Hello good people, what cities do you know well, what reputations do they have to tourists/outsiders and do they deserve them?
For the record I’ve lived in London for thirty odd years and support the statement that ‘if you’re tired of London You’re tired of life’.
Over to you,
Peter
Washington, DC is one of the most tourist-friendly cities anywhere.
Loaded with both historic and educational attractions, almost all of which are 100% free, and almost all conveniently grouped together within walking distance of each other downtown. The city is quite compact and has an excellent, simple, user-friendly public transportation system that can quickly bring visitors to (almost) anywhere they’d like to go. Has a bad (but improving) reputation for crime, but the worst areas are isolated well away from the main tourist attractions, and the majority of the city is quite safe even after dark.
Detroit isn’t nearly as dangerous as people imagine. It’s no picnic, but it’s not hell on earth either.
Philadelphia lives up to it’s reputation. If anything, it’s over-rated.
Driving in Boston really is that bad and many of the people are just as rude as their reputation suggests. OTOH, most people don’t talk with a strong Boston accent like you hear in the movies (but some do).
Cynic that I am I was trying to work out whether I was being whooshed!
I’ll reply that London is a quiet, mono-cultural, heterogeneous kind of place, maybe a like a larger version of Zurich, not.
Peter
About DC?.. you’re not alone.
It’s the most exquisitely dull, unimaginitive, soul-less, un-inviting place I’ve ever had the misfortune to spend time in. And the museums suck. A lot.
Tucson. It’s hot in the summer. Really hot.
Oregon, especially coastal Oregon, was surprisngly beautiful. (Cannon Beach, Rockaway Beach, Seaside, Lincoln City, etc.)
Think of sandy California beaches, except instead of sun, you have wind and rain. It’s actually not that bad, and it keeps the beaches pretty much empty a lot of the time.
Loved it. Can’t wait to go back.
But is it full of hipsters though? That is the one thing that always made me hate Oregon and Portland in particular even though I have never been there. I love the movie Stand By Me but pop culture suggests that the whole state is full of flakes these days. I absolutely despise cold water beaches too which is why I never understood why people like beaches in places like Cape Cod even though I live really near it. If it is too cold to swim without a wetsuit to be comfortable, it is just pointless and flat landscape. Buy a plane ticket to real beach in the Caribbean or the South Pacific. The cold water beaches are an open sewer in my mind and not attractive at all in terms of recreation.
I was appalled when I found out how cold the ocean is even as far south as San Diego let alone Los Angeles. It gets warmer in the Atlantic up here thanks to the Gulf Stream and it is still useless to me except for fishing. Head to the U.S. Virgin Islands for some truly good American beaches. Even the water in Hawaii is a little cold for my taste.
The only good thing about the Oregon coast is the dunes. Riding ATVs on the dunes on a nice windy summer day is an amazing experience.
Other than that, Oregon coasts are a joke and you should avoid them at all cost.
-drewtwo99, born and raised in Oregon for 23 years before he got the hell out of that state
P.S. Yes Oregon is full of hipsters but it’s also full of methheads so it kind of balances out.
West coast Oregon is quite different from the Oregon East of the mountains, people-wise, is it not?
I traveled through Portland and then crossed over the mountains and went through the area around Burns and the people from each area were like night and day.
We also came in third for rudest to tourists in the US, but I’m convinced we can apply ourselves and get to number one.
Sure. Same for Seattle and eastern Washington. In both cases, the eastern part of the state is primarily agricultural, and more importantly, rural. There is a lot of agriculture west of the Cascades, as well, but there are also larger urban centers. East of the Cascades tends to vote R, west tends to vote D.
Portland has a reputation for being very friendly. As a resident, I agree with that. On visits here prior to moving to the city, I noted how exceptionally helpful and friendly most people were to strangers. It was one of the reasons we retired here.