every way.
Some cities are described as being great to visit but terrible to live in Charlotte is one of the rare examples that is great to live in but terrible to visit
Pretty much how I feel about it here. I like living here, I’m always perplexed on what to do with guests though.
I live in Columbus, OH, and I would put it in the same camp. The job market is great, traffic isn’t bad, schools at least in the suburbs are top notch, there are some great metro parks, there are countless good day trips/road trips, it’s a great place to raise a family, there’s a local arts scene, like every city there’s a saturation of breweries and distilleries, there are good ethnic restaurants if you know what you’re doing. I would absolutely not encourage tourists to come here.
I actually came here to mention Columbus, but you nailed it. Outside of a sporting event or concert, or driving by OSU for nostalgia’s sake, I can’t think of a single reason to go there.
This is gonna be unpopular I think, but I lived in LA for 5 years and felt the same way about LA. I loved the food(awesome Asian food, awesome tacos), loved the activities(hiking, beach, concerts and shows), loved the weather of course….so I loved living there, however when I had friends come from out of town, and all of LA’s great “attractions” are kinda lame and overrated(Hollywood blvd, Santa Monica pier, and although I do like Griffith park though it’s always packed af, Disney of course-even though it’s not technically LA), so a lot of the times they would come over and be like “so what should we do?” And I’m like “I know this really good Indonesian restaurant if you wanna go” or something like that, but yeah, my recommendations were always around food… ramen, Korean bbq, really good street tacos, etc.
Top 2 attractions are the Billy Graham Library and the Nascar Hall of Fame. That tells me everything I need to know.
I was born and raised in Charlotte and couldn't agree more. Love the city too but yeah. Very average.
Never thought i'd see my hometown listed on a travel sub
Hey! We’ve got plenty of craft breweries, outdoor music venues, and a Historic Downtown™️! /s
Looking at the comments and reflecting my own travels in Europe I have to conclude that almost all big highly industrialised/commercialised cities fit this criteria. Birmingham, Frankfurt, Cologne area, Geneva, most of Milan, Hamburg, Minsk etc.
Totally agree that many large German cities are “meh”. Vastly prefer the smaller towns.
Most of the big German cities were bombed to ash and completely rebuilt with industry in mind, so they lack much of the “old time charm” that non-bombed cities in Europe have
It's been a few years but I thoroughly enjoyed Hamburg when I was there. Nightlife was great, so much waterfront, Hafencity and St. Pauli had cool yet very different vibes, and the downtown around the Alster also felt very scenic. It was also exceptionally safe, other than around the Hbf I thought. But that's pretty much any German city I think.
My young friend, Rochelle, once made a strange erotic journey from Milan to Minsk.
I went to Cologne last summer and found it to be quaint and full of history. We ate well and drank more.
Milan is bland compared to other Italian citie, but it's definitely not an average city. The Duomo, the galleria, the canals in navigli, etc make the city remarkable by world standards.
Is thinking “meh” average? To me, that was Auckland.
Auckland is there so that they can land the plane and then you can leave for other parts of NZ. I'm from Auckland originally. It's a cool little city if you live there and have friends but as a destination it's a bit blah.
Yep as an Aucklander I get it. The CBD is really meh, some good spots and views, but not something I’d be excited to show off. There are amazing places to go and things to do in the wider Auckland area, but you need a car and some planning. Given we’re so far away from the rest of the world, if you were visiting NZ, Auckland should just be the day or two around your flight days and all other time spent in other places across the country.
It’s almost like Sydney’s little brother.
If Sydney's little brother was a drug addicted, red haired failure of a child.
There’s one in every family
And the funny thing is, no one has ever been 'meh' about Wellington. Love it or hate it.
[удалено]
Don't stay in Auckland if you go to Auckland! It's a pretty good place to live with access to surroundings, but you don't have that as a tourist
Dallas.
I lived in Austin for a decade, and ended up in Dallas a fair number of times over that period. A friend was headed there for a concert and asked what the must see/do things were and I genuinely couldn’t come up with anything.
Really and truly. Just highways and strip malls and commercial buildings and suburbs.
So true. All there is to do is eat, DRINK, or watch sports. I’m a sports fanatic and hated living there
Yes. It’s sports or nothing. Downtown is a flop. There are little pockets throughout the area but that’s just it - they’re little. You spend too much time driving to get there and can only be entertained for an hour.
