13 of the world’s most underrated cities – Times Travel
SRC:https://www.thetimes.co.uk/travel/inspiration/the-worlds-most-underrated-cities Thailand Best Beaches
How do you define an “underrated” city? Pretty liberally, if a July 2022 survey from luggage app Bounce is to be believed. Using an arcane formula (number of “five-star” attractions compared to number of visitors annually), they declared that cities such as Marrakesh, Florence and Rio de Janeiro were underrated. That’s a bit like saying Jane Austen is an underrated novelist and Lionel Messi an overlooked footballer.
Our methodology for the list that follows is… looser. Some of our cities get overlooked because others nearby are more famous or glamorous. Others are underloved because they keep their charms too well hidden. But all are guaranteed to get you travel brownie points when you visit them.
Main photo: Muscat, Oman (Getty Images)
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1. Osaka, Japan
Japan’s second city makes Tokyo look low-key. As its rival to the east became more dominant politically in the Shogun period between the 12th and 19th centuries, the port city of Osaka decided to become brasher and louder, with dirtier jokes and spicier pancakes. It came equal tenth in a 2022 survey of liveable cities in The Economist. Tokyo isn’t there, which doubtless makes Osaka people laugh a lot. There is a fine castle and Tsutenkaku, a tower built to rival the Eiffel. It just turned out a bit more like Blackpool. Very Osaka.
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2. Adelaide, Australia
On no one’s list for that bucket list, dream trip to Oz; cursed by its long standing moniker, “a big country town”; capital of a state that sounds like a vague geographic approximation. Yes, the capital of South Australia is underrated. But it has all the hipness of urban Australia – well, a couple of streets do. And on its doorstep is Australia in a nutshell: bohemian and foodie Adelaide Hills, winelands in every direction, the bush reachable in a day, the outback proper not much further.
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3. Taipei, Taiwan
China thinks it has an inalienable right to turn Taiwan into another boring province and Taipei into another dull Chinese city. Until then, you get a uniquely Taiwanese mixture of classy Japanese-inspired neighbourhoods and a frenetic downtown gusseted with lung-relieving parks. The original Din Tai Fung dim sum restaurant is here – crazy queues – while the once-tallest building, Taipei 101, has views over the encircling mountains and down to fashionable Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. In fact, it has become one of Asia’s artiest cities.
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4. Phoenix, US
It’s sprawling and hot and a typical US mix of mall-lined boulevards and sketchy blocks where you pray the hire car doesn’t break down. But within Arizona’s state capital is a rather different, more chic and much quirkier city called Scottsdale. And inside that, there are desert nature reserves, a small mountain called Camelback and Frank Lloyd-Wright’s western outpost school for architects and visionaries, Taliesin West. Outside the city, there is… desert. Lots of it.
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5. Toronto, Canada
The rest of Canada is always sneering at Toronto and its perceived high-and-mightiness. Visitors may wonder why, as they encounter a relaxed city of varied neighbourhoods and a reinvigorated downtown where 19th-century elegance coexists with New World pizzazz. Multiculturalism never became unfashionable here; and two of the greatest theorists of urban living, Jane Jacobs and Richard Florida, both chose to move here. Montreal and Vancouver always get the cool and cosmopolitan vote: so Toronto is the one for us.
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6. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
True, you wouldn’t want to be here in the winter, when filthy emissions and sub-zero temperatures make it one of the most toxic cities in the world. In summer, the skies are big and blue and there is a frontier feel to the town as you prepare for your journey across the endless grasslands. It’s not big on sights, but the jostling of Buddhist temples and Soviet ministries, stores and offices is certainly… memorable. And it’s the best place anywhere on Earth to buy cashmere.
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7. Chiang Mai, Thailand
Chinese tourists flocked in their millions to Chiang Mai after the success of the movie Lost in Thailand. As they are not flocking anywhere just now, it’s a good chance for the rest of us to eschew the familiar and exhausting attractions of Bangkok, head north and discover another side of Thailand – a different culture and a slower pace. Stay in the nasally challenging Nimmanhaemin, a neighbourhood originally colonised by students and thus rich in bars, cheap restaurants and eccentric shops.
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8. Muscat, Oman
Its neighbouring Gulf cities get ever more puffed-up with their starchitect art galleries and palatial hotels. The capital of Oman has a longer history of trade and cosmopolitanism than any of them. That’s to be seen in the Portuguese fort and the sometimes offbeat Omani hospitality. The town feels a bit like a theatre set, with its markets, malls and mosques looking oddly 2D against the brilliant desert sky. Beyond: wilderness, adventure and wonder (and some great beaches).
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9. Bordeaux, France
In the class of underrated cities, Bordeaux definitely wins the Most Improved Student award. The limestone facades of this formerly dreary provincial town in southwest France have been cleaned up with lasers: they positively gleam in the Atlantic light. The riverfront is a car-free playground of misty fountains and grand squares, while the Jacques Chaban-Delmas bridge and the Cité du Vin have transformed the aesthetic of the port area. The once coincé (closed off, unwelcoming) Bordelais have now put up the “open for business” sign.
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10. Helsinki, Finland
The famously introverted Finns wouldn’t want the attention lavished on grand Stockholm and designerly Copenhagen. So this is the right list for Helsinki, a city that has some fine buildings, an excellent harbour and a wonderful art deco railway station – as well as some more forbidding Soviet-era structures. You can stroll around the castle island of Suomenlinna or – it can get a bit chilly here – the Espoo Museum of Modern Art. But the real attraction is intangible: an air of tolerance and quiet happiness in what is, after all, the city with the best work-life balance in the world – in Finland, the country with, officially (in another proper survey) the best quality of life.
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11. Malaga, Spain
Also much improved – though friends of this Andalusian city were quite happy with it the way it was. For the Costa mob, it’s just the name of an airport. They’re missing a walkable downtown that now has the boutique hotels, restaurants and art galleries it deserves – since the authorities finally decided to properly celebrate their most favourite son, Pablo Picasso. The Malaga seafront is dotted with noisy seafood restaurants: to the north and east, away from the overtouristed Ronda, there’s a chain of delightful white villages and olive groves.
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The capital of Sierra Leone sometimes threatens to make it onto the global tourism map. Wars and pestilence have too often intervened, but for now it’s a joy to stroll through streets and alleyways where the only kind of riot is the colour variety. There are fine beaches close by – don’t expect Barbados, but do expect a superb sunset and a cold Star beer. The shanty towns intertwine with the more established areas: if you’re looking for a West African city that is moving to a brighter future, maybe this is the one for you.
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13. Tbilisi, Georgia
In a permanent state of vulnerability due to a jealous and overbearing neighbour (see Taipei), there’s a sense of jeopardy about Tbilisi that sharpens the travelling senses. There’s plenty for the said neighbour to be envious of: in the 21st century, the capital of Georgia has added some amazing modern buildings, like the hopefully named Bridge of Peace, to its distinctive east-meets-west heritage. There’s good shopping at Rustaveli Avenue, great food and wine everywhere and plenty of country parks nearby where you can work off the calories.