Have you ever visited a place that had no redeeming qualities?

When I went to me.

Spokane, WA. I haven't been since 2011 but I remember severely cracked streets lined with pawn shops, tattoo parlors, liquor stores etc. A hopeless shit hole in the middle of nowhere. I'm sure someone will chime in and tell me the city is on the rise because it has a new Cheesecake Factory or indoor mini-golf course.

Las Vegas has very good food, very good restaurants and places to eat.

Laughlin, Nevada was pretty gross

R3, the general vibe of the place would kill it for me. All that gross excess and waste.

East New York and Brownsville.

R6, I once went to a rap star fashion show in Brownsville that was one of the most glamorous thing I think I've ever done.

I was also sure I was going to be shot immediately afterward, which was kind of cool.

Several modern Catholic churches.

tri-cities, Washington

This is my answer every time this question comes up: Charlotte, North Carolina

I was bored out of my mind during the two weeks I spent there.

[quote]Spokane, WA

You mean you didn't enjoy the garbage-eating goat sculpture?

Jacksonville, Florida. It's not like there's no money there, but look where you have to BE. Personality-free except this liquor store you could only enter via the bar next door. There was a bucket of misplaced but unretrieved eyelasses by the register, and customers could borrow a pair if they were "having trouble seeing the total."

Auschwitz. It was devastating. I sat in my hotel room in Krakow all evening staring out the window feeling completely empty, speechless and depleted. I also felt as if something came out with me and lingered for a few months.

The DataLounge.

Augusta, Georgia — also known as Disgusta.

Leggett, California. If you drive massive pickup with a bigass gun rack then you'll fit right in. If not, stranger beware.

El Paso, Texas.

Oklahoma, with all respect to American Indians saddled with it because it was the least-wanted piece of crap land in the country.

Dallas pretty much fits the bill

Dubai isn't a bad choice for a place without redeeming qualities. It's not an old city so there's no real sense of history or culture. It's mainly tall buildings and malls. Abu Dhabi is somewhat better.

I didn't think there is much to recommend about Jakarta or Dili.

R17, there are lots of great Native sites, museums and landscapes in Oklahoma.

R2 Spokane has Gonzaga University which has a great campus. It's the city's only redeeming quality.

Rockford, Illinois. Unfortunately, I live there now.

Riyadh.

Someone upthread mentioned Jakarta - it’s a horrible city but the food is fantastic and I’ve always found most of the people who I’ve met there very friendly.

Birmingham (the English one) although perhaps I’m influenced by the fact that it produced my cunt of an ex brother in-law. No, having been there - it’s awful.

Toledo Ohio

Niagra Falls. Most boring vacation ever. Wretched town. And the falls big deal. You can only look at them for so long. Even Maid of the Mist was a bore.

Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England.

It wasn't a destination, certainly, but a convenient point central to some plans that I bungled. And I thought hotel looked good for an area that was a little thin in it's options.

Of all of the places bigger and smaller and more out of the way than this, Pontefract, it has to have been my strangest experience in the UK. Aside from a picturesque castle and a small historic core, the rest of the place is a waste, with big swaths of bleak housing that looked like something for low level military personnel. Imagine the worst of Sheffield shifted a bit north.

The place was grim. I happened on an outdoor antiques market and it was grim, and the people made me think I'd wandered into the opening scenes of An American Werewolf in London. One if them told me, "Oh you won't like it here" and she was right. The hotel was lovely in itself, but apart from anything and I was the only guest (in high season.) I had to phone some grumbly, highly suspicious fellow who took an hour to appear and unlock a few doors and give me a long list of things not to do and a great many nosey questions about my intentions. He wanted me to phone him the next day "to let you out" (and see that I hadn't vandalized the place, I suppose.). In an area that's otherwise rather beautiful, a cloud hung over greater Pontefract. I've been a great many places in the UK, some dodgier, some uglier, but none that were so sinister and unrecommendable.

Sorry Niagara. Watch the movie with Monroe and Cotton. It's a helluva lot more entertaining.

Buffalo, NY - What a gray, depressing shit hole.

