I agree with previous posters that Dublin's overrated. Yes, it's got Diageo..er...Guinness, yes it's arguably the literary center of the English-speaking world. It's also massively congested, lacks a reasonable transport system, doesn't have great food, and in the city center the pubs are crap and overrun with stag & hen groups from the UK.

Ireland outside the M50 is much, much more appealing. (Except I'm still not wild about the diddly-eye music)

Sydney

Positives
Stunning harbour
Good beaches
Road to Melbourne


Negatives
Nothing much to do there
Expensive
Dreadful traffic because of poor planning
Polluted
Endless suburbia

DXB, PVG, and LAX are over-rated.

MIA is under-rated. NYC is properly rated.

I scrupulously avoided all the museums (except the Louvre) and churches, as I've never found much appeal in these things, in Paris but still had a great time. The shopping and cafes were just awesome. ^ Only a bit too smoky in certain places.

No great pubs in Dublin??? I found the Temple Bar area perfectly fine - although it was pretty tame on some nights. I went on a Guinness pub crawl and that was tops, especially at the end of it when everyone was so shitfaced and it was all merry. :D

Let me fix that.

After having lived three years in the Bay Area and an additional year directly in "the City and County of San Francisco," I can state authoritatively that the City By The Bay is far and away the most overrated place in America.

Outrageously expensive real estate, crappy public schools, homeless people everywhere, rotten transportation (especially MUNI), parka weather in July, lame local bands (Third Eye Blind, anyone?), a general layer of filth across the whole place, and you get to live next door to the most annoying, self-regarding, morally superior neo-Puritans this side of Old Boston.

Actually, from the perspective of a committed Angeleno, S.F. is a great place because all the San Francisco people stay there and keep away from L.A.

And we get to take all their water.

Ouch...:(

Orlando. Ugh.

I agree in a way...I think that Italy is probably the most difficult place to travel in within Western Europe. I'm not sure why...but it just is much tougher to get around and see things there than in Germany, France, UK, etc. However, all of the travelers that I respect say that Italy is one of their favorite places...and I agree wholeheartedly! It is a great place, and some of the most enchanting and fun times I have ever had while on walkabout have been in small villages in the Italian countryside.

Agreed! 100%! It's the classic packaged tour, all-inclusive, fanny-pack, white-shoes-and-dark-socks place on the face of the Earth. :td:

I'm going to have to go with Paris. It's crowded, smoggy, and the streets are covered in canine feces. I've been several times on both business and pleasure and I just don't see what people find so amazing. Also, as a vegetarian, the food is awful and heavy.

Boston would be a close second. Historic, yes. Interesting, no. I lived there for 4 years, so I think I'm at least nominally qualified to make that judgment.

I'm sure I'm probably going to get flamed for these, but this is an opinion board and all...

The major well-known city I felt most disappointed in personally was Geneva. Not a bad place, really, just a sort of "no there there" situation. There are a number of worthwhile attractions nearby though, so it's a convenient base for daytrips.

Best example of city I liked more than I'd expected to: Berlin.

See, that's the confusion again, no one rates Orlando as anything, it's generic US city with nothing to it, lots of malls and highways. There are Disneyland and all that in the vicinity and they do "rate" as exactly what they are.

Quebec City, which is really a small town I guess. It is like a small dog fighting pit with half of the population fighting the other half. Talk about jut-jawed, unhappy people.

And despite that, people keep coming from the far corners of the world to visit San Francisco. You'd think word of the "general layer of filth" would have gotten out by now, and that so many people would stop calling it one of the world's most beautiful cities.

Dublin.

That's tourism.