I agree - BiziBB, I was just trying to challenge them.

I, for example, wouldn't wish to suggest that by making such comments about Sydney without actually having visited the city this person is a fool, in fact I very much doubt that they are a fool.......But, when looked at their comments in print (and this person obviously places a lot of trust on what they read in print), its a conclusion that others could well reach ;)

Anyway, I love Sydney - in fact the vast majority of the people who have been to Sydney LOVE it and would return in an instant! The first time I actuially went without my guidebook too!!!

Dear flyrights

You have all my respect (seriously!). Other people wouldn't have mentioned the guidebooks and just claimed to have been to Sydney. The fact that you were upfront about the source of your opinion is extremely commendable.

I admire you for it (even if I have been a little tickled!)

Glad you're on FT!!! :) :-: ^

BizBB, sorry you don't like a rational discussion... and since you list your location as Sydney, I would think you would at least be open to listening or discussing a different opinion, but you prefer to be close-minded, and name calling... which leads me to believe even stronger that Sydney is mostly hype.

And I think it's perfectly reasonable to look at guide books before deciding where to go. I simply wasn't impressed with what I read about Sydney that would warrant such a long flight. And no one, NO ONE has offered any suggestion that I am wrong about what I'm reading in guide books. OK, so the harbor is pretty... I can eat well there... I can stay in a nice hotel... it's just not enough to convince me to go out of my way to get there...

One thing I've observed about SOME Australians over the years is that they SEEM to be a bit more nationalistic than others... they LOVE their country, which is fine, but some clearly have no ability to admit their country might not be perfect, and they have NO ABILITY to admit they can be wrong about anything.

I'm an American, and I could LITERALLY write ten thousand pages about what is wrong in American... and why most American cities are worthless to tourists. Sadly, and I don't like to generalize, but most Australians have no ability to admit there is anything bad about their country... and I haven't read anything really "bad" about Sydney... it's just that I don't see anything really worthwhile for tourists, especially coming from so far.

And for the record, I have to go to Sydney in a few weeks, on my way from Bangkok to Tahiti... (the most frequent and fastest service is through Australia...) it's just that I've been weighing should I make a stopover in Sydney for one day, or one week... and it looks like one day is enough time to get the view of the harbor and opera house. Oh, and the famous bridge too. I will spend the rest of my stopover time in Bali.

No kidding! I'm going to have to come to fisticuffs with ILuvParis who ragged on my native San Francisco. :D

You've never been there and you are proclaiming a place overrated. There is no discussion to be had. :rolleyes:

This is hilarious....

If the city has an Irish Pub, it's worth a visit. In all serious, to each his own. I commend the OP for his argument and defence. However, I would not limit my sources of data to two: a guidebook and this forum.

This whole thread is like arguing about music or art - each person has their own set of criteria for what makes a place interesting - to them - and what doesn't. And everyone that doesn't live in a city operates on insufficient data.

I'll only make two comments:

One, Barcelona is my favorite city. The vibe I get from the place is like nothing I've ever felt in any other place. It's just a magical place to me. The architecture (how can you not look at a Gaudi building in wonder? If he'd lived in America he'd have been burned at the stake), the climate, the beaches, the food and dining culture (and eating outside!), the neighborhoods, nightlife, museums, the great public transportation system, the people, and most of all the thoughtful pedestrian-friendly design of the place - how many other cities have main thoroughfares (Ave. Diagonal) where there is more room in the middle for pedestrians to walk along (under beautiful big trees, and with wild parrots chirping away in some parts of it!) than the 2 lanes for cars?

My other comment is about Los Angeles. A lot of you think it's overrated, fine. I've lived here for nearly 30 years (and have never once driven by any stars' homes :D ). You don't know my LA. I could show you a thousand different micro-environments, each one different than the next, and none of which would match your idea of what "LA" is.

Now of course, being here I have a love-hate relationship with the place. It's far too overcrowded now, the freeways and cross-city driving is a total nightmare, the beaches - where I used to spend so many wonderful hours as a teenager - are polluted and you can't find a place to park out there, and so on and so on. But LA probably has the best on-average weather (along with SAN) of any major city in the world - I don't know about my fellow FT'ers, but I like going on trips where the Sun is out every day and you don't get rained on. Outside of Jan.-Apr., if you come to LA that's what you're likely to get - sunshine.

