Most people who would answer what cities they love, dislike, and even hate… probably haven’t been to them? I’m underweight cities in Africa but have been all over the world and have strong thoughts on the places I’ve visited. Been to most major world cities several times. And I thought I’d take a stab at tentative, reductionist thoughts describing them.
It’s not enough to go to a place once and develop more than a contingent view. Every city has both positives and negatives, and you may experience more of one or the other on a given visit but that doesn’t mean you have a full sense of the place.
If you don’t like someplace, other than Chicago and Boston, you should probably go back! That way you can discover more about it, and find the things that are good there and that others appreciate.
- Most Overrated U.S. Cities: Denver, Chicago, Portland, Boston
- Most Underrated U.S. Cities: Los Angeles, Falls Church
- Most Underrated World City: Singapore
- Best World City: Tokyo
- Saddest World City: Hong Kong
- Greatest Flawed City: New York
- Cities I Still Need To Visit: Ashgabat, Pyongyang, Tehran, Riyadh
- City I Most Want To Live In: Austin
New York is badly run, and politicians make excuses blaming others for its problems. It’s too expensive to live in too little space. And yet it brings together large numbers of exceptional and ambitious people – a cluster that makes it where you want to be for the greatest shot at success in many industries. (Sure, the Bay Area still for tech, LA for entertainment, and Boston for biotech, but otherwise New York.)
New York City
New York City
Los Angeles isn’t underrated by the people who live there, they pay a lot to live there, in housing costs, taxes and regulatory expense. But is there a better city in the country for ethnic foods? New York is good for some foods, and so is Houston, but LA is rather unmatched.
Although if there’s a city in the U.S. that comes close for ethnic foods, surely it is Falls Church, Virginia – with its Eden Center (go to any Vietnamese restaurant in the interior corridors); Elephant Jumps (still probably the best Thai restaurant in the United States); and cluster of Korean places in nearby Annandale?
Elephant Jumps
Elephant Jumps
Singapore is also underrated because it’s too often derided as sterile, because English (Singlish) is spoken, and because it’s so accessible. But it too is one of the world’s great food cities at both the high and low end, and it’s incredibly well-run. The smartest people are often part of the bureaucracy there. Where else is that true?
Singapore Hawker Center
Tokyo, too, is one of the world’s great food cities. It has New York’s density and excitement. And as an outsider I’m always amazed.
With Takashi Ono at Jiro Roppongi
Sadly, Hong Kong is a place I watch slide from the perch on which I used to hold it as it turns to the mainland and squeezes the freedoms of its own people – jailing dissidents for speaking out about their city’s future with retroactive application of ‘national security’ laws that China committed would never be applied retroactively, and which renege on commitments the country made when Hong Kong was handed over by the British. “Do You hear the people sing,” by the way, is banned in China.
More than thousand HKers sing Les Miserables' 'Do you hear the people sing?' at HK international airport with their calls for free election and democracy. Here is the Ground Zero in the war against authoritarian rule. That's the reason for us never surrender. pic.twitter.com/1MkTp4BkVg
— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 (@joshuawongcf) August 10, 2019
Denver is cold. Traffic is a nightmare. Food is overrated. The airport is too far away – and you’re too far away even when you reach the airport because you have to go through one of the worst security screening setups and take a train to the concourses that may not work and there’s no walking alternative. Have you ever stayed in the soulless Tech Center area? It’s far worse that the suburbs of the DFW Metroplex.
Chicago is colder still, what’s the line, that a bunch of New Yorkers said ‘Gee, I’m enjoying the poverty and crime, but it just isn’t cold enough. Let’s go west?” Meanwhile Boston has all of the downsides of New York and Chicago, but without the food.
On the subject of overrated, I haven’t ever really connected with ‘Major Western European Capitals’ although that’s probably not true of London which has become underrated while Paris and Rome are overrated and Berlin, which was underrated 20 years ago, is now probably properly rated.
