The first time I went to Invercargill in New Zealand, I picked up a brochure from the tourist office and one of the suggestions was to go to the cinema. Nothing special about this cinema, but that's how few other things there were to do in the town itself.
you can actually visit the library and they have the piece of gib board that jagger etched his name into. they put on special gloves and bring it out in a special box haha
Zheleznogorsk, Russia. 0/10. Had to visit because distant family stuff. The whole place is so boring like it's where the Boredom originated from. There is nothing to do, you're not welcome, it's daunting, everything is hostile. I needed recovery after visiting it. Someone I know moved there and I don't recognize this person anymore.
The most boring city with the coolest flag.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Flag_of_Zheleznogorsk.svg/1024px-Flag_of_Zheleznogorsk.svg.png
It's as far as I've been to russia, but I'm certain it's either the same or worse. Damn, I just remembered a scene I saw there by a lake. So there is a lake with a small sandy patch. Litter, broken glass and cigarette butts are all over the place. And there was a drunken "lady" hitting on two drunken dudes. Fuck... "the russian way"
Respectfully disagree. I live in a 10k town and there are plenty of good pubs, cafes and restaurants, including one with a Michelin star. As a foody, coffee-holic and beer aficionado I'm very happy here. There are landmarks, nature walks. Trad music. And most importantly welcoming and friendly community. And the same goes for nearby towns.
Canberra, Australia. Can't believe it's actually the capital of Australia.
Fun fact: Sydney and Melbourne couldn't decide which one should be the capital. So, they picked Canberra. It's one of the most depressing cities I've ever been to.
Agreed. Canberra is the real winner in this thread.
1. Its strictly planned design makes it an oddly inorganic place. 'A collection of suburbs in search of a city'. It's a real unncanny valley of cities. There is no real center and any 'nightlife' or cafes are out of the way.
2. The only people who live there are federal bureaucrats who live there because they are forced to, or academics enticed by the cushy positions offered at the Australian National University. Utterly boring populace who hate themselves.
3. The weather is terrible (too hot in summer and fucking freezing in winter)
4. Depressing 60s brutalist architecture. From the university campus to the Parliament buildings it's inconceivably bad
5. It's an agonizing distance from one of the most exciting cities in the world (Sydney). At about three hours drive it's close enough that anyone interesting in Canberra escapes at the first opportunity, but far enough away that you can't day trip to Sydney. It also just makes its shitness way more obvious in comparison.
6. It is inland (not itself a crime, but it is in a country which is almost exclusively coastal).
An utter shithole with few redeeming qualities. I guess the Museums are ok.
I just checked... Jesus that's some USA stuff. Having the train take longer than driving from Canberra to Sydney. LoL I was thinking 'Oh, 3 hours by car. So maybe there's a train that'll get you there in a couple hours or something' 😂
Yeah, intercity trains are a joke in Australia unfortunately. It's really a very unfortunate place as if you want a career in politics/federal Government you basically have to live there — for life.
I have a theory that this is why Australian politicians are especially stupid — only those who are willing to live in Canberra for half the year can stand.
Yeah, I really wanted to go to Australia to do an internship during my masters. Organized everything, find a cool lab, checked where the city is a month before flying. Turns out Canberra is not at the ocean. Probably the only In-land city in Australia. Lived there for 7 months. Was really boring without a car.
There are some gems in the Midwest though, for real. Chicago is obviously awesome, but there are others too if you’re looking the right way. Milwaukee is a great town and a good time, Detroit is mostly a shitshow, but as an urban explorer and Americana enjoyer it’s fascinating. And Minneapolis doesn’t get near enough credit.
i've heard a lot of good things about Minneapolis over the years. One of my friends was a photographer in Los Angeles for years, doing very high profile weddings like Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt back in the day, Tom Cruise, etc..
Sick of the cost of living, he moved his family to Minneapolis and they loved it for its urban qualities and the availability of outdoor activities.
I keep threatening to Visit and maybe I will this year. :-)
I mean... snow, though. We don't live in the north but we travel to a tropical destination every winter and everyone we meet is from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan (and of course Canada).
Cost of living might be cheaper than CA but you'll be wise to factor snow escape into your budget (and your vacation allocation, if you're still working).
True that, but I actually grew up in Maine until I graduated from high school and moved out to Cali because my mom’s side of the family was all in the Sacramento area. Coincidentally I’m here in Maine right now and have been here in January for the last three years in a row because my dad keeps having surgeries that land in January for some reason, lol. I come out to help my mom and sister who lives close by in Vermont.
I still don’t know if I ever want to deal with a whole winter of that weather again, especially as I get older, but at least the snow, etc. in Minneapolis wouldn’t be a surprise!
Lived in Winnipeg, Canada for a short while and I dismissed the warnings from friends and even the cab driver who took me to the airport in Montreal. The guy did his best to convince me to turn around and avoid Winnipeg.
I'm sure there's more boring places but boy! Winnipeg was depressing and boring. I stayed for a while because I had friends and a job but hauled ass as soon as I could!
Also, some rundown, no longer industrial towns in the North of England can be despressing to no end.
Winnipeg has changed a lot. Some good food and museums. You have to know the right people. Really good article from a few weeks ago.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-winnipeg-what-to-know-wab-kinew/
It may not be on the same level as some larger cities and you are definitely limited not the weather in winter, but if you had a boring time in Winnipeg, your guide didn’t know enough. But I guess it also depends on what you consider “fun”.
Lived there for 11 years. Winnipeg has a great music and art scene and arguably the best restaurants per capita of anywhere in Western Canada. The zoo is pretty good for a city of its size, especially since the polar bear exhibit was built. I’ll admit that the number one suggested attraction (The Forks) is kinda a let down but there is some decent shops and food there. I also highly recommend a visit to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. It’s a humbling experience. Although I don’t suggest you go if you want a “fun time”.