And there's a lot to do here - just pick up the LA Weekly on Thursdays and see how many listings there are for things to do. And we even have decent cultchah like the Getty Museum and LACMA and MOCA and the Hollywood Bowl (wonderful place to see/hear music, if you're up close) and the LA Philharmonic at the recently-new Walt Disney Hall in downtown, etc. Even Downtown - for decades the strangest, emptiest Ghost Town in the world after 5 PM - is starting to be Yuppified and populated by people (with more money than sense :D ) moving into (overpriced) loft spaces down there. And then there are all the "Little" ethnic neighborhoods - Little Tokyo, Koreatown, Little Armenia, etc. And in the complete opposite direction, there's the I'd-never-know-I-was-in-LA places like Topanga Canyon. And so on, and so on. Within easy (1-2 hours) reach of the city are places like Gee-this-sure-looks-like-New-Hampshire (Big Bear Lake/Lake Arrowhead) and Wow-this-really-used-to-be-a-desert-didn't-it (Palm Springs/environs, or the High Desert north of LA like Palmdale/Lancaster/Edwards Air Force Base) and the California Poppy Reserve. Like I said earlier - I could show you a thousand micro-environments that don't even remotely resemble Rodeo Drive or "Hollywood" or whatever comes to mind when you think of "LA".

Ultimately, to me, it's about the vibe you get from a place (I spent a week in NYC, and didn't get the vibe there at all). I get a great vibe from BCN. I get good vibes from LON/AMS/CDG, etc. I got a good vibe from SYD as well - I can't help but think that for an outdoorsey person, SYD would be a great place to live. (I haven't been there in 5 years, but I remember thinking, 30% of Australia's population is here, and yet I don't see any pollution in the air? Wow, sign me up.)

This is news to me (and I live in Dallas).

HEY! I said I liked it! :D

Ok - I'm going to catch some flak for this - but Vegas just didn't live up to its hype

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. :)

I'll start with a few general comments

First, I can't see how anyone can claim a city is over-rated unless you've actually been there yourself! Surely any judgment to as whether a city is over-rated compared to the general consensus/PR hype has to be formed according to your own experiences of the place?

Your view of any city is also influenced by your expectation and sometimes, it's very easy to imagine that everything is better somewhere else and one of things I have learned is not to visit cities with too high expectations. There are no perfect cities. There are almost always trade-offs - particularly when it comes to a choice of where to work and live.

You also need do your research. There is always so much more than the obvious tourist destinations and sometimes you need to give a city more than one go. I've been to New York many times. The first time I did all the obvious things, but on each successive visit I've explored different neighbourhoods and found lots of new places. I always leave New York with a list of things to do next time.

As for specific cities:

I wouldn't say San Francisco is necessarily over-rated, but I don't think it is what it could be. SFO certainly has a lot going for it, but even though I was aware of the city's homeless problem before I arrived, I still found it a blight on the city.

Sydney is a wonderful city. Many of the reasons to love Sydney have been listed. And what a civilised way to spend a summer evening by sitting in the Royal Botanic Gardens watching an outdoor cinema screen with the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge in the background.
http://www.stgeorge.com.au/openair/

As for London, as Samuel Johnson said: "He who is tired of London is tired of life". London is the financial, political, cultural and media capital of the UK. The city is a magnet for talent in Europe. In many respects London has really raised it's game over the past ten years. The quality of restaurants has improved vastly, we've had new projects such as Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge. There is so much more to London than the familiar attractions such as Tower of London, Picadilly Circus etc. Yes London can be a difficult, dirty, expensive and congested place, but you can't expect a densely populated major economic centre to look perfectly manicured.

I'm surprised Dublin hasn't been brought up more. I've never been (going next month), but everyone tells me it is way overrated. Granted, that makes me want to go more, but still. :)

I really hate to defend L.A. because there are already too many people who want to come here, and because I'd rather have the secret NOT go out. But a big reason why so many people dislike this place is because there really is "no there there". (And the more people who feel that way, the better, IMO.)

L.A. is unlike other worldly cities because it has no center. In its place, there are hundred of neighborhoods with an unbelievable number of gems large and small. By far it is today's most international and cosmopolitan city in the world, but unless you make the effort to understand the place, the average visitor will find it a mindless, barren dump--I've been there before; it took me ten years to be converted.

By the way:
^ Cape Town, Rio de Janiero, Sydney, London, Tokyo, Kyoto, Vienna
:td: Hongkong, Shanghai, Melbourne

You have to be RATED before you can be OVERRATED. Salt Lake City is an I-15 rest stop.