Vienna is incredible, but I wouldn’t want to live there though I’ve been attached to it since Richard Linklater’s 1995 classic Before Sunrise where young American Ethan Hawke is traveling Europe and meets Frenchwoman Julie Delpy on a train. They disembark together in Vienna and spend the night talking, walking the city, and falling in love.
At the end of the film they don’t exchange numbers. Instead they plan to meet up again in Europe in six months, and the film ends leaving viewers wondering whether they actually do (a question that’s answered 9 years later in the outstanding Before Sunset).
I’ll suggest that Toronto is one of the most underrated cities in the world even though it is cold and that Vancouver is excellent as well.
Amsterdam is way too crowded in the summer but when weather is less pleasant and tourists clear out it’s fantastic, walkable, and one of the best brunch cities in the world. Surinamese-Chinese food is a thing there, and much better than you’d imagine (or as good as you’d imagine). And fish! Pickled fish! Meanwhile, what frequent flyer doesn’t love stroopwafels? But boy they are so much better when they are freshly made and not packaged.
Austin is where is dream of living… which is why I live here. I moved from DC after 18 years, having ‘done my time.’ We chose Austin became we like it. It was ‘too popular’ a decade ago when we made that decision, and has become more popular since. Things have changed somewhat, with New Yorkers and Californians bringing a reservations culture to restaurants (you no longer just walk into all the top places). Outside of barbecue none of the food is world class – but it’s the world’s best barbecue, and everything else is above average. While we have good North Asian food we’re lacking in Southeast Asian.
People complain about (3) things in Austin.
- High real estate prices because it’s expensive for Texas. Zoning and cumbersome processes within the city limits make it expensive to build, and people want to live there. But it’s not expensive compared to the Northeast or to Northern and Southern California.
- Traffic There are certainly streets that are busy at peak times, but nothing again compared to the Northeast. I moved here and thought the traffic was downright civilized compared to the 495 Beltway at the 270 Spur around 5 p.m. on a Thursday.
- Heat in the summer but we don’t have super cold winters, and Austin is in Central Texas. It’s not humid compared to Houston or for that matter D.C. which is built on a swamp. I’ll take 100 in Austin over 90 in D.C. any day.
No place is perfect, but I chose to move to Austin because I found it the most livable. There are more days of sunshine and plenty of parks and outdoor activities. When I first moved here there weren’t a lot of ‘great’ restaurants outside of barbecue but everything was above average. And there was culture, too, in the form of music (for which it’s known) and experimental theater. I viewed it as being like San Francisco dropped in the middle of Texas with a compact downtime and all of the administrative benefits of not being in California.
When I moved here it seemed like ‘everyone was moving to Austin’ and Jon Stewart did his show from here for a week. He covered ‘the immigration problem’ and sent a reporter to the Austin border. One ‘man on the street interview’ subject remarked that Austin was nothing like it was when they moved here six days ago.
And yet it was still underrated. Now it is probably fairly rated, although problems are starting to show. High housing prices reveal political limits to housing construction that drive up costs, a City Council that meddles in the airport and slows development, and rhetoric that is anti-police yet offers some of the most egregious contracts to police in the nation (yet delivers poorly on service).
So what does it mean to be a great city, for more than just a visit? It varies by the individual and what they are looking for. But some that are important:
- Food matters to many, but what kind of food matters will differ. Austin is a burgeoning food city but we’re poor in Southeast Asian cuisine.
- Weather matters, but are you looking to avoid too cold (like me) or too hot?
- Taxes matter if you have money, regulation matters if you’re in business or looking for a job. Texas is one of the more heavily-regulated states for occupational licensing.
Ironically for an energy-producing state, one of the top issues here in Texas is the electricity grid – which comes down to an increasing demand for energy that isn’t met by sufficient growth in supply (mostly a function of federal rules).
There are of course many cities in the middle! I am torn over what I think of Bangkok, I love much of it but it’s not among my top.
I enjoy my time in the Mideast but the cities aren’t my absolute favorites in the world. Doha is worth about 48 hours in my view, go see the Museum of Islamic Art.
