Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I will name a few cities in which I were surprisingly impressed with and some in which I was suprisingly unimpressed:
cities which exceeded expectations:
Los Angeles,--so many people down it all the time, saying that it is not a real city blah, blah, blah. But for me when I first visited it, I fell in love with it. I loved its layout. I loved the mini hills all throughout the city. I loved the set up. I loved the fact that it wasn't like a lot of east coast cities. That is probably why I decided to live there for a while and I am planning on moving back.
Las Vegas,--Didn't think much of it til I saw it and was thoroughly impressed with all the highrises. It looked like a much larger city than expected.
Telluride and Aspen Colorado. Thought it would be an overrated place,k but was pleasantly surprised at how scenic and beautiful of a place it was. Some of those ski towns in Colorado are really a site to behold.
Omaha--You hear such negativity about the midwest, but I actually enjoyed my visit there. Nice mid size city and is really making strides to get bigger.
Providence RI--At the time I didn't know much about it, this was many years ago, but I actually found it very artsy, nice architecture, downtown, overall vibe was cool.
Albany NY--Didn't hear much about it and wasn't expecting much. I thought it was a really cool place. Many parts of it look like a small slice of NYC. The outer cities like Troy were also very cool.
cities that I expected to like but thoroughly disliked:
Cleveland,--Found it very depressing, ghetto, dumpy and boring.
Baltimore--Just wasn't that impressed with it in any way shape or form.
Jacksonville Florida--Most boring big city I had been in to date. No real downtown. Too sprawly.
Niagara falls NY--Although I lived in Buffalo for years, before I ever seen Niagara falls I was expecting so much more. What a pathetic, depressing sad little place.
Norfolk Virginia--Was expecting more I guess. Just seemed really boring. For a mid size city, their downtown was very uninspiring. And outside of the downtown with the exception of a few areas I found it very boring and dirty.
Virginia Beach VA--Although I lived there for a short stint. It was a very sprawly boring beach town. Didn't like the lack of beach space due to all of those ugly hotels. Had some cool areas to the place but was not very impressed overall.
I thought I'd be impressed with atlanta but I wasn't. Maybe my friend I went to visit there had an imopact on me because he always complains about atl. I was impressed with savannah ga, which I never even thought of before. Unimpressed with LA,and impressed with Philly
Without exception, each and every one of my first time visitors has loved Miami Beach. Miami gets way too much hating here at City-Data.
Cities that exceeded my expectations:
Madison, WI (total surprise how much I liked it)
Iowa City, IA (ditto)
Savannah, GA (ditto)
Pittsburgh, PA
Minneapolis, MN
Ottawa, ON
Quebec, QC
Cities that met my expectations
New York, NY
Chicago, IL
Washington,D.C
Austin, TX (pumped up but met my expectation)
San Antonio, TX
Cities that did not meet my expectations
Boston (expectations were really high and it was way too pumped up to me)
Memphis, TN
Houston, TX
Dallas, TX
San Diego, CA (I really expected a lot more. I found it pretty vanilla)
Charleston, SC (seems too fake...like Savannah a lot more)
That biggest "expectation breaker" that I have ever had was when I visited LA.
I had always had this idea in my mind "Oh, it's LA!" and that it was this gorgeous city that was really shiny and clean, full of movie stars, MTV-ish, and with perfect weather all the time.
The perfect weather thing was true. It was sunny and 70 all the time.
But other than that I was really surprised. The city was a lot grimier and dirtier than I had thought. And the freeways were in awful shape (But I guess that is because millions of people use them each day). Also, I hadn't realized how bad the smog problem was there. Whenever you looked west from the east suburbs there was a layer on brown that encased the city...gross!
And another thing was their downtown. I knew that downtown LA was rather small for a city of that size. But I didn't think it was THAT small. In all honesty it reminded me of downtown Kansas City, only taller. Oh, and I didn't see any celebrities.
Anyway, I didn't necessarily not like LA after that. Seeing how it wasn't the "perfect" city as I had first thought made the entire area seem more "real" and "down to earth." If that makes any sense.
Last edited by JPits312; 03-25-2010 at 02:37 PM..
Reason: Spelling
Impressed with:
Phoenix- Expected it to be pretty similar to Vegas but without the gambling influence, but it had a much more authentic Southwest feel, prettier scenery (gorgeous mountains and cool cactus), and really good restaurants. Most surprisingly, there seemed to be a lot of locally grown food, which I didn't realize the AZ climate could support.
Not impressed with:
Denver- Expected the Rocky Mountains to be absolutely magnificent and larger than life. Instead, Denver was surrounded by flat plains to the east, and mountains to the west that looked no bigger or more impressive than any of the multitude of mountain ranges in SoCal. Also, maybe just because it was the middle of summer, but the area looked almost as brown and smoggy as LA.
