Money Matters
hoffse
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Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
GTKY: Favorite cities? Least favorite?
I've been entertaining myself during lunch reading Fodors and TA lists. I thought I'd ask the MM board:
Favorite US city? Why? Least favorite? Why?
If you've been out of the country, do you have favorite/least favorite non-US cities?
Re: GTKY: Favorite cities? Least favorite?
ETA forgot to add the why's. The loves are for the character of the towns and they are in some really beautiful locations. Houston, it's so hot and humid 24/7, I have never met a nice person there, no one can drive, it's just a place you can't get away from fast enough.
I am mostly a lurker, but had to comment on the Italian cities! I actually thought the opposite of you in Florence and Rome. I found Rome very much a typical large urban city, aside from the historic sites of course. I didn't really feel the "magic" that I did in Florence. I found Florence to be so much more representative of the Italian culture, and just fell in love with it. Sorry to jump in, it was just interesting to see such a different perspective. I went about 10 years ago so my memory may be a little faded, but that's what I recall when I visited.
But I'm with you in hating NYC
Least fave: Las Vegas. We visited in November and I was suprised how much we disliked it. Except for our hotel it seemed dirty and rundown. And expensive! I also wasn't as impressed with Seattle as I thought I'd be. The fish market was neat, but downtown was mostly made up of chains.
International fave: Barcelona. It's so diverse and walkable. You can get history, art, culture and the beach all in one place. We've been twice and will keep going back. We also loved Wellington, New Zealand. Friendly people, who gave H a private tour of their local stadium just because he asked. Incredible free national museum and arboretum. Fun pier area and good shopping downtown.
Least fave: Rome. We found it congested and unfriendly. The drivers there are insane, and I hated being packed like sardines into every monument basically having to move with the speed of everyone else, particularly inside the Vatican musuems and Sistine chapel.
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Abroad Least Faves: Limerick, Ireland (so dirty and boring and expensive)
Fav U.S. Cities: Richmond, VA due to the wonderful assortment of things to do and the odd Northern and Southern mixture of folks.
Tacoma, WA with Puget sound, but with the more small town feel and appearance than Seattle.
Stillwater, MN along the St. Croix river and full of neat shops and restaurants.
Least Fav U.S. Cities: Las Vegas for its fakeness and that it supports an industry that leads a lot of people into ruin and hurts families.
Basically, any major downtown area I dislike because I'm more of a nature, antique, small quaint town feel type of person.
International Fav: Dover, England. and Edinburgh Scotland.
Least Fav: Don't really have one.
While I have not been to Boston myself, I had a good friend who was in the Navy for many years. Needless to say, she had at least visited a LOT of places throughout the world. She said Boston was her all-time favorite city. Though I've heard my charming current city of NOLA, is second only to Boston when it comes to potholes, lol.
Alas, I haven't yet traveled much internationally, but have traveled pretty extensively through the U.S. My all-time favorite city is Lake Tahoe, CA/NV. Breathtakingly gorgeous! There is the beautiful blue lake surrounded by beautiful mountains. I hope to retire there some day, though it will probably never happen because of my cold-phobic husband.
My least fave: Miami. Though, to be fair, I wasn't visiting. I lived there for three months after Hurricane Katrina. I'd never been there and was initially looking forward to it...joked with my family, "Hey, if you have to evacuate, you can't get much better than Miami!" OMG, I was SO wrong! Rudest drivers ever...and they're pretty bad in NOLA, plus I grew up in So CA. So it isn't as if I arrived like Rebecca from Sunnybrook Farm.
I also found people, in general, were more unfriendly and snobbier than anywhere else I'd been. And I'm a pretty friendly, optimistic person myself, so that is the "vibe" I usually pick up when visiting places. Heck, NYC has a reputation for being rude, but on my one visit there I actually found everyone I encountered to be SO welcoming and gracious.
In fact, unlike some of the rest of you, I loved NYC. I loved the hustle bustle. Loved the food, Loved being able to walk everywhere. However, I was only there for a couple days and was on vacation. Perhaps it would be a different tune if I had been there on business or stayed longer.
Favorite: Boston, San Francisco
Least Favorite- Oakland (ghetto)
Least Favorite: Orlando, Fl just can't stand the heat and humidity. Dallas, TX had a day trip to an even in Dallas and my navigator failed me. I can't forget Pittsburgh and how hard it is to get from here to there because of the three rivers and the hills. I have been told that if I parked downtown and walked around it is better.
Then again, I like smaller towns and cities.
Internationally: I like Toronto since it is very easy to get around. Zurich was also nice for the weekend that MW and I stayed. The hotel was expensive but functional. My most favorite was Koblenz and the small towns around it. Bad Honnigen just North of Koblenz has many festivals on the weekends and it is right on the Rhine river with a European spa.
Least Favorite: Frankfurt, Germany, didn't spend too much time roaming around this city, but it is the fiscal hub and very large.
If you just want to see a German city without the crowds, go during a National Holiday that was how I saw Bonn, Germany and I could get through the commercial areas without tripping over people.
I spent 10 weeks in a smaller city, large town called Wissen near Koln and Bonn that has a really nice downtown area where we stayed. I actually was able to make friends with the local business owners and could have gotten a job with a German company.
Love:
Moncton, NB (there's a reason we moved here out of anywhere else in the country)
Halifax, NS
Toronto, ON (lived there for years, still love it but don't need the big city anymore)
Ottawa, ON (some people say its "where 30-year-olds go to retire", lol. It is boring and a little pretentious but pretty with some great features and an awesome market area.)
Picton, ON
Kitchener/Waterloo, ON
Banff, AB
Jasper, AB
Montreal, QC
Quebec City, QC
Boston, MA
Providence, RI
Edinburgh, Scotland
Tarbert, Harris, Scotland
Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, Scotland
Only to visit:
Las Vegas, NV
Calgary, AB
Traverse City, MI
North Bay, ON
Thurso, Scotland (the people are so friendly and it's very cute but I'm not sure I can think of a more boring place to live full time. It has a good feeling about it though)
Dislike:
Sault Ste. Marie, ON (there are so many reasons we left)
Sudbury, ON
Hamilton, ON
Mississauga, Etobicoke and the like (Toronto 'burbs)
Winnipeg, MB
Sault Ste. Marie, MI
Flint, MI
Wow you all been some really cool places...
I will say Chicago is my absolute favorite city. I love it there. It's clean, they have great parks and I love a nice slice of deep dish pizza! And I also really love San Diego, there is so much to do there.
Least favorite would be Dallas. The city itself seemed really choppy and the people were not nice. Then again that could because I was decked out my Ravens gear when we were playing the Cowboys the day I flew out. I will say I got one of the best steaks ever there!
My faves:
San Diego - they have an AWESOME zoo and the weather is just perfect. I love the vibe there.
Seattle - I love the location. It's so pretty out there and lots of outdoorsy stuff to do outside the city too.
Least faves:
NYC- I'm also not a fan. I think it's overrated, way too busy, and I really don't understand why they think their pizza/bagels/whatever are superior but I'm also not a huge foodie.
LA- Granted I only visited for a day but meh. I was underwhelmed. I was comparing it to San Diego at the time though.
It's awesome there, I love the streets and shops. It's the quaint, everyone knows everyone, small town amazingness. The scenery around is awesome, too.