There’s nowhere I fall in love with in Africa, but also nowhere I’ve spent enough time in for me to actually say I hate. Maybe I ‘hate’ Mumbai, for its slums, nowhere was I sadder or angrier than the time I spent there – angry at the policies that keep people in poverty.
One question I left off is where I feel ‘most at home’ and that one was tough for me, I’ve never quite felt like I fit in anywhere. I was torn between Northern Virginia (where I lived longest), Austin (where I’ve chosen to live now), and Sydney (where I’ve probably visited most, for family). Anywhere I go though I always feel a little bit like an outsider. I keep leaving to go other places!
Sydney
How would you answer these questions yourself, and which takes of mine do you think are most right or wrong?
Falls Church: I’ll grant you that, given Haandi Indian Cuisine, probably the finest Indian food outside India.
And Dubai may be overrated, but I can’t get enough of it.
I live in the Los Angeles area and do not think of Los Angeles as underrated. If I had to choose from the cities I have been to, I would choose Bangkok, Mexico City and Guadalajara as underrated. Mexico City and Bangkok are the largest cities in their respective countries. Both have a lot of attractions in and around them. Both have horrible traffic. Both have superb cuisine. The subway system of Mexico City probably gives it a lead on getting around but Bangkok isn’t that bad if you know how to use all of the different modes of getting around. I have stayed in Bangkok much more than Mexico City but I would guess that both have good neighborhoods to live in that aren’t too expensive. Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico. It has great food but it is much more laid back than Mexico City. I think I could enjoy living there.
Austin, that suburb of California is OK with its legendary annual Hill Country Mountain Cedar Sneeze Festival just ain’t on my places to live list. I hear that many refugees from The Failed State move there and regret the decision. I’m not sure that Los Angeles is underrated – most recognize its smog, crime and tent cities as world class.
I don’t know how you can say Denver is cold. Denver has 40-something days every year above 90 degrees. It gets over 300 days of sunshine. I would say Denver’s charm is fading. Denver was the place to be for millennials in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Now, the city is more or less maxed out. It can’t grow to the west because of the mountains and nobody seems to find expanding east toward Kansas and the high plains an attractive proposition. I believe Colorado Springs is actually set to overcome Denver’s population within a decade or so.
Toronto is hugely overrated. Actually, with the exception of Quebec City, most of the Canadian big cities are pretty sterile and just not interesting.
I actually think Orlando is somewhat unappreciated. If you look past the theme parks, you have an airport with a huge number of nonstop flights even if MCO is awful. There are some good museums and a fair number of restaurants at every price. And within 2 or 2 1/2 hours drive are a lot great beaches and oceanside cities.
Paris is hugely overrated. Once you get past the museums, the buildings aren’t even that old from a European standpoint. Most of what we associate with Paris was built in the second half of the 19th century.
London’s appeal has gone down because in the last 10 or 15 years the zoning has been eased to allow all the towers and skyscrapers. This has ruined the skyline and the charm of what made London, well, London.
Vienna and Stockholm are certainly among the better European capital cities. Luxeumbourg is probably the most ignored. Great local wine scene and a lot of Michelin-stared restaurants.
Good list and nice analysis. I agree on Singapore. Went there 5 days in February and am planning to take my wife there next February (after an Asian cruise).
I live in Charlotte but the US city I’ve lived in that I felt most “at home” was Plano, TX (suburb of Dallas). Yes it gets hot and doesn’t have the variety of ethnic food that Houston has or the vibe of San Antonio but the energy and buzz in the Metroplex is amazing.
The international city I keep going back to is Reykjavik (and I have been to 5 continents so traveled quite a bit). Iceland has become so popular it is likely in the “overrated” category by many but I just feel great there and always look forward to the next visit. I like your inclusion of Sydney also. The 2 week trip my wife and I took many years ago, pre kids, to Sydney and the north island of New Zealand was one of the best we have ever taken. I can certainly understand people loving either Sydney or Auckland. Returning to Australia and visiting different areas (have also been to Adelaide) is definitely in my future plans.