Bangor, ME

Leicester, UK

Alice Springs, Australia.

The most depressing town I've ever been in.

I like how R26 mentions a load of redeeming qualities in his post.

Beaverton, Oregon: highways, parking lots, ugly new build

R10, Charlotte, NC has a good airport for a city that size. And it’s not too far from the mountains in the west or the beaches in the east.

You mean that wasn’t your mom's house? It certainly was devoid of character just like her!

Atlanta

Dallas

Charlotte

Columbus, Ohio

Gary, Indiana. Strip mall shopping in the shadow of nuclear cooling towers and dead buildings.

Campton, KY

Very poor, but the physical surroundings would be beautiful if people didn’t leave trash all over their yards. The only item in any residence that got any attention or maintenance was the satellite dish. Hard to find food that wasn’t disgusting, which is hard to explain but even the basics were gross. I’m not a food snob, McDonalds is fine in a pinch. The grocery store, which I think was just a large gas station mini mart, had almost no fruit and veggies and stuff like weird off brand lunch meat that was the turkey slice equivalent of McNuggets - congealed reconstituted something. Saw the issue of the local paper that covered the HS graduation (I think maybe it was a regional HS because the town is tiny but there were enough graduates to consider it a reasonable sample size) and 75% of the girls were noticeably fat/obese in headshots and at least 50% of the boys were either fat or oddly scrawny. Where were they finding the food?! The only business on the Main Street that wasn’t totally dilapidated was a medical office or a chiropractors or something. It was explained to me that Medicaid dollars funded it. There was a general store / Five and Dime type place that had stuff on the mostly bare shelves that must have been there 20 years. Stuff that was similar to things I might have found in the back of a drawer growing up in the 1970’s. Like a rain bonnet large enough to protect a bouffant hairdo or a baby doll toy that predated Barbie or that baby that cried and peed. Covered in dust. This is going back 15 years, but I doubt it’s a paradise now.

I have zero desire to visit Dubai, but as an architecture fan I think the skyline is at least somewhat impressive for a day or so. Somewhere like Doha, Qatar or Kuwait City would probably make me feel suicidal with boredom. Likewise, a lot of industrial Eastern European or ex-Soviet cities filled with commieblocks and little historical architecture.

Here - East Hampton

R20 is an idiot, the type who can sing the praises of any place just because she MUST BE RIGHT about all things.

Ptah.

R25,

NIAGARA FALLS. (Oh, dear.)

Slowly I turned.

Step by step,

Inch by inch,

I...

Bentonville, Arkansas.

Headquarters of WalMart populated by nothing but Duggars.

The US portal to hell.

Albany, NY

Not sure what the point of it is.

[quote] Niagra Falls. Most boring vacation ever. Wretched town. And the falls big deal. You can only look at them for so long. Even Maid of the Mist was a bore.

What did you expect? You visit Niagara Falls for an hour, not for a vacation.

I do not have fond memories of Reno.

Saudi Arabia.

No redemption.

For me, it’s places that are indistinguishable from many other copies of itself…for example, any of the hundreds of interchangeable package holiday beach towns in the world on the ‘Costa del Fill in the Blank’, If you have to leave the town to find anything authentic, it’s a regrettable place.

I lived in Beaverton for a year and that was my take, r32. The traffic was horrible for 12 hours out of the day. Just the shittiest infrastructure and urban planning possible. I'm sure it's gotten worse since I left in 2015.

I had a friend who lived in San Jose CA years ago. Can someone tell me anything good about it? I think it might have a cute bungalow neighborhood. I saw some anime kids downtown but it seemed like boring, lifeless and miserable to be there otherwise. I have another friend who moved San Jose to Sacramento and visiting San Jose made it clear why Sacramento was a big improvement for him.

I've never been to Las Vegas, but I drove around the outskirts on a freeway and it was the most desolate desert I've ever seen. Just dirt - it looked like miles of landfill.

Leggett grows good weed. Other than that, it's a haunted place due to the treatment of Mendocino's native peoples, which was even more atrocious than usual.

R50 that’s what desert is, fool!

