How rare is it to have never gone to your state’s largest city?

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ComprehensiveBad5548@reddit

I have lived in Illinois for 32 years. Never been to Chicago. It’s about 5-6 hours away from us. Been to plenty I’ve other states that are further away though! Just no desire to go there really.

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It partially depends on the size of the state, and maybe the size of the city. When I lived in Virginia, I went to the capital city several times, but never to the largest city. I now live in Long Island and have only gone to NYC to go to the train station when I'm travelling between New York and Virginia.

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I_POO_ON_GOATS@reddit

I'd say pretty rare for a lifelong resident to have not been to a state's biggest city.

But, remember each state varies much in size. A lifelong Texas resident never having been to Houston is way more likely than a lifelong Massachusetts resident having never been to Boston.

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nous-vibrons@reddit

It’s funny, I live in upstate NY (specifically the north country) and I barely know anyone who’s gone to the city. I’ve never been to NYC. It’s six hours away! NY is also a state with multiple big cities so going to the biggest for big city things is not as much as a thing than in other states (especially in the Midwest) where there is one or two big cities. If you live in Western New York, you’re more likely to hop to Buffalo or even Toronto Canada if you’re in the mood to explore a big city.

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ForestOranges@reddit

I wouldn’t classify Buffalo or any other city in NY as a “big city.” Buffalo is midsized. It has a skyline, pro sports, different neighborhoods, etc. Albany also felt very midsized to me, it was like a little mini NYC.

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TheRealDudeMitch@reddit

Skyline, pro sports, and neighborhood is my exact definition of a big city

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ForestOranges@reddit

I guess it just depends on your perspective, but cities like NYC, Chicago, LA, Miami, Philly, DC, Atlanta, Houston, Detroit, Dallas, and some others are all “big cities” to me, other cities who meet those things just can’t quite be matched.

Not much cheaper.

NY Penn Station to Trenton by NJ Transit is $19.80 one way; SEPTA Trenton to Philadelphia is $11; so that makes for $62 roundtrip NYC-Phila on commuter rail, assuming you just walk to/from the train stations in both cities.

Amtrak fares seem to vary greatly depending on which train you take and when. True, one can get something like $25 round-trip, but you probably need to travel in the middle of the night and book several weeks in advance. $100-$200 round-trip cost seems more realistic for somebody who just needs to go tomorrow at some convenient time.

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VariegatedPlumage@reddit

Oh dang! It was $50 round trip last time I went on NJT/SEPTA it’s gone up a lot and that was not too long ago!

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crackanape@reddit

My husband drove to New York from Philadelphia and back and spent like $75 on tolls and bridges.

The obvious route of Little Rock to Memphis a hellacious 2 hours of being trapped behind truckers holding hands isn’t a train option because the fast choice requires changing trains in St Louis and the slow one requires changing trains in San Antonio and New Orleans.

We did an overnight once and drove home after the game. omfg I was exhausted. Didn't drink at all, and my daughter drove home a good chunk of the way. Got home at like 2:00 AM. It was brutal.

It's not as though WNY is the complete ass end of civilization.

It's not the complete ass end, but it's more anus adjacent than head adjacent. It's like the low back of civilization.

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turdferguson3891@reddit

Still kind of crazy that it costs that much. I can fly to Honolulu from Northern California for about the same.

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TrenchcoatFullaDogs@reddit

Relative to its size (51st largest metro area in the US), Buffalo has a very small airport that puts an artificial choke point on passenger l traffic and makes it more expensive than you might think to fly into or out of just bc there aren't many fights.

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turdferguson3891@reddit

Yeah that makes sense. Last year a friend of mine wanted to go to a concert in Omaha (just because it was the only location he could get tickets for this band). I was going to go until I realized the plane ticket would cost more than flying anotherr country frrom where I am. Planet tickets have been ticking up because of fuel costs but In the last couple of years I've gone to Europe and Asia for less than Omaha would have been.

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TrenchcoatFullaDogs@reddit

It's definitely in the waist area, but people in this thread are acting like you gotta run the fucking Oregon Trail to get to the five boroughs from WNY as opposed to just taking a moderately priced Southwest or JetBlue flight that takes less than an hour.

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KamtzaBarKamtza@reddit

It's not as though WNY is the complete ass end of civilization.

Disneyland is a big one. And Universal. Also Northern California beaches are nothing like So Cal beaches. The closest thing there is near the Bay Area is Santa Cruz.

Going there, nothing really. You're technically supposed to stop at the "something to declare" line and tell them you have dogs and they might want to look at them or even ask for vaccination records but they generally don't care.

CNY and same here. Most people I know haven’t been to NYC and never seem interested in going unless they have a reason. To be fair, even “Central” NY is closer to Toronto than to NYC lol.

My friends from other states were surprised to learn that I’ve not only never been there but also that it’s like 5 hours away.

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turdferguson3891@reddit

Just in the musuem category NY has an insane amount of them. If you like museums it worth it for just that. The only other US city that I think can compare is DC because of the Smithsonians plus a few others.

And then you have the restaurants, broadway, central park, empire state building, ellis island/statue of libety, etc. etc. I worked there for about 6 months a long time ago and it gave me the ability to see a lot of it on my days off and I still didn't see everything.

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-Boston-Terrier-@reddit

I feel like this thread is wild. You're talking about going to big cities to:

Visit a museum
Walk streets
Shop locally, especially if there's a mall

Big city? You can do that in just about anything that's not a small town.

I mean I live in a town of 12,000 people, we have streets to walk, a choice of two museums, and two malls within driving distance. It's basically NYC.

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Powerful-Scratch1579@reddit

You’re missing the nuance of all these statements. Museums in large cities have world famous works of art and the shopping is in a whole other level . And a walk will take you past famous landmarks and architecture.

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-Boston-Terrier-@reddit

This is literally a thread about how Buffalo, NY is basically the exact same as NYC.

The only thing world famous in Buffalo is the chicken wings.

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Well the thing is I don’t really do nightlife stuff, and I’ve always preferred touristy things. And usually by shop locally I also mean going and getting whatever food the place might be famous for. I mostly just like seeing the sights, and things of that nature. Walking by the tall building and just thinking about how city people live. My hometown only has like 200 people in it.

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-Boston-Terrier-@reddit

damageddude@reddit

Not the MTA, NJ Transit :-). There is a shuttle train from Secaucus Junction to Met Life (almost all trains stop there). Just note that the schedule is limited.

