I have one day to spend in your city. What must I see and do?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Inspired by the “What to do in ____?” threads that come up frequently. Apologies if this has been done before.

Say I (or anyone else) have one day to spend in your city, town, or whatever you might consider your local area, and I have never been to this place before. What are the things I absolutely must see and/or do? Suggestions for typical tourist attractions are encouraged; after all, I am a tourist, not necessarily someone trying to experience “life” in your fair city. But no fair suggesting more things than can fit in a day!

Allow me to start with my own home. I would propose these for Dayton, Ohio, tourist mecca that it is:
[ul]
[li]Visit the Air Force Museum (Surely the primary tourist attraction in the area; one could spend a lot of time here)[/li][li]See the various Wright Brothers historical sites, including one of their original bicycle shops, a new museum that also features poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Huffman Prairie, where the Wrights did many flight tests (I know, it’s just a field… big deal)[/li][li]See a Dayton Dragons baseball game. They are an insignificant minor league team, but the introduction of baseball in Dayton has locally been Big Deal™. In fact, I think regular seats for the games are still sold out. (There are some sort of lawn tickets available, though.)[/li][li]For the nightlife-inclined, I guess the thing to do is hit the trendy spots in Dayton’s Oregon District.[/li][li]There is probably some sort of “local” food to eat, but I’m actually not sure what it would be… some kind of chicken, maybe? (There is plenty of Cincinnati chili to go around, but I’ll let that be reserved for Cincinnati itself.)[/li][li]And maybe just walk or drive and simply look around. You won’t be impressed, but it’s something I like to do when visiting a place.[/li][/ul]

I could probably suggest a day’s worth of activities for Cincinnati, too, but I’ll wait to see if an actual Cincinnatian will do that first.

2

Philadelphia – See the Liberty Bell (and I always take out-of-towners to see Ben Franklin’s house as well); run up the Art Museum steps a la Rocky; and have a cheesesteak (with Tastykakes for dessert).

These are the absolute bare minimum – the rest of the day can be tailored to the individual visitor’s interests.

3

I could probably come up with some stuff for you to do on my Island, but Douglas (the city) is a fairly dull place. Lots of old relics from the glory days of manx tourism. They’re demolishing Summerland so you can’t go there (not that it would be remotely interesting anyway) Douglas’ two glens are a twig and a path compared to the Island’s other beautiful glens. There are no good Indian restraunts (no competition you see). One good chippie (Port Jack). Nope, unless I’m forgetting something there’s pretty much nothing to do in douglas except walk around.

Unless it’s TT fortnite… then the entire town is one big party.

4

There’s nothing to do in my city. You’re more than welcome to stop in for a beer, though. We’ll throw some steaks on the grill, play some cards, maybe sit in the hot tub.

In the immediate area, though, there are some things to do. I live six miles from Walnut Grove, former home of the Ingalls family. You can see the dugout site on the banks of Plum Creek, visit the local museum, and see the yearly play about the Ingalls family.

Oh, and if you like boating, fishing, skiing, etc., there’s plenty of opportunity for that here. They don’t call this the land of 10,000 lakes for nothin’!

5

Troy, NY - leave. As quickly as you can. What are you still doing here? RUN! Before it’s too late!

6

For Bozeman, my current hometown, the big appeal is all of the nature around town. You can’t see all of it in a day, of course, or even come close. But one day is just about enough to drive a loop through Yellowstone. You’ll get to see Old Faithful go off (I like to plan this around lunchtime, so you can eat before or after to match the timing), you’ll walk the boardwalks around some of the more famous hot springs, you can watch the Mud Volcano and some of the boiling rivers/lakes, and you can stop by the scenic spots along the Canyon and the Falls (my personal favorite). Along the way, you’re sure to see wildlife; depending on the time of year and your luck, this can include bison, elk, moose, mule and whitetail deer, bighorn sheep, coyotes, grey wolves, black and brown bears, ducks, geese, swans, various hawks, and bald eagles (not all at once, most likely, but the bison, elk, coyotes, and sheep are pretty reliable). Of course, you could spend fifty years in Yellowstone and not see everything, but this is a fair sampling.