R44 But people do if just for a weekend. You know the whole Shuffle Off to Buffalo thing.

Reno was meh. If you're a compulsive gambler, then it has redeeming qualities.

I always enjoyed the oddball stories of people driving through Twenty Nine Palms.

San Angelo, TX. Many a visit to Grandma's house. Depressing town full of old people and Mexican immigrants. There is a college but what those poor kids did for fun is a mystery. They get out fast. Only thing of minor interest is an old fort that kept the Comanche at bay, Fort Concho, and the Concho pearls.

Timeout Magazine agrees on Jacksonville. I think it’s what you make of it, and not that bad really. But whenever I’ve visited I can’t stop thinking, why aren’t I in South or even Central Florida?!

+1 to R49 re San Jose. Trying to be positive about things, well the airport is a nice small clean place to get in and then leave easily.

R32 and R48 On a recent business trip to Beaverton, I actually liked it quite a lot. There’s a nice little downtown, a decent sized branch of Powell’s bookstore from Portland.

Dover, Delaware

Dallas, TX

Some deserts are pretty than others, r52. The Vegas desert is really harsh and ugly compared to the Sonoran desert around Tucson.

San Jose is what happens when engineers build a town

R56, I agree about the San Jose airport. It used to be small and easy. It has tripled in size but it's still an easy way to get in and out of the area

Niagara Falls on the Canadian side is a nice, touristy town. The US side is a pathetic place.

That said, see Niagara Falls for the day and then drive 90 minutes north to Toronto for the rest of the vacation.

I used to enjoy the charming retro/vintage remnants of old Las Vegas, the part that evoked the era of the Rat Pack Era & Elvis, the Liberace Museum, the old neon signs...but that city is hell-bent on continually destroying its past. All the newer properties lack any distinct identity and the crowds that go there just get worse and worse.

R56... I might have had a tour guide not really interested in selling me on San Jose. My friend wasn't living it up there. It look a little better to me now even.

My friend finds the cheapest flights to travel to random places across the US for the weekend. She has been to dozens of cities and towns and taking a few days to see what's interesting.

She said she's trained herself to find something interesting in each place. She has a wall of magnets and knickknacks and tell you interesting story after story about each place.

[quote] That said, see Niagara Falls for the day and then drive 90 minutes north to Toronto for the rest of the vacation.

A lot longer than 90 when you get stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic in Oakville.

R62, I used to enjoy the same activities in Vegas. The old downtown (before absurd cover-all), and honest sleaze, the obscure attractions. Even the original strip was bizarrely charming in the hotels' and casinos' overreach, like Trumpland in taste but Americana/mob in culture. All gone.

Now it's Times Square and children and 115 degree temperatures. And the idiots continue to head there like it's Eden.

My partner has numerous family members there (Mormon, for fuck's sake) and they pretend like it's all just a nice city with a red-light district where people gamble.

Try Jacksonville Florida, OP.

R52, living in a mental desert, thinks that the earthly ones all are the same as hers.

The desert in that part of Nevada truly looks like Mordor just after Gollum and the ring sank into the magma. The most desolate hillocks and "mountains" I've seen, and that includes a lot of time spent in the west.

R56, the Powell's branch is located a mega-strip mall, surrounded by vast parking lots and congested streets lined by desolate mini-strip malls and fast-food joints.

But okay, the Powell's itself is redeeming. When home for Christmas, they had all the oddball books on my list in stock.

Meridian, Mississippi

Montgomery, Alabama

Maycomb, Alabama

R65 take the by-pass to avoid Melonville.

Almost any town / city in the U.S. They all have the same chain restaurants and stores.

Holcomb, KS

I hate Phoenix, Arizona. My best friend moved back there after living in LA, and I’ve visited a couple of times, but I can’t find a single redeeming quality about that wretched place.

Phoenix is a furnace disguised as a city. Last year, it hit 110 degrees for something like 30 days straight—actual hellfire levels of heat. You can’t even touch your car door without risking third-degree burns, and the sidewalks feel like they’re actively trying to cook you. It’s less of a place to live and more of a punishment.