Spot-on. Thank you for highlighting the real world costs of regulation. Worry about Austin if/when heat gets worse.
Oh yeah, I think Singapore is probably the most amazing city in the world. Though it’s just terribly expensive. Kuala Lumpur is a lot cheaper and very similar.
Honolulu should be added to the list of most overrated cities. Too many towers, too much concrete, too much traffic, and completely unaffordable.
@ Joseph — If/when? Umm, it already has gotten MUCH worse. What are we supposed to wait for, the whole earth to go up in flames? It doesnt take a genuius to see that if you light something on fire (eg, cars, power plants), they burn.
FC is great but I am not sure about the methodology being fair. While of course it is an independent jurisdiction, you’re basically cherry picking a suburb of DC, allowing you to cast aside the rest of DC. I am sure one could pick a great neighborhood or suburb in the cities you do not like as well! So I am not sure that the analytical rigor is here in this (completely personal, qualitative) exercise (obviously being a bit tongue in cheek here hehe).
Also, for “best” – I still take London over Tokyo all day. And I love Tokyo.
What are ethnic foods? Any foods not American such as French or Italian? Or regional foods such as BBQ or Creole?
London remains one of the top overrated city, but Barcelona getting increasingly so with absurd hotel rates. Dubai is also overrated for me, but I think they have a strong support by people who also like visiting theme parks and who thinks ‘we need to pay for attractions to have fun’.
Kuala Lumpur has been underrated for a long time, it has a lot of benefits you mentioned about Singapore, with a fraction of the prices (poorman’s Singapore).
I live in Falls Church. The Asian cuisine is unbelievable and even with years of work, I have only tried a small sample of what’s to offer. I would add Duangrats as a Thai restaurant that rivals Elephant Jumps. They just converted their upstairs to a street food popup that does dim sum as well.
I really enjoyed Budapest for a larger European city– great food, surprising wine, and cheaper than western locales. Lots of people rave about these things though, so maybe it is properly rated.
In Italy, completely underrated is Alba, right next Barolo and Barbaresco. Granted, must be a wine drinker.
Texas chose NOT to follow Federal rules and runs its own deregulated grid instead, starting with the passage of Senate Bill 373 in 1995, followed by Senate Bill 7 in 1999 and the granting of independence to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) in 2002.
You get to sleep in the deregulated bed you made for yourselves.
Expanding my list.
If you can afford to live there and don’t mind the politics then San Francisco still has the most beautiful setting. I hate the politics. I hate the cost of living. But the museums are great, there are so many good restaurants, and the nearby wine regions are great. But, at the end of the day, it’s California.
Durango and Grand Junction in Colorado are off the map, relatively speaking. Although the cost of living in Colorado is getting like California.
Greenville, South Carolina is pretty impressive. And the airport is great.
Puerto Vallarta in Mexico is nice and safe. Airport has lots of flights. Good restaurants. And relatively cheap.
Cleveland, Ohio gets a bad reputation. And it has the same awful winter weather as Chicago, Buffalo, Detroit or Toronto but maybe with a little more snow. But Cleveland is cheap, there are great some museums, the airport has some decent flights, and you have Lake Erie right there. Detroit and Pittsburgh are both within driving distance. You can easily get up to the Finger Lakes too.
Thanks, Gary, my views align pretty closely to yours. Starting with Austin, I’ve been here since 1985, and for the natives and near-natives like myself, I think that the top three complaints are Traffic, Crime & Homelessness, and Property Taxes. Heat is less of an issue as we’ve lived in it for decades, and Real Estate prices are less of an issue as we already have homes. The million+ newcomers brought Crime & Homelessness (including a horrible Soros-DA), Traffic, and vastly higher Property Taxes.
Moving on to the United States cities on your list, it’s tough to relax and vacation in cities where crime (some violent) occurs in “nice areas” and in broad daylight. This includes Portland, San Francisco, Oakland, LA, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, St Louis, Baltimore, Philadelphia, DC, Newark, and New York (notably all Blue Cities). Interestingly enough, I did not list Boston as I don’t think it’s that bad yet.