Just thought about another one, minneapolis exceeded my expectaions. It was a lot more lively than I thought it would be. I don't like San Antonio. I go there often to visit my cousins and neice and didn't care for the vibe there. it wasn't bad but it wasn't as live as I like either. nyc exceeded my expectations and is now my #1 city! Enjoyed the vibe, the free reggae concert in central park, street vendors, bars and restaurants. So alive, this city! Nashville was pretty cool and I never cared to visit. I went there on a business trip and found it enjoyabe and a desireable place to live. I guess many underrated cities can surprise you because many of the hyped ones didn't, except nyc, which backs up their talk. I can't wait to visit hawaii, florida, san fran, chicago, and seattle!
Seattle: This city has one of the most active downtowns in the entire nation and I had no idea until I visited for the first time. It also has some really vibrant and unique neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, Fremont, and Ballard. I also didn't realize how much of a food city Seattle is.
New Orleans: I had heard great things about this place, but actually visiting for the first time blew me away. The history, culture, and cuisine of New Orleans is so incredibly unique, there really is no other place like it. The entire city has a slightly worn out look to it, but it's an "elegant" worn look, if that makes sense; it gives the city a certain aura that's hard to put into words. You really have to visit for yourself.
Las Vegas: I don't gamble much at all, but I still have a blast in Vegas. I know, I know, it's fake, manufactured, and everything an urban lover should despise, but it's such a great time! I was just amazed at how much fun walking from one hotel to another could be. Now I'd never in a million years want to live in Vegas. The tourist experience differs from the local experience more so in Vegas than in probably any other city IMO.
Did not meet my expectations:
Phoenix: I knew it wasn't going to be New York, but my god, I wasn't expecting an entire city of literally nothing but auto-dependent suburbs. I mean, LA is a car city, but even it has walkable areas like Hollywood, West Hollywood, Silverlake, Venice, etc. Phoenix doesn't really have anything like that. Tempe is really only "walkable" along 4-5 blocks of Mill Avenue and downtown Scottsdale was a letdown after all the hype I'd heard about it.
Philly : Love the people, love the city, and love the history, but I think the city lacks something something that NYC has.
NYC : I love every single thing about this city. I even like the fact that you have to be on GS16 to live like a human being or live a similar life in NYC like with GS4 in GA. I love the culture, arts, and everyone who is pulled by NYC. There's about 30% of people who lives there because it's NYC and there are about 20% of the people who live there because they're borned there, and 40% of the people that's there because it's convenient, and 10% of the people that will give up everything to live there because they know they NEED to live there, and I guess I fit into that last 10%.
L.A. : Superficial, and vein. I already am more vein than the models, I don't need it. That and I don't want to live somewhere that will eventually fall of US.
New Orleans: bad government, bad preventions, super crimes and not worth it
ATL: Not a walking city, and it's not like Colorado where you have a real mtn. Most of the Mtn's in ATL is a big hill. Can't walk around in ATL because there is about 3 blocks of the city then nothing, then 3 blocks, then nothing. Plus the crime is bad. It's humid in the summer, you get about a week of Spring and a week of Fall, and the flaw is that it's not like AL where you run into really good people. Instead, you run into NY, NJ rejects that migrated down because they can't make it upstate.
AL: Everything is very laid back, cheap and friendly. It's good for the first few years, but you want more, if you're not married and don't have kids. Plus the salary level is low. Also Birmingham is pretty bad in crime.
Colorado: Stunning mtns, very liberal, and interesting. cost of living isn't bad. Denver isn't bad but if you want to live in veil, it's expensive on the mtn, and it's way too hippy for me. Architecture is very stupid for the area. But overall, safe, and nice if you like the cold and the snow
TN: Nice place, sorta lost in the geography. People are nice, food is good, but I wouldn't live there. It's about 4 grade down from GA, unless you're a diehard TN fan, but come on, football is football, not life.
SC: it's the NC jr and it's not as inspiring.
NC:
VA: You'll think you died and went to heaven. If you don't believe in god, you'll believe it when you're there, especially the hwy 81. This is only if you like big open spaces, cows, picturesque country site.
DC: I'll find out.
FL: Humid, flat and lame with love bugs that will eat up your car paints. Beaches are crowded and too many people die everyday, resulting from old age. you're not a citizen if you don't speak spanish in Miami.
Seattle: I see that it's got one of the highest suicide rates in the country. I wonder why.
well, there are few others that I rather not mention, because it's something I want to keep it to myself, but I guess if I had the choice, I would live in those two cities and I've been to basically all of East Coast.
I tried hard to live in NC, but they don't pay well and if you decide to live there, you should prepare to learn the ways of living life and not think about money.
But that's just my opinion.
Last edited by Plokivos; 03-27-2010 at 06:48 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