Amen R74 - In the early 90's I did a 5 week cross country road trip LA to NYC - mostly just meandering across the southwest and then the midwest. There was some amazing natural scenery, and I had friends and relatives all along the route - but it really hit home how most towns in the US share almost exactly the same built and cultural environments; and things have only gotten more homogeneous in the last 3 decades.

r67, thank goodness, I never have

Barstow, California.

Atlantic City

Abilene, Tx.

DL

Palm Springs. Ugh

Orlando, FL

Blyth, CA.

Bakersfield, CA

Not me!

[quote]Almost any town / city in the U.S. They all have the same chain restaurants and stores.

I wouldn't say that almost any town or city in the U.S. is without redeeming quality, nor that variety in chain stores and restaurants is a particularly good marker.

But I do think Americans assign snowflake like attributes to much of it's geography. I lived most of my life in the U.S. and have been to 42 or so states and lived in 10 of them. It's not exactly a patchwork quilt of exquisitude and rich depth and variety. A lot of the country is quite unremarkable in the extreme and many its cities and towns appear to have been on a downward bent for more than a half century.

Yes, Carnegie built 2500 libraries (800 survive as libraries today; 300 were destroyed; and the rest have fallen to other uses or vacant.) The arc of US progress turned downward after WWII in opposite movement to key social advances, but the material quality of towns and cities and landscapes has not improved. Large swaths if some Western states were developed as post-WWII housing and gas stations and shopping centers, but that's a mixed legacy at best, mid-20thC housing with garages and shiny cars replacing mid-19th and early 20thC workers' housing in an arc that turned downward.

A lot of American towns and cities are disgraceful to look at and no prize to live or work in. The car became more important than the garage or the house. They are ugly as duck, and the sprawl if roadways that connect them to other towns and cities have swallowed whole regions bleak ugly highways of personal "freedom" and shit ugly strip malls unchecked in their sprawl of fat and cellulite. The sameness and ugliness of sprawl and chain brand uniformity is ugly as fuck. And few communities have anything to counter it.

What ugliness and wat distances Americans must travel to see their national parks, or to see a Manhattan made over as Hudson Yards Theme Park and the couple of tiny parks clawed back from disused rail lines and artificial islands and maybe the dozens of cities with a honkeytonk river walk where the highlight is not the river but a handful of red Rick industrial buildings under the cloverleaf of overpasses, gutted and turned to tiny lofts where the nearest grocery of any size is in the 'burbs, everything as real as Disneylandia and maybe as expensive - the pseudo-authenticity tax.

Sure you can find a refrigerator magnet in almost any American place with a name, you can think that you found the best soft serve ice cream in America, or the best maple glazed donut, but look around...the place is not special and the rest is pure boosterism - a remnant of when Madison Avenue the former importance of which is now broken up and located across various oceans.

The U.S. has been in a long physical and later intellectual decline and the more than half century of uniform ugliness shows it.

That ugliness shows itself in even major projects in big cities where the highly paid architects whose ugly work is a point of pride. Seeing the skylines of major cities like Chicago and New in the 50s there is a harmony which started to go to hell in the 60s.

I can usually find something interesting wherever I go. I actually prefer more mundane things, like going to a town's grocery store or local diner. Stuff like the Grand Canyon, I can look at it for a few minutes and then move on. The Trevi Fountain and that huge Buddha in Kamakura Japan would be exceptions. I found those 2 non-mundane things to be interesting.

Phoenix is nothing more than a shopping mall and endless subdivisions

I thought of several places which might qualify, except I remember one good restaurant that redeems them a little.

Aside from a few obviously terrible places (Gary, IN) the one place I really loathed every bit of was Las Vegas.

I've found something to appreciate, like or be charmed by in nearly every other city in my memory.

Having said that, I will say downtown Indianapolis was terribly boring. I know other cities in the region aren't exactly setting the world on fire, but I found other similar cities like Milwaukee and Columbus to be very charming. Indy is really devoid of charm right downtown, but has some interesting neighborhoods.