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Eudaimonics@reddit

Yeah, but in terms of the basics you don’t need to visit NYC.

Buffalo has all your typical national chains, museums and enough nightlife/entertainment/dining, pro sports, an airport, trendy breweries & cocktail bars, indie music and festivals.

Yeah, NYC offers waaaay more, but most people live pretty boring lives. Like you don’t need an iPhone to do basic calculations, it’s kind of overkill.

Plus, Toronto is much much closer and offers 90% of what NYC does, but the city doesn’t smell like piss.

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BurritoDespot@reddit

If you're visiting NYC (or any city really) so that you can go to chain restaurants, you're insane.

It is laughable to compare the museums of NYC vs Buffalo as though they are on equal footing.

Entertainment? Only one of these cities literally has Broadway, a stop on every musician's world tour, and dozens of TV show tapings to attend.

Nightlife? Ha.

Toronto is bigger than Buffalo, but it still doesn't hold a candle to NYC.

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Eudaimonics@reddit

No I’m saying is that you don’t need to go to NYC to get all your shopping done.

You’d be insane for eating at chains in Buffalo too.

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BurritoDespot@reddit

lol. You just edited your comment to remove the part about chain restaurants.

NirvanaFan01234@reddit

Who said any place was in the same category as NYC? The differentiation between town and city is pretty meaningless. There is a city in NY with a little over 3000 people.

Who cares about the actual city proper population? That is why I mentioned metro areas. The actual cities of Rochester and Buffalo aren't the best places to live, so people avoid living there. Most people live out in the suburbs, where they can get downtown in 15 minutes. I can sometimes travel across the county by vehicle in less time than people can travel across Hempstead.

turdferguson3891@reddit

You should expand your horizons a little bit. It's good for you. Might be a bit of a culture shock but there is a lot of amazing stuff in NYC.

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RealWalkingbeard@reddit

You should give NYC a go. I found myself in Manhatten after losing my passport a few years ago after a family thing in Rochester. I can't say I particularly liked Manhatten, except the meat-packing district, but the skyscrapers in the financial district are awesome, in the genuine, old-fashioned, vertigo-inducing, god-fearing way. Such places take people differently, but I'd say that the scale and clamour of what was the city of the 20th century is not to be missed, even if you're not keen on doing it a second time.

UsedToBePOS@reddit

It’s true … IL is long. But if you live there your whole life, eventually you probably go to Chicago unless you just don’t go places. I had college friends from central IL who had never been to Chicago, but then we dragged em up there.

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levi070305@reddit

You'd think so. I live in Kansas City now and met a guy that lives about a half hour away thats never been to Kansas City, Missouri.

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Drivo566@reddit

Yep, where i lived in NJ i would just go to NYC. Never had any reason to go to Newark other than the airport (and I wouldnt count that as visiting the city).

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Seadevil07@reddit

Agree (coming from a small state too), everyone around me in Maryland refers to DC as the city. Most people don’t have a reason to go to Baltimore.

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Tempest_in_a_TARDIS@reddit

I came here to say this. I was born in southern Illinois. Springfield was 15 minutes away, and St. Louis was a 1.5 hour train ride away. If we wanted a city, we went to one of those instead of driving 4 hours to Chicago.

Hell, even in north jersey, someone is more likely to just go to NYC instead of Newark.

Also live in Nebraska, and I'm not entirely sure on this one, especially for those who live in the extreme Western and Northwestern parts of the state.

I distinctly remember in high school, 10/11 did a feature on Grand Island students taking a trip to Omaha, and they were freaking out about going to a "major" city. You would have thought they were talking about NYC or Chicago.

Texas immediately came to mind. Grew up in El Paso? Highly unlikely you’ve been to Houston.

There are a lot of Texas who live in the largest cities that may not gave traveled to all of the others. Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio are all in the top 10 largest cities in the US.

Biggest city isn’t necessarily the capital. When I lived in Southern California I feel like most people had never been to Sacramento. I also feel like most people in South Florida and New York would have no reason to go Tallahassee and Albany

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Frodo34x@reddit

Biggest city isn’t necessarily the capital.

I assume you mean humidity, heh. Don't know how similar it is to the Dallas area, but I don't recall it being too bad when I lived in Irving. But I was also like, 5 or 6 at the time.

Meanwhile, the humidity here in PA kicked my ass for the first few years. I pretty much im immediately decided that I am never moving further south than this state on this coast. I'm from California. I can take heat. But the humidity? No thanks.

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TsundereLoliDragon@reddit

And even though Nebraska is big, half the state lives in either Omaha or Lincoln, which isn't even that far.

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TheRealDudeMitch@reddit

I’m thinking it depends on the state. Take Illinois for example, the southern part of the state (cities like Carbondale and Cairo, for example) are a good 5, probably closer to 6 hour drive to Chicago, but can be in St Louis, Missouri or Memphis, Tennessee in half the time.

Lots of people in that region have certainly been to Chicago, but I’d wager just as many haven’t

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ninoidal@reddit

I have to imagine that there are plenty of folks in the Miami area who never went to Jacksonville.

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EnthusiasmTop8815@reddit

It’s probably more common to have not been to your state capitol, for example how many Chicagoans do you think have been to Springfield, IL? I’d guess it is a pretty low percentage.

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meeeebo@reddit

How far away are you from Amsterdam? That sounds crazy to me that you have never really been.

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yoshimipinkrobot@reddit

I dont want to know any Dutch redneck who has never been to Amsterdam

navair42@reddit

I'll accept on behalf of Pensacola.

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Stock-Swing-797@reddit

I am obligated to do the "username checks"

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kingoflint282@reddit

I think metro area is the better/more meaningful metric in this case

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whatisakafka@reddit

Yeah, I’ve lived in Florida for 5 years, previously central Florida and now south Florida, and I’ve never been to Jacksonville beyond passing by it and can’t imagine when I’d ever go. It would be a 5+ hour drive, which would be I’d rather fly territory, and why would I fly there?

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nakedonmygoat@reddit

I could see it in western Massachusetts. If one lives in Pittsfield, for example, Albany is a lot closer than Boston.

And it's not just 10 normal hours, it's 5 hours of hell at the beginning.

Donald_J_Duck65@reddit

🤷🏿‍♂️ Its hard to say, I was born and raised within three miles so we would go there for take out.

