Fifteen Least Friendly Cities In The World To Visit -- The (London) Telegraph; September 2, 2015

Updates

Later, 2:27 p.m. Central Time: not to be out-done, The (London) Mail  has the list of US cities -- just US cities -- that seem to hate tourists. Arlington, TX, leads the list. It was interesting how this list (other than Arlington, TX) seems to corroborate the international findings in The (London) Telegraph story below.  

Among the cities that are least loved by tourists, several show up on both lists: NYC, Boston, Los Angeles, and Los Vegas, Nevada. It was interesting to see Boston and Las Vegas end up on both lists.  
Among US cities, Chicago was the most welcoming (hey, didn't I just say that below) followed by Atlanta (also mentioned by me below). Philadelphia and Miami came next, both of which were on the list of cities disliked by British travelers. Then came Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, WA. Folks in Washington, DC, apparently like US tourists but not British tourists. 

Original Post

 

This is right up my alley, as they say: a list of the fifteen most unfriendly cities in the world to visit.

This was a good time to post the "survey." The summer travel season is just ending and world travelers have their most recent visits still fresh in their memories. 

However, note: the list was compiled in a British publication, The (London) Telegraph and there might be a bit of bias. It was based on a readers' poll, apparently. In reverse order, the world's least friendly cities:

15: Boston
14: Frankfurt, Germany
13: Washington, DC
12: Miami, FL
11: Beijing, China
10: Cannes, France
9: Las Vegas, Nevada
8: Baltimore, MD
7: Philadelphia, PA
6: New York City, NY
5: Los Angeles, CA
4: Marseille, France
3: St Petersburg, Russia
2: Atlantic City, New Jersey
1: Moscow, Russia

I haven't read the reasons yet, but my two cents worth follows.

1. Obviously The Telegraph did not include destinations off the beaten path. For example, I doubt most cities in Russia or China or or any cities in Africa or the Mideast were even considered. Tripoli? Baghdad? Riyadh? Kampala? It looks like South America was also not considered. Caracas? Brasilia? So having said that, I have to assume the following cities were considered and did NOT get into the top 15 of least friendly cities:

• Rome, Venice, Florence; Italy
• Amsterdam, Brugge, Luxembourg City; the Low Countries
• Bern, Basel, Zurich; Switzerland
• Edinburgh, Glasgow; Scotland
• York, Leeds, Cambridge, Oxford; England
• Belfast, Dublin; Island of Ireland
• Lisbon, Portugal (off the beaten path?)
• Madrid, Barcelona; Spain
• Tokyo, Japan
• Sydney, Australia
• Athens, Greece 
• Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chian
• Quebec City, Toronto, Calgary, Canada
• Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta; US

2. Wow, The Telegraph really hates America (of the top fifteen, no less than nine were in the US).

3. I can't talk much about San Francisco; it's been a long time since I spent time there and it's changed a lot, I assume. Chicago, on the other hand: I was really, really surprised how friendly the folks were there, even downtown; and the Chicagoans really, really love their city.  I was happy to see Chicago not on the list -- mostly because it comes as a surprise.

4. I wonder if The Telegraph readers visited any cities in Texas (Houston, Dallas-Ft Worth, San Antonio)? If they did, I'm not a bit surprised to see none of these cities make the list. Even my wife is surprised how friendly everyone is down here. My wife is Hispanic-Japanese; more Hispanic than Japanese; had a bad experience in North Dakota --all three years that we lived there -- she was a professional working there and she felt folks thought she was part of the migrants working the fields; did not get served in local restaurant. Here in Texas, she has felt most welcome by the non-Hispanic community as well as the entire community.

5. I'm not a bit surprised Boston is on the list. If it had not been on the list, I would not have been surprised either. Boston is a hard city to understand. In the big scheme of things, of all the places I've lived (and I've lived in a lot of places) Boston seemed the most cliquish. If you weren't part of Boston, you weren't part of Boston, if you know what I mean. My impression is that Boston is more cliquish than New York City.

6. Some time ago I posited that what I find most amazing about the US: it really does not have any world-class cities. NYC perhaps was at one time, but outsiders' perception of NY politics, squalor, drugs, poverty, homelessness, prevent NYC from becoming considered a world-class city. The perceptions may be all wrong, but ... And if NYC is not a world class city, then nothing in the US can rise to that level. I've never been to all of them, but I would think the world class cities are: Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, and Paris. Maybe Berlin.

7. Perhaps more later. On my way to the library.