Indianapolis.
Strangely I was disappointed with Minneapolis this summer and I've been there several times and always enjoyed myself. Something didn't feel safe this time around. I haven't had the feeling in a very long time.

NYC is much better now than in 1994. You also need to explore places like Brooklyn Heights and the east village (it's cleaned-up too) to get a refreshing new perspective of the city.

I think that was from Positively Fifth Street, right? Not sure if he's the original source...

Where's Pittsburgh? I always gear up to defend the bashing of my hometown when this topic comes up...;)

New Orleans....very glad the conference circuit has ended down there. The city is ugly especially the waterfront. The restaurants, however, were great. I'll give them that.

San Antonio....the Riverwalk was totally unimpressive. Just a bunch of touristy restaurants. No natural beauty. The pictures on the website look much better than in person.

This thread isn't about bashing cities for the sake of doing so. According to the OP, it's about people whose positive pre-conceived notions of city were completely wrong once these cities were visited.

Disappointed implies having had expectations in the first place.

For me, it was the people. I went all around Hermosa, Santa Monica, all the other 'suburbs' of LA including downtown and Hollywood (I had friends living in various areas I was visiting), and I had driven down there from San Jose so I haven't even seen LAX. What really, truly got me was the people. I suppose I really am a Midwesterner at heart, but in LA the people just seemed so, I don't know, I just didn't want to touch them in fear that their superficiality would rub off. :eek:

Dear lord, you were under the impression LA was about substance? :eek: ;) :D

Baltimore. Beautiful harborfront but tacky shops alongside. Most teeshirts had the word "crab/crabby" on them, i.e. "I've got crabs"/"I'm crabby". The others had mostly obscene/stupid things written on them. Most of the "salespeople" in the ice-cream places were more interested in talking with members of the opposite sex than in serving customers. Very disappointed in the crab restaurants. Too much work for too little meat.

Add Seattle, Washington to the list.

Even their main tourist attraction, the Space Needle, was a joke. I seriously was more impressed with the Stratosphere Tower in Vegas than I was with Space Needle.

The only place in Seattle that I had fun in was at the Pike Market Place watching the "Flying Fish" :o

Edit: And it didn't even rain when I was there. So weather has nothing to do with it.

Charlotte, NC - that city is a Yawn (note the capital Y).

You rate cities on their so called "tourist attractions" do you??:rolleyes:
No strip clubs there?

mike

I've only been to perhaps three strip clubs in my life and two of them was for a bachelor party and the other was with a group of friends ;)

I haven't been to a city I wasn't disappointed by. IMHO, all cities are pretty much the same boring places. Same shops, stores, grumpy people. I like rural areas much better and never find them disappointing. In all seriousness, I like rural Manitoba and Saskatchewan better than any European or North American city I've ever been to.

People don't expect to be overwhelmed when they visit our sh*thole. Period.