Cities that weren't what you expected.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Crawford

In North America, Philly is a bit surprising, given the negativity surrounding the city/metro. It probably has the second best street-level feel in NA.

Yeah, I agree. Philly at street level is second only to NY.

Originally Posted by bobdreamz

St. Louis and I didn't expect it to be so urban. I remember driving on the interstate towards the city and almost felt like I was areas that reminded me of the NYC metro.

Driving in from the east, St. Louis gives that "big city" impression.

...

Better than I expected:
Hamburg
Detroit
Houston
Minneapolis-St. Paul
Providence
Memphis
Columbus
Baton Rouge
Louisville
Mobile


Somewhat underwhelming:
Montreal
Phoenix
Berlin
Savannah
Denver
Nashville
Hartford
Charlotte
Austin

[Docere]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Victoria is one of the few significant cities in Canada I haven't gotten to yet. Of BC cities I've only been to Vancouver and Kelowna. How does Victoria compare to Kelowna? Is it a bigger version of Kelowna or entirely different. I'm also interested to know whether you think Nanaimo will eventually follow in Victoria's footsteps.

Entirely different. Victoria dates back to the 19th century and has urban bones. Kelowna was basically nothing until after WWII and just feels like a regional service center.

[Docere]

I was in Glasgow last summer and that city greatly exceeded its dreary reputation. The Kelvingrove art museum is fantastic.

[YOWflier]

Originally Posted by samne

Athens, Greece

Always hear to skip on your way to the Greek Islands.

Spent a few days in Athens and left with all expectations exceeded.

Not your typical polished european museum city. Its a unique ancient, modern, progressive, cosmopolitan, yet stubborn place.

Very culturally and socially sophisticated with a real sense of place.

Its a vibrant and late night city.

Rough around the edges due to the economy but safe. Crumbling infratructure and way too much grafitti.

I pictured nothing but concrete. But its actually very lush on street kevel.

It cannot be understated how critical a mistake this is when visiting Greece. Athens is an incredible city.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Mountain man

When was the last time you have been to Denver? It's urban infill and low/midrise boom this cycle has been on overdrive, its getting crazy urban... It may not have added as many 400' buildings as Seattle but Denver sure has added a ton of urban development not only to the core but to the entire area surrounding downtown. To me Denver definitely punches above its weight, especially for a metro its size. I have always found Denver to be pretty dang urban and legit

i was in denver two months ago and seattle over weekend, seattle is outpacing denver, even though denver is quite obviously hitting on all cylinders. the tech influence in seattle is absolutely crushing, weird towers going up everywhere in a way unlike denver. its going to be hard for denver to shake feeling like a “big town” without a legit waterfront, although all the development by the station is fixing this.

[LA21st]

Better than expected on first visits

Milwaukee
San Fransisco
Minneapolis
Madison
Philly
San Diego
Boston
Pittsburgh
Chicago
LA

Expected
Las Vegas
Cleveland
Cincinnati
Baltimore
NYC

[Muji]

I was very pleasantly surprised by Richmond, VA last year. I'd never really heard much about it, but there is a lot to love. It has a dense and historic city center with plenty of stunning architecture, and downtown-adjacent neighborhoods that look like they'd fit right in in Baltimore or Philadelphia. Plus, the James River is so much more majestic than most rivers that run through larger American cities.

[YOWflier]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Ottawa surprised me in how beautiful and grand the area along Wellington Street and the Rideau Canal are. The suburbs looked very affluent and the infrastructure top notch. On the flip side I was surprised how dead the downtown was. Once you go beyond Parliament Hill and the museums/galleries there's not much to see or do. Byward Market was ok but one can do it in about an hour. After that I was searching for stuff to see but there wasn't anything interesting.

If by "downtown" you mean the CBD, then this is very typically a busy area during the day, but quiet after hours. I've not been to any CBD that's any different, even in the largest of metropolises.

Pop by the Ottawa forum before your next visit for some tips and suggestions. We've got some great neighborhoods that I'm sensing you didn't get to visit.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Yeah, I agree. Philly at street level is second only to NY.



Driving in from the east, St. Louis gives that "big city" impression.

...

Better than expected:
Detroit
Houston
Minneapolis-St. Paul
Providence
Memphis
Columbus
Baton Rouge
Louisville
Mobile


Somewhat underwhelming:
Tampa
Phoenix
Oklahoma City
Savannah
Denver
Nashville
Hartford
Charlotte
Austin

I was also underwhelmed by Austin. It felt like a college town to me. And not in the Boston big city college town way. More like Ann Arbor or Berkeley.

[Don't Be That Guy]

New Orleans: The wealth divide in that city was something I was prepared for but the level of it was truly shocking in person. The level of decline and poverty in many of the neighborhoods was something to behold when compared to the obvious affluence of others.

Baltimore: Still has an old-timey seedy red-light district. I was not expecting that.

Minneapolis: I was not expecting how pleasant the city was. Wonderful green spaces and well-kept neighborhoods and fantastic bicycle infrastructure by US standards.

San Francisco: I think that I came in with expectations on my first visit and was really surprised by the number of single-family homes, how dead the downtown was at night, and the prolific homeless and junkie populations. The weather and scenery, however, exceeded all expectations.

Dublin: Smaller than I would have expected and far more international in character. The prominence of multi-national firms and workers was very obvious.

Reykjavik: Felt larger than the population and was really more North American than European in character due to all of the sprawl outside of the old city.

Lisbon: Thanks to Anthony Bourdain's take on this city I was expecting a rather drab and rundown hard-scrabble place. There are areas where that exists, but it was so much more beautiful and charming. Really one of my favorite "exceeded expectation" destinations.

