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I've always thought at least 1 or 2 smaller cities would be a good addition. Most Americans live in urban areas, but many of those urban areas are small and medium sized cities. Cities like Des Moines, Grand Rapids, Bloomington, Chapel Hill/Raleigh, Boise, Birmingham, Chattanooga etc are good representation of smaller city living.
I totally agree and if that's the case - smaller cities - I'd pick:
Pittsburgh (alternate a midsize Ohio city like Cincinnati or Dayton)
Savannah (alternate Charleston)
San Antonio region, including Austin and the Texas Hill Country
Denver or Colorado Springs, CO
Portland, OR
New York without a doubt! It is one of the best places to live in America. The rich culture and diversity will make you fall in love with it instantly. On the 2nd and 3rd, I liked Los Angles and Atlanta - these are beautiful places and offers lovely sightseeing and simple living. 4th is Detroit as it a perfect description of the midwest America. 5th I like New Orleans because it depicts the history and old cultural values.
Also, I have traveled to many other countries and simply fall for the Mega city of Dubai. It's an amazing place to travel and live as it offers great opportunities whether you are looking for a job or you just want to spend some quality time on vacations. It's a must visit place.
New York without a doubt! It is one of the best places to live in America. The rich culture and diversity will make you fall in love with it instantly. On the 2nd and 3rd, I liked Los Angles and Atlanta - these are beautiful places and offers lovely sightseeing and simple living. 4th is Detroit as it a perfect description of the midwest America. 5th I like New Orleans because it depicts the history and old cultural values.
Also, I have traveled to many other countries and simply fall for the Mega city of Dubai. It's an amazing place to travel and live as it offers great opportunities whether you are looking for a job or you just want to spend some quality time on vacations. It's a must visit place.
Most of the Midwest could not be more different from Detroit. No other city has fallen that far. If you wanted a good city to represent the Midwest I would counter with Indianapolis, Columbus, Des Moines. Some smaller cities may also be good options such as Madison Wisconsin, Fort Wayne Indiana, Grand Rapids Michigan, Dayton or Toledo Ohio.
New York without a doubt! It is one of the best places to live in America. The rich culture and diversity will make you fall in love with it instantly. On the 2nd and 3rd, I liked Los Angles and Atlanta - these are beautiful places and offers lovely sightseeing and simple living. 4th is Detroit as it a perfect description of the midwest America. 5th I like New Orleans because it depicts the history and old cultural values.
Also, I have traveled to many other countries and simply fall for the Mega city of Dubai. It's an amazing place to travel and live as it offers great opportunities whether you are looking for a job or you just want to spend some quality time on vacations. It's a must visit place.
Not sure how familiar you are with Detroit, or the Midwest, but this statement doesn't hold truth.
New York without a doubt! It is one of the best places to live in America. The rich culture and diversity will make you fall in love with it instantly. On the 2nd and 3rd, I liked Los Angles and Atlanta - these are beautiful places and offers lovely sightseeing and simple living. 4th is Detroit as it a perfect description of the midwest America. 5th I like New Orleans because it depicts the history and old cultural values.
Also, I have traveled to many other countries and simply fall for the Mega city of Dubai. It's an amazing place to travel and live as it offers great opportunities whether you are looking for a job or you just want to spend some quality time on vacations. It's a must visit place.
It really isn't. The Midwest is a diverse region with many subcultures and terrains. It is generally flatter than the west, Appalachia, and the Northeast, but still geographically varied. Southeast Michigan holds little in common with the farmlands in Nebraska or the northwoods of the UP, MN, and WI.
If you were a tourist from somewhere outside of North America and you wanted to spend a month in the United States touring and visiting the country in an attempt to get the most authentic understanding of what the United States is really like, what cities would be must visit cities for you?
I ask because for better or for worse NYC is not an accurate representation of what the rest of the United States is like, but NYC is a highly visited city by foreigners. So if a tourist wanted to get an accurate representation of what the country is really like, what Five Cities would a tourist have to visit??
The American experience is very, very broad. I think it might be helpful to separate out the "must visit" places according to criteria such as this:
Urbanized City
Sprawling City
Smaller City
Suburban
Rural
I don't think I could limit any of these categories to just one place, so I would offer a short list for each, to give our hypothetical tourist some choices.
Urbanized City -- sure, New York is the first thing that anyone thinks of when they think of this category. And it's an amazing place that most people would be thrilled to visit. But if they want to experience a somewhat more typical example of an Urbanized City, I would suggest Boston or Philadelphia on the East Coast, or San Francisco or Seattle on the West Coast.
Sprawling City -- Atlanta, Houston, or Phoenix. Los Angeles also fits, but it is too unique to be a "representative" sample. (Though, one of L.A.'s smaller satellite cities might be a good substitute.)
Smaller City -- This is probably best handled on a regional basis. Some examples that pop into my mind would be Providence (Northeast), Charleston (Southeast), Nashville (Mid-South), Indianapolis (Midwest), Oklahoma City (blend of South and Midwest), Denver (Mountain West), Salt Lake City (also Mountain West), San Diego (West), or Portland (Pacific Northwest).
Suburban -- I don't have a specific place in mind here. Any sprawling mass of suburbia would do. Our hypothetical tourist should stay in a hotel by the interstate; eat in chain restaurants; shop at malls or big box stores; and be sure to always drive from one place to another.
Rural -- City-dwellers don't tend to think about this, but there are vast differences in rural living from one place to another. The hollows of West Virginia are nothing at all like the wheat fields of Kansas, which in turn are nothing like the deserts of New Mexico. So there's no way I can pick even a representative sample of this. Our hypothetical tourist might be able to experience this simply by driving from one of the above cities to another one, and keeping his eyes and ears open along the way. Bonus points for making this trip via a non-interstate highway.
Wherever our traveler is, I recommend that he pop into an American church each Sunday. Probably be good to try different types each week. Even if he himself is not religious, it would be a good way to help understand the religious underpinnings of our culture.
And finally, if they want to experience the uniquely over-the-top landscape of American mass entertainment, I would suggest Orlando (family-friendly) or Las Vegas (adult).
Good list, but also need an Orlando or Dallas type city in there. Much of America is sprawl and poor architecture, and there are countless US that fall under that category.
NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, DC, Chicago, LA are the best that America has to offer, but all are not the most representative (if that makes sense).
Obviously from a historical standpoint - NYC, Philadelphia, Boston.
But just a general representation of America, you need a bland city in there, I'll go with Dallas.
I think this is a pretty good list because of the metro areas that are connected with these cities. The real representation of the United States lies not in just the cities alone, but the diversity with the suburban areas of the metros. When John Hughes wanted true Americana in his movies, he focused on Suburban Chicago in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club etc.
Metro Los Angeles is a huge spectrum of cities which range from DT LA, to Bel Air, to middle class areas such as OC's Anaheim and every ethnic enclave. Great example of what America is about.
Metro NYC is the same, with different types of living in NJ, Westchester, Connecticut and Long Island.
Dallas and Atlanta are good examples of Southern metros.
I think the metros are the real representatives of the U.S., not just the cities alone.
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