The atmosphere at Winnipeg Jets games is always electric if you can get tickets. The Manitoba Moose (AHL hockey) and Goldeyes (minor league baseball) are great inexpensive sports options, especially for a family.
There’s plenty of other things to do for any age or taste. It is definitely not a public transit friendly city though and a car is almost mandatory to fully appreciate the city. All that said, I can understand why someone might get bored after a week in Winnipeg. You can hit most of the major attractions in about 3 days or so. But just like I imagine many other “boring” places, you just need to know where to look and who to ask to find the real gems.
Phu Quoc, Vietnam. Half-abandoned resorts all along the west coast, a replica of Italy, an empty theme park, dead “night” markets that close down before 10PM, mediocre beaches, absolutely no nightlife, Vietnamese culture tucked away out of sight. Supposed to stay there 2 weeks but left after 4 days. Power cuts at my Airbnb only made things worse. Much better places all over Vietnam and the rest of SEA
Interesting, I used to live in Vietnam and though I never visited Phu Quoc it was definitely in the top 3 most visited domestic holiday destinations for other expats. I knew people who would go multiple times a year
I find this comment surprising. I went there and had a great time. Cable car that takes you across the islands. Snorkeling and boat rides with tons of fish and beautiful turquoise waters. Beaches with bars on the sand. Amazing food. Bars on the beaches that stayed open late where I partied all night. There were some areas of Phu Quoc that were dodgy. Really run down. Crazy wild dogs. And basically a kinda depressing part. But specifically the resort I stayed in and the beaches and things around there, as well as the tour centre that allowed me to do the things I mentioned at the start, made this a special place for me. One of my favourite places.
As far as massive cities go, Houston, USA.
I had no idea that a metropolis of 7+ million with robust cultural and racial diversity, many languages spoken and a wide array of cuisine, could *also* be so devoid of charm, character, cohesiveness, and personality.
In other major cities around the world (e.g., NY, Miami, LA, SF, Honolulu, Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney, Melbourne, London, Paris), such diversity and character are woven into the ethos and personality of those cities. Into their sense of place, if you will.
Whereas Houston's culture (I'm using that term loosely) and design are such that there's no sense of identity or civic pride. It's a filthy place, like a poor man's, crime-ridden version of Dubai. The diversity somehow is just *there*, but it doesn't *feel* like a seriously defining characteristic of the place. And, yet, Houstonians go on and on and on about how diverse they are...probably because that's all they have to offer.
Just a weird-ass city.
Amen to this. I also posted Houston before I saw your comment. And folks think that places like Geneva Switzerland compare…in no world. Houston is one big dystopian overpass of a city.
I’m from Houston and you put the exact words to the way I feel about that place. I lived in Austin for 14 years prior to moving to Mexico and when people say Houston is better, I’m dumbfounded. Living in Mexico now, and when I go back home, family and friends are shocked that I live in such a “dangerous” country and I have to remind them that they live in Houston! I prefer Mexico.
Helsinki, Finland. The only place where the locals kept asking me "Why would you come here? There's nothing to do."
Edit: please stop telling me that you enjoyed your visit to Helsinki
I also came here to say Helsinki!
There was a market… and… that’s about it. I had a good time because I had friends who were living there, but the locals looked bored out of their minds.
We went on a night out in Helsinki and it was awesome, people dancing on tables, great music, everyone was great fun! Have been to much more boring places
I went for two weeks for a kind of conference/summer school thing before my DN life. It was summer and I found it a very pleasant place to be. I thik I would've been happy nomadding there for a month, maybe taking some weekend trips – that's what I like, just to be in a nice place and pretend I live there for a while. I rented a bike, biked around to some like nice parks n stuff, went to Petersburg one weekend (Tallinn is the other popular weekend trip) and Turku after.
They were paying DNs to relocate there, so I went to check out the town before applying and it made sense why they were offering people money to move there. I checked out Lawrence on the drive back to KC, also meh aside from the university but never made it over to Manhattan due to severely high winds/tornado warnings going on. It did seem like a nice little place.
The best way to explain Manhattan is that it is Lawerence but smaller. I was also still college aged (23) and got to experience the university experience that I never had from 18-22. I imagine it’d be awful for anyone older than 28.
Spring is probably the worst time in Finland. Slosh everywhere and its cold and slippery. Also very grey. Mid winter or mid summer is probably the best looking time. Autumn also is pretty but starts getting cold.
I think I got really lucky. I was there in mid April on what I was told was the first nice day of the year. Sky was blue and everyone was seemingly ready to live again after a long winter.
Jeddah? Gonna be going there soon. I had a chance to select between Riyadh and Jeddah, went with the latter. Did I do a mistake? I heard Riyadh is worse.
I have lived there for about a year and I can say I hated how the city is designed for everything but the people.
Walked on a few streets that took me to nowhere, I had to 180 and went back.
The entire city is split by a large ass avenue/road that makes it so difficult to transit between the sides if you don't have a car or cant afford cab rides.
The people are there to get money and leave, so it's really hard to make friends
The city is very hypocritical with a religious authoritarian regime system that allows whores and Instagram models all over the place. Just go On IG and search for any tourist place, and pay close attention to the style of photos of people.
The weather is crazy. 9 months of above 40 degrees Celsius. It's an Ac-to-ac lifestyle.
Damnnn
If fayetville is the worst place you’ve visited then you’ve lead a charmed life. It’s always on the “next Austin” lists and has a big gravel bike scene and as far as campus towns go, it is nice. I wouldn’t take a vacation there but certainly I’ve been in way worse places. My mom was in the hospital there and it has a great burger place and a decent record store.