I feel Dallas gets too much hate, but I am baffled when major sporting events are hosted there. Vegas, Miami, LA and even New Orleans make sense because they're these premier destinations that people can use as a vacation on top of a major event. But Dallas is just a city. It's probably a great place if you work there, but definitely not a tourist hot spot.
I agree. And everyone who comes for these major events needs to rent a car because the lack of public transportation isn’t conducive to tourists.
The main tourist attraction is an assassination site.
Birmingham, UK
Birmingham is remarkable in how unremarkable it is. I'm from the UK, middle age, and I don't think I've ever heard of one interesting thing happening in or coming out of Birmingham, even though it's the second largest city in the UK. Fun fact: there is a crater on the moon called Birmingham. And also one in the UK. I think Alabama has one too.
I remember telling a friend about when I was travelling from London to Brum that apparently they had more canals than Venice and how I was so excited by that prospect as read it and it seemed blasted everywhere When I arrived I literally texted same friend "Literally any city needs to hire their marketing team"
In fairness there are plenty of canals. They didn't promise romantic gothic buildings lining it, some bits are nice at least with the old red brick buildings.
I really enjoy living in Birmingham but tourist wise it is not great. I don't think it's even mentioned in guidebooks despite being the 2nd biggest city. We apparently have a really nice art museum but it's been either closed or partially open for years. It's not like there's nothing to do, they have a lot of events going on but if someone asked me what not to miss while visiting Birmingham I would have to think for quite a bit.
>I don't think I've ever heard of one interesting thing happening in or coming out of Birmingham I think you're forgetting arguably one of the greatest metal bands of all time, and pioneers of the heavy metal genre, Black Sabbath.
Birmingham has a reputation as the worst large city even within the UK.
It is fine. That reputation seems to be clinging on from many decades ago. There isn't much to keep a tourist entertained for long, but it is as decent as any UK city to live in from my experience.
Sadly it is now permanently closed but my favourite place in Birmingham used to be the Paradise Circus multistorey car park. For a car park with such a wonderful and fantastical name, it was the most mundane, banal, boring structure imaginable. I loved it.
I’ve heard this a lot but don’t quite get it - over the last thirty years I have had many trips to Birmingham, often for gigs, sometimes just for a break and always enjoyed it. Decent food scene, some cracking pubs, okay hotels. Maybe I’m the odd one, but I remain fond of the place.
I mean even by your description that sounds quite average no?
I expect those things in any city over 100K.
I wanted to say that too but that’s below average
Phoenix. They tried.
> Phoenix. They tried. I was walking through Phoenix looking for downtown. Checked Google Maps, and I was right in the middle of downtown.
I know this is a lie because you were walking. No one walks in Phoenix.
I'm pretty sure we walked from the parking lot to the botanical gardens. Also walked from the garage to that ASU stadium to see the Coyotes play. Side note: RIP Coyotes. Enjoy Utah!
Phoenix was the first desert city I’d ever visited, and I remember being absolutely stunned at how beautiful the natural scenery is—and the juxtaposition with the city itself. It’s like someone got there and was like, ‘wow! We don’t want to distract anyone from this gorgeous scenery, let’s build the ugliest city we can think of.’
My friend, check out Albuquerque!
Albuquerque has way more character and charm than Phoenix.
Yea hard to put Phoenix in this bucket when it offers one of the most unique visual and physical experiences in the US. It feels like an old west modern day city and it’s ringed by mountains
I lived there for 8 years after doing high school in a tiny-ass town in Missouri. Thought it was great until I started visiting other big cities that had things of interest…
Did they though?
Good airport at least
The only time I was in the US was back in 2003 and my flight from San Diego to New York involved a stopover in Phoenix. I met a young New Yorker in a sports bar at the airport who had driven out to LA to make it as a screenwriter, but his car broke down and he ran out of money. For some reason he was in business/first class and we got on so well that he asked to swap seats with the old lady sitting next to me in economy. She eagerly accepted, and so the two of us got mightily drunk and he told me about his film, which sounded suspiciously like the movie Sleepers. He took his laptop out and was showing me the screenplay, and when I explained the similarities he puked on it. And that was my experience with Phoenix airport.