If you prefer to stay in town, or give Yellowstone its own day, the biggest tourist attraction in Bozeman proper is the Museum of the Rockies, our natural history museum. In addition to being the T. rex capital of the world, the museum also has a wealth of displays and information about the geology of the area, the various native populations who have lived in the area, and the European explorers and settlers who came after them.
For Cleveland, my birth town, there are a number of good musea, most prominently the art museum and the natural history museum, and also including the Western Reserve Historical Society (which contains the Crawford Auto and Aviation Museum, if you like old cars and planes), the Health Museum, the Great Lakes Science Center, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (which isn’t my thing, but many people like it). You could easily spend a full day at the art or natural history museum alone (I did so many times, as a kid), and the WRHS and Health musea are very close by to those two. If you come during baseball season, you might also want to see an Indians game, but buy your tickets well in advance, since they tend to sell out. There’s also a good zoo and indoor rainforest (on the zoo grounds, but separate admission), and a number of greenhouses and botanical gardens.

7

Heh heh…you inspired me to google your beautiful town, and this is what I found: http://www.troyny.gov/visittroy.html

8

Montgomery Alabama

Basically, all the museums are Civil Rights or Confederacy. There’s also a Hank Williams Museum and the F Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald house. Oh and the MOOseum. It’s about cows.

Old Alabama Town is interesting; “Authentically restored 19th- and early 20th-century buildings stretching along 6 blocks in historic downtown Montgomery. Each building creates its own distinctive image of living and working in Alabama’s past.”

Alabama Shakespeare Festival - Really good. Amazingly good. How-the-hell-did-this-come-to-Montgomery good.

And, thanks to the massive Hyundai plant, more Korean restaurants every day. MMMMMM kimbap.

9

Columbia, SC - we can spend the morning at the State Museum, where you can get some background on the state’s history (political and natural) and then we can go see some of it. The museum is quite nice, particularly if you go with a native who can expand a bit on some of what you see. It’s in a restored textile mill, itself a historical artifact; my dad, who used to work in textile mills, can tell you what machines were in a room there by the patterns of staples/bolts/scarring on the floor.

If you’re interested in the history, particularly Civil War era, we can go see the fairly recently restored capital building. There are stars on the walls and floor where Sherman’s cannonballs hit. (The building was incomplete at the time.) Somewhere you’d have to run down the “Three Great Photographs” of the Capitol and Main Street after the fires; it looks like Dresden post-bombing. Almost completely leveled. A visit to the central University is warranted; it has the oldest university library continuously in use for that purpose and other interesting landmarks. Also of note is our historic home district; the Robert Mills House, the boyhood home of Woodrow Wilson, etc. One can spend a very interesting day just driving around observing trends in architecture - there are historic “Columbia cottages”, huge nineteenth century homes both downtown and what used to be the suburbs (well, now they’re downtown too), post-war bungalows, etc.

The zoo is very nice; we have a baby koala now which you can observe on a webcam at www.riverbanks.org, only it’s probably asleep. Part of the zoo is lovely nature trails from the botanical gardens that go down by the river by the Saluda factory ruins, where people have been picnicking since the second fire there in 1884.

If you like the outdoors, there are lovely state parks and lakes and such - Lake Murray is nice for boating, fishing, etc; the Congaree Swamp has an interesting guided nature walk (and I think it’s now a National Park), Sesquicentennial Park is nice for a picnic or a walk, etc. It’s all best in spring, when it’s not too hot and everything is in bloom.

For food, there’s everything from barbeque to ethnic to gourmet; never say there isn’t excellent eating in Columbia. There’s lots of stuff to do in Columbia, we’re not the podunk place you’d think just from seeing us in the news when there’s a flag issue or this cockfighting vs. domestic violence thing or whatever. It’s a cosmopolitan city with a large university, lovely museums, a fantastic library, etc.

10

Maine in the Farmington area, although I’m going as far out as Phillips:

You can go see Daggett Rock. It’s a big rock and, um… you can see it. There’s a bench in front, built maybe a century ago. You can sit on it and get your picture taken. You’ll have to supply your own camera and photographer. It’s a little under a mile in the woods down a winding, fairly rough path. Keep your eyes peeled, it’s easy to miss from the road. Sometimes there’s a tiny sign visible, but it’s just assumed you already know where it is.

Here’s a picture of it, you can see the bench to the right and there are a couple logs propped on it if you want to shimmy up on top (It’s abrasive, I wouldn’t recommend it).