R28, Buffalo has great architecture - Louis Sullivan's best building. Wright, Richardson, Yamasaki, the fantastic City Hall, Art Deco - a great museum and a lively music and poetry scene. The Allentown district is a classic American small town that is also somehow an urban neighborhood and a meeting of Woodstock with the East Village.

Granted, it's bleak in winter, but without redeeming qualities? Yeah, nah.

This place - vile pit of trollery.

Phoenix does suck, a lot, but I would say that it has a bit of redeeming value in its urban hiking opportunities. You are surrounded by mountain parks. Also, the Desert Botanical Garden is nice. In winter it's very pleasant; during the rest of the year it's like living in a furnace in hell.

Now Yuma AZ, that's even more of a worthless shithole.

R97, for anyone forced to stay in Phoenix I recommend the Biltmore, possibly the most beautiful modernist hotel in the US.

Impeccable service, fabulous food and a landscape like no other.

Any place that has state-run liquor stores is a little depressing, IMO.

Montgomery, Al

Milton Keynes. Frightful.

I have to say. With the exception of California, I do not like the Western United States. It seems like one big strip mall and a lot of subdivisions.

R101 The Overland Park of England

Phoenix has fantastic Mexican food and the desert is pretty, especially after it rains. You just have to limit your visits to December and January.

I visited Modesto, California in the Central Valley. At first glance, it seemed to have no redeeming quality but then I tasted the food. No matter which restaurant or food truck I went to, the food was spectacular. The freshness and the spicing were perfect.

I'd go again just for the food.

R105, what kind of food did you enjoy in Modesto?

Las Vegas. Not worth visiting for anything ever. Never.

Trump Tower, NYC. Gaudy, vile, unsettling to even gaze upon.

Apart from Tutankhamun's mask, Egypt was a veritable shothole.

I lived for a year in Bushwick, Brooklyn. What a drab, ugly place. Dirty, run down, ugly buildings, poverty with the damn elevated tracks above it, the only cultural thing it had going for it was some murals/street art but as well made as they were, they made everything else look drabber. What a shithole.

It did have one redeeming factor though, Knickerbocker Bagels on Knickerbocker street, to this day the best bagels I've tried. Seriously if you're in that area, go, you'll thank me.

R109 I loved Egypt. I was in Cairo, Giza and Luxor and I had the best time! The people were kind and helpful, there was great variety in the cuisine. I had Asian, MIddle Eastern, American, and Italian while I was t here. We were there in February when the weather was pleasant and no ticks and bugs, and the museums and the Valley of the Kings, and the other monuments were fascinating. I love Ancient History and it has been top of my bucket list for years.

Espanola, New Mexico

Akron Steamand Sauna.

[Quote] what kind of food did you enjoy in Modesto?

Everything was wonderful but especially Mexican food. Even regular sandwiches from a food truck we out of this world delicious. I’ve never been in a city (except New Orleans) where every meal was phenomenal

Storrs, CT. A college without a college town. The most depressing place I've ever lived -- and the weather didn't help.

But I also hate CT as a whole with every fiber of my being. In fact, I hate CT almost as much as I hate Trump.

R112 I’ve heard it’s bad, but I stayed in Santa Fe and only drove through it once.

A friend of mine took one of those tours from I think Arizona to Vegas and along the way you see the Grand Canyon. She absolutely loathed Denver which shocked me. For some reason I have it in my head it's a beautiful city. This was well before the migrant crisis and she said the sidewalks were filled with homeless people, druggies and she found it depressing, sad and disgusting the way these people lived. They want to live this way? I doubt all of them. And we know the money is there to help these people. I don't understand it.

R117 I loved Denver and a lot of it is beautiful, but the proper downtown is a bit blah, and there are a lot of homeless people there. Any city in the West with milder winters has an issue, and they will camp out on the streets.

Denver is ugly even without homeless people. Its surroundings are gorgeous, but like most cities, it's blah

Mar-A-Lago

Yes. St. Louis MO, except the rave I attended that was on this sprawling farm land. When I tell you it's the wackest city ever, with some of the trashiest white folks and ratchetest black folks. Lawd it was like something from the 80s.