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Wild-Guarantee5681@reddit

I find this funny esp with state capitals

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I grew up in that area of Southwestern Virginia. Our closest nice mall was in West Virginia, second closest in Tennessee. If we flew somewhere we flew from an airport in West Virginia. Roanoke was the closest Virginia city to us and it wasn’t close.

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wcpm88@reddit

Were you somewhere toward Wise and Dickenson counties? I go down there for work and yeah, it has always felt like people are more connected to Charleston and the Tri-Cities than they are up here in Roanoke.

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Tough-Advice2910@reddit

Not TOO far from there.

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sassysassysarah@reddit

I was born in Boise, Idahos largest city

I lived in Austin for a while, but rarely visited Dallas or Houston because it was like a two to four hour drive, but I went maybe like a handful of times in 10 years.

I live in Northern Virginia, which is part of the Washington DC metro area and by far the most popolous region of the state. I don't venture into other parts of the state all that often and assumed that the biggest city was the state capital Richmond. Turns out it's actually third after Virginia Beach and Chesapeake - which I guess is to say at least from my perspective, Virginia doesn't have an obvious 'largest city'.

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Tough-Advice2910@reddit

That is so interesting. A large part of my extended family is from what is now metro Charlotte and I spent my summers on the farm with my cousin and at camp there, and my parents lived in Asheville for ten years.

I can almost NEVER recall hearing anyone talking about going to Wilmington. I lived in Williamsburg, Virginia for three years and we went to the Outer Banks a lot, but even over there I hardly ever heard about Wilmington.

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EdgeCityRed@reddit

Not an American answer, but I knew people in England who'd been to Disneyworld in Florida twice but had never been to London (an hour and a half away by train).

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Tough-Advice2910@reddit

Wow.

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ancientastronaut2@reddit

My mother in law lives in a rural part of central PA and has never been to any of the nearby big cities, like Philly, NYC, Pittsburgh, DC, etc.

Her entire life is lived within a 5-10 mile radius and she's ok with that.

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Tough-Advice2910@reddit

That was true of my grandmother. She lived in a tiny town in the rugged West Virginia mountains. She and a neighbor would go into a slightly bigger town about 45 minutes away for groceries.

At Christmas, when she was much older, one of her three children would go get her and take her to their house for maybe two months. She flew twice in life, once when my mother, her oldest, went into labor with me (my parents lived in Florida because my dad was doing his military service) and once when I had been practicing law for a couple of years….I went to get her and secretly flew her to my family in Florida as a surprise for Christmas.

I traveled CONSTANTLY for my work and I kept stamps in my wallet so I could send her a postcard from everywhere I went, no matter how dull, no matter how often I had been there. After she died we found every single postcard in her dresser drawers.

Richmond is also easier to visit because it's on 95.

There's no situation where you're driving through Virginia Beach.

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Traditional_Entry183@reddit

I grew up in West Virginia. Lived there until I was 26, and still visit every year at age 48. However, I've only been to the biggest city/Capitol Charleston a few times in my life, and I've never been to the second biggest city Huntington, because I'm from the Northern Panhandle and there just was rarely a reason to, nor do I drive through those parts of the state on the way to somewhere else.

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xnatlywouldx@reddit

BR is more segregated and the “whiter” parts are closer to those areas. Google “St. George” and the entire issue with that town “seceding” from BR.

The price of gas, shopping at retail outlets and department stores, and Whole Foods is the same in BR as it is in New Orleans and always has been. It’s also more expensive to fly into BR’s airport from Houston or Atlanta (and less convenient too - lots of flights with layovers) but people still prefer it to flying into or out of MSY sometimes.

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Tough-Advice2910@reddit

Unless the person is a child, I think it is likely pretty rare that a person living in my state hasn’t been to the largest city. Our largest city is also the Capitol, two interstates go through it and the boys state basketball tournament is here every year. The city is fairly centrally located. I didn’t grow up in the state but I’m thinking most people wander through here eventually, for something, at least once.

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Future-Cry5734@reddit

Maybe about 50/50? People in Western MD or on the Eastern Shore tend to think that going to Baltimore is an automatic death sentence.

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Irritable_Curmudgeon@reddit

Depends on the state. Some are FAR. Some may have a closer larger city in a neighboring state.

Seems weird for the Netherlands, given that everyone in the country could get to Amsterdam in under 2 hours by car.

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AlexandraThePotato@reddit

European freak out if they have to drive or use public transportation for longer than 10 minutes

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MobilityTweezer@reddit

I was two hours away from London by train, no one would go with me negate it was too far! I was just a teen so I wanted a British person to go with me. Nope. Too far.

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pupperoni42@reddit

And there's a great train system there so most people could bike to their local station and get to Amsterdam by train in 2 hours.

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53bvo@reddit

I live close to the German border (20 min drive) but can hop on my bike for 15 min and take the train to Amsterdam which takes 1 hours.

I've never met one, but I'm sure they exist somewhere.

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GreenBeanTM@reddit

Depends on the state and what the city is. Burlington is the largest city in VT, and there’s really zero purpose in most people visiting it.

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gaytee@reddit

I think your example is fairly extreme too, Amsterdam is the vegas of Europe, most Americans avoid vegas too, and the ones who live in Nevada likely don’t go out of their way.

That said, if you lived in Maryland and hadn’t been to Baltimore or DC, it would be a large shock, schools organize field trips to cities like these, friends organize vacations, sporting events etc.

My grandmother lived in my state her whole life in my state passed in 2005 and saw two different cities be the largest in my state. She set foot on every continent except Antarctica.

Depends on the state.

I live in Pcola and not even Tampa is a short drive lol. But access to New Orleans isn’t bad and the CoL isn’t crazy.

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nuglasses@reddit

CoL

May I ask..?

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ArsenalinAlabama3428@reddit

Cost of Living. South and central Florida can be crazy expensive. The panhandle is much more affordable but you have much less going on at the same time.

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nuglasses@reddit

Gotcha, thanks 😬

navair42@reddit

I'm a Pensacola Beach guy myself but I know Juana's well. I live in almost downtown Pensacola so it's a little bit of a hike out to Juana's.

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I’m not trying to be rude, but you are one of tens of millions of people in the state. The comment I responded to said that generally most people have probably been to their biggest city in their state, but it’s probably less true for bigger states. I agreed with that, but said that in California it is probably more common than you’d see in other states with large areas. Considering over half of all Californians live within 100 miles of LA it’s a good bet most Californians have at least driven through LA

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Hegemonic_Smegma@reddit

If you live in Safety Harbor, you do not live in Clearwater, you do not live in St. Petersburg, and you do not live in Tampa. You do live in the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area.

