Posted on 08/08/2013 7:40:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The United States, land of freedom and opportunity, is also the land of scowling faces and folded arms, according to a new poll.
Travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler has unveiled the results of its annual readers' choice survey.
More than 46,000 readers gave their opinions last year on everything from favorite airlines to best hotels and friendliest and unfriendliest cities.
It's the latter category that might cause the most surprises, with U.S. cities dominating the "unfriendly" list.
Newark, New Jersey, is the unfriendliest city in the world according to the survey.
"Newark is best known for being the site of an airport near New York, and for many of our readers, that's the only reason to stop there," says Conde Nast Traveler.
In total, five U.S. cities were voted into the top 10 unfriendly cities list and eight made the top 20. Oakland, California (third), "has an image problem and a split personality" according to a reader who answered the survey.
New Haven, Connecticut (seventh), home of Yale University, is the city of "rude, unfriendly folks;" Detroit (eighth) was called the "armpit of the world" by one reader and Atlantic City, New Jersey (ninth), was dismissed as a "pale shadow of Las Vegas."
Other cities in the list include Islamabad in Pakistan (second least friendly), Luanda in Angola (fourth), Kuwait City (fifth) Lome in Togo (sixth) and Tangier in Morocco (tenth).
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
FROM CONDE NAST TRAVELER:
The world’s unfriendliest cities
20. Caracas, Venezuela
19. Bethlehem, Palestine
18. Casablanca, Morocco
17. Wilmington, Delaware
16. Moscow
15. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
14. Shenzhen, China
13. Albany, New York
12. Los Angeles
11. Guangzhou, China
10. Tangier, Morocco
9. Atlantic City, New Jersey
8. Detroit
7. New Haven, Connecticut
6. Lome, Togo
5. Kuwait City
4. Luanda, Angola
3. Oakland, California
2. Islamabad, Pakistan
1. Newark, New Jersey
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The world’s friendliest cities
20. Cork, Ireland
20. Asheville, North Carolina
18. Edinburgh, Scotland
16.Savannah, Georgia
16. Auckland, New Zealand
14. Victoria, British Columbia
14. Galena, Illinois
13. Dublin, Ireland
12. Christchurch, New Zealand
11. Chiang Mai, Thailand
9. Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
9. Kilkenny, Ireland
8. Mandalay, Myanmar
6. Margaret River, Australia
6. Paro, Bhutan
5. Charleston, South Carolina
4. Queenstown, New Zealand
3. Thimpu, Bhutan
2. Hobart, Tasmania
1. Florianopolis, Brazil
They’re right, Oakland is a dump. I’d have ranked it higher than Newark.
We were a lot friendlier before the leftists took over all our institutions,and replaced our founding values, free economy and our Judeo-Christian foundation with their secular humanist socialist politically correct directives.
Can’t say enough good things about Savannah. People there unfailingly friendly and polite IMO.
Asheville is friendly? I guess they didn’t bother to visit the Thomas Wolfe home and ask a question of the snooty curator.
Very nice recognition for Galena Illinois, population 3,429 and the former home of President Ulysses S. Grant. At one time, Galena was larger than Chicago and the premier city in the area, too bad that is no longer the case.
The friendliest cities are out in the country where there aren’t so many people.
Oakland used to be a beautiful city. And very friendly. But, that was yesteryear.
Newark, OTOH, greets travelers with a view of the razor wire surrounding the adjacent prison. And then there is the mad trip through narrow streets, muttering unspoken prayers under your breath, that you get out before anyone stops your car.
Victoria, BC is a delightful city where the merchants have gone out of their way to help us on several occasions.
Actually, you could likely pick any two of those qualities and fit right in. Others would simply serve as extra credit.
They make some pretty good beer at all the breweries in Asheville. What's better is that I can buy it in the store, and not need to visit. ;-)
Oakland is the newark of the west....they are basically twins. Having worked in both places, I feel like I am somewhat of an on the group expert.
Oakland used to be a beautiful city
I spent a fair bit of time in the area 10-12 years ago. I arrived in Oakland at night, to a hotel that was surrounded by a 8-foot wall topped with spools of concertina wire. I said, "I gotta find me a different place to stay!", and did so the next day. :-)
Jack London square was nice, but *literally* just crossing the street put me into an area that I really didn't want to be.
It’s a very pretty city, though.
Welcome to the South!
I agree with Detroit. Awful. I disagree with Newark. If you can find your way outside of the airport, there are some nice little pockets in the city. Personally, I hate downtown Atlanta with a passion. The only other place I have felt so threatened was in Detroit or Oakland. There was a reason Sherman burned Atlanta. When people tell me they love Atlanta, after further discussion you learn that the only area of Atlanta they’ve been in is Buckhead. Buckhead ain’t Atlanta. Would that it were.
Hey I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we make the mayor of Newark, NJ a U.S. Senator.
You just might have your wish come true.... ( praying for the alternative to win).
I do not wish that on any state.
The list of "nice places" is bang on with Charleston. I enjoyed my visit there, it's one of those cities that you can eat your way through. Nashville (also Knoxville) TN was nice as well.
Best people I ever found while travelling (I used to do a lot of travelling for business) were in Monroeville, AL. I was there over Christmas. Once the people I was working with found out, they overwhelmed me with invites into their homes for Christmas festivities. I accepted the first four, needed to politely turn down a dozen or more invites, thereafter.
Having done both...I'd take a week in Monroeville over a month in NYC or SF (or other 'prime' spots), every single time.
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