“Big” meaning at least the size of Boise, Spokane, Tulsa, etc.

Edit: I suppose I should rephrase my question as “which U.S big cities have the *least* to offer to a tourist, in your opinion?”

43 comments

  1. I don’t think there are any. Even B and C tier cities have a lot to do in them. The other week I spent a vacation in Cleveland and had a great time despite everyone asking me why I would choose that. Even after 5 days I didn’t have time to do everything I wanted.

    Don’t let other people try to gatekeep your fun and adventure, but also do your due diligence and research and plan. You can’t expect everything to just jump out at you.

  4. Since they count as “big cities” by your definition, I would probably say Stockton or Fresno. I don’t see many reasons to visit them unless you like gangs and meth, or if you are staying in them to visit nearby places such as Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequioa. For Stockton, however, there is the annual asparagus festival which might be of interest.

  5. Any given tourist will have their own set of interests, hobbies, ideas of what’s fun, and importantly their own attitude which dictates their willingness to find time spent in a place worthwhile or rewarding.

    There are people who will go to San Francisco or New York or Honolulu and complain it did not live up to their expectations.

    There are people who will visit Dallas or Phoenix and say they had an incredible time.

    Speaking personally for myself, I get the most joy out of visiting places I can explore on foot. Failing that, there needs to be some sort of nearby natural feature that’s unique to the place for me to really find it special. Failing either of those, I’m unlikely to have found a visit to a place particularly rewarding in contrast to places that better fit that criteria.

    By those measurements, I was disappointed in Austin, TX relative to how hyped it was prior to my visit. It felt like a Texas-flavored Sacramento to me.

    And don’t get me wrong, I had a great time. If someone offered me tickets to ACL or something, I’d jump at the opportunity to go.

    But people genuinely talk about it like a cultural mecca on par with the other great American cities, and it just didn’t feel like that to me.

  6. I couldn’t tell ya. To be honest I’ve never visited anywhere that I couldn’t find a bunch of cool stuff to do.

  8. Well those three would make my list.

    Others I’ve been to and not been terribly impressed with are: Sacramento, San Jose. Houston, Corpus Christi. Anywhere in Indiana. Albuquerque. Trenton.

    I dunno dude, this list could get really long. By the same token, it really depends on what you enjoy.

  12. Houston, Dallas, Raleigh, Charlotte, Phoenix, Jacksonville, Columbus, San Jose, Indianapolis, Denver, St. Louis, Kansas City, Fresno, and Oklahoma City. Maybe you can fill a weekend with stuff to do and I’m sure there are people that love living there but they absolutely aren’t worth crossing an ocean to visit.

  13. I can have a good time anywhere. If you can’t find things to do in a new city, that’s on the individual, not the city.

    Is this “Should I fly from Paris to visit Des Moines?” or is this “I’m going to Des Moines for a conference and have evenings and a Friday to kill”?

  14. Houston, it’s very much a working city. It has great museums and great restaurants but nothing in the city is geared to tourists. The city layout is totally car centric and features many confusing massive highways.

  16. Most counties (next government tier larger than cities) have travel guides. You can usually find any tourist attraction through them, though you might need to drive outside the city proper to find it. Also, I find the areas less commercialized to be more interesting and honest rather than stories created for an attraction.

  22. JUST MY OPINION, before someone rips my head off.

    I’ve been to the vast majority of metro areas over 1 million. Some punch way above and some way below their weight.

    I really don’t like Dallas, Baltimore, Houston, or Jacksonville. Dallas is the most generic and bland big city I’ve ever been to. It’s big, but my god it was like a stock photo of a city. Baltimore at least has history and character, but it’s the most unsafe-feeling and decrepit to me (and I’ve been to New Orleans, Detroit, etc., Maybe St. Louis would beat it). I find Baltimore to be incredibly depressing and I’m a Maryland native. Houston is similar to Dallas with the generic feeling, but it’s more interesting imo. Jacksonville… bleh, while it has some history and the coast to prop it up, the city itself is awful imo. I’ll offend plenty of Texans by saying Oklahoma City left me with a better impression than Dallas or Houston, but it’s how I feel (go to Austin or San Antonio instead). Fresno, Memphis, and Birmingham were underwhelming too. Honolulu didn’t impress me. Toledo is very drab and dreary.

    If we’re going smaller cities, I’ll nominate either Shreveport, LA; Jackson, MS; or Youngstown, OH for the worst towns I’ve ever seen in the US. Hagerstown, MD really sucks too.

    Baltimore is my least-favorite large city.

    As far as favorites, I choose New Orleans, San Francisco, and Boston for history and character (yes, I’m aware of their problems). I found Albuquerque and Oklahoma City underrated if small.

    For a tourist however, I’d suggest a greater focus on national parks and scenery than cities, a common mistake many European tourists have made. The country is incredibly beautiful.

