Which city/area/neighborhood surprised you by its unique atmosphere ?

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1. Pacific Beach San Diego was way more chill vibes than I expected. Not sure why I thought it would be uptight, just based on the COL I guess, but it wasn’t and I loved it.

   Lincoln Park in Chicago has a very different feel than the other parts of Chicago I had previously visited there.

2. Gaylord, Michigan. Small, quiet, unassuming town up north that decided to run with the Swiss Alps aesthetic.

   It’s not the only town to do so, but it was a mild and unexpected surprise when I first arrived.

3. Red Hook, Brooklyn. The vibe with a weird combination of secluded, post-industrial and cozy.

   Portsmouth, NH – a cute small town with lots of well-kept historical architecture.

   Golden, CO – the views of the Rockies were amazing when I randomly went there from Denver. I felt totally redeemed for the bus ride down Colfax.

4. Mackinac Island always is a surprise, even though I’ve been there so many times.

   Horses/bikes only and really delightful colonial-feeling town on a small island.

5. Portland and Astoria OR. Flushing NY

6. Monhegan island Maine.

   No cars. No golf carts. No roads. Just some paths and hiking paths.

   Over an hour from the main land with no airport. It feels really remote. A little rough weather and you are stuck there.

7. I did not expect Atlantic City New Jersey to be the worst city I’ve ever visited, does that count?

   Casinos lined up along the beach, blocking access to the water. Total poverty surrounding them. It’s like if you put Camden on the beach and added lots of gambling and drinking. There were mobs of feral cats on the famous boardwalk. Absolute horrorshow of an American city.

8. Guanajuato Mexico

9. Oxford MS.

   I was completely taken with that little town. Trying to convince my kid to go to ol miss.

10. North Myrtle Beach. Super nice and family friendly unlike regular Myrtle. with still a lot of great things to do. Would take my family there 10/10 times.

11. Austin is high-profile now, but it still surprises me when I go there by how unique its blend of the south and southwest is. It’s thick and lush but also has lots of low-height brush. It has rolling hills like much of the south but feels expansive like the west. It has college football and weird hippies and Prius drivers and truck drivers and vegetarians and ungodly-sized portions of meat.

    Internationally, Lima has arguably the most unique vibe of any city I’ve ever visited. And Lyon was probably my favorite city I’ve been to in Europe, which I wasn’t expecting.

12. Downtown Oklahoma City was a lot nicer that I was expecting. Scissortail Park, Myriad Botanical Gardens, Bricktown River Walk, Boathouse district. Lot of good stuff going on there.

    Iowa City – it’s a nice college town. Stopped by a lot of small towns through Nebraska and Iowa from Ogallala, North Platte, Kearney, Grand Island, Stuart. Iowa City was by far the nicest – a nice college town with a riverfront walk. Omaha and Des Moines were nice too.

    Most towns I visited in South Dakota were better than I expected. Hot Springs, Rapid City, Sioux Falls all great.

    Taos, NM. By far its much better than Albuquerque or Santa Fe.

13. It’s been a while (15 or years) but Asheville, North Carolina surprised me. For a small city stuck deep in the interior of North Carolina, it had a great vibe lots of music, art, and good food.

14. Pilsen in Chicago back in the mid 2000s. It was just predominantly Mexican and Guatemalan. Most of the Latinos have moved west to the suburbs now as they have gotten more settled, had families, and made more money.

    But is was a bit shocking to see such a solid Latino community in a big northern state when I was there back in the mid 2000s.

    Where I live now there’s a big Somali refugee community and their follow on immigrants like family and friends they suggested come if they could. There are a few apartments that are dominated by Somalis. That is strange in Maine which is like 90-92% white by the last census.

    Also my town has a huge Indian H1B visa worker community. Certain apartment complexes are nearly 100% Indian. Again, that is strange for a state where 90+% of people are white.

    Even the big grocery store near me carries a lot of Indian and East Asian produce because it caters too Indonesians and Indians. Like did you expect to find fresh turmeric always available at a cheap grocery in Maine? Thai eggplant (which is small and green but used by southern Indians and Sri Lankans)? Or the little purple eggplants Indians like to use? All at a discount grocery in Maine?

15. Santa Fe, NM

16. Downtown Detroit! I was expecting it to be a post-apocalyptic hellscape, but it’s actually doing quite well, or was before the pandemic, I don’t know how it’s doing now. A really nice central park, terrific waterfront, some fun restaurants, lots of activity. Doesn’t feel unsafe at all.

17. Vail, Colorado and Postdam Square in Berlin

18. Pittsburgh is so much better than I imagined it could be

19. Seaside, Florida is a real place. It wasn’t just a movie set they built for filming *The Truman Show*.

    It still has that kinda creepy / fake / utopian / uncanny valley vibe to it in real life. It feels… off somehow.

20. Downtown Flushing, Queens NY. This area has emerged as one of Queens’ main central business districts and is home to the largest Chinatown in all of NYC. The neighborhood has seen a rapid transformation over recent years and now has a skyline larger than some in mid-size US cities. not too too long ago it was heavily industrial, though to a certain extent it still is.

    City Island, Bronx, NY. Is you saw pictures of it you’d never think it’s in the Bronx. You’d think it’s a fishing village on a tiny island in New England. Great seafood here of course and the houses are beautiful.

21. I knew absolutely nothing about Cape May New Jersey until one day my family (from VA) decided to take a trip there because of people my grandparents met in Florida from there and we worked out a visit.

    Turns out it feels like I traveled to the world of My Fair Lady or Pollyanna or something because its a very well preserved Victorian era beach town and just a lot different from other beach communities I’ve been to in the vicinity (Ocean City MD, Delaware Beaches, VA Beach, Nags Head/Outer Banks, etc). And then again we went to Wildwood and all of a sudden I understood that the show “Jersey Shore” wasn’t as big of an exaggeration as I would have guessed either and frankly I like that vibe as well.

    Also I’ve been to Dayton and Cleveland but was surprised at how distinct Cincinnati was from both of those places. I thought I had Ohio nailed down until then.

22. The industrial areas of Buffalo – Larkin, First Ward, Upper Rock, Chandlerville, etc remind me a lot of neighborhoods like East Portland (but without the homeless), Wynnwood in Miami (but somehow simultaneously more safe and less gentrified), Brooklyn or West 6th Street in Austin.

    Cool artsy areas filled with fun breweries, restaurants and art, which are rough around the edges, but that’s part of the charm and character.

    Outside of Buffalo:

    * Portland: Loved how you’re never more than a mile from a local commercial district. It made the city seem extremely walkable. Yeah, homelessness was bad, but really didn’t take away my enjoyment of the city. Parts of the city had no homeless too.
    * Saratoga Springs: Expected just another rust belt city but was blown away how nice it was. Really awesome walkable downtown with tons going on and very close to the mountains for hiking and winter sports. Like how has Saratoga Springs escaped the fame cities like Boulder, Asheville, Boise and Madison are receiving?

23. Portland, WA

24. Recently, it was Winchester in Virginia. We stopped there while driving on I-81. Pretty town with pedestrian zone in the center with coffeeshops and restaurants. Traditionally, I was always amazed how pleasant are cities like Santa Fe in NM, and Provincetown, MA in winter.