R121 thinks that "Lawd," "wackiest" and "ratchetest" make her cunt seem fresher than the "80s."

They don't.

[quote]Have you ever visited a place that had no redeeming qualities?

No. But I've lived in several.

[quote] the sidewalks were filled with homeless people, druggies and she found it depressing, sad and disgusting the way these people lived. They want to live this way? I doubt all of them. And we know the money is there to help these people. I don't understand it.

Huh?

Yes I have. The DL.

R121, tour St. Louis with a native who knows the hidden gems and you'll get quite a different perspective on the city.

St. Louis has some hot guys, at least on my Facebook feed. Plus Missouri seems to be the primary recruiting ground for gay porn actors.

Moosejaw Saskatchewan and Boise Idaho

Yonkers New York

Pacific Palisades

[quote]Storrs, CT. A college without a college town. The most depressing place I've ever lived -- and the weather didn't help. But I also hate CT as a whole with every fiber of my being. In fact, I hate CT almost as much as I hate Trump.

Show us on the doll where the bad man touched you. Storrs is in a beautiful area of a beautiful state. It's also the college basketball capital of the world. That you couldn't have a good time there says more about you than Storrs.

Too soon R130. Maybe wait another day or two. TIA

I hope Caitlyn loses her house.

Scranton, Pa. and Niagara Falls, NY.

R111 - you go against what almost every online site says about Egypt. Were you with a group? Because most visitors say NEVER AGAIN. Perhaps that's just Cairo.

Dirty, polluted, and getting physically hassled and targeted wherever you go by vendors and leering men.

Sharm al-Sheikh looks nice- but it's just a beachy tourist area.

I was stuck in Charlotte, NC once. NASCAR museum and Billy Graham Library. Billboards for places where you can go shoot things with an assault rifle.

Fled in horror to the Mint Museum. Not bad, but nothing exceptional.

“ Not bad, but nothing exceptional.”

Exactly what dad and I have said about you since you were born, r136.

Did I touch a nerve, r136? I’m sorry.

R138, why are you talking to yourself at r136?

Because I’m more interesting to talk to than you are. Isn’t NASCAR on, dearheart? You’re missing it.

No redeeming qualities is rather harsh - but it exists.

I think most mid-sized or 'larger' small (100,000) US cities that grew up in the late 19th/early 20th as regional 'hubs' are generally flat and void of life.

Immigrants didn't really move there - they didn't become big cities because of their geography and location, and there's little home-grown culture outside of a playhouse where traveling tours came in. They had banking, shopping, courthouses, hospitals and some restaurants and light entertainment for people who came in for the aforementioned reasons. There could have been 1 or 2 large manufacturing companies based there - but those were closed decades ago.

But that's just a business/healthcare hub. And there are many cities like this all over America.

For me, interesting cities need universities, a history of diverse immigration populations, some geographic interest, public transportation, architecture and a vibrant art scene. It doesn't have to be a large city to have this.

I'm extremely biased though - I'm a very large city person. Less than 4-5 million metro and it feels provincial.

R140, you posted at r136. Then you posted again at r138 asking yourself if you had touched a nerve at r136. You are quite literally talking to yourself. And it doesn’t make any sense. That is because you made a mistake. You intended to call out a different post. But you fucked up because you are stupid.

Bless your heart r142.

Are you still of the opinion that

“Hamas fucked around and found out lol”

So …

… I quoted the wrong reply, and you support and encourage genocide. That makes us about the same I guess!

And by the way I’m still more interesting to talk you than you!

Groton, CT. Maga central with tough sounding accents.

Port Alice, BC. The drive there took forever and for what? A small rundown general store and two equally depressing gas pumps.

Prince George, BC. A cold flat scar of a small city in the middle of BC that stinks like a sour stale fart.

R142 - sometimes people typo with the wrong reply number - it happens. But every other person on this board knew what they were talking about.

But YOU - no, you have to make some BIIIIG production out of it.

They weren't talking to themselves - it was an obvious typo. Lesson learned, I hope.

Gary, Indiana.