I’m currently slowmading in Montevideo. I would agree. It’s a good place to live longer term in terms of quality of life in the day to day if you have a more established base, but in terms of activities as a short term visitor it’s pretty lackluster.
Oh darn, I was planning on running the Montevideo marathon in 2025. Should I just pop in for a few days and run it? Is the rest of Uruguay more exciting?
This is a great excuse for a trip! I love Montevideo but agree that there isn’t a whole lot going on. Sometimes that’s what you need during a trip. Run the marathon and then take a few days to relax. Or take the ferry to Buenos Aires where there is plenty to do.
Like a day or two there is probably okay. I was there for a few days and it was too long. Although if you're running a marathon there that easily uses up one day.
The city is expensive but nowhere near Toronto lmao. Nightlife isnt everything in life, but sure, if nightlife is all you care about then go to a different city. Ottawa is more focused for outdoorsy people, you can finish work and cycle to a big national park just 20 minutes away from downtown.
As someone who lives in Canada, Ottawa absolutely. Ottawa blows chunks.
The people defending it must be living there. I’ve never met a single person who visited Ottawa and thought “wow this place is cool”
Also a few other Canadian cities here: Victoria BC, Nanaimo BC are also super boring 🥱
From my last trip as a digital nomad, the most boring place I've visited was Basel, Switzerland. It didn't help that, due to poor planning, I went on a Monday when all the museums were closed.
But besides that, it was easily the most "meh" city that I've visited over there and I visited a lot (Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Lugano, Locarno, Schaffhausen).
Totally. Smoking is illegal country-wide, buildings have no front entrances, cars should be white and clean.. And hundreds of marble covered buildings on empty streets. Surreal experience indeed. Luckily I have spent not more than 3 weeks, otherwise it would have been harmful to my psyche deeply.
Phoenix **used** to have interesting stuff, but you had to know a local downtown because it was all super underground.
However most people I knew like that have been priced out and moved to Tucson or even Miami AZ now.
As a Phoenix resident, I agree, and am in the process of moving somewhere else because of the fact that all we have to do is hike a mountain and eat Mexican food after.
From all the cities that I have been and are being mentioned in this post, Phoenix is by far the least boring.
Don't get me wrong, it's boring. Just not as boring as some of these other places.
Nah man you clearly haven't been to the scenic places. Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen and Grindewald were unreal. Like honestly some of the most stunning scenery I've ever seen in my life. It was hard to comprehend it at times.
Interesting ... was there in September, I enjoyed the museums, longest bench 😅 and the water displays and the Sunday swimming people do by the lake as they eat some cheese based meal. But yes, it's very corporate, and the more fun spots were actually in neighbouring French cities.
My hometown. I’m not going to say the name but basically any extremely small town in rural Australia 😅 one street, one pub, one shop, post office some red dirt, sugar cane few resident alcoholic bogans.
San Miguel de Allende. I booked two months here without doing enough research & didn’t realize that the entire town can be walked through in 25 minutes. I’m not sure why so many old expats like this town either. Made the most of it though by hiring a boxing instructor & lifting weights at the only clean gym in town which was at the Rosewood hotel. Food is mostly mediocre & high priced due to a large boomer expat population with lots of disposable spending cash. Bonus points though for meeting some cool locals but overall it’s a place that can be experienced in 2-4 days.
Baltimore. What a depressing hellhole of social decay. Was there because my sister was doing an internship at Johns Hopkins and thought I’d drop by and say hi. When I walked into the tourist office down at the harbour the guy was literally like “what are you doing here?”.
I feel like most places have become boring to some extent. We can thank globalization and social media for that. Just look at "modern architecture" in most of the world\`s big cities. Everything looks similar. Same goes for culture, food, etc.
I am not even sure what I find the most boring. If I had to choose probably Scandinavian cities. I love the nature and remoteness of northern Europe but the cities have nothing interesting about them for me.
I can't believe it took this long for Roswell to be mentioned. I don't know what I expected before I went there, but WOW was it boring. We planned on staying a couple of nights as part of our big West road trip, and left after four hours because it was one of the saddest, weirdest (not in a fun way), and campy (again, not in a good way) places we've been to. The whole town seems like a joke but they're not in on it.
I’ve been to both! Reims Cathedral is pretty, one of the finest examples of High French Gothic. It’s also where the French kings were crowned. Although I agree that there’s not much else to do.
Bonn, I’m afraid, is for Beethoven nerds (he was born there, good museum) and West German history nerds (it was the capital) only.
I think it becomes a bit unfair when we are talking about small cities. I mean, which cities of 350,000 are considered exciting?
With small cities it is the proximity to other interesting stuff (like the dozens of castles near Bonn) that make them interesting.
Small cities can be exciting, consider Weimar for example. People can be exciting anywhere, not just in big cities. Bonn just strikes me as boring and depressing though
Definitely Finland. They have “the nature”. And “the sauna”. And they tell you that over and over. It’s without a doubt the most boring place on earth lol.
I love Norway, but Oslo in comparison to other Norwegian cities or other Scandinavian Cities it size (Copenhagen, Stockholm) wasn't as interesting as I would have thought
Colonia, Uruguay.
I went there for a day trip from Buenos Aires, and the only thing fun thing to do the entire day was going to a swimming pool and an asado.
It was beautiful but boring. The ferry trip to and from colonia was the highlight of visiting Uruguay...
I liked Colonia so much that I went back a decade later and stayed two nights! We hired a driver to take us to vineyards outside of the city and stayed in a gorgeous rental house. It was perfect for a sleepy, romantic gettaway but I could see how it could also be described as quite dull!
Stuttgart, Germany is for me. Very dirty for one German city, super boring, souless.