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HurricaneAlpha@reddit

Florida is even weirder than that. Jacksonville is technically the biggest city, with Miami being the biggest metro. So someone from pensacola would have a choice to make of what "biggest city" means. And you're right, New Orleans or even Atlanta would probably be a better choice for a city vacation for someone from the panhandle, compared to Miami. The culture shift from panhandle to Miami is huge compared to atl or n.o.

And Jacksonville is by no means a tourist destination or cultural hub.

I've been to pretty much all of the metros of Florida, and Miami is the biggest of the tourist cities by far. Orlando has all the parks but isn't really a city per se.

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ALoungerAtTheClubs@reddit

I tried to word the comment to avoid the Jacksonville city-size issue. I'm typing this from Jax, and nobody considers it a big city except in a technicality.

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HurricaneAlpha@reddit

Yeah that's fair, I don't even consider Jacksonville when I think of "Florida metro". I drive through it regularly on the way to Savannah and ive never felt the desire to stop and check it out.

I mean every once in awhile. Plus NYC is very different from Toronto.

My state is a little odd when it comes to “largest city.” We have three that can be considered the largest if you alter the criteria. Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus can all lay claim based on different measurements.

Educational_Impact93@reddit

The Amsterdam things is a bit wild to me, especially because the Netherlands is so small area wise.

I'm sure there are people here who have never been to Denver, but it means you're missing out on pro sports, many concerts, and the biggest airport in the state (and one of the biggest in the whole country).

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Ok_Benefit7428@reddit

the biggest airport in the country and one of the biggest in the world

Since then I have been to the largest cities in pretty much every state in the U.S. plus a few other countries too.

I do know, however, a bunch of people from N.J. who have never been to Newark, Jersey City, Patterson, Elizabeth, Trenton, Camden, or even the Jersey shore. I don't understand their absence of curiosity or their non-existant sense of adventure.

I understand that traveling is expensive, but how soul-crushing must it be to be 50 or 60 years old and never having been more than 30 miles from where you were born?

Four years ago our family moved full-time to Belize. I met my Belizean wife in Belize almost 17 years ago. We married and moved to the States soon thereafter, but used to come back regularly to see family and friends.

I was and still am frequently amazed by how little of Belize our Belizean friends and family have visited. I have inlaws who have never seen the Caribbean Sea, though they only live 60 miles away from it. I know money is always an issue, but Hell, call me. We'll make it a weekend trip, I'll drive, and you and your family can ride along. We'll spring for food, gas, and beer (not necessarily in that order), but no. There is something invisible that stops them from going.

I lived in the biggest city in my state.. oh wait... The other city got bigger in the past 10 years. My state has 3 major cities/metros and lots of smaller cities.

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thegamerdoggo@reddit

Idk it’s probably pretty common, if you never leave your hometown then you’ll never visit the city, plenty of people don’t

kingoflint282@reddit

For sure if they’ve ever flown they’ve been to ATL, bit those that haven’t its not super surprising

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BigReception7685@reddit

Probably not too rare. Texas is pretty big (so the saying goes). Personally, I've been to Houston many times, but if I didn't know anyone there, or lived farther away, it's hard to say whether I'd have ever been at all. I've certainly never visited Dallas-Ft. Worth (beyond passing through when traveling), and that's a pretty major metro.

Might be rare after an entire lifetime though, assuming they stay living in-state, but if a 30yo native Texan told me they'd never been to Houston, I wouldn't be blown away.

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AllSoulsNight@reddit

Quite rare, Most of the big concerts/events are in the bigger cities. One of the bigger ones is the Capitol so a good majority of school kids go as groups for state history class.

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amopdx@reddit

Considering half the population of my state live in the metro area (the largest city and surrounding suburbs), it’s not uncommon at all.

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Kbbbbbut@reddit

Lived in Texas my whole life. I have been to Houston a couple of times but definitely could have easily not gone there. Lived in and visited the other major cities much more (Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio)

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PrincessWolfie1331@reddit

Maryland: Good luck avoiding Baltimore if you in the Baltimore Metro. All highways lead to Baltimore. Plus, the Aquarium and the Science Center are huge for school field trips.

No problem.

Which state? Nearly half of NY lives in NYC, so in that case... quite rare

West Virginia's largest city is next to its second one, like 1hour apart.

A standard life of an unadventurous person is to stay around where they were born and occasionally go to the nearest major airport.

Yeah definitely, I just moved to Portland on a whim two months ago because I thought getting away from my stressors would help me manage my mental illness.

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Fangsong_37@reddit

It's very rare. Many elementary schools will take the students on field trips to their state capitals. I remember going to Indianapolis several times during school when visiting museums or the zoo.

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TALieutenant@reddit

Can't actually remember the last time I went to Seattle. I know it's been more than a year though. I live in the southwestern part of the state, so it's about a 3 hour drive.

It's more common for me to cross the border and go to Portland (Oregon.) That's like about a half an hour drive. Just did it a week ago to pick up my parents from the airport after their vacation to Amsterdam.

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catshark2o9@reddit

I’ve never been to Los Angeles other than the airport. I live in Northern California though and I don’t visit socal at all if I can help it

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AnxiousMetal6435@reddit

MA (Boston)

coopasonic@reddit

The middle of the Finger Lakes. We went to Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, Niagara Falls and the Adirondacks but never as far as NYC.

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AssSpelunkingAtheist@reddit

CNY person here too. I’ve been to NYC once, and I know more people that haven’t been there than have.

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El_Polio_Loco@reddit

People seem to not realize that from Buffalo to NYC is a 400 mile drive.

For the state I grew up in (NJ), I only ever ended up in the largest city to go to the airport. But honestly NJ is a weird case as the big cities for the state are not actually in the state - NYC and Philly are way bigger and more important than the NJ cities as someone living in NJ.

I’m in the western half, and I’ll admit, I hadn’t really considered the farthest ends of the state not having much reason to go. To be fair, I’ve been to the coast only one time, and I was real little, but I’ve been to Charlotte numerous times for various things.

With how large the Charlotte area is, I just feel like majority of the state has at least driven through it, or been in the area around it at some point. But fair enough with the drive, I won’t drive much more than three hours without a really good reason, so for y’all on the coast and those in the mountains I’m sure wouldn’t find much reason to go to the middle of the state very often.

