Let’s discuss overrated cities!

Melbourne, San Francisco, Berlin, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro, Copenhagen, Stockholm, London

Paris: I always wanted to visit, but my first time there, I could only compare it unfavorably to London. IMO, London is cleaner, friendlier, has more sites, better museums, restaurants, and nightlife. Rome and Athens as well, though I haven't been to Athens in 10+ years, since before the Greek economy went to shit.

I'm originally from Philly, that city has been trying to overrate itself since before I was born. The PR hasn't worked afaik, though.

Seattle is like Uncle Cracker's Disney Land invaded by entitled losers. And all they'll do is is whine and starve to death when the tsunami hits and the ash covers them.

Denver? Hideous. California wannabe after being a Texas wannabe between 1980 and 2000, without the grace of the ocean or access to Tahoe, the desert or the border. I've lived there. Constant growth, transients, fake liberalism (meaning pot), and the dullest guppies (they call themselves that still) in the hemisphere outside Brooklyn.

Atlanta. God. Where does one start? No. There's nothing a value there except weekend parties and we can have those anywhere that's not full of its own overcooked beans.

Boston. Is it overrated? Not by anyone I know who's lived there except my grandmother, but she spent her summers on Cape Cod and in Maine.

Nashville, Memphis. Please. Pop country in the former, faux blewses in the latter, and that fake border-South smile that lets you know they're stealing you're wallet after you fuck them.

Portland, OR. Seattle without a different threat of volcanoes and earthquakes.

Toronto. There's no excuse for pretending you're not in Canada when they all sound like that.

Vancouver. Creepy loser English dolts and their roach-like user spouses, needles on the beaches and Chinese spies. I do love the climate but that's all passing.

R1 gives SO much. I'm glad people are still using gazetteers. It makes them look like a homebound Fodor.

Agree about Austin. CA real estate prices on their little bungalows. The McMansions have their dark and outdated Tuscan kitchens. Terrible traffic and crime and lots of homeless.

DC Atlanta Seattle All of Texas

I’d agree with Paris. It was unique - now it’s just a dirty, overcrowded, mean city with some nice buildings. Supposedly it’s gotten super expensive - even more so than other cities - yet it seems it’s overrun with poor immigrants.

San Francisco. It used to be a fun visit

Paris rested on its laurels, the other great cities of Europe caught up and then surpassed it. It doesn't help that Parisians have a reputation for snotty-ness even among the French, however justified.

I never got the big to-do about Australian cities. They're certainly okay, but outside of a few districts in Sydney and Melbourne they put the "nothing" in "nothing special." And their suburban sprawl is far uglier than the North American counterpart.

I was not in love with London, which sort of surprised me. It seemed incoherent and disturbingly closed-off. The National Gallery was wonderful but the Tate Modern was a joke. And there was a sense of general ill-nature among the populace that I expected but never experienced in Paris.

I don't know if LA is overrated but it seems unpleasantly daunting. It's full of wonderful places but everything is so fucking far away from every other thing. I can't stand driving in cities. The whole point of cities should be that you don't have to drive.

San Francisco. Miami. DC.

DC is overrated, traffic is horrible. Austin is nice, but is becoming like another CA-style city.

Nashville surprisingly was not overrated, though it may be soon. New Orleans also isn't overrated.

Austin is very overrated. I think it was rated high because of the SXSW music scene. Stay away from the right side of the city. There's a certain wooded area close to me where bodies are found. Tons of homeless. There's a few nice places on the west, rich side but I don't think cookie cutter homes are cute.

Speaking of mcmansions and mcmansion lites, can you imagine how outdated these homes will look in 40 years for the next generation?

I don’t get Austin. Small, too crowded, blah, hipsters. Houston is a real city. Generally underrated. Well, not really rated at all - the absence of any expectations makes everything it offers all the more pleasantly surprising.

Yeah...I agree with Barcelona. Some good food, but a lot of crime and definitely MUCH lower than my expectations. Plenty of nice places in Spain that don't come with the hype.

Austin was afflicted with a migration of hipsters. They flock to quirky cities an then oversaturate it with cheap imitations of its original charm. Watch out Portland.

R14 - that's a good comment about Houston. I have absolutely no expectations for that city, so I would probably be pleasantly surprised.

Most of the world's former great cities - NYC, London, Paris - have been ruined by too much money, particularly foreign money.

Most every American one?

Not over-rated: Strasbourg; Annecy; Salzburg; Dubrovnik; Venice; York; Bath; London; Bruges.

R18 Spoken with all the ethnocentrism of a European, bravo!

I think Las Vegas is overrated. I have only been once but was very happy to leave.

I agree about Austin being overrated. It’s fine as a university town but while it used to feel “laid back” it’s now crowded and feels like it’s trying too hard.

Hollywood’s media exports ruined America’s great cities and America in general. Now every two-bit skank from Wuhan to Wichita wants to move to NYC or another major US city and slut around in Jimmy Choo pumps with her tits hanging out, holding a Martini with her greasy ass Wolf of Wall Street-wannabe boyfriend by her side with an imitation Rolex on, while they pose for her Instagram because she’s an “influencer”.

What's not overrated is Colorado or Idaho. Or Western Canada.

Has anyone been to Overland Park KS? Probably the most white dick you’ll ever see in your life. Sadly a lot of closet cases.

New York City.

Haha, r19. I'm simply a well-traveled Pennsylvanian.

I was just in the Domain area of Austin. It's a town center concept in the suburbs. I actually kind of liked it but wouldn't want to live there. All the apartments looked cheap as hell. Getting to and fro from the Airport there is a bitch.

R19 - definitely with you on NYC.

So many people had hyped it to me and when I went there I thought 'Is this it?'.

It may be partly because it's so (over) familiar from films and tv.

I enjoy Austin. Great food and nightlight. It doesn't compare to NYC, LA, SF, or even Philly, though.

I'd say Atlanta is extremely overrated.

Detroit— EXTREMELY OVERRATED!

Atlanta is basically a huge mall with a bunch of big-ass mansions thrown around randomly, all surrounded by ugly suburbs and interspersed with horrible slums. There's not only no there there, there's no there anywhere there.

Sydney has some of the most accessible and lovely bushwalking care of the transport system--which for most purposes--is largely better than most American public transit. Sydney also has great weather, and some of the best beaches in the world in a metropolitan area. There's plenty to do as well and they are starting to lift the lockout laws. Measured against most English-speaking cities, you'd be hard-pressed to rank ten above it.

r14 - Houston is a horror. With no zoning, it meanders and sprawls over hundreds of square miles. It's so low it floods after the smallest of rains. You spend hours on the endless freeways trying to get anywhere (I'd rather drive in LA). And, worst of all, it's full of shitty Texans.

I will say Copenhagen as a place to visit is overrated.

Some cities are good places to visit, some are good as places to live, and some lucky cities are good for both things. I can see that Copenhagen would be a fine place to live, but as a place to visit it offers up fairly middling things better examples of which can be found elsewhere, a generically European cityscape for the most part, and it's quite expensive. It's a pleasant place, it's just short of defining places or moments.

Chicago has become an absolute dump. Shooting all over the place, thug gangs raiding stores on Michigan Avenue, taxes, taxes, taxes and more taxes on everything, cries of reforming the political machine along with deals to benefit the new political machine. Stay away! I'm getting out of here as soon as possible.

Whatever city OP lives in.

OP lives in Portland, ME

I’m surprised more people haven’t said Los Angeles.

The traffic! The prices! The fires! The pollution!

R37 yeah but the weather is fucking amazing. LA if you can stay in a nice little microcosm like WeHo/BH is amazing!