As for the International Cities, the same criteria apply (tough to relax and vacation in cities where crime occurs in “nice areas” and in broad daylight). This rules out portions of Africa, Central and South America, the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia (along with a few countries on its borders). Each of these areas have a number of exceptions of course.
I’m agreed with you that my two favorite Cities on the Planet include Singapore and Tokyo. I’ve just completed my 18th trip to Singapore, and have been to Tokyo over a dozen times. Nice call placing Hong Kong on the “sad list”, it would have joined the other two in a happier time.
It’s an interesting dialogue for sure.
Completely disagree with Chicago. It is THE American city. Amazing art, great and livable neighborhoods, decent public transportation, wonderful diversity. It really is fantastic. Yes it gets cold in the winter, but whatever. In summer it absolutely SHINES.
Austin – terrible traffic. Horrid summer weather. In Texas I way prefer Houston. Yes the traffic is bad and yes it’s hot, but the diversity, art scene, and food scene is tough to beat. Somebody up thread said something about the “metroplex” / Dallas being amazing. It’s not. It’s flat as a pancake, soulless, hot as hell, and many people dumb as dirt. NO.
Prefer Abu Dhabi for living to Dubai, but Dubai is fun to visit and truly a world melting pot.
@Jake – the problems with electricity in Texas are fundamentally that there isn’t enough electricity to meet demand. Regulation doesn’t fix that. California has shortages, too! The way to fix the problem is more climate-friendly power generation. We should do nuclear. The constraints there are predominantly federal.
@Maverik – I would agree about Kuala Lumpur, but even more so the outskirts of the city, food in PJ is incredible. London is very much not overrated. Its cultural importance remains remarkable and it’s a great food city. Barcelona is too.
Hard disagree on Singapore. The city is very boring, little culture, expensive, and the hawker stands are overrated. Much better food exists just across the border in Malaysia and across the straits in Indonesia. If you’ve never been 48 hours is enough and then you needn’t ever return.
@ Gene. ALL weather is cyclical . . . it is today just as it was thousands of years ago and thousands to come. What’s not cyclical? Time, and it’s time to quit reacting to the climate change BS.
BTW, I’ve lived in Travis County (Austin) since 1977 and we accept the changes: some years dry spells, some years floods; some years ice storms/snow, some years 90 days of over 100 degrees. Texans are able to adapt and handle it. What we don’t accept is Washington DC telling us how to live our lives.
@ Gary. The fix is U-235. Austin kowtowed to 1970’s environmental activists and paid dearly to get out of STNP.
Dude, wonderful post, but your proofreader must have been in bed.
Chicago is NOT overrated. From the Loop to the lakefront to neighborhoods, Chicago is beautiful and clean.
Dirtiest city streets: Philadelphia
More boring city: Houston x10²³
Excessive self-indulgent: Miami
Too hot for six months: Phoenix (and we have a vacation home in N. Scottsdale)
Worst street maintenance: Atlanta
Nothing to do: Salt Lake City
Underrated cities: Portland, ME. Portsmouth, NH. Milwaukee, WI. MSP, MN. Annapolis, MD. San Diego, CA. Pittsburgh, PA. Whitefish, MT. Durango, CO. Duluth, MN. Alexandria, VA.
I am not sure if Tokyo is Best World City. The subway is overcrowded. Food is expensive, not tasty. Plenty other cities are better than Tokyo.
Interesting and we all have our judgement values and have to balance them off with what we want and can afford. . (Texas incidentally refuses to join the national power grids, hence its electricity problems.). It is a long time ago but I found the kabob from street vendors in Tehran great, also the local yogurts and flat bread. Not recommending moving there just because of the food, though!
San Diego is still one of my favorites, the weather is fantastic year round. Food is great. Just wish it wasn’t so damn expensive.
