# You're an American. What city should your good foreign friends visit first? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 5, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194 "2011-12-05T23:08:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/61 "2011-12-08T06:10:28Z")
NYC is probably pretty terrific - I’ve only been there a few hours, just passing through - but strikes me as too hyper for the casual tourist. For beauty, class, and fun, SF is next up, and it’s my vote for the poll. ---
**Author:** ![Lor213](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e4f/32.png) [@Lor213](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lor213)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/62 "2011-12-09T23:11:25Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > I suppose if by “authentic” you mean a real dying, ugly, dirty rust-belt city whose most well-known nickname is “The Mistake by the Lake,” then, sure. But I felt that listing Detroit was good enough to cover the sad and crumbling rust belt cities. I don’t think America as a whole is well-represented by these places, myself. > > But it should be clear that no single big city in American can stand in for a representation of “authentic” or “real” for the whole country. That’s nonsense; the nation is far too diverse for that to be possible. > > Regardless, feel free to select “other.” Have you been to Cleveland lately? We have nice stuff here and sure I’d recommend it. It is more of an “average” kind of town. Again though it all boils down to what someone wants out of a vacation. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/63 "2011-12-09T23:30:32Z")
> [@Lor213](#): > > Have you been to Cleveland lately? We have nice stuff here and sure I’d recommend it. It is more of an “average” kind of town. Again though it all boils down to what someone wants out of a vacation. I admit it’s been about 16-17 years. I don’t avoid the place, to be sure. But I don’t see or hear of any reason to go out of my way to visit, either. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/64 "2011-12-10T12:49:52Z")
If they’re coming from Europe, I’d have them visit Washington D.C. or NYC. If they’re coming from Asia or Australia, I’d have them visit San Francisco. If they’re coming from South America, I’d probably send them to Phoenix then Sedona. If they’re Canadians, I’m sending them to either NYC or Seattle, depending on what part of the country they’re coming from. IOW, I’d pick the best city that didn’t require them to fly across the continent. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/65 "2011-12-10T12:56:54Z")
I don’t get the appeal of NYC. I said DC, and San Francisco would be my second choice. No city in Florida would appear anywhere - to me, the whole state is just a tourist trap, although I may be biased after spending 18 years of my life there. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/66 "2011-12-10T13:26:59Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > I don’t get the appeal of NYC. Are you serious? It’s the city that never sleeps! And it has public transportation. Here’s a few things that I’d recommend a visitor do/see: Iconic tour: Grand Central/Empire State Building/Times Square/Gracie Mansion Architecture tour United Nations tour NBC Tour Late Night with David Letterman/Jimmy Fallon/Live with Regis Statue of Liberty/Battery Park/9/11 Memorial Ellis Island Radio City Music Hall/MSG (whoever is playing there) Shopping galore Broadway and off-Broadway shows Great restaurants Comedy Clubs The Met or the ballet St. Patrick’s Cathedral/Cathedral of St. John the Divine Central Park/Strawberry Fields Museums galore - MOMA, Museum of Art, Natural History, Planetarium Weekend or day trips to all kinds of places (Martha’s Vineyard, Boston, DC) Bronx Zoo or Central Park Zoo Yankees or Knicks Game ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/67 "2011-12-10T15:47:04Z")
Its completely dependent on my friends - what they enjoy, where they are from, if they want something like where they came from or different. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/68 "2011-12-10T17:08:07Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > I admit it’s been about 16-17 years. I don’t avoid the place, to be sure. But I don’t see or hear of any reason to go out of my way to visit, either. Of everywhere I’ve lived (and I’ve kind of lived all over) Cleveland was my favorite. Granted, I lived in a suburb about 15 minutes south of downtown, but still. I really enjoyed living there. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/69 "2011-12-11T04:47:13Z")
You come here anytime of the year and I can promise some of the world’s best perch and pickerel fishing. River or lake. As well as nearby game gunting… wild and water fowl, deer, and rabbit… definitely some of the best trappings with muskrat… Be hard pressed to find a region with more diversity and tradition in wildlife. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/70 "2011-12-11T05:06:44Z")
I live in an [ancient swampland](http://www.metroparkstoledo.com/metro/parksandplaces/index.asp?page_id=510)… on the far reaches of the [Iroqouisian Erie tribes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie_tribe)’ Lake. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/71 "2011-12-11T05:17:56Z")
