Overrated Destinations and the Travel Writer Who Loves Them

As the Senior Editor of IndependentTraveler.com, one of the inevitable questions I’m asked when someone finds out what I do for a living is “What’s your favorite place?” Or the equally impossible-to-answer “What’s the best trip you’ve ever taken?” Honestly, I’d have a hard time just narrowing it down to my top five. You might as well ask a mother to choose between her children.

Of course, if you travel long enough, you’ll also develop a list of places that maybe you didn’t love as much. In the Huffington Post, fellow travel writer David Landsel has come up with a doozy on places he’d rather not see again: 10 Terribly Overrated Destinations (And Where To Travel Instead).

Landsel dubs San Francisco a “grotfest,” disses Denver as “a weirdly bland, Midwestern snore” and rejects the entire Caribbean region in one sweeping stroke (“Too many of the islands are depressingly violent, pathetically corrupt and/or hopelessly dysfunctional”). Ouch.

He also takes issue with Asheville, North Carolina, describing it as “a bottlenecked blot on a lovely landscape” and a “physically and emotionally fragmented mountain town full of people who seem really annoyed by everything.”

But after returning from my second visit there a few months ago, and having included it in IndependentTraveler.com’s favorite spots for a weekend getaway, I have to disagree. Maybe Landsel should have come with me and my mom to one of Asheville’s Friday night drum circles, when it feels like the entire town gathers for a lively, joyful musical party that goes for hours.

And Asheville’s food is “just fine”? Bummer — he must’ve missed out on the decadent, dinner-plate-sized sweet potato pancake at Tupelo Honey Cafe, topped with spiced pecans and peach butter. I’m still dreaming about it.

Of course, everyone’s entitled to his or her opinion. My own let-down list would probably include Belfast, Northern Ireland; Atlanta, Georgia; and Aix-en-Provence, France. I’d heard good things about all of them, but somehow they just didn’t speak to me. That said, I’d be willing to give them all a second chance; maybe I was in the wrong neighborhood, or simply the wrong mood.

So lest any readers out there are considering avoiding places like Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Costa Rica or Chicago on the strength of this article, allow me to throw my own advice into the ring: take the trip and see for yourself.