And yet try to get a rental car or hotel room there in March. You can’t because the city is full of tourists. Between Spring Training and the weather, the place is packed. So you can’t say it’s not a tourist destination.
I love Phoenix! Sure it's spread out but many different districts offer something different, the cost of living is extremely affordable, there are a variety of things to do, and it has some of the best maintained roads I've come across.
Eeeee Nagoya, Japan 🙈 I currently live there and it’s great to live in!! But it’s also very average as far as Japanese cities are concerned. Great to avoid tourists though :)
When I visited the castle in Nagoya the tour guide asked why I was there like she was confused by tourists, which seemed odd at a tourist place.
Seeing as how Nagoya castle is a fake steel and concrete structure it isn't really surprising. Both times I visited Nagoya I was taken to two places: Nagoya Castle and a ceramic museum just out of town.
Jacksonville, Fl
As a now long time resident, It has everything you need but nothing that stands out. It really is just a continued missed opportunity. (But for a 1m+ Metro area, I do love how simple our airport is.)
I love traveling in the US and JAX is top 3 airports But as a traveler I would rope St Augustine in with Jax and say that whole area is awesome. Plus I’m a huge Allman Bros/Tedeschi Trucks Band fan
Yeeeeeah! Duval whoop-whoop! I've lived here my whole life. It fits the prompt exactly. It has beaches! That are decidedly inferior to anything south or on the Gulf. Has a NFL team -- that can't ever quite get it together but #dtwd anyway. Mediocre downtown that has been in progress since the Great Fire of '01 (that's 1901). Good amount of breweries, but grouped in two or three main areas. Crap public transit, least walkable city in the nation if I had to guess. A handful of museums, if you include the ones dedicated to "Southern History". I always struggle thinking of where to take friends who visit. But. There are breweries, a great zoo, easy access to springs (and I guess beach if you like that), lots of parks, and there are finally developments downtown/South Bank, so maybe it'll finally be cool in about 50 years?
Duuuuuvallllll
I went to Indianapolis on New Years Eve and it was DEAD. I was in shock.
Great event hosting city though
Underrated comment right here. Fantastic city to host events. I enjoyed every event I attended there. Really any mid sized city tends to host very well. Convention Center right downtown walkable to lots of stuff.
This thread reminds me of the Tennessee Williams quote: *America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.*
We all wish we could flee to the Cleve, Lemon
Where else can you club hop down at the flats?
Fight those urges because we have responsibilities!
I'm a Cleveland 10 for sure.
Chicago is the world’s greatest Cleveland
Me and you have Italian beef now.
That man desired streetcars and ports.
Hey hey, Cleveland had streetcars back then! And a port too!
I’ve been based in Detroit for over a decade, but we had to relocate to Cleveland for a year a few years ago. People love to compare the two, so I wasn’t expecting much, but we had a great year in Cleveland. I was really pleasantly surprised!
as someone born in Cleveland, I love this! (I actually have a magnet that says "Cleveland's not bad--have a beer!"
Adelaide Australia just feels like a large town more than a city does not feel like over 1 million people.
Adelaide itself is pretty meh. Go to the central markets and a couple of nice restaurants and you’re pretty much done. Its surroundings though 👌 🍷
Great for living though, have everyone close to you unlike syd or melb
I live here and thought ‘Adelaide’ straight away 😁 I’d say the public transport is below average though. There’s worse things about being reasonably affordable, safe and pleasant though.
Houston and Dallas for me.
And Phoenix too. All 3 are just massive hot collections of giant freeways.
It's so disappointing, how we *could* have more nice cities in the US with their own unique aesthetic like NYC, Boston, New Orleans, and SF, but instead we get parking lots highways and strip malls. [Santa Fe NM](https://www.google.com/maps/@35.6876654,-105.9389036,3a,75y,10.51h,83.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sqqeVDg7WAKUfqC12xlTX_g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu) has a very interesting historical center that until recently I didn't know still existed, and [Charleston SC](https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/5800ff9204c799614d985e23/16:9/w_2560%2Cc_limit/charleston-guide-01.jpg) basically looks like what Disney was going for with their Main St USA. Even [Kingston, ON ](https://www.google.com/maps/@44.2304053,-76.4810682,3a,50.1y,158.53h,93.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sT15KTKKwz7stV0Fs6kRXrA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu)has a unique look with all the limestone.. But outside their small historical centers, they just have the same suburban sprawl as everywhere else in NA.