London is my favorite world city. The food scene, for me, is hard to beat. Riga, Latvia is great, highly recommend going if you haven’t been yet.
Gary, Austin needs to be walled off. The homeless are on par with San Fran and is crawling with libs from CA.
I was in Vienna for the first time last month, and my initial reaction was: I want to move here. After a few days I realized that if I were to move there, I would be immobilized by the richness of the city. It would be like subsisting on a diet of nothing but desserts for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Overwhelming to the senses.
In terms of Africa, one could say Cape Town.
T,
It’s my first time hearing food in Tokyo expensive in a decade, the last time was when the person told me the same based on the story of her dad who went there in 90s, and definitely not keeping track of prices and exchange rates.
If you say food in Tokyo expensive, where else in G7 is cheaper? Nowadays, I find even Mexican restaurants prices are getting close or even surpass.
I find Toei lines a lot less crowded than Tokyo Metro (formerly Eidan) lines, I always manage to find an available seat most time of the day.
I find Singapore restaurants uncomfortable because the air conditioning is too cold .
Japan likely has the tastiest food , but Kobe or Kyoto are less expensive than overpriced Tokyo .
How is Portland overrated? The national media has drilled into Americans’ brains that the city is a hellhole filled with homeless people. Downtown and the Pearl District have dealt with a lot of issues over the past few years that have resulted in some businesses closing, but it is still one of my favorite cities. The food scene, climate, and transportation city make it a place I never get tired of exploring. And, yeah, there are homeless encampments in parts of the city. In Tampa (and the rest of the Florida), we don’t have encampments. Instead, we have homeless people sleeping on sidewalks and park benches.
I also find it interesting that you think Denver is overrated because of the cold, traffic, airport, and food, yet say Austin is the city you most want to live in in spite of the heat, traffic, and lack of a food scene (except for barbecue). While Denver’s airport is far out of the city, the train to/from Union Station makes the journey into the city no more difficult than it is in most other cities. I agree that the security set up is awkward, at best, but the West security check point that opened in late 2023 had made it something of a breeze for those with PreCheck and Clear during my visits this year. Also, I know there have been issues with the trains connecting the concourses to the main terminal and agree it was short-sighted not to create a walking option, but in at least 120 flights out of that airport since it opened in 1995, I’ve never been impacted by train issues.
And because it would be hypocritical to criticize your choices without sharing mine…
Most Overrated U.S. Cities: Houston, San Antonio, Atlanta, Orlando
Most Underrated U.S. Cities: San José, San Diego, Portland
Most Underrated World City: Berlin
Best World City: Madrid
Saddest World City: Buenos Aires
Greatest Flawed City: San Francisco
Cities I Still Need To Visit: Cape Town, New Delhi, Taipei, Bangkok
City I Most Want To Live In: Seattle (US), Melbourne (World)
I generally enjoy all types of museums, and while Doha’s was interesting, I don’t recall any work of art that was less than several hundred years old. Why? As for dining, any BBQ in or near Austin, ethnic in L.A., high end in San Francisco, German specialties and beer in Munich and seafood in Charleston. Cheap eats are great in Thailand and Vietnam. I have NO interest in Tehran, and as a Jew, wouldn’t go there on a bet.
Southern California has been home for 50 years and will continue to be home.
Yes there are all the problems everyone lists but it seems these are listed by people who do not live here.
We live in a suburb 40 miles south of Los Angeles, we do have our issues but wouldn’t live anywhere else.
Great weather year round. My winter clothes are only for November trips to Paris.
Speaking of Paris, all time beautiful city for us, go there 2-3 times a year. Would like to live there but only couple of months at a time.
Have been to major cities on 6 continents but would not live anywhere else but where we do now.
The best Thai restaurant in Northern Virginia is Esaan–the most authentic Thai food in the area.
The last couple of times I have been to Elephant, one time with an out of town guest, it was entirely underwhelming. Service was slow, and food average. Their standards seem to be slipping a bit.
Gary, why do you say that you wouldn’t want to live in Vienna?