Let’s see, what else… there’s the Norlands, a sort of living-history type museum. Nice area, and you’d think it would be interesting, but it isn’t. It’s boring, don’t go. Unless you want to look at wall after wall of old photos and hear lengthy descriptions of why the people in them aren’t in any way important…

There’s the old Sandy River narrow gauge railroad bed. The train hasn’t been there for 50 years, but it’s still used in giving directions. Stretches of it are still kept clear for walking, ATVs, cycling, and snowmobiling in the winter. There’s been talk of rebuilding the trestle across the river so you could take it all the way into Farmington. There’s been talk of that for a decade. I think there’s a bit of track and a steam train still running up in Phillips. There used to be, at least–been a decade since I’ve been up that way. Maybe it was Rangely.

People from away tend to like leaves for some unknown reason. We’re mostly woods, so no shortage of them. They turn colors in autumn. Keep in mind that this is a temporary thing and they only stay pretty for a short while; time your trip well. You like mountains? We’ve got those, too. They’re year-round.

Ahm… you been to the movies yet? We used to have a nice cinema downtown. It was just one screen, but it was a very large one. It’s closed, been gone for years, but there’s a new multiplex with something like six screens in it down on the floodplain (yeah, it floods occasionally). They’re tiny, though. Might as well stay home and watch TV.

There’s a hospital, if you want to get sick. Nice one, too. Completely blew the budget expanding it and making the exterior all pretty with a tower and stuff. They had to skimp on the doctoring aspect of hospital running, but it sure looks nice, though.

There used to be a grand playground behind Mallet, but that’s gone. A few things like swings there now, but not much to write home about.

There’s an observatory! Well, when I say observatory, I mean a structure on top of a hill. And by structure, I mean more of a shed. It’s an observatory, though. They might have a telescope, but I’ve never seen one there.

Food, yes, food. There’s the Pizza Hut, down by the old Ames (not there anymore). The Burger King, also by the old Ames. The McDonalds, across from Hippach (HIP-ik) field. Um… there used to a sit-down type restaurant on the road you take to get to New Sharon, but it’s a mortuary now. And there once was a fancy restaurant down on the floodplain, but that’s been gone a long time. And there used to be a pizzeria down the hill from Chester Greenwood’s house (the inventor of the earmuff, he was born here. His house is still here, yours for $200,000). Let’s see, there’s still a pizza place nextdoor to the old cinema (a bit greasy, I don’t recommend it) and another by the new cemetery (new as in newer than the other one, they’re both very old). Oh, we do have a kind of sit-down restaurant a little outside of town on the road to Wilton next to the old Ford dealership. Sometimes its pretty good, but on the whole, I don’t recommend it. Oh, and there’s a Chinese place. Nearly forgot about that. Don’t care for it.

Local culture… there’s the Chester Greenwood parade. It isn’t much, a few lawn mowers, some tractors, kids from Mallet. Good, um… well, I won’t say “fun”, but it’s a distraction. We used to have fireworks on the Fourth of July, but haven’t for several years. There’s a slideshow of local ads before the movie. You been to the movies yet?
But I like here. Too many tourists, though.

11

I’ll use Kent, Washington as that is what my postal address is. I actually live in rural King County and things to do is Seattle have been beaten to death in these forums.

During the summer there is Canterbury Faire, a medieval arts and crafts show. And there is Cornucopia Days, it is a large street fair and carnival. Other than that, there is the downtown antique district and a few miles away there is an antique mall. If you like drag racing I live next door to Pacific Raceways. Fine dining and Kent do not belong together. There are a few upscale chain steak houses, not much else. If someone felt adventurous, they could go search the Green River for some of the victims of the Green River killer. A few bodies haven’t been found yet.

Ah screw it, lets go to Seattle and find the Fremont troll and the naked bike riders.

12

Lexington, KY:

If you’re here at the right time of the year, there’s Keeneland (if you enjoy horses and/or drunk college students.)

The UK Basketball Museum and Hall of Fame in the basement of Rupp Arena seems to be pretty popular.

For sporting events, there’s the Lexington Legends (Astros A-ball), the Lexington Horsemen (indoor football) as well as all manner of UK sports (good luck getting basketball tickets.)

For dining, there’s the vegetarian restaurant Alfalfa, DeSha’s, Malone’s, Tolly-Ho, Pazzo’s and Billy’s BBQ.

If you want to go out and hit the bars, there’s Two Keys, Avio (formerly A1A), Bigg Blue Martini, The Fishtank and McCarthy’s.

