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Lol, I would rate you up IF I COULD but hey its your rules --- I must spread the rep around. Anyway, I agree with everything you say and also note that Savannah is pretty decent in its own right. I also like the fact you are a Georgian speaking highly of a South Carolina city.
Well, like many in Atlanta, I'm a "transplant", and did not grow up here, though admittedly, I've spent more of my life in Georgia than I did growing up back home (WV).
I see things objectively. I'm not "loyal" to a place just because it's where I live or in the same State, etc etc. I do honestly believe that as a nice place to visit destination, Charleston SC is much better than Savannah. But as I said, Savannah is ok too - just not in comparison.
I might also add that "Dahlonega", Georgia is underrated. It's a VERY small town in the North Georgia mountains, about 1.5 hours North of Atlanta. It was a gold rush town in the 1800s and today it's town square is filled with numerous local artist's galleries and crafts shops, a few restaurants, and stores. There are a couple of festivals each year, too. It gets a lot of Atlanta resident and North Georgia resident tourists, but lots more visiting tourists would go if they knew how nice of a day trip it is. I have one set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/atlantagreg/sets/72157603527241335/ - broken link)that shows some general pics.
Well, I live in Mississippi, so I would say that every city in Mississippi is overlooked.
For starters, our capital, Jackson:
Jackson, MS and Little Rock, AR are almost identical twins, except Little Rock has a better skyline and Jackson has better retail shopping. I wouldn't really say Little Rock is underrated because it lives up well to its negative stereotype.
Believe it or not......................... Newark, NJ
Since no one rates it high I guess you could say NWK is underrated but I live right in the heart of it and I still don't see any redeeming value to it, and there's only a few parts of town you can be safe after the sun goes down.
In California, I pick Long Beach. It has 492,682 people but is overshadowed by its adjacent neighbor Los Angeles. As Long Beach really just flows into the fabric of Southern California it is often just lumped together with L.A. or So Cal in general. Long Beach is also a fairly dense city, at 9,770.6 people per square mile with some great urban neighborhoods. Plus Long Beach has one of the most important shipping ports in the United States part of the Ports of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach megaport. Also, funny enough, Long Beach is the set for CSI Miami. Long Beach is ranked the 8th most walkable city in America by walkscore.com
Alamitos Bay in Long Beach
Naples Canals
The walkable Belmont Shore neighborhood is full of interesting shops and places to eat, mainly located along 2nd street.
Long Beach skyline
Metro Blue Line, Long Beach Transit Bus at Pike Street at the tail end of downtown Long Beach
Ocean Walk and the original historic Queen Mary, the Titanic's sister ship
I hate to say it, but I am much more impressed by Charleston SC than I am Savannah. Everyone I know from a variety of walks of life with varied vacation preferences who have been to both always vote Charleston, hands-down.
I had been to Charleston SC on my first trip the year after Hugo hit, and went 5 more times over the years after and was very impressed with the peninsula (historic) district, as well as the shops/stores district a few blocks away. Much more to it than Savannah, and MUCH cleaner with fewer issues with vagrants.
I'm not saying Savannah is a dive - there's some unique architecture and the park squares are very nice. If you go there on it's own never having been to Charleston, then Savannah seems just fine. But everyone I know who has been and then goes to Charleston will come back and say to me, "Oh yeah, Charleston is MUCH nicer". I mean literally - I've never known anyone in 25 years down here who chose Savannah over Charleston. Again, that's not meant as an insult to Savannah - it's still an ok place that probably doesn't get as much attention as it should. I'm just saying that Charleston is the better of the two (IMO). Both of them receive less press than they should, though.
I think Savannah might be more attractive or appealing from the distance, since it has a density of low to mid-rise buildings by the Savannah River. From the pictures I've seen of Charleston, the downtown looks similar to Savannah with a big church steeple, historical homes, and tree-lined streets, but there weren't as many big buildings. On the surface/street level, Charleston looks cleaner and the buildings look more well maintained, from seeing some pics of King St. Savannah has a few areas that could be cleaned up, like parts of Bull St. Also the natural setting of being on a peninsula might give Charleston an edge, and Charleston does seem to have more attractions.
Again, I'll have to go back to Charleston to make any judgement. It just seems that Savannah is hard to beat.
Here are some pics I took in Savannah:
View from our hotel
View from across the river
View from the Savannah River Bridge
Last edited by SEAandATL; 05-31-2009 at 06:47 PM..
Again, I'll have to go back to Charleston to make any judgement. It just seems that Savannah is hard to beat.
Pay Charleston a visit. You'll be glad you did. Just don't go in the middle of Summer as the humidity is as bad or worse than Savannah.
These shots I took several years ago with unfortunately a cheap film camera (scanned low res) but they get the idea across...
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