  24. I would say most cities have something to offer tourists. My sons and I drove Route 66 last year and went through a lot of small, medium and large cities. Even in the middle of nowhere, like Holbrook, AZ, Victorville, CA, and Tucumcari , NM we found something fun to do. Places like Chicago and LA (our start and end points), while they have their problems, have a lot of places to visit.

    My kids are in the Cincinnati area and there’s a surprisingly large amount of things to do there.

  26. Houston and Dallas. Both aren’t bad places to live and do have some things worth seeing, but are just too freaking big and sprawling. If you don’t rent a car, you’ll be spending $100s a day on Ubers.

  29. Nashville felt incredibly artificial to me.

    It only got fun once I started doing things like going to the Bluebird Cafe. And there wasn’t a lot of that sort of thing I could find.

  30. I couldn’t find anything to do in **Shreveport, Louisiana** and I spent the day looking. I was there on a Monday which it turns out is the worst day to visit because the one thing there is to do, go o an a tour of the water treatment plant, is closed. I went to the tourism office in the downtown. It had two parking spots while everything else had dozens. It didn’t matter because street parking is plentiful, the whole area is a ghost town. I had to be buzzed into the office (like going into a jewelry, pawn, or gun store). The tourism clerk was not only surprised to see me but didn’t have any suggestions for what to do, she asked me if I had been to Dallas.

    I eventually admitted defeat and we left. I had been to Mobile, Alabama a few months prior which actually had a quaint and really interesting downtown full of history.

  31. Charlotte NC. Apparently it is quite large and the locals think they are a big deal.

    They are quite wrong.

  32. The city of Denver has a great National Park near it, and Colorado as a state has a lot to offer, but Denver as a tourist destination? Kinda not that great among big U.S. cities.

  33. This may be unpopular, but of the actual big cities, I think Chicago is the least interesting to visit. And I live here lol. I love it, it’s a fantastic place to live, but as far as being a tourist goes our attractions aren’t all that.

    Chicago’s museums are great, but New Yorks are better and New York has a lot more to offer for a tourist. Our most popular attraction: the bean, is not all that. Millennium park/Maggie Daley park are nice to walk around, but that’s a one day thing and not a winter thing either. Navy Pier is somewhat nice in the summer, but again, wouldn’t go out of my way for it.

    There’s cool, “hip” areas to visit and good shows to see, but it’s a much better place to live than just to visit.

    It’s far better than like Cleveland, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Dallas, or most mid sized cities, but of the big ones (Houston, LA, SF, NYC, etc.) I think Chicago has the least to offer to a tourist.

  37. If you can’t find something to do in a “big” city in the US, then that’s on you. I haven’t been to a big city in the US that doesn’t have some decent food and some sort of nightlife. I don’t look for night clubs though when I travel.

    I will say I didn’t like Miami because everything was overpriced, and in general I don’t like Florida. But I wasn’t there to really experience Miami, and that’s the key.

    If you’re going to be a tourist in an American city, just prepare to find things to do before you go. A lot of it is going to just seem like strip malls and chains until you get to the downtown area or the revitalized area, which will have your typical bars, gastropubs, nice restaurants, etc.

    As an example, Nashville is unique because it has its strip of bars that have live music. Not all cities have that. But after a while you realize its just the same thing one after another. You can go outside of the strip and find some good restaurants, unique dives, or whatever, but it’s not going to be that different from another American city.

    Maybe I’m jaded but America has done really well in making anything familiar if you’re in a common district. Talk to me about seeing the underground of Atlanta and I’ll show you something unique (and not THE underground Atlanta). That’s how you find interesting things distinct for a city. The good locals will show it to you.

    I don’t even know what I’m talking about anymore

  39. Lubbock, TX isn’t “big” really, but it fits your definition and it is where culture goes to die and rebirths as a Buffalo Wild Wings.

  41. Houston, Jacksonville, Fresno, Tulsa, Chattanooga, Richmond, Newark, Wichita and Jackson to name a few.

  42. Unless you’re going to a Packers game avoid Green Bay. It’s literally the only thing for tourists to do.

    The Downtown/North Broadway district is okay for what it is if you’re local, but people from out of town won’t find it very impressive at all. When I tended bar there, we’d occasionally get tourists driving over from Door County in the spring. There were more than a few times that I had to assure someone that they were, in fact, downtown.

    I’m watching the Packers-Titans game on tv right now. When they came back from commercial and showed an overhead shot if the skyline I waa confused because Green Bay doesn’t have any tall buildings. Eventually I realized they used Milwaukee as a stand in instead lol

  43. Probably will get some gate for this but Portland, OR is overrated, inundated with homeless/drugs and expensive.

    No offense to anyone who lives there. Highly recommend Oregon is general if you like the outdoors and wine.

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