U.S. Cities That Made Us Want to Be Anywhere Else

We tend to get a lot of questions regarding our nomadic lifestyle. The majority ask about our favorite place to visit, but you’d be surprised how many times we’re asked the opposite.

I usually have a hard time answering these types of questions in general. How can I just pick one favorite when there are so many great options to choose from?

Conversely, I also don’t like answering the other one, either. My reason for my dislike of a place could be the reason you like it. I’d prefer not to unintentionally offend you.

That being said, I noticed that Agnes was inspired to write a list of underrated cities around the United States recently. Naturally, that brought up an idea for yours truly to break out of his indecisiveness with a list of places we just don’t need to visit again.

Why should we listen to you?

You don’t have to. It’s a free country, after all. We’ve just traveled all around the U.S. checking out the amber grain waves, purple mountain majesties, and all that good stuff.

After spending so much time traveling around the country, I feel that we can provide some quality (and subjective) examples of places we don’t think you need to prioritize.

Cheyenne, Wyoming

An old truck painted with the words "Cheyenne or bust" on it

The most positive thing I can say about the capital of Wyoming is that it’s not a bad place to base yourself if you are looking to drive to what is available nearby. Nearby Fort Collins is a great example.

I have a few more pros for folks who find themselves here. Housing is relatively cheap, it’s not crowded, and many are drawn to the fact that Wyoming doesn’t have state income taxes.

Fun fact: They also host the largest outdoor rodeo/festival in the world each July during the Cheyenne Frontier Days.

Cheyenne was not for us, however. It’s small, has a limited variety of food, you need to drive everywhere, and it’s fairly homogeneous. The weather is also not great because it’s on a plateau at 6,000 feet of elevation with hardly a mountain to be seen.

I did appreciate the extra 10% it gave to my golf distances, though.

Wyoming has better cities to offer than Cheyenne, so consider Laramie or Jackson on your way to that Yellowstone vacation.

Lake, Michigan

This isn’t a reference to the Lake. We called this one “Lake-Comma-Michigan” to avoid our own confusing moments.

The absurd summer lodging prices in nearby Traverse City, combined with my frugal nature, found us in rural lower Michigan for two weeks one summer.

Perusing short-term rentals, I found what seemed like a well-reviewed lakeside home in an unincorporated town, centrally located to places we wanted to see. It also looked to be perfect for our anxious pooch.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The first walk around the lake bore witness to domestic violence and unleashed dogs chasing after us. We experienced people who thought it was funny to brush by you closely with massive trucks that they definitely never used for utility purposes.

Gunshots at night added to the charm.

I’m no stranger to quiet, rural lakeside stays. We’ve stayed at a few during our travels, and I spent every summer at our quiet cottage in the rural part of Door County, Wisconsin.

“Unincorporated” is a common sign I’ve seen driving around Wisconsin in my life. They aren’t all winners, though, folks.

Note: You’re likely never to know where this unincorporated area is, so I really bring this one up to tell you not to cheap out like me and just stay closer to where you want to visit.

Say it with me from the back: Cheaper is not always best!

Las Vegas, Nevada

A couple poses at a sign for a beer hall in Las Vegas.

I’ll admit, landing at LAS is a pretty cool spectacle with The Strip against the mountain backdrop. Adult Disneyland definitely has its aura, so if it is your favorite spot to vacation, I see you.

I’d just rather not if it was OK with you.

Las Vegas is loud, blinding, and crowded with atrocious traffic. Everything is further away than it looks, walking the Las Vegas Strip takes forever, and it’s hot as H-E-double-hockey-sticks over eight months out of the year.

The landscape is also typically more brown than I prefer.

Need to get across the street on The Strip? Hope you enjoy 16 escalators, four crosswalks and/or bridges, and having to walk through three busy casinos to get there. What should take two minutes takes 20, and no, I don’t want those damn flyers.

Want to bump into 6,000 bachelor(ette) parties drunkenly yelling? Personally, I’d rather see those in Nashville. There’s hot chicken there.

Want to get to Fremont Street or just from one end of the strip to the other? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT’S FOUR MILES AWAY?! Someone build me a teleportation device, stat.

I’m sure this one will elicit some of the strongest responses, so if your blood pressure is rising, remember that I’m a big believer in “you do you.”

We’ve also been SO many times, and even though I’d rather not, we will most assuredly be back again. Vegas has a way of doing that.

Let me know when Britney has her next residency and I’ll be sure to get tickets for Agnes while I probably lose my $200 on the craps table.

If you are looking for alternatives in Nevada, we loved the area around Lake Tahoe, exploring the Extraterrestrial Highway, and Reno/Carson City. There is also “The Loneliest Road in America” if crowds bother you. I relate.

Phoenix, Arizona

Continuing with our tour of the color brown, next up is the capital of what I playfully like to call “Desert Florida.” I visited Phoenix for the first time at 13 and was mesmerized by the saguaro cacti, warm desert air, mountains, and endless golf courses.

I liked it so much that I spent my freshman year of spring break there, too.

Now that I’ve grown up and explored more of the world with my lovely wife, I no longer feel the same yearning. We’ve been a few times since getting married, and each time we are both glad we came and glad we left.