I enjoyed this article and readers comments. Obviously a VERY subjective topic.
As an ex-cruise ship employee, I’ve been to 75 countries and 320 cities (many of them as much as 50 times) and the place that checks all the boxes for me is Spain:
-very affordable
-friendly people*(*except bureaucrats),
-excellent tasty food
-nice weather
-fantastic transportation systems,
and a pretty doable residency visa.
Madrid, Barcelona, València, Málaga, Marbella – you name it – all amazing cities.
Asheville,NC. Wilmington,NC and other NC cities have a better climate, better food and better quality of life and affordability than Austin. We even have great brisket BBQ
Nuclear isn’t the solution to anyone’s problem. It’s so expensive to build, that even running 24×7, it’s not very price competitive. The only good thing is that they are down for a couple of month every 18 months for refueling, so don’t add to grid congestion in spring and fall when there is minimal need for heating or cooling (except for early or late cold or hot weather excursions). While batteries might help absorb unusable overnight production, that just makes the overpriced power even more overpriced. Data centers could be a good match for nuclear power in everything but price, as they keep consuming lots of power overnight.
Texas can’t build it’s way out of electrical shortages. It’s going to have to work on the demand side for 5-10 years, perhaps keeping Elon from building his AI training facility in Texas, among other new users. The new chip manufacturing plans in Texas also won’t help. But, this isn’t a uniquely Texas problem, Virginia it’s starting to be concerned. A coal power plant in West Virginia has had it’s retirement postponed because of the growth of data centers and AI in Virginia.
Bringing this back to travel and home, just about everywhere, we will be living in interesting times in regards to electricity. That’s hard for residents and business owners alike. Electrification adds one more concern to supply issues.
Anybody who thinks Tokyo is expensive isn’t earning their salary in US Dollars, Euros, or Sterling.
A little surprised to see no mention of Scandinavia. Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki are all beautiful, clean, walkable cities with incredible restaurants.
And their citizens are repeatedly cited as the happiest people in the world.
Madrid is very underrated in my opinion. It’s a beautiful modern and clean city with great old world charm. Almost like a secret in Europe where everyone flocks to London or Paris — both highly overrated and stupidly expensive.
Miami is high overrated. It’s expensive just to be expensive, beyond crowded, has pathetic public transportation, has some of the worst traffic anywhere, and a population that has a 30-second memory.
Barcelona is another city that is far overrated. It’s way too dirty and just unkept. The food scene is good, but everything is way over priced.
Wow, I thought I liked you.
Chicago in the summer is the most underrated major U.S. city in the country. Blew me away. No other even comes close and I’ve lived in many US/Canadian cities.
3 most overrated:
1. Denver. Soon after moving there, I realized it was a terrible mistake. Awful city management, dirty, run down, miserable traffic/street planning, overpopulated and snobbery abounds. I lived there for a year and could not wait to leave.
2. San Francisco. I lived there for five years. It’s filthy, expensive and mismanaged with needles, bodily fluids and drug users everywhere in the open. That was before the pandemic, I can’t even imagine now.
3. Austin. I’m sick of hearing great Austin is. It once was great, but it exploded in population in the past 15 yrs and lost all its charm. Now it’s just another big city in Texas with attitude to match. Don’t bother.
Most underrated U.S. cities:
Small: Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Large: Chicago, Illinois (Sorry NY)
Most Overrated U.S. Cities: Austin, Nashville, Miami, Charleston SC
Most Underrated U.S. Cities: Chicago, Louisville, Washington, DC
Most Underrated World City: Madrid
Best World City: London
Saddest World City: Buenos Aires (somebody said this earlier, I still LOVE Buenos Aires. There’s nothing like it).
Greatest Flawed City: San Francisco, but still beautiful.