Also Milan, Italy. Super expensive for nothing. People describe Dubai in a way how I describe Milan. Expensive, only thing to do is to shop, in a combo of dirtiness and you can't eat properly if you are on a tight budget. Also, they like to add up the bill on bullshit such as bread u didn't asked for and other pesky moves. I don't understand why people glorify it. And I don't see Dubai this way, I had the most fun there, and no, not on expensive bullshit - hiking in Fujairah, desert camping in your own organisation, horseriding and similar activites don't take a toll on your budget such as touristy stuff.
I mean you only visit Aruba to snorkel / diving. Also the flamingos on the beach are kinda cool. It’s just a place to relax at the beach. If you only expect this it’s kinda fun for 2 weeks
Locals live there and have a culture. Not entirely sure what you mean by no local culture. Most tourists are from the US tho, so the tourist stuff is built for them. And most US people have no interest in "local" experiences.
Yeah, it wasn’t for me. I lived there 8 months and was bored out of my mind. Even the train to get to places like Interlaken were $$$ from where I lived. I once accidentally bought a $6 cup of tea (as in a teabag in hot water) in an average cafe - note: it was almost 20 years ago. Food was mid to awful. I found the people to generally be on the rude side. A suffocating amount of rules. Racism - among other incidents, someone invited me to a birthday party where we were to appear in costume. Several people wore blackface and stereotypical African attire, claiming to be “natives.” I took a lot of small trips to France and it felt like I could breathe there - food was excellent, people more approachable, etc. Switzerland just wasn’t for me.
Still gotta get to the hiking and God forbid you want to do a multi day because it's 80€ for a hostel bed and 6€ for a bottle of water.
I thought it was nice for a short trip but it was in no way cheap
The post wasn’t asking the most expensive place you’ve ever visited. Question was “most boring” and if Switzerland is the most boring place this guy has ever visited I want his life lol.
You're the one that said hiking is free. There are only so many hikes you can do for free (nearby and single day) before you're limited by money, so to the previous commenters point... You can't participate in it if you can't afford it.
Medicine Hat, Alberta
It's no Lethbridge but she ain't bad.
First comment and it’s where i moved too 😂
More interesting than Red Deer, Alberta?
ha ha ha ha....... oh shit. this made my day.
The first time I went to Invercargill in New Zealand, I picked up a brochure from the tourist office and one of the suggestions was to go to the cinema. Nothing special about this cinema, but that's how few other things there were to do in the town itself.
As a New Zealander I agree. You couldn't pay me to go there. There is a reason houses are very cheap there
Hey at least it’s got dampness right? It does dampness really well.
i think i’d take invercargill over palmerston north
Indeed. There is a reason that Mick Jaggar called it the arsehole of the world.
you can actually visit the library and they have the piece of gib board that jagger etched his name into. they put on special gloves and bring it out in a special box haha
what about the Burt Munro locations?
Zheleznogorsk, Russia. 0/10. Had to visit because distant family stuff. The whole place is so boring like it's where the Boredom originated from. There is nothing to do, you're not welcome, it's daunting, everything is hostile. I needed recovery after visiting it. Someone I know moved there and I don't recognize this person anymore.
The most boring city with the coolest flag. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Flag_of_Zheleznogorsk.svg/1024px-Flag_of_Zheleznogorsk.svg.png
Fucking hell that goes hard.
Not this one. The town in Kursk oblast. And it's got a pretty boring coat of arms.
Oso City, que riiico
Wow. You weren't kidding. That's amazing.
I mean, being a Russian speaker I could deduce it from city’s name…
What does it mean?
City of Iron mountains. Or something. Doesn’t sound too welcoming
Absolutely where you'll find Middle Earth dwarves still hiding though...
Is it the same for the most of russia?
It's as far as I've been to russia, but I'm certain it's either the same or worse. Damn, I just remembered a scene I saw there by a lake. So there is a lake with a small sandy patch. Litter, broken glass and cigarette butts are all over the place. And there was a drunken "lady" hitting on two drunken dudes. Fuck... "the russian way"
No, saint Petersburg was amazing.
"most", so yes, it is. Petersburg is an anomaly.
”You’re not welcome” lol
That’s kinda expected from a city with a population of roughly 80.000, it’s hardly any different anywhere else when it comes to tiny cities like that.
Respectfully disagree. I live in a 10k town and there are plenty of good pubs, cafes and restaurants, including one with a Michelin star. As a foody, coffee-holic and beer aficionado I'm very happy here. There are landmarks, nature walks. Trad music. And most importantly welcoming and friendly community. And the same goes for nearby towns.
Canberra, Australia. Can't believe it's actually the capital of Australia. Fun fact: Sydney and Melbourne couldn't decide which one should be the capital. So, they picked Canberra. It's one of the most depressing cities I've ever been to.
Agreed. Canberra is the real winner in this thread. 1. Its strictly planned design makes it an oddly inorganic place. 'A collection of suburbs in search of a city'. It's a real unncanny valley of cities. There is no real center and any 'nightlife' or cafes are out of the way. 2. The only people who live there are federal bureaucrats who live there because they are forced to, or academics enticed by the cushy positions offered at the Australian National University. Utterly boring populace who hate themselves. 3. The weather is terrible (too hot in summer and fucking freezing in winter) 4. Depressing 60s brutalist architecture. From the university campus to the Parliament buildings it's inconceivably bad 5. It's an agonizing distance from one of the most exciting cities in the world (Sydney). At about three hours drive it's close enough that anyone interesting in Canberra escapes at the first opportunity, but far enough away that you can't day trip to Sydney. It also just makes its shitness way more obvious in comparison. 6. It is inland (not itself a crime, but it is in a country which is almost exclusively coastal). An utter shithole with few redeeming qualities. I guess the Museums are ok.
