# Everyone always talks about Sedona, Boston, Santa Fe, New York. I was curious what are the most underrated/ overlooked cities and towns in the US? It could be for any reason: Nightlife, great place to raise a family, access to nature, offers great value, just a really unique/ beautiful place. I recently visited Bisbee, AZ which is gorgeous and want to see what other places are neat.
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Minneapolis is great. The biggest downside is that winters can be pretty brutal.
Sacramento has really come up
I would add several Appalachian Mountain towns. Greenville SC with its downtown waterfall and international industry. Knoxville with its University on the river. Asheville with its beer and art scene. Greenville and Knoxville remain affordable. All the towns have great art, craft beer, and diverse economies. Good schools, safe neighborhoods, great outdoor areas.
Outside of Colorado everyone always talks about Denver, Boulder, Estes Park, Aspen, Telluride, or the i70 small towns (Vail, Breckenridge, Frisco, etc) but I think Durango and Fort Collins are not as talked about as they should be.
Both have super cool, walkable downtowns and a ton of nature right outside them.
Raleigh-Cary is great
I will die on the hill that Chicago is the most underrated city in the US. In fact, I think most of the major midwestern cities are the most underrated. Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Cleveland, (Also Pittsburgh), are all lovely cities.
Most of Michigan.
You have to come here by choice
I was just in Indianapolis for a conference and it’s amazing! There were four museums by my hotel. There was a river front state park. I went to a cool indoor market that had been there for 200 years and had local food stalls. There are lots of cool neighborhoods with interesting restaurants. And finally Shapiro’s was amaze balls. I hadn’t had that good of a deli sandwich anywhere outside of New York City.
I would love to go back there in the spring or fall!
Don’t answer, it’s a trap.
And overlooked tourist town in the midwest is Galena, IL. Fun place for a 2-3 day trip.
Omaha caught me completely by surprise.
If I had visited there before Grand Rapids, I’d probably be living there now
Milwaukee is a surprisingly nice city with great food, culture, nice architecture, and lots of festivals in the summer.
Savannah, Georgia. Really the Georgian barrier islands in general. Gorgeous.
Richmond VA, Boone NC, Flagstaff AZ, Marquette MI, Camden ME, East Aurora NY, Port Washington WI, Missoula MT….the US is packed with great places that aren’t Manhattan or Las Vegas. It just depends on what you’re looking for in a place to live or visit. I can have a good time anywhere.
Madison, MS
The larger rust belt cities all offer trendy walkable neighborhoods, arts and cultural assets, good dining and nightlife and large festivals.
All for the fraction of the cost of the popular coastal cities.
Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit and Milwaukee all punch above their weight.
I think Boise’s pretty great, but I’m biased
Portland, Maine is such a cool city. It’s right on the water and has an amazing downtown with restaurants and bars. Great local beers. You can go whale watching. There’s lots to do!
I like Fort Worth. It is usually overshadowed by Dallas, but I think FW definitely has more of a sense of identity. It is also less expensive, less crazy, and safer, while also having enough amenities and jobs to be a place you want to live in
Many people in the Bay like to shit on LA, but LA was amazing when I visited my brother there two months ago. It looks cleaner overall than both SF and Oakland, they have a good music culture, their sports scene is nice, and there’s plenty of stuff to see and do. Though, one downside is he warned me against wearing certain colors and types of hats in the rougher neighborhoods.
Portland Maine
Y’know, the better Portland 😛
Boise, Idaho. Centre of the free world.
Tucson, Arizona. We get shat on for being the “Dirty-T” but were an UNESCO World Gastronomy City, next to New York City. I think there’s 1-2 more nowadays but Tucson has some of the best food in the country. We have a couple chain fast-food places that only exist in Tucson that specialize in the best the region has to offer.
We also have Mt. Lemon, which has a gigantic “face”, as in it’s rise above average elevation where you can see bears, jaguar (once), deer, and other high elevation animals in the middle of the Sonoran Desert.
The Sonoran Desert Museum is a must-see if you’re traveling though. The only other walk-through museum to watch animals in large enclosures I’ve enjoyed is the Alaska Wildlife Conservatory Museum (i think thats what its called, I got a tshirt and it was my only souvenir).
Chattanooga. We’re not called the Scenic City for nuthin’!
Saratoga Springs, New York.
I’ll put in a biased submission for St. Louis. Yes it has a high murder rate, but the crime is a lot more isolated than other rust belt cities. The architecture is unique, the neighborhoods are walkable, and it has arguably the best city park in the country. It’s also one of the few cities in the US that is cheaper than it’s suburbs, even in the nice neighborhoods. If it annexed only it’s historic inner ring suburbs, the crime rate would be pretty average
Another submission would be for Grand Junction, Colorado. It’s a small city near the Utah border. It’s much more affordable than the front range, but with all the benefits of Colorado. It has a nice downtown with a decent sized student population. It also has amazing weather, the winters are extremely mild for Colorado
The two that I awlays think of are Salt Lake City and Fort Lauderdale. They’re known destinations, sure, but they deserve to be much more popular than they are