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mikegalos@reddit

I've lived in four states as an adult. I've been to the largest city in all four. In one it was just to visit family, in one because the easiest drive to many places went through it, in one because despite being 150km away it was where you went to shop for anything unusual and in one because we lived in its suburbs.

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Careless-Internet-63@reddit

I'm from Washington and went to college a couple hours from Seattle. I might've met one or two people who had grown up here and never been to Seattle but it's basically unheard of for people who grew up here to have never visited Seattle at least once

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I think this depends a lot on the state if we are talking about the US. I live in Louisiana (not the state I was born or raised in) and it has the highest rate of people who have never left the state of any state in the US. Many people have never left the city or town they were born in. It is mostly due to poverty, hard to afford a day trip when you can't afford a car in the deep south, there isn't much interstate public transit.

I lived in Washington, DC for about 10 years. Living there you could take a bus to NYC or Philly for less than $20 round trip, sometimes as low as $1. Even Chicago, Boston, Richmond, Burlington, Provincetown accessible by bus or train pretty cheap. The east coast has a lot more infrastructure and density than the rest of the country. Growing up in Miami it felt like most people were from somewhere else, be it another country or another state. It felt like everyone traveled, even if it was 'just' to your grandparents house (be it South America, Bangladesh or Wisconsin)

I was once visiting my MIL in Mississippi, she lives in a small town about thirty minutes outside of Oxford. About a five hour drive from New Orleans, we make the trip every four to six months. I was chatting with the counter girl at the little grocery store there and she talked about visiting New Orleans as if it were Tokyo or Paris; a city of dreams, half a world away. I bet you could find a fair bit of true urbanites - people in NY, Chicago or LA who've never left.

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princessvoldemort@reddit

Maybe if you live in a state with a large area, it might be more common. But if you’re in, say Maryland, it would be rare to not have gone to Baltimore.

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OK_Stop_Already@reddit

Its a pretty long drive just to go... and there's not much to see there. I've been but there's nothing really to do there other than to flip off the governor's mansion.

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mapotoful@reddit

I think it depends on if it is the capital or not? I grew up in Raleigh, NC and never visited Charlotte for the 25 years I was there. There was no reason to.

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DifferentTie8715@reddit

pretty common. Kansas City is Missouri's biggest city, but not necessarily its most important or historic. A lot of people in my area will have gone to St Louis or Jefferson City or even Columbia at some point on a school trip, or to Springfield to shop or see a medical specialist, but KC is almost a world apart.

I've also met rural Missourians who've hardly ever been outside their home county. Like MAYBE once they went on a field trip as a kid, or maybe they once attended a uncle's funeral in the next county over, but I am sometimes surprised by how little of the world some of the people I meet have seen.

I’ve driven through Memphis but never stopped, idk if that counts

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MidnightEntourage@reddit

I feel like a surprising amount of PA residents have never been to Philly. It took me until I was 21 to go there for the first time despite having lived only 2.5 hours away. Still haven't been to NYC and only got to Pittsburgh after I moved closer to it for work. I visited San Francisco, Orlando, and Dallas before I visited Pittsburgh or Philadelphia because of college marching band.

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Icy-Mixture-995@reddit

Odd to me, except for the destitute poor with no means to get there. I lived in S. California for a few years and made it six or seven hours drive to Sacramento.

Depends on the state. I'd venture there are lifelong residents of El Paso or Amarillo who have never been to Houston because they've never had a reason to, but probably not many in the entire state of Rhode Island who haven't been to Providence at some point.

I've driven through OKC many times, but never actually been to OKC as a destination since I live on the other side of Tulsa. Well, I did go there one time specifically to pick up something from a person there, and happened to meet my brother there that same night when he was driving a semi, so I guess that you could count that as being "to" OKC.

I also never went to New Orleans itself when I lived in Louisiana nearly 5 hours away.

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DogsBikesAndMovies@reddit

I wouldn't know, because I was raised in, and live in Seattle. My nephew is scared of big cities, but pretty much everyone I know around here loves to visit Seatown.

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ATXKLIPHURD@reddit

I’ve driven through Dallas/Fort Worth but never actually did anything in the city. Does that count?

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GhostAnthonyBourdain@reddit

Oh you'd be surprised. So many people from Tacoma have never been to Seattle and certainly have never been to Vashon.

It's all about proximity and vibes. It also doesn't help that people from my state hatw driving more than 20 minutes to anywhere and will only make longer drives if they have to. But for leisure? Hell no!

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Green_Evening@reddit

Our largest city is a bit of a shit-hole. Many people have been there, but it wouldn't shock me if someone hadn't.

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LabInner262@reddit

Not that uncommon where I live. I know a lady who had never left her home town (population of around 4500). It’s clearly not the capital city 😋

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uvdawoods@reddit

Depends on the city and the state. There’s a ton of people downstate who’ve never been to the largest city here and go with the President’s and the media’s interpretation of the city and think it’s a war zone. The folks who live here, me included, make a lot of jokes about it.

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MyLittlPwn13@reddit

I think that would be pretty uncommon. Most Americans I know have been to both NYC and LA at least once, even if they don't have much money.

Here in Utah, 75% of the population is concentrated around Salt Lake City anyway, and most of the rural population would have to come to the city to get things like specialty medical care. You might be able to get around that if you lived in southwest Utah and went to Las Vegas, NV for thise resources instead, but I think most Utahns would have to come to Salt Lake City eventually.

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zoppaTheDim@reddit

Outside of California, I don’t think this is common, if we’re counting just adults.

Nearly every school kid in Alaska has been to Anchorage at one point. Most Texans have been to Houston.

California is so long though and LA do far south, that there are plenty of people who haven’t been to LA.

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PacSan300@reddit

Nearly every school kid in Alaska has been to Anchorage at one point.

Wow, even ones who live in, for example, Utqiagvik or the Aleutian Islands?

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Really? My kids going to a different states major city this week that’s 4-5 hours away. They go 2 hours for their state capital trip. This is a public school too.

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LunarVolcano@reddit

Our big long trips were optional and cycled year to year. They definitely went to the largest city in the state (NYC) some years, but also DC, Nashville, Boston, etc. Mine was to Chicago. Other than that I don’t think we had field trips more than 1-2 hours away.

I know some schools do longer trips more typically though, I worked in a museum for a couple years and couldn’t believe how far away some of the school groups came from.

