Daniel Williams

Cities can often be quite diverse places, with plenty of neighborhoods, parks, entertainment venues, restaurants, etc... to explore. Visitors can barely scratch the surface or with time, can argue the finer aspects of the city with the proudest of city residents.

I rank my ability to give advice as such:

1- Never been to the city
1.5-Too young, visit too brief to really have learned anything about the city
2- Been on one trip (or even a few times), got a sense of what place looks like, but details are fuzzy
3- Taken one trip to the city, got a feel for the place and hit a few major attractions
4- Taken more than one trip (or one extended trip)to city and explored several highlights and a few neighborhoods
5- Taken more than one trip to city and feel like you know the lay of the land
6- Visited city more than twice and have hit many major attractions, a number of restaurants, would recognize neighborhoods if people mentioned them
7- Visited city on repeat occasions, you've explored many neighborhoods and gotten off the tourist beaten-path
8- You've been a frequent visitor, explored relatively extensively, to the point where you can discuss finer points with natives.
9- You've lived in the city and explored quite extensively
10- You lived in the city and pretty much know all there is to know.

My Scores:

Montreal--9.2
Baltimore--9
Washington--8
Philadelphia--8
Williamsburg, Va.--8.5
Quebec--7
New York City--6
Toronto--5.5
London--4.5
Paris--4.5
Brussels--4
Ottawa--4
Boston--3
Pittsburgh--3
Nassau, Bahamas--3
Richmond, Va.--2.5
Albany, NY--2.5
LA--2
Wilmington, Del.--2
Norfolk, Va.--2
Lagos, Nigeria--2
Ibadan, Nigeria--2
Burlington, Vt.--2
Geneva, Switzerland--1.5

Even Montreal, which I feel I know better than many people who live here, there are still too many neighborhoods I've not been to and restaurants I've not eaten at.

Richmond, for example, even though I've been a few times, I feel like I couldn't give directions to people there or have much of an inkling of things to suggest people to do, as I'm fuzzy on names of restaurants, etc...

Anyhow I thought travellers might enjoy seeing this scoring system to know to whom it would be best to direct advice toward.

ccc

You have too much time on your hands to type all this gobbly-gook.

orgy7

damn If I were too do such a thing I'd be typing for days.. Im all set with that..
but thanks for the "gobbly-gook" I actually like knowing where people have been...

gail

After I recovered from the headache all those numbers gave me - If your goal is to suggest that many posting here have no business answering questions since they have not accumulated enough "points" on a specific location, then I disagree on two major points. First, the best posts here ask very specific questions about a destination - such as what is Hotel A like. One need not be a high point scorer to answer that. Secondly, a poster hopefully is seeking a collection of comments, from which to form their own consensus and these opinions are sought from anyone who knows more about a destination than the poster - not only from self-proclaimed experts.

And, on a lighter note, if posters were required to meet the point threshold in order to give advice, I would miss the controversy and nutcases who post here - there is always a good laugh or two here, and usually something that makes my blood boil.

k

I've visited 59 of the 60 largest cities in the US, 49 of the 50 states, 5 continents, more than 50 countries and countless cities worldwide.

If I listed them all I'd be here for hours.

Julie

I agree with Gail. Travelers often ask questions about hotels, airport shuttles, etc., that locals may not be familiar with since they don't have need for these services. Your scoring system seems to give the most weight to the opinions of people who live in a particular city, despite the fact that there are certain questions that are better answered by visitors to the city.

Lipstique

I don't know how Daniel can make these assumptions -- people who live in cities don't usually stay in hotels there. They might be knowledgeable about the area, but have no knowledge about the rooms.

You mention that you've been in many restaurants in NYC (your #6 rating). How many is many? There have got to be thousands of restaurants in NYC and the boroughs. I doubt that it makes you an expert.

You say that you've been to Boston, the Bahamas and Pittsburgh, and have a feel for the place. That's impossible unless you've spent months in these places. All you've got is a cursory idea of what happens here.

Daniel, you have too much time on your hands. There's nothing worse than a braggart.

You gave yourself a 9 for Baltimore. That's very funny. It must take about 5 hours at most to get to know Baltimore, excluding the neighborhoods, and I can't see why anyone would want to sightsee in any other area other than the waterfront. There isn't much there.

Daniel Williams

Oh well, looks like my idea didn't fly. I certainly didn't mean to suggest that visitors can't give GREAT advice on hotels, shuttles and other such info. I was hoping to learn about where people thought their overall city knowledge is greatest. I've received direct queries from a number of travellers and wanted to let people know at least where I think my strengths are best, and thought others might enjoy doing the same. *Sigh*

jill

This is one of the reasons I hated school(

orgy7

DANIA I feel ya know...

xx

You forgot to put Woodstock,VA on your list. Were you here for the 250th anniversary celebration today?

lalala

Daniel Williams, aren't you one of the "regulars" around fodors? Just moved to Montreal from ????? Montreal is a wonderful city....you can't possibly be bored enough there to sit down and write this post. Oh well, sorry to add to the abuse you're getting!