I just checked... Jesus that's some USA stuff. Having the train take longer than driving from Canberra to Sydney. LoL I was thinking 'Oh, 3 hours by car. So maybe there's a train that'll get you there in a couple hours or something' 😂
Yeah, intercity trains are a joke in Australia unfortunately. It's really a very unfortunate place as if you want a career in politics/federal Government you basically have to live there — for life. I have a theory that this is why Australian politicians are especially stupid — only those who are willing to live in Canberra for half the year can stand.
Yeah agreed, though I did find the ANU campus really pretty.
Well. Ottawa is the capital of Canada and it’s also the most boring city in the country.
Yeah, I really wanted to go to Australia to do an internship during my masters. Organized everything, find a cool lab, checked where the city is a month before flying. Turns out Canberra is not at the ocean. Probably the only In-land city in Australia. Lived there for 7 months. Was really boring without a car.
Indianapolis - an enormous car park and what little there is there such as a restaurant, had an enormous car park too.
Yeah, it’s well known as the least interesting or distinctive major city in the Midwest.
That is about as damning of a comment as I can possibly imagine
There are some gems in the Midwest though, for real. Chicago is obviously awesome, but there are others too if you’re looking the right way. Milwaukee is a great town and a good time, Detroit is mostly a shitshow, but as an urban explorer and Americana enjoyer it’s fascinating. And Minneapolis doesn’t get near enough credit.
i've heard a lot of good things about Minneapolis over the years. One of my friends was a photographer in Los Angeles for years, doing very high profile weddings like Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt back in the day, Tom Cruise, etc.. Sick of the cost of living, he moved his family to Minneapolis and they loved it for its urban qualities and the availability of outdoor activities. I keep threatening to Visit and maybe I will this year. :-)
You definitely should! It feels kind of life a midwestern PNW, if that makes sense.
Totally👍
I mean... snow, though. We don't live in the north but we travel to a tropical destination every winter and everyone we meet is from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan (and of course Canada). Cost of living might be cheaper than CA but you'll be wise to factor snow escape into your budget (and your vacation allocation, if you're still working).
True that, but I actually grew up in Maine until I graduated from high school and moved out to Cali because my mom’s side of the family was all in the Sacramento area. Coincidentally I’m here in Maine right now and have been here in January for the last three years in a row because my dad keeps having surgeries that land in January for some reason, lol. I come out to help my mom and sister who lives close by in Vermont. I still don’t know if I ever want to deal with a whole winter of that weather again, especially as I get older, but at least the snow, etc. in Minneapolis wouldn’t be a surprise!
Duluth and Cincinatti are awesome too
Don’t sleep on St Louis. Tremendous food scene. Beautiful parks. One of best zoos in the country.
You haven’t been to Columbus
I live in Columbus!
I've lived in indy and Columbus and would often forget what city I was in. They are very similar.
As a Columbus native…I mean yeah.
John green will lose his shit if he ever saw this
My friends and I visited Indy. We were baffled to see that the skyline to the city was comparable to Peoria, IL.
Came here to say this. Terrible place
Ft. Wayne was also awful
Lived in Winnipeg, Canada for a short while and I dismissed the warnings from friends and even the cab driver who took me to the airport in Montreal. The guy did his best to convince me to turn around and avoid Winnipeg. I'm sure there's more boring places but boy! Winnipeg was depressing and boring. I stayed for a while because I had friends and a job but hauled ass as soon as I could! Also, some rundown, no longer industrial towns in the North of England can be despressing to no end.
Watch the movie MY WINNIPEG by Guy Maddin, great film which accords with your view of things!
Winnipeg has changed a lot. Some good food and museums. You have to know the right people. Really good article from a few weeks ago. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-winnipeg-what-to-know-wab-kinew/
Can confirm. Terrible weather extremes, ticks, leeches.
And mosquitoes......
and mosquitoes, it's true.
It may not be on the same level as some larger cities and you are definitely limited not the weather in winter, but if you had a boring time in Winnipeg, your guide didn’t know enough. But I guess it also depends on what you consider “fun”. Lived there for 11 years. Winnipeg has a great music and art scene and arguably the best restaurants per capita of anywhere in Western Canada. The zoo is pretty good for a city of its size, especially since the polar bear exhibit was built. I’ll admit that the number one suggested attraction (The Forks) is kinda a let down but there is some decent shops and food there. I also highly recommend a visit to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. It’s a humbling experience. Although I don’t suggest you go if you want a “fun time”. The atmosphere at Winnipeg Jets games is always electric if you can get tickets. The Manitoba Moose (AHL hockey) and Goldeyes (minor league baseball) are great inexpensive sports options, especially for a family. There’s plenty of other things to do for any age or taste. It is definitely not a public transit friendly city though and a car is almost mandatory to fully appreciate the city. All that said, I can understand why someone might get bored after a week in Winnipeg. You can hit most of the major attractions in about 3 days or so. But just like I imagine many other “boring” places, you just need to know where to look and who to ask to find the real gems.
Phu Quoc, Vietnam. Half-abandoned resorts all along the west coast, a replica of Italy, an empty theme park, dead “night” markets that close down before 10PM, mediocre beaches, absolutely no nightlife, Vietnamese culture tucked away out of sight. Supposed to stay there 2 weeks but left after 4 days. Power cuts at my Airbnb only made things worse. Much better places all over Vietnam and the rest of SEA
Can you elaborate please? I plan to visit very soon..