13

Halifax, NS–visit the waterfront. Most tourist-oriented stuff is down there. In particular–
[ul][li]Say hello to Theodore Tugboat (or rather, Theodore Too, the life-sized replica, though the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic nearby, which you should also check out, has a display as well)[/li][li]Harbour Hopper, the amphibious tour of the city. You’ll learn about the city, have fun and get to look down on the locals all at once. Trust me on this one–their guides have a great sense of humour and it’s not the least bit boring.[/li][li]Beaver tails. There’s a booth down by the waterfront which sells them (they’re pastries).[/li][li]Pier 21, which has been turned into a museum about WW2. They have a ‘4D’ movie theatre with a film about Pier 21 during the war years. Pretty cool.[/li][li]Alexander Keith’s brewery, which is also downtown, does tours. I’ve heard that they give out samples at the end, though I have yet to verify this for myself. But you Yanks can have a taste of real Canadian beer.[/ul][/li]There’s also some good general sight-seeing there as well, plus it’s very close to the downtown core if you want to do shopping, especially among the odder shops in the city. I suggest Freak Lunchbox–kind of expensive, but it’s likely got kinds of junk food you haven’t seen in years, and there will definitely be stuff you’ve never seen in your life (like 3-foot pixie sticks. Parents, you’ve been warned). They also have lots of novelty items, like Jesus actions figures, liquid RAM and sea monkeys. Can you tell I love this place? And during the summer there’s the busker’s festival as well, also on the waterfront, which is probably pretty fun–this will actually be the first year I’ll have a chance to see it myself. Street performers from around the globe come for the event. I can’t wait.

14

Ummmm, well, if you visit Martlesham, then there’s a fairly ordinary 15th-century church, and quite a nice pub. That’s it. I’ll meet you in the latter…

Visit Ipswich, and, ummmmmm…quite frankly, get in a car and get out to the coast. The North Sea is a strange and unique thing, and I suggest heading to Shingle Street. It’s a very bleak, but somehow beautiful, stretch of coast.

If you’re sticking around in town, then go on one of the guided walks. No single feature is of outstanding interest, but a ‘join-the-dots’ exercise will give you a good picture of the history of the place (which is a pretty long history, more than most people expect to find).

15

In mid-Michigan, despite the fact that Lansing is the state capital, there’s not much to do. I suppose that I’d probably send you to:

A Lansing Lugnuts game: It’s a cheap way to enjoy baseball. The Lugnuts are our local minor league team, and the park is still pretty new (10 years). I always have fun there, but then again, I like baseball.

The State of Michigan history museum: I enjoy going through the museum, because it is very well done. The first floor is pre-WWII, and the second floor is post-WWII. There are usually some special exhibits. I’m 20, and I’ve been going there for years.

Michigan State University Beal Garden: MSU has a beautiful campus, and the garden is a great part of that.

Clara’s: It’s a great local restaraunt that’s located in an old train depot. If you want, you can even dine in a rail car. They’re famous for their enormus menu (I think that it’s something like 16 pages).

16

Just doing all of the standard “touristy” things in Sydney would easily fill in a day:

  • visit the Opera House
  • climb the Harbour Bridge
  • go to the vastly over-rated Bondi beach
  • Taronga Zoo
17

Yeah, that about sums it up.

18

Hrm… Daylesford, Australia, is my home town.

Things to do:
-Check out some of the nearby scenery; some of it is kind of pretty.
-Come around to my house and we can play Nintendo, except that I’m not home during semester.

Despite it supposedly being a tourist town, that is essentially the extent of things worth doing, and I spent the first sixteen years of my life looking for others. Apparently a lot of Melbourne folks disagree, though - perhaps I’m just jaded.

~ Isaac

19

Mmmm. The usual things:

van Gogh museum
Rijksmuseum [where the Rembrands are]
Stedelijk museum [modern art]
Maritime museum
Anne Frank house

Central Station
De Beurs [stock exchange in a beautiful building]
The royal palace
Oude kerk [church]
Nieuwe kerk [ditto]
The canals
My favorite spot: De Begijnhof

And there are some coffee-shops where they sell more than ‘coffee’ :smiley: And maybe a neighbourhood called ‘The Wallen’ where cheerfull, handsome ladies do their thing. [and you can window-shop too] :smiley:

This is a virtual A’dam site:
http://www.channels.nl/

20

omg. I spelled Rembrandt wrong.

Sorry, Mr. van Rijn.