Daniel Williams

Now that I've been thoroughly raked over the coals...I think I'll go continue enjoying Montreal in greater depth rather than endure more abuse (said with a smile) for my highly disliked scoring system.

I certainly did not mean to come across as a braggart; again I simply meant the "score" to be simply an unauthoritative systematic rating on one's personal reflection on the depth to which one explored place X. STOP READING HERE IF YOU DESPISE THE SCORE SYSTEM.

"3": my score for Pittsburgh, Nassau, Boston. This is actually meant to be a relatively low score. Feel maybe was the wrong word, a "taste" is maybe better? I've only been once and only for a few days to each of these. I can give some advice about what I did see, (Boston: I liked the vibe of the city, rode the "T", saw Cambridge/Harvard Area, Freedom Trail, Newbury St.) but I recognize I did not explore any of these cities in any great depth.

"6" for NYC. I've been to NY probably a dozen to twenty times as my aunt lives there, explored neighborhoods from Midtown to Financial in Manhattan, visited 3 of the boroughs and eaten at quite "a number of restaurants". I recognize however that I haven't ever SEEN a lot of NY and wouldn't know where even to go in those parts (north of 60th St. on Manhattan, South St. Seaport, Williamsburg, DUMBO, the Bronx/Staten Island). "6" seemed a good score (many attractions (you know though I've never even been to the Statue of Liberty, I probably deserve a deduction for that one *smile*), number of restaurants...).

Baltimore. Lipstique, you mention it would take 5 hours, 1 trip to get to know Baltimore. That would equal a "3" (one trip visit, you, the visitor, feel you got a taste) by my system. You may disagree, but I think there's a lot more to Baltimore than the harborfront of interest to travellers. Other parts of the city, from Federal Hill to Mount Vernon to Charles Village to Mount Washington to East Baltimore to Fell's Point/Canton to Hamilton to Towson, have many good restaurants, fabulous markets and architecture, even museums, and in my mind have plenty of interest for the traveller. This I learned from 3 years of living there, exploring as many things people mentioned worth visiting as I could. Even so, I never made it to the Great Blacks in Wax museum, the Baltimore Zoo or the Baltimore Dentistry Museum, to name 3! I give myself a "9", score for someone who lived in a place, and explored it extensively.

Jason

Daniel: I don't know if you've been reading this site long, but if you go out on a limb in any way, shape or form, the nasties will attack.

Nothing wrong with your idea, but you'd never get people to cooperate.
People won't even follow the most basic rules here about efficient posting and using the archived info.

The only insurance against 'bad' info is to read multiple sources (opinions here, books, for profit websites, etc) and look for consistencies.
Takes time, but it works (for me, anyway).

Usually people who really know an area will state as much ("I used to live in Chicago so I can recommend the following museums", etc).

Nice attempt at improving the 'system' (or lack thereof).

Leslie

This whole thread is nothing more than self-serving and a lot of bragging. It provides absolutely no help to someone who is sightseeing. Why should people bother to pat themselves on the backs here? I can certainly understand why no one wants to participate.

Daniel, instead of a scoring system, you should have just created a thread offering help to the places that you are knowledgeable about.

K

If some of you are right and Daniel is trying to brag, he's not doing a very good job of it. He gave himself a 4 or higher for only 12 places, and he's lived in at least 2 of those. His grand total is 24 cities, including places where he admittedly has barely scratched the surface.

Leslie's Ex-Friend

True, but leslie is simply on the rag and needed to vent.
So, some good was accomplished.
Leslie wasted some bandwidth, wasted our time and spewed a bunch of bile and venom, but she probably felt better.
So that's worthwhile isn't it?
Your welcome, Leslie.

redneck

Great idea, I love it! Let me rate all the cities I have been to for you...

Branson, MO 8
Wichita, KS 7
Omaha, NE 8
Biloxi, MS 5
Dover, DE 7
South of the Border, SC 8
Aberden, SD 7
Tulsa, OK 10
Lubbock, TX 9

Trying to get a little bit more Hot Spring, AK experience before I can start offering advice on that gem.

Maxie

I see no "strengths" here. Your "scoring system" is totally flawed, particularly where you give Montreal a "score" of 9.5 when you've not explored it all. And, that's your TOP score? Were you in Paris on a stop-over? You are positively nuts.

Tom

"Fuzzy" for sure.