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shwh1963@reddit

Each of those (Eureka To LA and El Paso to Houston) drives is 10 hours one way.

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ThePermMustWait@reddit

I would still say it’s rare though. Most people live in major metro areas.

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Rose_E_Rotten@reddit

I live 30 miles from my state's biggest city. My parents were born there. I don't go there often but it's an easy trip if I wanted to get away for the day.

I live in RI, the smallest state. If you wanted to go to a concert or the theater, you're likely going to Providence for that. We have hospitals elsewhere in the state, but the largest, with the most capabilities, are in Providence.

I was in rural Idaho and overheard two people talking about traveling into the city. One of them said “I made it to Caldwell and got so scared I had to turn around and go back home. I never made it to Boise.”

be-kind-3000@reddit

I think it’s true but sad. Going to new places, seeing museums, eating different foods, meeting people that are different from you is how we all grow as people. I live in the Cleveland area for a few years and met so many people that never left that area and most had negative thoughts on places that they never experienced.

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markpemble@reddit

I get what you mean, but if you live in a high end resort town in Western Montana and fly in and out to your international destinations, there is no reason to visit Billings.

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be-kind-3000@reddit

How about for a pastie?

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No-Performer-6621@reddit

I think it’s pretty rare except in some extenuating circumstances (like massive states with multiple large cities that others have mentioned - Texas, CA, AK, etc).

For the rest of the (smaller) states - I think it would be pretty unusual, especially for a life-long adult native of that state. I would challenge those folks to expand their horizons and do a weekend trip if it’s within the realm of possibility.

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yozaner1324@reddit

Fairly rare, but not impossible. The vast majority of Oregonians live within two hours or Portland, but you can be up to 7 hours away if you live in deep SE Oregon. There are also towns in eastern Oregon near the Idaho border that are basically part of the Boise metro area and may not really care about Portland.

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smbarbour@reddit

I'd imagine there are quite a large number of people who have lived in southern Illinois their entire life and have never been to Chicago. They'd be more likely to go to St. Louis instead.

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PeanutterButter101@reddit

Rare? I've lived in 2. My sister on the other hand lives in the outer suburbs and avoids cities as much as possible.

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bradmajors69@reddit

I grew up in Georgia (USA). Atlanta was more than three hours drive away, as were any other big cities. Most folks had been to Atlanta at least once -- school groups would often take kids there to museums and amusement parks and such -- but it wasn't unusual to learn that someone hadn't.

SerPete@reddit

It's fairly common. I lived in Omaha Nebraska and only went to Lincolm once in a school field trip. Never again though. There's not much to do in Lincoln that you can't do in Omaha.

I'm in Texas now and never went to Austin. I'm close to Dallas so any concerts or events I want to go to, I check Dallas. Austin would be like a 4 hour drive there (8 hours including drive back)

In the States, most people know 2 cities: the capital, and the largest city. In Europe, the biggest city typically IS the capital but that's rarely the case here. The capital typically holds hiatoric significance but isn't where all the stuff is at. Like who in New York is like "Dude. You gotta go to Albany!" And where are all the Florida stories about Tallahassee?

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DangerousDave303@reddit

It's probably rare. Around 80% of the population of the state lives in an urban corridor within 100 miles of the largest city. There may be a few people living in the most distant corners of the state that have never been to the largest city, but it's a long way to a major metropolitan area in a neighboring state so the number is probably small.

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This is very state-specific. Indiana? Lots of people don't have much reason to go to Indianapolis. It might be a 3 hour drive. I definitely have met people who have never been.

Illinois? Plenty of people in the South part of the state haven't been to Chicago, over 5 hours away.

Michigan? Most of the state actively avoids Detroit, and the far side of the UP is nearly 10 hours drive away. It's likely the majority in that region have never been there. If they want a mid-size city, they're way closer to Minneapolis 2 states away.

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El_Polio_Loco@reddit

I knew people who hadn't been to New York City, some who had only been there maybe once or twice.

There are parts of the state of NY where traveling to NYC is about like going from Amsterdam to Dresden or nearly Prague.

I'd imagine the same applies to people from other states that can be just as large, or people who live on state borders.

Like, I wouldn't be shocked if a person from Northern California didn't make the roughly 1000 km trip to LA without good cause.

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Maybeitsmeraving@reddit

I live in my states largest city now (Philadelphia). I get the impression that people in the rural parts of the state would rather arm wrestle a bear than come here, though. I had to fight to get my dad to come here the first time. When I lived in Florida it wasn't, but now the "biggest city" in Florida is Jacksonville, which is a shithole that basically no one would go to for funsies. Just a giant pile of crappy suburbs one after the other with no planning or organization being called a "city" for want of a better term. If be shocked if even 15% of the people in Florida who don't already live in Jacksonville have been there in any sense other than driving through it on I-95 to leave the state.

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Residents of California north of, maybe Fresno or so, could lead long happy lives without ever going to Los Angeles.

Residents of southeastern Alaska probably don't need to go to Anchorage.

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Standard_Attitude_19@reddit

Depends how big the state is. In in PA and about 20 mins away from Philadelphia so I go there often, but I’ve never even been close to Pittsburg and probably won’t be unless I have a specific reason to be.

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RedneckBorealis@reddit

The answer, as others have said, is going to be largely driven by (1) whether the state has multiple moderate-to-large population centers, (2) how geographically large the state is, and (3) whether the state's largest city is a standout city with unique attractions.

Many Texans won't have gone to Houston because the state is geographically large and there are other major metropolitan areas. Same with Californians and Los Angeles.

Jacksonville, Florida hits all three points. There are other pop centers, it's a pretty long and narrow state, and for better or worse, Jacksonville is not necessarily a major draw to people from elsewhere.

Connecticut is tiny, but it has many cities of similar size, and the biggest one is...not one people would ever have to go to (or want to go to) for any reason unless they lived there or unless you count passing through it on I-95 without stopping.

If you live in Rhode Island, though, you've almost certainly been to Providence. If you live in Georgia, you've almost certainly been to Atlanta.

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exdeletedoldaccount@reddit

It’d be very rare in my state (Indiana). I’d also be really surprised for any rural state. Beyond the hating on the “big city” for its “crime” or whatever, most would find themselves having to come for one of these three things:

State fairgrounds (not always in biggest city)
Hospitals (whether for yourself or family)
Kids sports tournaments

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SidMarcus@reddit

I live 20 miles north of Boston and worked in the city for 24 years. So yeah, been there/done that.

