Cities you liked much more or much less than you expected. (Paris, airports)

[jtur88]

On latest trip, much better than expected:

Odessa, Chisinau, Bishkek, Houston.

Much worse than expected:

Istanbul, Tbilisi

[Jkgourmet]

MUCH MUCH better than we expected:

Cleveland - the single most underrated city I've ever had the pleasure of visiting.
EVERYPLACE we've visited in SE Asia. Including the airports.

Much worse than expected:

Moscow in 1992, ten month after the government fell. I wasn't overly fond of St. Petersburg on that visit either.

Hawaii - visited 4 islands and we were totally underwhelmed.

[Greysholic]

Much worse: London

[BD1978]

Much better:
Lisbon - among the most underrated cities in all of Europe
Istanbul - LOVED the architecture and food

Much worse:
London - kind of unfair because it rained - hard - every single day for 5 days and my wife was sick, but we were underwhelmed
San Juan, PR - dirty and congested and just not nice.

[Greysholic]

Much worse:
London - kind of unfair because it rained - hard - every single day for 5 days and my wife was sick, but we were underwhelmed

This so much. It just won't stop raining it's ridiculous.

[prospectheightsresident]

Much more:
Sydney, San Francisco, Delhi, Mumbai, Petoskey, London

Worse:
Beijing, Istanbul, Detroit (I was expecting bad, but it was that much worse than expected), Oslo (this was largely because my Norwegian fellow flight passengers told me such great things about the city and I felt it didn't live up to the hype), New Orleans, Paris

[jtur88]

In Latin America:

Better: Cancun, Medellin, Belem, Manaus, Asuncion, Mendoza, Vina del Mar.

Worse: Quito, Montevideo, Guatemala City, Sao Paulo, Lima, Veracruz.

[annerk]

I agree with many of the above.

Much better than expected:

Cleveland (although have been visiting regularly for 30 years)
Walla Walla (love the vibe)
Hvar, Croatia (such friendly people and beautiful, unspoiled old city/region)

Places I was disappointed with or wanted to love but couldn't:

Venice
New Orleans (I have always left there depressed)
San Juan (dingy--like old parts of Miami with lower buildings and felt unsafe)
Papaate Tahiti (Crowded and just a hassle to get anywhere or do anything)

Places I expected to enjoy but really loved more than expected:

Boston. (Have been visiting regularly for 40+ years)
London

[southkakkatlantan]

Originally Posted by jtur88

On latest trip, much better than expected:

Odessa, Chisinau, Bishkek, Houston.

Much worse than expected:

Istanbul, Tbilisi

Oh no...please elaborate on Istanbul!

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by southkakkatlantan

Oh no...please elaborate on Istanbul!

Decades ago, I loved Turkey. Istanbul is now the biggest city in Europe, horribly expensive, 7-million cars, and my last visit there had no redeeming qualities at all. Starting with needing USD-0.40 to get into a dirty and poorly furnished bathroom, running all the way to a USD-40 taxi fare to or from the airport to anywhere. People were rude and loud and unkempt, compared to where I had just come from in Central Asia. Rather than go back through there, I opted for a USD-130 flight right to Ataturk airport to connect with my onward flight, instead of my original plan to cross Turkey by bus..