We were probably border hunting grounds not unlike Arcadian Swamps in Louisiana or even reclaimed Holland Lowlands, before the great drainage and tiling and Canaling and ditching by European settlers. Of course, we had our own northern swamp species of fauna and flora that still exist. We also had the first oil strikes in our nations History… Ohio was the oil boom state far before Texas. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/72 "2011-12-11T05:41:45Z")
The tiling and ditching, canaling, and draining of this rich swamp has also led to the last 100 somethin’ years of some of the best and most fertile and productive soil and weather in American Agriculture. We can grow anything here within season, and it’s the best. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/73 "2011-12-11T05:44:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Knorf** : > > I suppose if by “authentic” you mean a real dying, ugly, dirty rust-belt city whose most well-known nickname is “The Mistake by the Lake,” then, sure. But I felt that listing Detroit was good enough to cover the sad and crumbling rust belt cities. I don’t think America as a whole is well-represented by these places, myself. Cleveland certainly hit its peak as a rust-belt city, and the population’s only about half of what it once was, but just because the heavy industry is dying doesn’t mean that the city as a whole is. Unlike Detroit, Cleveland has managed to more or less keep up with the times, and has replaced steel and cars with banking, telecommunications, and tourism (which are incidentally also a lot less polluting). And there is a fair bit to offer a tourist: An excellent art museum and natural history museum, the Rock Hall of Fame, major-league teams in football, baseball, and basketball, the Great Lakes Science Center, the Metroparks, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, beaches on Lake Erie, Playhouse Square, the Cleveland Symphony, etc. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/74 "2011-12-11T07:14:48Z")
Of course, I would take them to Cedar Point, America’s Rollercoast. I guess that the point I am making is that we wouldn’t be the first choice of many foreigners for East and West coast prejudice, but we might be the last and most missed point of genuine interest. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/75 "2011-12-11T17:56:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Cleveland certainly hit its peak as a rust-belt city, and the population’s only about half of what it once was, but just because the heavy industry is dying doesn’t mean that the city as a whole is. Unlike Detroit, Cleveland has managed to more or less keep up with the times, and has replaced steel and cars with banking, telecommunications, and tourism (which are incidentally also a lot less polluting). And there is a fair bit to offer a tourist: An excellent art museum and natural history museum, the Rock Hall of Fame, major-league teams in football, baseball, and basketball, the Great Lakes Science Center, the Metroparks, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, beaches on Lake Erie, Playhouse Square, the Cleveland Symphony, etc. Cleveland has a great arts scene in all respects, I think. Art galleries, music venues, stage productions, etc. _sniffle_ I miss it. I want to move back, but it will never happen. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/76 "2011-12-11T18:40:51Z")
Uncle! Uncle! I’ll never dis Cleveland again. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/77 "2011-12-12T15:12:05Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > Uncle! Uncle! > > I’ll never dis Cleveland again. There’s a bit to dis about the city, but my visits to the city have been nothing by pleasant. Believe it or not, Cleveland has one of the best public libraries in the country. Beautiful place, with an international-level collection specializing in chess and world folklore. There are pervasive reminders that the city has been hurting, but you won’t be in any hurry to leave. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/78 "2011-12-17T09:03:50Z")
America’s North Coast. The Erie Sea. It runs from New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, into Michigan, back around again through Ontario. Try the scenic Erie highway. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/79 "2011-12-17T14:06:22Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > It depends on what they want out of the trip. Do they want to see amazing things, or do they want to get a feeling for what it’s like to live in America? New York is certainly full of amazing things, but most Americans don’t live like New Yorkers do. There isn’t any one place you could go to that would tell you how most Americans live. ---
**Author:** ![raskolnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194/80 "2011-12-17T14:32:29Z")
Well, the US is Philadelphia for me, so the rest of the country is like another country anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-american-what-city-should-your-good-foreign-friends-visit-first/605194.md?page=5)