Was driving around the UK and booked a room for the night in Yeoville as it was cheap and on our route. What a sad pile of nothing!

R149 - do you mean Yeovil in Somerset?

- Olathe, KS

- Cleveland

- Pittsburgh

- Jacksonville

- any city or town in Alabama or Mississippi

R151 - Cleveland and Pittsburgh have large good universities, beautiful old homes, and a lot of cultural activities. Both are on the water with several harbors and marinas for boating. It's not flat either - hills and views.

They may not be your cup of tea, but they definitely have actually quite a bit to offer. I wouldn't live there - but there are several redeeming qualities by any standard.

Jacksonville? Ok. I've never heard of Olathe - but there are several states that can be just completely wiped off the map and I wouldn't care: Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Alabama, Mississippi.

r150 yes, Yeovil, not Yeoville

Jamaica, where they somehow managed to turn Paradise into shit. It's also home to the nastiest, most conservative, most unfriendly people who love to take you up the river any chance they get.

r154 Jamaica is beautiful and awesome. Yes there is a lot of religious conservatism and homophobia but it's still a great place with cultured people.

Casablanca

Manvox.

Staten Island

R155 I wouldn't know I never went back. They don't deserve me.

R159 - right on - I thought it was a shithole. Not giving my money to homophobes who kill gays - look up batty boys.

But I find most of the Caribbean trashy, if I'm honest. Jamaica was the worst - and I've been to around 15 island countries in the Caribbean.

I can tell R131 is from CT -- they get their feathers ruffled if you say anything at all criticizing the world's most perfect place, Connecticut!

[quote]It's also the college basketball capital of the world.

Are you nuts? Oh, I forgot. People from CT think it's the center of the universe, and everything revolves around them. And basketball is such a big deal in Storrs because in that tacky little state where it's freezing most of the year, there's nothing else to do but go to a basketball game. Or gamble. Hell, CT couldn't even hang on to the [italic]Whalers,[/italic] FFS!

People like you, R131, are part of what makes CT a living hell. Snotty MFers for days. I could tell DL stories that would shock most people, but you damned Nutmeggers don't know that the rest of the population doesn't have the attitude you do, thus you wouldn't understand what the problem is anyway. Why bother?

[quote]Storrs is in a beautiful area of a beautiful state.

Hell's bells, girl, you can drive diagonally across your state in 2 hours! This is what you're excited about?

Wild horses will never drag me to CT again. And if I want to see beautiful forests, the Poconos (and points west) is right down the road.

Most towns in the UK are completely homogenised now with identical high streets consisting of Greggs, charity shops, vape shops, betting shops, kebab shops, chicken shops and fronts masquerading as barbers or ‘candy’ shops. If you’re on the coast they may also have sad arcades and a pebble beach. Unless there is some kind of specific attraction, there’s no reason to go. An example of a crap town with attractions would be Dover with the cliffs and castle.

Hackensack NJ

Once one of those thriving downtowns before all the malls moved in. Some nice large departments stores were there. And two beautiful movie theaters. Maybe there were more. The Fox especially until they turned it into a large black box. I guess it was too expensive to maintain that great interior with gorgeous lighting.

You want to go to a depressing place that's it. Only thing of merit is an old church where the stained glass windows were done by Tiffany. Wouldn't be surprised if they removed them and tore down the church.

Bakersfield CA. Talk about a shithole, it literally smells like toxic mix of factory cattle farms and oil wells. It's flat, dry, hot and dusty. Downtown is a strip mall of fast food chains and gas stations. Nothing to do, nothing to see, MAGA country.

Is Bakersfield burning now?

Cornwall, Ontario

The Raleigh/Durham, NC area. Sprawl and more sprawl. There's no "there" there.

[quote]Is Bakersfield burning now?

I wish it would.

Abu Dhabi. A large shopping mall/casino pretending to be a city, full of anxious expats, Emiratis in aviator sunglasses, and their millions of indentured servants and child slaves.

Soon to be the USA 2050.

Wilson, North Carolina. People living high off old tobacco and banking money with no clue how the rest of America lives.

Red Bluff, CA.