The population has exploded, so Phoenix feels like you have just been dropped into the largest suburb on Earth. It reminds me of the sprawl of Los Angeles but with less water and palm trees.

There are really no alternatives to driving, and going anywhere takes you forever since the thing you’ll want to do is on the opposite end of this massive city. It’s another more unfortunate similarity with Los Angeles.

The heat is unbearable for most of the year. I think the locals keep reminding themselves it’s not bad because it’s a dry heat, because if you keep repeating something over and over, eventually you’ll believe it.

That reminds me. Do you know what else a dry heat is? An. Oven.

I am quite fond of Arizona in general, but we prefer Tucson, Sedona, or Flagstaff when heading to the Grand Canyon State.

Tombstone, Arizona

A reenactment of the shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone

Tombstone was one of the last and arguably most famous boomtowns of the American West. You may have heard of the 1993 movie of the same name, starring Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday.

It was arguably Val’s greatest role just for the quotes alone.

It was always a dream of mine to visit the city that made these characters so famous, so I forced Agnes to visit there on our recent travels through the state.

We were met with a re-enactment of the famous O.K. Corral gunfight, several famous haunts from the movie, and very good beer from Tombstone Brewing Co. The little kid in me was pleased when taking pictures at the cemetery down the road.

After thinking about it, though, it all felt a little touristy and inauthentic in the end. I’m not saying you should skip this one if you too are obsessed with the movie or the Old West in general, but keep your expectations low if you do.

You’ll thank me later for keeping the bar low.

Fun fact: Most of the movie was filmed at the Mescal movie set, anyway

Daytona Beach, Florida

A speed limit sign on the beach in Daytona Beach

I visited Daytona Beach frequently as a child, but we did not go together until recently. My wife, my grandmother in Florida, and I all share the same zodiac sign, so we thought Daytona would be a good stop to celebrate our birthdays.

I remember fond things about Daytona from those early days. It had warm weather, the ocean, palm trees, and you could drive on the beach.

Time, hurricanes, and saltwater have not been kind to the aesthetics here. That becomes painfully obvious as you walk about and see boarded-up housing and overturned portable toilets next to million-dollar homes.

Note: If you ignore this completely, I’d suggest walking around only during the day because crime has spiked there quite a bit since I was a kid.

An unsolved murder happened in the neighborhood just before we arrived, and another domestic violence incident just HAD to happen in our presence here, as well.

If you come during spring break, you’ll be met with exactly what you’d expect. The same goes during one of the most famous of left-turn-only races, the Daytona 500.

Speaking of loud engines, it’s also where everyone seems to rev their motorcycles 24 hours a day and night before heading up to Sturgis in the summer. Ask us how we know that.

If I wanted a better beach experience, I’d head to the Gulf Coast instead. We liked our visit to Mobile, Alabama, for starters.

Deadwood, South Dakota

Deadwood was founded by settlers who ignored a treaty made with the Lakota in the 1870s. They named the town after the dead trees found in the gulch.

Gold was then found in “them thar hills,” creating a boomtown attracting the likes of Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane, and Wild Bill Hicock.

This new and lawless town was notorious for prostitution and murders, but as with many gold rush boomtowns, when the gold left, so did the people looking for it.

Not everything has been lost to time and fire, though, so the entire town is now a tourist trap…I mean a National Historic Landmark District.

A lot of the architecture is well preserved, so if you want to see a good example of the Black Hills Gold Rush while sipping on that PSL from Starbucks, this is your place.

For us, though, Deadwood is another “check the box” type of place we don’t need to see again. It was fine, I guess, but felt way too touristy and commercial for our tastes.

If you need to tick South Dakota off your list, Rapid City and the Black Hills, the absolute gem of Badlands National Park, and Custer State Park are all better options.

Don’t forget to stop at Wall Drug on your way. You’ll see the signs.

Napa, California

Agnes said I couldn’t include this one, but since it’s my post I snuck it in anyway. We’ve been to Napa several times, and I’m just not a fan of the pretentiousness and egregiously overpriced wine.

I always joke that I’d be the world’s worst sommelier, but once you’ve lived in France you get a real chip on your shoulder about $90 bottles of wine. Yes, I will drink Merlot if I want, thank you.

California has several wine regions that don’t have the same vibe, so I’d go to Santa Barbara or even Temecula before I’d be caught in Napa again. (Also, Sonoma’s right there.)

If you pick Temecula, you’d be closer to my favorite city, San Diego.

Agnes would like to point out that she does not share the same disdain for Napa as I do, so we will likely be going there again despite my protests. Happy wife, happy life, amiright?

What’s your “favorite” meh destination?

While there certainly are some duds to us, the list of cities we like is staggeringly long compared to the ones we don’t. I probably even contradicted myself a few times by listing the positives of these places, as well.

We’ve found that every state offers multiple opportunities to return, even if there are a few places we’d skip next time.

If you enjoyed my list, my name is Brian. If not, Agnes made me do it. Either way, I hope I got you thinking about what makes you like or dislike a place during your own travels. We’re both all about seeing a place to see for yourself, whether you like it or not.

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