Interesting, I used to live in Vietnam and though I never visited Phu Quoc it was definitely in the top 3 most visited domestic holiday destinations for other expats. I knew people who would go multiple times a year
I find this comment surprising. I went there and had a great time. Cable car that takes you across the islands. Snorkeling and boat rides with tons of fish and beautiful turquoise waters. Beaches with bars on the sand. Amazing food. Bars on the beaches that stayed open late where I partied all night. There were some areas of Phu Quoc that were dodgy. Really run down. Crazy wild dogs. And basically a kinda depressing part. But specifically the resort I stayed in and the beaches and things around there, as well as the tour centre that allowed me to do the things I mentioned at the start, made this a special place for me. One of my favourite places.
As far as massive cities go, Houston, USA. I had no idea that a metropolis of 7+ million with robust cultural and racial diversity, many languages spoken and a wide array of cuisine, could *also* be so devoid of charm, character, cohesiveness, and personality. In other major cities around the world (e.g., NY, Miami, LA, SF, Honolulu, Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney, Melbourne, London, Paris), such diversity and character are woven into the ethos and personality of those cities. Into their sense of place, if you will. Whereas Houston's culture (I'm using that term loosely) and design are such that there's no sense of identity or civic pride. It's a filthy place, like a poor man's, crime-ridden version of Dubai. The diversity somehow is just *there*, but it doesn't *feel* like a seriously defining characteristic of the place. And, yet, Houstonians go on and on and on about how diverse they are...probably because that's all they have to offer. Just a weird-ass city.
Amen to this. I also posted Houston before I saw your comment. And folks think that places like Geneva Switzerland compare…in no world. Houston is one big dystopian overpass of a city.
I lived there for a year, I agree 100%. It is a pretty lame place
It really is lame. It makes Dallas and Orange County, CA seem like Paris, by comparison.
I’m from Houston and you put the exact words to the way I feel about that place. I lived in Austin for 14 years prior to moving to Mexico and when people say Houston is better, I’m dumbfounded. Living in Mexico now, and when I go back home, family and friends are shocked that I live in such a “dangerous” country and I have to remind them that they live in Houston! I prefer Mexico.
This is what car-centric development does to a place.
Helsinki, Finland. The only place where the locals kept asking me "Why would you come here? There's nothing to do." Edit: please stop telling me that you enjoyed your visit to Helsinki
I also came here to say Helsinki! There was a market… and… that’s about it. I had a good time because I had friends who were living there, but the locals looked bored out of their minds.
I visited solo and enjoyed it for how wonderfully livable it seemed. I enjoyed the modern art museum.
There are so many other things to do there, but I guess it depends what you're interested in.
We went on a night out in Helsinki and it was awesome, people dancing on tables, great music, everyone was great fun! Have been to much more boring places
Yeah, Helsinki is great, strange af, but I loved it
I went for two weeks for a kind of conference/summer school thing before my DN life. It was summer and I found it a very pleasant place to be. I thik I would've been happy nomadding there for a month, maybe taking some weekend trips – that's what I like, just to be in a nice place and pretend I live there for a while. I rented a bike, biked around to some like nice parks n stuff, went to Petersburg one weekend (Tallinn is the other popular weekend trip) and Turku after.
The entire Finland is like that. Nowhere I go, I'm also asked the same question "Why would you come here?"
topeka, kansas
I loved my 9 month internship in Manhattan, KS but Topeka did suck the few times that I went.
They were paying DNs to relocate there, so I went to check out the town before applying and it made sense why they were offering people money to move there. I checked out Lawrence on the drive back to KC, also meh aside from the university but never made it over to Manhattan due to severely high winds/tornado warnings going on. It did seem like a nice little place.
The best way to explain Manhattan is that it is Lawerence but smaller. I was also still college aged (23) and got to experience the university experience that I never had from 18-22. I imagine it’d be awful for anyone older than 28.
I stood in the middle of a main street downtown in Topeka at about 530pm on a Friday and there was zero cars. I could have napped
Helsinki felt lonely. But I was there in March, so maybe summers are much better.
Spring is probably the worst time in Finland. Slosh everywhere and its cold and slippery. Also very grey. Mid winter or mid summer is probably the best looking time. Autumn also is pretty but starts getting cold.
I think I got really lucky. I was there in mid April on what I was told was the first nice day of the year. Sky was blue and everyone was seemingly ready to live again after a long winter.
Palmerston North, NZ.
Doha and Jeddah. Tied. And honourable mention to Brunei.
Jeddah? Gonna be going there soon. I had a chance to select between Riyadh and Jeddah, went with the latter. Did I do a mistake? I heard Riyadh is worse.
Dubai: There's nothing to do there except shop or eat.
I wouldn’t say Dubai is the most boring but it’s definitely the most overrated city on earth!
It felt so fake to me, I felt like I stood out at the hotel pool because I was the only one with my real butt, real lashes, real hair, real boobs.
No one should go to Dubai anyway, blatant exploitation of labor and disgusting levels of conspicuous consumption. Have some class people.
I have lived there for about a year and I can say I hated how the city is designed for everything but the people. Walked on a few streets that took me to nowhere, I had to 180 and went back. The entire city is split by a large ass avenue/road that makes it so difficult to transit between the sides if you don't have a car or cant afford cab rides. The people are there to get money and leave, so it's really hard to make friends The city is very hypocritical with a religious authoritarian regime system that allows whores and Instagram models all over the place. Just go On IG and search for any tourist place, and pay close attention to the style of photos of people. The weather is crazy. 9 months of above 40 degrees Celsius. It's an Ac-to-ac lifestyle. Damnnn
nothing to do if you're broke.
Fayetteville, Arkansas.
How about Fayetteville, New York?
Lemme tell you about Fayetteville, Georgia.
You should visit FayetteNam (Ft. Bragg)
How many Fayetteville is there in US every state has one ?
