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Believe it or not, Detroit surprised me. I expected to see an overabundance of vacant, rundown areas of town and downtown was quite charming with activity to boot. Greektown took me by surprise.
Also, back in the day, when I first visited Chicago, I was pleasantly surprised at how clean it was as well as the friendliness of the people for such a large city.
Finally, Minneapolis. I had been under the impression that the Twin Cities area was completely flat. Not so. Many hills. Same goes for La Crosse, Wisconsin. Very hilly.
Tucson: I was expecting it to be just another boring medium sized sprawl burg in the desert. It's surprisingly in a very beautiful valley surrounded by scenic mountains and saguaro cacti dotted hills. Downtown seems to be evolving with a new streetcar coming. The city feels eclectic and fairly historic with an old pueblo feel. The U of A campus is also quite attractive. Tucson's a nice city to visit for a weekend.
Tucson is very underrated, sort of hiding in the shadows of Phoenix to the north. Tucson kind of has a "vibe" to it that makes it very offbeat and sort of "unique" compared to corporate Phoenix. Lots of older buildings, lots of small mom-and-pop businesses (which are basically nonexistent in Phoenix), lots of local art, etc. No zoning, either, which makes Tucson look fairly odd on it's own.
When I first moved to Tucson it surprised me too, because I grew up thinking Tucson was some barren wasteland. I actually think Tucson is better than Phoenix in a lot of ways. Too bad Tucson can never live up to its potential.
Thanks for reminding me. I'd forgotten this. What makes it so good is that you don't have to go to fancy places to find good food in Nawlins like you might in NYC or somewhere else. Food in regular places was great. Every hole-in-the-wall, greasy spoon, or street vendor I ate from was absolutely delicious.
Agreed - I've really liked NOLA from the first time I visited 20+ years ago, and the food is a huge component of that. I've never had a bad meal in NOLA and that's after many random stops around town. Too bad it's so damn hot most of the time...and the inevitable sinking. A great place to visit.
Also agreed on Iowa's underrated beauty. There aren't any "major cities" there I guess, but others mentioned it as well...
Negative surprises: San Diego (the most ideal weather in the country cannot overcome this stilted/bland town with a large military presense) and Dallas (same complaints as most on here, I was excited to spend time there after passing the colorful downtown several times at night on trips through the area but it was very disappointing).
Positive: Ft Worth (real history, the best museum town in the South, understated with great food), Memphis (incredible culturally, like NOLA has great food, definitely gritty/dirty but makes up with it via its many charms) and NYC (unlike what everyone's told before visiting, people are very friendly! Literally endless activity! Worst part is the smell, which I think was mentioned above, but the positives heavily outweigh the negatives).
None really, I have always been quite knowledgeable about what cities are like before visiting them and now that I have been to them all numerous times each there just is not much that surprises me.
Some smaller cities have been somewhat surprising. Grand Rapids, Providence, Greenville SC etc.
I think now the cities that surprise me the most are the ones that change the most since the last time I was there. Miami, Denver etc.
I have traveled throughout most of the U.S. Nothing impressed me more than the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul).
The metro area is very clean with highly literate and health conscious population I've ever seen! I enjoy the lakes and the charming town of Stillwater. Public transportation and light rail are excellent to get around plus people are friendly.
It's just a perfect size for me without getting overwhelmed compared to Chicago and NYC.
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Spokane, WA. I had low expectations but found it a clean and lively city with an abundance of park space.
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