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episcoqueer37@reddit

I live in a state where we constantly debate what counts as the largest city, but I'd say most folks here have been to at least 1 of the 3, even if only on a school trip.

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markpemble@reddit

I'm pretty sure it is fairly common here in Idaho.

Total population across all states, it is probably 25% or so. There are a surprising number of people, 5% at a guess, who never leave their home county which means they stay within about 100km of where they were born pretty much their whole life. That's true for rural areas and big cities.

But these are semi-educated guesses at best.

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Zaidswith@reddit

It's super odd. Like, it can happen but people would be shocked and ask how.

At the very least, a lifelong resident would take field trips there throughout their school years.

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JellyfishFit3871@reddit

Atlanta (metro) is essentially half of the state. I don't go often, but it's hard to avoid.

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getElephantById@reddit

I think its rare, but not unheard of, to meet born and raised dutch people who have never gone to Amsterdam

tranquilrage73@reddit

The Netherlands is about the size of one of our smallest states.

California, for example, is 10 times the size of The Netherlands.

With that in mind, there definitely are some people who simply do not have the means to travel that far.

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rocky8u@reddit

In Virginia it depends on the definition of biggest city. By population within its borders Virginia Beach is the largest city. However, many cities in Virginia have borders that were drawn a long time ago and more population should be included in the overall city, like Richmond, which has a lot of people in its metro area that live in Henrico County and Chesterfield County. The Virginia Beach metro area is also kind of messy because it is usually combined into the Hampton Roads smorgasbord of cities (Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth) into one big metro area.

Cities in Virginia are also weird because they are not part of counties and don't usually expand once their borders are established. There are also places in Virginia that arguably should be cities like Rosslyn in Arlington County which is a dense urban area but is not officially a city.

Also, Washington DC is on the border of Virginia and is the largest metropolitan area in the region. The most populous part of Virginia is adjacent to DC but is not part of it. When statistics describe the DC metropolitan area they usually include the northern part of Virginia.

I've been to the largest city in my state a couple times in 58 years.

justdisa@reddit

Rare but not unheard of.

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P00PooKitty@reddit

In the northeast i think it’s incredibly rare. I could see people in new york or pa who live basically in appalachia or the great lakes region not making it to philly or nyc—but basically impossible on rhode island.

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Randompersonomreddit@reddit

I don't think it's rare. I think it's more common than not. I happen to live in my state's largest city and it is far from everything else in my state. So i imagine that people who live in more rural areas aren't driving 6 or more hours just to visit the city if they don't need to. I've even only been to my country's largest city like 3 times in my life and I'm only an hour and a half from there.

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FreeStateOfPortland@reddit

I was on the Oregon coast a couple weeks ago and a shop owner told us he’s been to Portland twice in his whole life. Portland is 90 minutes from where he lives.

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Waisted-Desert@reddit

To be fair, The Netherlands would rank 42 out of 51 in terms of size if it were a US state. A 3 hour drive is all it takes to transit The Netherlands, and that road trip will almost always bring you through or near Amsterdam. By contrast, you can drive across 5.5 hours Nevada and never be within 5 hours of the state's largest city. You can drive 6.5 hours through Illinois and not be within an hour of it's largest city.

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RonPalancik@reddit

Rare, but one consideration is if you live near the largest city in a different state.

My wife is from a part of Ohio directly across the river from Pittsburgh, so for "big city" experiences it made much more sense to go 30 minutes to Pittsburgh rather than 3 hours to Columbus.

I suspect the same is true of the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia - very much more in Philly's orbit than Newark.

If you're in East St. Louis your nearest city is St. Louis, going to Chicago is a whole different thing.

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aracauna@reddit

I don't know. When teaching in rural Georgia, we had discussions about how many of our students had never even crossed the river into a neighboring county, much less been to Atlanta 4 hours away. A lot of it was in trying to figure out how to prepare students who lives in a place where there's no curbside trash pickup for the majority of the population and no public transportation besides school buses to write essays about public sanitation and mass transportation on state tests.

And then in Texas, the largest city is Houston way over on the eastern coast of the second largest state in the country. I could totally see people in North and West Texas having never been to Houston even if they weren't poor because San Antonio, Dallas, and El Paso are probably closer and would have all the city stuff.

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Grindar1986@reddit

Not that uncommon. Our nearest big city is in another state (Memphis) and there's not much appeal in driving 3 hours to Jackson.

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coreynig91@reddit

I grew up in South Dakota and I didn't visit Sioux Falls until I had to go to MEPS at 17 and that was the only time I had been there.

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TsundereLoliDragon@reddit

Going to depend on the state but in PA I would think it crazy for someone from Pittsburgh not to have been to Philadelphia as it's about 300 miles away. The Netherlands is only like 200 miles long.

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T00luser@reddit

I don't think it's particularly rare depending on the state, some are huge and odd-shaped.

I know lots of people that have never been to Detroit because they live in the U.P

I'm sure there are thousands if not millions of northern California residents that never see LA

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SnapHackelPop@reddit

Well there’s a certain breed of cheesehead that have proudly never been to Milwaukee and will tell you it’s an active war zone because of those types

byte_handle@reddit

It depends on which state you're in. Other than stopping there for the night on a trip to somewhere else, I've never been to Philadelphia. I live on the other side of the state and it would take about a 6 hour drive in good traffic, and that's assuming I'm willing to pay the turnpike tolls for the most direct route. So, it's only something I'll do if I make it a point to go to Philadelphia, such as to see the sites. It's on my list of places to visit. Someday.

I obviously do know people who are from or who have visited Philadelphia, but there are plenty of people in my boat.

I assume in small states or states with a more central big city, it might be more common. Also, maybe in states with a lower population density, since they may need services from a business that requires a larger population to support? But that's just a guess.

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CarelessCreamPie@reddit

I'd say it's not super rare to have never been to the majority city in your state. For instance, if you live in northern Indiana, you're probably more likely to go to Chicago than Indianapolis.

But I'd say it's probably pretty rare for someone to have never been to the largest major city most proximate to them.