Other places that were not what I expected in a positive way include Richmond, VA; Greenville, SC; London; Quebec City; Philadelphia.

[ColDayMan]

Negatively - London. While I "know better," it felt smaller than I realized for being the global iconic city it is. Perhaps when I go back, I'll change my perception since I know what I'm getting and appreciate it for what it is.

Positively - Mexico City and Osaka. Holy sh!t for both. That is all.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by Don't Be That Guy

Reykjavik: Felt larger than the population and was really more North American than European in character due to all of the sprawl outside of the old city.

Oh yeah, good one. Reykjavik reminded me of a Pacific Northwest-esque version of Annapolis. Adorable but small historic core, with a lot of surrounding sprawl. I didn't really have expectations for it beyond that though.

[Obadno]

PLaces I thought I would like but didnt:

New York City (hated it)
Austin (its fine just Meh)
Miami (not a fan)


places I didnt expect to like but did when visiting

Philly
Indianapolis
Salt Lake

Most other places were more or less what I was expecting

I think its more a matter or expectation, People blather on and on about some cities, you go and say "whats the big deal with this place?" and the answer is nothing, its just got good branding like MacBooks. Then other cities you get told are terrible, shitty, boring, the people are mean (looking at Philly) so you go expecting and awful time and then they surprise you. Also I totally understand that most places have their plusses so if you arent in the right area or have the right people show you around it can give you an overly negative impression. A good local advocate that can give you adise on where to go and what to do can make all the difference in how you think of a place.

For example, spending plenty of time in suburban chicago with extended family leaves me with an entirely different (id argue well rounded) expeienceof the city than people that spend a weekend in Lincoln Park with their friends from College.

[AviationGuy]

Part of what happens, but shouldn't, is that people visit a city and see only a small fraction of it, and leave thinking "that's all there is"? A downtown can usually be explored in a day or two, but the rest of the city can take quite a few days to experience. Some people do it right, but many, if not most, do not.

Edit: I should have read Obadno's post before I wrote mine. I think we're saying pretty much the same thing.

[xzmattzx]

I'm glad to see Wilmington mentioned on the first page!

I agree with others that Reykjavik is a great city, but I heard so many things about by the time I went this year, it wasn't not what I expected.

Here's some for me:

Newport, RI: I was surprised at the immense amount of history in the city: The Breakers, all the other Gilded Age mansions, the oldest synagogue in the US, the oldest tavern in the US, the old colonial Rhode Island capitol, one of the oldest baseball stadium grandstands in the US, the Tennis Hall of Fame, the birthplace of tennis in the US, and the Naval War College.

Flagstaff, AZ: I knew it had a lot of Route 66 history. It still had more than I expected. It also turned out to be a pretty cool college town. The scenery around town was more majestic than I expected.

Richmond, VA: I thought it was smaller. It is more like a borderline major-league city. It's also like a Northeast city in the South. There's a ton of nice neighborhoods, and the suburbs are also very pleasant. Lots of history in and around the city, as you can imagine.

I could probably come up with more if I really thought about it, but these three come to mind first.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Don't praise Flagstaff. We've already got an infestation of Californians

[SLO]

Lots of fun city vs city in this thread...


Growing up in California for me San Francisco was 'the city' and LA was another animal altogether.

Now as an adult and having been all over the country, I really expected SF to be bested in urban experience starting with Chicago then NYC and the other east coast cities; Boston, Philly, DC. I was prepared for NY because it is what everyone says it is, its just massive and dense and chaotic, all of the other cities I listed were less than expected. Not that I didn't like them, but not quite the bay area. Chicago's skyline did not disappoint, it is fantastic, but street level urban experience SF is next.

Other cities I have grown to really like for a variety of reasons;

Dallas
Ft Worth
Houston
Atlanta
Miami
Seattle
Cleveland
Minneapolis
SLC

These are only the larger cities....

[Shawn]

Let me get on the Reykjavik wagon: first time, this place blew my mind. For a city of about 120k, it feels like 1.2 million (slight exaggeration, but still).

This is a personal one, but Cork, Ireland packs more genuine Irish punch than Dublin every could. I was not expecting a place which on paper is barely bigger than Manchester, NH to feel so big and important.

On the other side, Singapore let me down quite a bit the first time, and every time I go back (5+ times a year), I am continually underwhelmed. I just don't get the hype. "Clean" and "organized" is how I want to describe my room or my tax returns, but if those are the adjectives of choice for your city's CoC branding initiatives . . . you're doing it wrong. Hell of an airport, though.

[LMich]

I feel like people from larger cities don't get just how large a small city or town can feel when it's the center of a county, region, state, province or even country, especially when it's been decided by the political representatives of these areas that that is where all of the development is going to go and cuts out the competition. I've never been, but that Reykjavik seems so big doesn't surprise me at all. The smaller the country and the more of the population it's central/capital city of the country's population, well, that's a perfect recipe for a big-city small city.

Oh, more of an observation than anything, but for as lacking as LA's city center can be compared to similar-sized metro areas, the suburbs just feel to go on and on forever in a way unlike a lot of other cities in the country. Like, just consistent residential density for miles and miles and miles from the center. I'm used to there being kind of abrupt changes in land-use as city borders, where the suburbs sometimes have completely different zoning classifications, a kind of patchwork.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

No problem, lol! I love hearing about these things. You are confirming what we have heard about Montenegro too. We will try to squeeze it in too.

The best town on the Boka Kotorska is Perast.

Kotor itself is a must-visit but its been heavily Ryanaired.