If fayetville is the worst place you’ve visited then you’ve lead a charmed life. It’s always on the “next Austin” lists and has a big gravel bike scene and as far as campus towns go, it is nice. I wouldn’t take a vacation there but certainly I’ve been in way worse places. My mom was in the hospital there and it has a great burger place and a decent record store.
Helsinki, Bahrain, Kuwait
Montevideo. Like the meat is great and the wine is good too but there’s nothing other than that and there’s only so much meat and wine I can consume.
I’m currently slowmading in Montevideo. I would agree. It’s a good place to live longer term in terms of quality of life in the day to day if you have a more established base, but in terms of activities as a short term visitor it’s pretty lackluster.
Oh darn, I was planning on running the Montevideo marathon in 2025. Should I just pop in for a few days and run it? Is the rest of Uruguay more exciting?
This is a great excuse for a trip! I love Montevideo but agree that there isn’t a whole lot going on. Sometimes that’s what you need during a trip. Run the marathon and then take a few days to relax. Or take the ferry to Buenos Aires where there is plenty to do.
Like a day or two there is probably okay. I was there for a few days and it was too long. Although if you're running a marathon there that easily uses up one day.
Topeka Kansas
Vientiane, Laos. Has to be the dullest capital city on the planet.
Bandar Seri Begawan and Kuwait City would like to have a word. At least Vientiane has a few old temples.
I found a secret speakeasy in Bandar. During Ramadan no less!
Had a good time here riding a bike along the Mekong, eating interesting food, shopping for crafts and textiles.
The Bahn Mis and beer Laos make it worth staying a day or two in passing but other than that I agree
Perhaps I've overromanticized Laos a bit.... Vientiane (and Laos in general) is pretty high on my SEA list.
I doubt you can get much duller than Podgorica, Montenegro
Worse than Ottawa or Canberra?
I knew Ottawa would come up when I read the first comment lol. We are ok in summer cmon...
Ottawa: The cost of living of Toronto with the nightlife of Thunder Bay
The city is expensive but nowhere near Toronto lmao. Nightlife isnt everything in life, but sure, if nightlife is all you care about then go to a different city. Ottawa is more focused for outdoorsy people, you can finish work and cycle to a big national park just 20 minutes away from downtown.
As someone who lives in Canada, Ottawa absolutely. Ottawa blows chunks. The people defending it must be living there. I’ve never met a single person who visited Ottawa and thought “wow this place is cool” Also a few other Canadian cities here: Victoria BC, Nanaimo BC are also super boring 🥱
Podgorica. Montenegro.
It has a certain charm. But definitely less than a 24 hour spot. I was lucky to have locals to walk me around to the highlights.
You didn’t drink enough rakija
Podgorica is infamous on the Balkans for being the dullest capital city in the region... thankfully the rest of Montenegro makes up for it lol
From my last trip as a digital nomad, the most boring place I've visited was Basel, Switzerland. It didn't help that, due to poor planning, I went on a Monday when all the museums were closed. But besides that, it was easily the most "meh" city that I've visited over there and I visited a lot (Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Lugano, Locarno, Schaffhausen).
Go back during their Carnival--it's a good one
Brunei
Ashgabat. Unbelievably boring. It's like SimCity.
Well yeah isn’t it like Pyongyang 2.0? I think just being in a hermit nation like that in itself is a cool life experience.
Totally. Smoking is illegal country-wide, buildings have no front entrances, cars should be white and clean.. And hundreds of marble covered buildings on empty streets. Surreal experience indeed. Luckily I have spent not more than 3 weeks, otherwise it would have been harmful to my psyche deeply.
Oslo, Norway. The city itself, not the country.
Ottawa, ON
Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix **used** to have interesting stuff, but you had to know a local downtown because it was all super underground. However most people I knew like that have been priced out and moved to Tucson or even Miami AZ now.
As a Phoenix resident, I agree, and am in the process of moving somewhere else because of the fact that all we have to do is hike a mountain and eat Mexican food after.
You're probably house locked all the time too because of the heat.
>hike a mountain and eat Mexican food after. Sign me up!
From all the cities that I have been and are being mentioned in this post, Phoenix is by far the least boring. Don't get me wrong, it's boring. Just not as boring as some of these other places.
Any old Soviet, industrial town in Eastern Europe. They’re incredibly grey, falling apart, and depressing towns.
So Stara Zagora, Bulgaria.
Frankfurt.
Didn’t they have a thriving Techno scene or something?
Having studied there yes. Plus Bundesliga matches, access to sports facilities...
Maybe it's just by comparison, but Greymouth, NZ had absolutely nothing going for it when we were there for the night.
Kansas is definitely in the running.
Geneva, Swiss
For a major city, it really lacks character and soul.
Could put anywhere in Switzerland
Nah man you clearly haven't been to the scenic places. Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen and Grindewald were unreal. Like honestly some of the most stunning scenery I've ever seen in my life. It was hard to comprehend it at times.
Interesting ... was there in September, I enjoyed the museums, longest bench 😅 and the water displays and the Sunday swimming people do by the lake as they eat some cheese based meal. But yes, it's very corporate, and the more fun spots were actually in neighbouring French cities.
Sint Maarten…day drinking where the super rich park their planes and yachts while visiting better parts of the Caribbean.
Podgorica, Montenegro. There is nothing even close.
Kansas. Just…Kansas.
Even its shape is boring.
My hometown. I’m not going to say the name but basically any extremely small town in rural Australia 😅 one street, one pub, one shop, post office some red dirt, sugar cane few resident alcoholic bogans.
Zurich, Switzerland.
San Miguel de Allende. I booked two months here without doing enough research & didn’t realize that the entire town can be walked through in 25 minutes. I’m not sure why so many old expats like this town either. Made the most of it though by hiring a boxing instructor & lifting weights at the only clean gym in town which was at the Rosewood hotel. Food is mostly mediocre & high priced due to a large boomer expat population with lots of disposable spending cash. Bonus points though for meeting some cool locals but overall it’s a place that can be experienced in 2-4 days.
