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I don't think Utah is greater than Colorado (actually, I don't hold a strong opinion about either state or their cities), but I DO think Salt Lake City is prettier than Denver, in that it is surrounded by tall mountains that are VERY close to the city.
I'm going to both states for the scenery and landscape and outdoor activities and not really the cities there(I have family just outside Denver so I go there anyways though). Salt Lake is cool just because it has such close proximity to the Wasatch and you can stay in a decent sized city and drive to seven good ski areas within about an hour(or closer depending on where you are in the metro). Denver is a better city overall but you're driving further to reach the Rockies.
Colorado does have more mountain scenery and picturesque mountain towns and big resorts than Utah, but the skiing terrain in Utah is just as good and they usually have better snowfall than most of Colorado--just from a hardcore skiing/snowboarding standpoint and many of the people I knew when I lived in Lake Tahoe who ended up as professional skiers or boarders would probably agree. The other real attraction to Utah is the cool desert scenery in the southern half--other than that much of the state outside of those areas looks like Nevada without casinos. So I'm not really favoring one over the other, both are worth a visit--though I'd say that I probably enjoy to the San Juan Mountains in Colorado over practically any mountain range in the US for scenery except for maybe somewhere like the North Cascades.
What was different about this article was the snide, insulting, know-it-all tone of the article. Yes, many rock journalists write with that tone, but your typical travel piece is not that angry and bitter.
Yeah, the writer is kind of trying a little hard, but it's standard device. Most travel magazine or newspaper travel articles though are basically advertising--you don't really get a lot of really opinionated articles where some writer goes somewhere and is greatly disappointed and let's you know that. It's usually more a long the lines of being one step away from ad-copy--and I know it myself as I wrote for a couple regional travel guides that were basically just that when I was in college--a lot of superlatives and exciting descriptions. There's also the fact that most people don't want to read in depth about a place that some writer isn't recommending(though that's why there's TripAdvisor and Yelp)... Most travel articles are, hey--"Here's a great plan for weekend in Boston!" not "I took a trip to New Orleans and here's why I hate the place."
On the other hand, there's a whole huge coffee table travel book that basically lists out famous travel destinations and then tells you an alternative, less crowded and cheaper destination that are supposedly just as good. In a smarmier way that's what the writer was doing. Though I think they were sort of off with some of what they suggested--because if I was I looking for alternative to Costa Rica without the hype I'd pick Nicaragua, not an expensive and more touristy place like Hawaii. I wouldn't suggest Prague as an alternative to Berlin since they're completely different experiences. Same with Vancouver and Portland--Vancouver is more a tourist city and Portland is more a low-key city of neighborhoods that you have to know what you're looking for... You can visit San Francisco and the rest of the SF Bay Area and some of the surrounding area in a short trip--in fact I'd recommend anyone going to the area see both. Everyone who goes to Asheville goes to the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains already--most people combine the two for a trip. And Detroit is probably a interesting trip due to the fact that it isn't really a heralded destination, but you're still going to want to travel to Chicago if you've never been there before.
But there's just no reason to get that excited or upset about another list of "what's overrated or underrated". Journalists crank out lists for a reason, they're easy to throw together.
I actually agree with a lot of that. I find SF, Denver, Austin, and Asheville to all be overrated (even though I liked both Austin and SF, I just didn't like them as much as other people seemed to think I should).
Gotta disagree on Chicago though. I've only been once, but I absolutely loved it there.
And thats the definition of overrated.
Remove Denver from your list and mine would match yours. I actually like Denver more than I expected I would. Seattle too. But Austin, SF, Portland... were nice places but I didn't find them as glorious as others seemed to think I should like them.
Chicago, NY, etc were right on target
and places like Detroit, Denver, etc were better than I expected.
Out of those 4 I think only Denver is overrated as far as visiting unless you include ski resorts hours away. Vancouver is a cool place to visit but probably not for more than 4-5 days max imo. While I think SF is a tad overrated as far as a place to live it's definitely a great city to visit.
I agree that Denver isn't really a destination for visiting. However, there is a lot to do in the way of tourism depending on the time of year. I think that goes for most mid size cities in the US though.
You're not getting it. I'm asking whether the level of carbon emissions has been reduced in the Denver area, to which I'm highly highly skeptical (mainly because I haven't yet heard of an American zero-emission city). If you have evidence that would be helpful. I'm interested in this kind of thing, and it's also a part of my career.
I can't tell you. I'm not particularly interested in this subject, but no one said it was a zero-emission city. I'm not really clear on the difference to be quit honest. All I know is the air pollution has drastically gone down over the years.
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