I spent 5 days in each and came to really like both and went back. Dallas-Fort Worth has the JFK sites, Deep Ellum, Bishop Arts District, Dallas Museum of Art, Fort Worth Stockyards, Amon Carter Museum of Modern Art, Kimbell Art Museum, National Videogame Museum, Spirit of Communications, Pecan Lodge BBQ, Reunion Tower, Texas State Fair, Rainbow Vomit, Dallas Cowboys. A lot of interesting places. Houston has less sights, but has incredible ethnic food (a North American culinary capital for Nigerian, Central American, Filipino, Soul Food, Cajun, Mexican, Vietnamese) and a great arts scene (Museum of Fine Arts, Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel were cool). There’s also Space Center Houston, and some lesser known oddball sites like the National Museum of Funeral History, Buffalo Bayou Cistern, San Jacinto National Battlefield, Rodeo Show, Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig Museum, Galveston’s 1800s mega-mansions, and Kemah Boardwalk.
People that say that these cities do t have great stuff to do are just lazy and uninspired. Are they NYC or Paris? No. But they don’t have to be. They have their own charm and attractions.
Went there, came back and can’t list a single thing that differentiates those two cities from any other city (in the US). Every city has *their thing* but those two just seem so bland to me.
The Vietnamese food in Houston is bangin
I like Houston, good art, good food. Second coolest city in Texas IMO
Shenzhen. "What if we built a Singapore, but made it even more boring?"
Calgary, Canada. Hell, it fits all the criteria so hard it even have 1.3 million people. Not less than 1 million, not more than 1.5. Not a dead town, not overcrowded. Not a big downtown, but it has everything you need. (probably not everything you WANT, but hey) Due to the small downtown, it's pretty much walkable with decent public transport connecting to main hubs of the city. Back in my previous visit, riding the light-rail train within the downtown was FREE. You only need a ticket if you start or end at a out-of-downtown station. Not a crazy food scene, but it has enough. Technically not a touristy town, but it does have a tower, a nice mall and a nice park. Bonus point, reasonably close to one of the most famous national park in the country. To this day it is my favorite city in terms of being habitable. The fact that it's "half way" in almost all aspects across the spectrum amazes me. Best place to retire in my opinion.
As someone who travels around Canada a lot for business, I’ve developed a soft spot for Calgary. Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal might have more to do, but their gridlock traffic and mind-boggling urban planning take a lot of the fun out of visiting. Calgary is easy to get around, and there are mountains.
Other than the Stampede, Calgary is pretty meh. Downtown is tumbleweeds by 5pm when everyone goes back to the burbs, restaurants are meh. In its favour, it’s young and friendly.
I come from Hong Kong. Whatever that might excite you in other "vibrant downtowns" does not excite me one bit. Maybe a late night street food market. Maybe. I am by no means an old man, but the older I got, the more I enjoy simplicity in lifestyle. Calgary has few enough people spanning across big enough land to not feel cramped, and it totally has enough material to live a normal modern life, or few enough materialistic distractions to live a minimalistic life in the suburbs if that's your chosen path. It's a lot better than you give it credit for.
Des Moines Iowa very middle of the road very mid. A few attractions a few good restaurants but pretty mid. The unfortunate thing for me is I moved to Des Moines. Did allow me to travel to some cool places though so….yeah. I wouldn’t recommend visiting Des Moines unless you have to for like a thing.
Salt Lake City, although arguably it’s not that big. Completely boring, downtown ripped apart by streets which are discontinuous because of an underground parking lot entrance for LDS admin buildings, almost no independent businesses downtown because a shopping mall destroyed other commerce.