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I live in New York. Lots of people here have never been to New York City

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nowhereman136@reddit

New Jersey's largest city is Newark. It's only an hour away from where I live but I rarely go there. It's a transportation hub with airport and Amtrak station, it also has a few concert and sports venues. But generally I don't go there to hang out or shop. Newark is considered dirty and dangerous. Especially if you aren't familiar with the area, you can wander into some sketchy neighborhoods fast. It's generally fine in the daytime, but the longer you are there, the more you feel the need to leave. Plus, New York City is another 15 minutes away on the train. There's nothing in Newark that isn't bigger and better in New York City (except for Hockey). Newark isn't a bigger deal because it's basically a 6th borough of New York City. It's overshadowed by its proximity

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ButtercupsUncle@reddit

Almost anyone who answers this will just be guessing because it's virtually unknowable. We just don't typically go around asking people we meet if they've been to L.A. (in my case)

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Ph4ntorn@reddit

It depends on the state.

In my home state of Pennsylvania, there's a big divide between the Eastern and Western halves of the state. It's almost like two different states with a bunch of farmland in the middle. The biggest city is Philadelphia in the East. But, if you're in the Western half, you're more likely to visit Pittsburgh or even cities in Ohio and West Virginia, like Columbus, Cleveland, and Morgantown, that you are to visit Philadelphia.

I'm in my 40s and have lived near Pittsburgh all my life. I visited Philly once, and only because I was already going to Lancaster and figured I might as well go see a baseball game.

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LunarVolcano@reddit

I didn’t go to mine until I was 18. Didn’t help that it was a seven hour drive on the complete opposite end of the state. If I wanted to go to a really big city, ironically it was significantly faster to go to one in a different country.

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Interesting-Run-6866@reddit

I live in NJ and know plenty of people from upstate NY that have never been to NYC.

There are parts of NY that are 7-8 hours away from NYC meanwhile the furthest part of NJ to NYC is only 3 hours away. The furthest part of Connecticut to NYC is probably 2 hours away.

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Drslappybags@reddit

If you live in El Paso, Texas, San Diego is closer. And as someone who lives in Houston, I would recommend the San Diego trip.

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Shot-Artichoke-4106@reddit

It's pretty common for Californians to have never been to LA. It's a big state and our northern-most towns are 700-ish miles from LA.

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Enasis@reddit

I live in my states biggest city. Before I moved here I went at least once a year. I lived 50 miles away.

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MaverickLurker@reddit

In my state, Pennsylvania, people from the western part of the state around Pittsburgh can live a normal and fulfilling life without traveling 6 hours to the opposite end of the state to visit Philadelphia. The came can be said for a number of other states as well.

A quick bit of googling also shows me that The Netherlands, as a nation, is smaller than 80% of US states. To put it in some perspective, it would be like someone living in one of our smaller states like Maryland, perhaps in the far West of the state, not driving the 3 hours east to go to Baltimore. And that's something I wouldn't know.

I think it would be more common for people to not travel to the big city like your question asked, but because of the country size, it isn't a 1 to 1 comparison with The Netherlands.

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HorseFeathersFur@reddit

Well, that depends. If you’re in a large state like California, there are plenty of people from northern California who have probably never been to Los Angeles. That can be an 8 to 10 Hour Dr.

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Prof01Santa@reddit

When I lived in KY, I never went to Frankfort.

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deepseasnail@reddit

i grew up in pennsylvania, so we went on many field trips in school to philadelphia. however, i lived in eastern PA, so i was only about an hour and a half from philly. but for someone from western PA, they would be looking at a 4.5ish hour+ drive to philly

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WideHuckleberry1@reddit

As others have said and as it almost always is, it depends on the state. For Texas, their largest city is in the east and they are a huge state. It would take nearly 12 hours to get from El Paso in the west to Houston in the east. Texas also has several major metropolitan areas of >1 million residents so pretty much all the big city amenities can be found in one of the others.

EmotionalCattle5@reddit

The state I grew up in, I had gone at least a few times to the biggest city and the capital city just by attending field trips as a child because we visited the state capital, and the other major city we visited to go to museums/zoo/other attractions throughout k-12. I know that in the state I live in now, kids in school go to the major city for various field trips also. I can't say every state does this...but most likely do. Larger states, like california/texas may be different if there's a large city closer to you with field trip attractions but the city visited isn't the capital and/or the biggest city in the state.

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macoafi@reddit

Pretty common, I’d figure, especially if you live in the second-largest city in the state. I lived in Pittsburgh for the first 18 years of my life. I was 27 the first time I visited Philadelphia, and that was just because I live in the DC area now and wanted to be out of town during Trump’s inauguration.

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pearsnic000@reddit

I’m in Washington state. The majority of the population is on the western side of the state, and Seattle is the largest city/metro area. A large mountain range and totally different climate separates the two “halves”. Although the political, cultural and ecological situations are totally different on the eastern side of the state, I’d say it’s still pretty rare to find people that have never been to Seattle. Even people who despise Seattle for various reasons have often been to Seattle for one reason or another.

Like others have said, it depends the size of the state, and how many big cities there are.

Our largest city is about 6x as big as the next biggest city. Many in our state have to go to the larger city (Baltimore) just for pretty basic medical care.

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Angsty_Potatos@reddit

That's wild. My state is larger than your country and I've driven thru it and been pretty much all over it over the years.

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KJHagen@reddit

It depends on the state. I know a lot of people who in western Montana who have never been to Billings, and have no reason to take a 6 hour drive there. I also know many who have just driven through a time or two.

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Thauros@reddit

not unheard of. my family is from Pittsburgh and my my parents have traveled to new york, toronto, and paris but never philadelphia.0

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Th3MiteeyLambo@reddit

I think it's rare but not unheard of.

I have family in northern MN that have never been to Minneapolis for example

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wolfmann99@reddit

probably not uncommon if you live say near Cairo - generally people would go to St. Louis then which is in another state as it is much closer than Chicago.

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Capable_Stranger9885@reddit

I live in my state's largest city but I've never gone to the state capital.

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lithomangcc@reddit

States (especially out west) are big, you can be pretty far from the largest city. I'd think it's common.

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I_kwote_TheOffice@reddit

Yeah, I think you need to narrow down your question OP. You're treating states like they are all the same, but they are all very different sizes. Netherlands would be like one of our smallest states so it would probably be pretty rare in most of those states not to have visited the largest city in those states. Once you start getting into medium and large states it would be much more likely for many residents to not have visited those cities.

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Such_Mortgage_1916@reddit

I've only been to St. Louis or Kansas city, the 2 large missouri cities, once or twice for band concerts in high school