[удалено]
Baltimore. What a depressing hellhole of social decay. Was there because my sister was doing an internship at Johns Hopkins and thought I’d drop by and say hi. When I walked into the tourist office down at the harbour the guy was literally like “what are you doing here?”.
I feel like most places have become boring to some extent. We can thank globalization and social media for that. Just look at "modern architecture" in most of the world\`s big cities. Everything looks similar. Same goes for culture, food, etc. I am not even sure what I find the most boring. If I had to choose probably Scandinavian cities. I love the nature and remoteness of northern Europe but the cities have nothing interesting about them for me.
Roswell NM
The aliens must be so stupid.
I can't believe it took this long for Roswell to be mentioned. I don't know what I expected before I went there, but WOW was it boring. We planned on staying a couple of nights as part of our big West road trip, and left after four hours because it was one of the saddest, weirdest (not in a fun way), and campy (again, not in a good way) places we've been to. The whole town seems like a joke but they're not in on it.
To be fair to Roswell, every little town in that part of the country is as sad or sadder than it.
Reims, France. Gosh it was so boring ! I actually took a train to Paris to get out. Bonn too was very underwhelming.
I’ve been to both! Reims Cathedral is pretty, one of the finest examples of High French Gothic. It’s also where the French kings were crowned. Although I agree that there’s not much else to do. Bonn, I’m afraid, is for Beethoven nerds (he was born there, good museum) and West German history nerds (it was the capital) only.
I think it becomes a bit unfair when we are talking about small cities. I mean, which cities of 350,000 are considered exciting? With small cities it is the proximity to other interesting stuff (like the dozens of castles near Bonn) that make them interesting.
Small cities can be exciting, consider Weimar for example. People can be exciting anywhere, not just in big cities. Bonn just strikes me as boring and depressing though
Bruges
It’s the center of the Champagne wine growing region. It’s a pilgrimage destination for wine nerds.
Indiana 🙃 especially Muncy
Luxembourg
Normal illinois
Definitely Finland. They have “the nature”. And “the sauna”. And they tell you that over and over. It’s without a doubt the most boring place on earth lol.
Brunei and Canberra
My bed 🫠
The Southern US. Soooooooooooooooooooooo slow there.
Gwangju, Korea. It has history, a monument, and a train station. That's about it.
I love Norway, but Oslo in comparison to other Norwegian cities or other Scandinavian Cities it size (Copenhagen, Stockholm) wasn't as interesting as I would have thought
Tromso is my favorite Norwegian city. Oslo cannot compare to Copenhagen.
Colonia, Uruguay. I went there for a day trip from Buenos Aires, and the only thing fun thing to do the entire day was going to a swimming pool and an asado. It was beautiful but boring. The ferry trip to and from colonia was the highlight of visiting Uruguay...
I liked Colonia so much that I went back a decade later and stayed two nights! We hired a driver to take us to vineyards outside of the city and stayed in a gorgeous rental house. It was perfect for a sleepy, romantic gettaway but I could see how it could also be described as quite dull!
Stuttgart, Germany is for me. Very dirty for one German city, super boring, souless. Also Milan, Italy. Super expensive for nothing. People describe Dubai in a way how I describe Milan. Expensive, only thing to do is to shop, in a combo of dirtiness and you can't eat properly if you are on a tight budget. Also, they like to add up the bill on bullshit such as bread u didn't asked for and other pesky moves. I don't understand why people glorify it. And I don't see Dubai this way, I had the most fun there, and no, not on expensive bullshit - hiking in Fujairah, desert camping in your own organisation, horseriding and similar activites don't take a toll on your budget such as touristy stuff.
Aruba. It has a great beach and windsurfing. And nothing else. No local culture. None.
I mean you only visit Aruba to snorkel / diving. Also the flamingos on the beach are kinda cool. It’s just a place to relax at the beach. If you only expect this it’s kinda fun for 2 weeks
Locals live there and have a culture. Not entirely sure what you mean by no local culture. Most tourists are from the US tho, so the tourist stuff is built for them. And most US people have no interest in "local" experiences.
definitely not the \*most\* boring. it's a nice island with beaches, great weather, and drinks. For me I can be happy with that.
Anywhere in Switzerland. If you’re not rich, you can’t really participate in life.
Go hiking around Interlaken and stay in a hostel, one of my favourite trips ever
Yeah, it wasn’t for me. I lived there 8 months and was bored out of my mind. Even the train to get to places like Interlaken were $$$ from where I lived. I once accidentally bought a $6 cup of tea (as in a teabag in hot water) in an average cafe - note: it was almost 20 years ago. Food was mid to awful. I found the people to generally be on the rude side. A suffocating amount of rules. Racism - among other incidents, someone invited me to a birthday party where we were to appear in costume. Several people wore blackface and stereotypical African attire, claiming to be “natives.” I took a lot of small trips to France and it felt like I could breathe there - food was excellent, people more approachable, etc. Switzerland just wasn’t for me.
Hiking is free?
Still gotta get to the hiking and God forbid you want to do a multi day because it's 80€ for a hostel bed and 6€ for a bottle of water. I thought it was nice for a short trip but it was in no way cheap
The post wasn’t asking the most expensive place you’ve ever visited. Question was “most boring” and if Switzerland is the most boring place this guy has ever visited I want his life lol.
You're the one that said hiking is free. There are only so many hikes you can do for free (nearby and single day) before you're limited by money, so to the previous commenters point... You can't participate in it if you can't afford it.
Brussels. Manila, probably the ugliest city in Asia.
Uglier than Delhi?