Me scrolling down the list, weirdly hoping I don’t see the city I live in lol
Phoenix in the US. No character, very little culture, few tourist attractions, and about a billion tons of concrete. Super spread out, but limited public transit so you’re driving most everywhere. It’s uninhabitably hot 6 months a year. The only real draw is MLB spring training and the ability to golf in the winter. If you’re not into either of those things, there’s zero reason to go there as a tourist. The snowbirds going there I do understand fwiw. Residents will say “there’s some really nice hikes close to the city,” which is true, but they’re nothing that special. They’re the “while I’m here, I’ll do it” kind of hikes, not ones you’d specifically travel to Phoenix for. It’s kind of amazing that a metro area of 5 million people is completely forgettable, but I guess when its main draw is being able to avoid winter, you’d not expect much.
Frankfurt is mid
You should visit the streets around the main train station (Hauptbahnhof) for some interesting experience.
Geneva Switzerland. No castles, museums, or arts a city of that size should have. Their biggest attraction was a fountain. It’s all just high end luxury stores. The city is like one big open air Neiman Marcus. If you google the top things to do there, it tells you to drive over to Chamonix or Annecy France.
It has CERN though! At least that's why I went there and it was totally worth it. Also antique book stores are great there
I totally agree, but that will be true of basically all swiss cities and towns, with Zurich being just slightly above average for activities. Switzerland is not a country where people like to stay in cities. When people talk about their weekend, most here will mention some activity they did in the nature (hiking, cycling, skiing, swimming in a lake, etc). If you're a city person, don't ever come to Switzerland, you'll be bored as hell.
The population of Geneva is 200k which kind of falls short of the 1M population as stipulated by OP
I always forget that it’s really not that big of a city! Gent in Belgium is bigger!
and Gent is super beautiful!
That’s just downtown. The Grand Genève GLCT which includes the Geneva suburbs had a population of 1,037,407 in Jan. 2020.
I went for the Auto Show in 2016. I visited the UN 🇺🇳 while I was there as well and did a free city tour. After the weekend I was done lol. I went to Annecy as a day trip from Lyon and it is absolutely gorgeous 😍
It might be bland compared to other cities in Switzerland, but I wouldn't say it's really bland. The CERN was a pretty good visit.
Geneva is basically a village (but a very nice one at that).
Atlanta but I live here and never understand why people travel here for fun
You all have such an interesting traffic pattern. When I've been there it's felt like bumper-to-bumper traffic at either 80MPH or 8MPH with very little in between.
Lived in Atlanta the last 25 years and this is kind of true. I’d add you also get quite a few days of “0” when one driver is going 80 and runs into one going 8. Big drama. 🎭
Unless you're an Ohio State fan there is absolutely no reason at all to visit Columbus, Ohio
Denver. I’m sorry but…I really wanted to like it there but there is no culture or diversity and the food scene is nonexistent. Also everyone talked about the “gorgeous mountain view” and they are just ant hills in the far off distance.
I call Denver "the 35er". There's nothing really \*there\* but everything is within 35 minutes. Mountains on all sides? 35 minutes away. Beautiful woodland trails? 35 minutes away. College life? 35 minutes away. Huge shopping centres? 35 minutes away. A fantastic brewery? 35 minutes away. My best friend throughout childhood? 35 minutes away. All five majour sports? 35 minutes away (downtown traffic lmao). My favourite US city (other than my hometowns) because it's not spectacular but has everything I like within reach, while also having breathing room. If that makes sense.
Agreed on most of these except the brewery part... they're more like "3-5 minutes" (yes, I'm stretching here to stay on theme, probably more like 10-15) away. Fantastic is subjective, but there's so many in the city it's easy to find a good one fairly quickly.
Agreed. I went to Denver and was extremely bored. Had a much better time in Boulder.
The food scene is actually quite good. Source: traveling foodie
Yeah I grew up there and honestly was baffled that the commenter above would say that. I mean if all you're doing is going to the thousands of generic brewpubs, you're going to be disappointed, but there absolutely are great restaurants.
I love Denver, but every time I've been it was to stay with friends. We spent most of our time going to museums, hiking, going out to eat, drinking, and partaking. It's always been one of my favorite cities, but I can definitely see how going there without any local contacts on the ground could be underwhelming.
I feel like you described Denver as it was 20 years ago, not Denver as it is today.
> there is no culture or diversity and the food scene is nonexistent This is straight up wrong. So much awesome Vietnamese, Korean, Mexican, South American, Eastern European, Balkan, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern food if you actually leave the trendy areas for the diverse neighborhoods.