Cities I Still Need To Visit: Copenhagen, Stockholm, Krakow
City I Most Want To Live In: Rio de Janeiro (during their summer) and Buenos Aires (during their summer)
Smaller cities worth visiting: A Coruna, Spain (a totally hidden gem); Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Basically all Spain as others have mentioned; Kansas City, MO;
Toronto and Chicago are hot in the summer. Sure they are cold in the winter, but I would rather be in the cold than sweating like a pig in a blanket when in shorts and t-shirt in the shade outside. And Falls Church is also pretty miserable in the summer and not better than Toronto and Chicago in that regard.
Having lived in a few major national capitals and financial centers of the world — across a few continents at that — and a mix of large US cities and also some smaller places. I have also worked in places where I was a regular commuter but was thankful to be there no more than a day or two a week if I could help it. All I can say is that I prefer places where there is seasonal snow, the environment isn’t polluted like crazy, the people don’t suffer awful road traffic, and the chances of encountering belligerents with guns or xenophobic attitudes is on the low side. But then I also have to factor in wanting to be near an airport with flights that work for me and then there are the trade-offs to make that fly.
@bigtee – Haandi? Really? Average US Indian food at best.
I have lived with CPH and ARN as home airports. There are things I really appreciate about Copenhagen and Stockholm, but the food scene in Scandinavia just doesn’t work for me. I much prefer the dining stuff in NYC, LA, DC and Chicago than the dining stuff in Scandinavia.
Scandinavians tend to keep to themselves or to narrow circles when having complaints. I suspect that may be somewhat a factor in why they are so often reported as being “happy”. Of course it also more than helps a bit that most of the people in such countries don’t need to worry so extensively about health care costs, ending up homeless, school costs, child care costs, being subject to police brutality or being shot by others.
In the USA:
Beaufort, North Carolina or Savannah, Georgia not Charleston, South Carolina
Sarasota, Florida not Naples, Florida or Tampa, Florida
Boise, Idaho not Denver, Colorado or Portland, Oregon
Milwaukee, Wisconsin or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania not Chicago, Illinois
In Europe:
York or Durham, England not London
Strasbourg or Reims not Paris
The problem with Austin for me would be Cedar Fever. I would not be able to enjoy the outdoors in winter due to big clouds of yellow pollen blowing off the Juniper trees. Achoo.
Gary, have you ever been to Cape Town? First visited in 1986 and fell in love. Lived there for a year in the early 2000’s and fell in love again. Been traveling back nearly every year since. Grew up in Seattle so I need to see a mountain and the ocean. Cape Town adds amazing vineyards to the mix. Also, it has a low cost of living, temperate climate, and (nearly) everyone speaks English, which helps this language-deficient traveler!
@John H: Well, I worked in Nuclear Operations in a Nuclear Power Plant, and I flat disagree with two of your statements: 1) You state that “It’s so expensive to build, that even running 24×7, it’s not very price competitive”. This is absolutely untrue on multiple levels. Relative to the PWR Designs of the 1970’s, the Left was protesting Nuclear every way that they could, and they finally found that quintupling the cost (1/2 an order of magnitude) would kill it by making it uneconomical. So, they added so many environmental impact, regulatory, inspection, and licensing requirements that they got the outcome that they wanted. This didn’t fundamentally change the underlying economics, just reversing the Left’s ridiculous agenda, and standardizing on a Reactor Design would make it highly economical. Another positive development is that the new Small Modular Reactors (SMR’s) will really shine on the the cost/benefit curve, again assuming a Federally-Approved standardized Reactor Design. 2) “They are down for a couple of months every 18 months for refueling”… No once again, refueling is typically on the order of 6-7 weeks. The timeframes that you are stating as true for all cases do occasionally happen, but only intermittently due to other maintenance activity planned during the refueling cycle (it’s not refueling, and it’s rarely “several months”). If you want Jigawatts of highly-reliable carbon-free power, Nuclear is the only way to achieve it.
Chicago overrated is quite criminal.
It has the safest pockets of any city in the US (Roscoe Village, Lincoln Park), is a place where you can walk to a ballpark and lake (!!!!) and the main shopping district, has a river, and incredible architecture.
The crime rates online are not at all indicative. It’s the most segregated city in the US and must be viewed thru that lens.