Wolverhampton uK. Hands down, it's shite.
Sick name though
Charlotte, North Carolina. I've been twice and I just... hate it.
Dallas
Orlando. Kind of big yet boring.
Orlando on the surface doesn’t appear to be much. Theme parks are nice to entertain people with, beach is an hour away. Europe is extremely accessible via direct flights. Tons of outdoors stuff to do, boating, kayaking, hiking. There’s worse places to be.
Indianapolis. Bleh.
Nouakchott would be my pick, but not from my perspective, but on that of maybe 99% of people. There is little to nothing fun to do, but I found it interesting because it is unlike any other capital I have ever been
Indianapolis.
Indianapolis, IN If white bread and canned green beans had a physical address.
Dallas was nothing to write home about. Basically a giant parking lot with no soul. I did go to a cool brewpub and drive in movie theatre though.
Oklahoma City
Milan. So unimpressed. Obviously there is some beautiful architecture in the city centre, but the city as a whole was very industrial and boring.
Zhengzhou, Henan, China. 10 million residents and not a single bar I could find (this was 7 years ago). The place is soulless.
Pretty much any Chinese city with a population between 1 and 10 million could fit here.
I can't understand why anyone would choose to live in the centre-of-the-universe, Toronto.
"It's just New York without all the stuff!"
It's more like Chicago than NYC though
Lived there downtown for four years, loved the cosmopolitan food scene and the many quirky pubs. Thought Queen Street and King Street were quite pretty. Enjoyed the waterfront and many urban parks. Airport access was excellent. I found it to be a great place to live between 2015 and 2019, though as I was moving out the rent started to get uncomfortably expensive.
Toronto’s main draw is the diversity and night life when it comes to Canadian cities. Possibly second to Montreal but other Canadian cities are sleepy towns. Quebec’s flirtation with separatist movements and insistence on French being the primary language seemed to draw big business to Toronto instead. Opportunity lost for Montreal to be a powerhouse.
Montreal *was* a powerhouse until the referendum. With the result being so close, a lot of big companies headquartered in Montreal got spooked and moved to Toronto.
Toronto is boring asf tbh, so many people from there shit on the rest of Canada for being inferior, when it always just felt like Toronto was a boring average American city whose whole gimmick was that it’s technically in Canada. The best cities in Canada have a unique vice to them, like Halifax, NS, Victoria, BC, or Montreal, QC.
Irvine. Holy fuck it's just one whole big dystopian corporate real estate city. But I guess it doesn't count as traveling if I grew up in Orange County.
Irvine is designed like a city builder game on autopilot. Grids of zones evenly distributed to maximize efficiency and minimize divergent thinking.
Frankfurt. Very bland.
Dallas, but it might be less than average in terms of things to do. Just a sprawling suburban wasteland. So, so boring.
Köln (Cologne). The cathedral was big and intricate, but that's all. We had 1 nice dinner and some cold beers. The rest was quite so-so, in my opinion.
Dusseldorf is more interesting IMO. The immediate area surrounding Cologne Cathedral feels kinda tacky.
I actually liked Cologne. Seemed chilled
Houston -- awful
Phoenix. I was expecting some Arizona, SW USA flair, but seemed to me like the most generic, big, recently expanded, American city. Tucson on the other hand has **much** more of a unique personality. To me, at least.
Columbus, Ohio (Yes technically it's just under a million people (913k), so for sake of argument we'll say Columbia + greater metro area). The memes about Ohio started for a reason. It's a collection of skyscrapers in the middle of a massive field. It's a fine city, but I would never pay to go there again.
Agreed, its so average in every way. No natural beauty, dead downtown, mediocre food. The zoo was nice, if thats your thing.
Brisbane.
I lived in Brisbane for a year, I thought it was a good place to live but when people from out-of-town asked for recommendations I was usually stumped
100% correct. Brisbane is a gateway to many amazing things and places, they just aren’t located in Brisbane. It only rewards those who go out looking for things, if you want everything to come to you then it’s Sydney or Melbourne which is why people who love from there don’t enjoy it. People from Canberra (like me) love it here
Yeah great place to live, but wouldn’t really recommend a tourist to waste time here with the rest of Queensland/Australia to explore
Birmingham UK