30 Rudest American Cities

When Travel + Leisure announced that Georgia was one the nation’s rudest cities, people flocked to online forums to discuss it.  In an ironic turn of events, many Atlanteans strongly defended that their city was not rude in an extremely rude way, often calling people rude when they dared to ask a question about Atlanta’s rudeness.

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If you think of Miami, you probably think of nightclubs. That’s normal to draw that conclusion — it’s what they think of too. That’s probably why they’re so rude to you down there. They’re not at their favorite club, and you’re in the way of them getting there.

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Baltimore is one of our nation’s oldest cities. Maybe that’s why the citizens all seem to be so grumpy. Some people — although not everyone — get grouchy when they get older. That grouchiness seems to be the prevailing attitude of the city. Some people even report feeling unsafe when visiting, and that doesn’t help this city’s reputation.

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The center of the nation, the home of our government is one of the rudest cities we Americans have to offer. It’s probably just the politics rubbing off, though. The political scene has been getting ruder and ruder every year, and it’s finally taking a toll on its people.

Boston’s one of our nation’s oldest cities, but it’s also one of the most unique-sounding cities. It’s probably just the accent that throws off tourists. Bostonians, like Germans, just sound made. And they always use their outside-voices. It makes for an intimidating visit.

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When people visit Phoenix, they’re probably quicker to label the city as rude because of one thing: the heat. There’s a four month stretch where the average high is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit with only five rainy days thrown in. The “rudeness” is actually just the tourists and locals melting in the heat.

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Chicago has long been known as a cold and unforgiving place, albeit mainly for its weather. That weather seems to be rubbing off on its citizens, though. They’re turning just as cold as the wind the city gets its nickname from. Well, it’s either the wind or the 1.5 million international visitors that come through. Either way, it’s not the Chicagoans fault.

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Orlando hosts almost 70 million tourists each year. It’s completely understandable that the locals would get fed up with them. People flock in during the summer, take up the roads, restaurants, and views, and then expect the locals to be happy they’re giving up their home? Nope, not how that works.

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The DFW area is a finicky one. On one hand, there have been multiple large-scale surveys that have condemned the city as rude, but there are just as many people saying the area is not rude. It actually seems to be both. There are just so many people in the DFW area that there are of course more rude people, but there’s also even more nice people. It’s the classic “Win some, lose some” situation.

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Vegas is known around the world for so many things, many of them things that aren’t exactly good for work-friendly conversation. It makes sense then that the city would be rude. They’ve got bigger things to deal with, things like all the money they lost gambling the night before.

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The city that’s home to Hollywood is also home to some of the nation’s most rude people. Maybe they’re rude because they’re focused on making their big break. Maybe they’re just trying to act as cool as they look. Either way, it’s not working out for them, so you should give them a break.

Philadelphia literally means the City of Brotherly Love. Somehow, that’s lead people to assume the city would be the nicest one around. People must be forgetting what it’s like to have a brother, though, because if you have one, you know that “brotherly love” is not always nice.

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If you’ve ever seen a movie — any movie — you know that the Big Apple is about as rude as it gets. The roads are just crammed with cars trying to get where they need to go, all of them honking and yelling at each other. Cut ‘em some slack, though. They’re probably just stressed about making rent for their way-too-expensive closet-sized apartment.

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San Francisco is a beautiful city surrounded by water on three of its four sides. The hills are rolling, the sky is blue. It’s hard not to love. Sadly, those “hills” are absolutely massive. It’s leg day pretty much every day there, so it’s easy to understand why the people are so rude: their legs are on fire.

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What’s there not to love about Houston? There’s millions of people crammed into one hot, humid place. The traffic is so bad that it’s recommended you don’t drive, but if you don’t drive you get stuck in that awful weather. To make getting around even more difficult, the metro area itself is larger than Rhode Island. Why wouldn’t the citizens be grouchy?

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Midwest nice is a thing, but it must not apply in Cincinnati. The city ranked highly on a 2015 poll of rudest cities, and some voters chimed in that it's just downright boring there too. 

You might expect a rude person or two in Boston...but Bloomington? Indiana? It might not be the biggest cities in size, but it can sure compete with the big dogs when it comes to being rude. 

If you're in El Paso you'll want light clothing but thick skin. Apparently the only thing that burns hotter than the Texas sun is a foul-mouthed El Paso resident. 

Anchorage might be rude, but it also might just be misunderstood. Residents here tend to keep quiet and to themselves, which might be misinterpreted as rudeness by outsiders. The only way to find out is to travel there yourself! 

It's no surprise that Detroit is on this list. But in their defense, they have a lot to be rude about there. It's not exactly the shining beacon of American progress that it was way back when--that will put anyone in a bad mood. 

Let's be honest--we could probably make a rude cities list for California alone. But when it comes to the Golden State, San Diego has ranked at the top of several rude cities polls. 

Legal marijuana apparently hasn't mellowed out Colorado Springs yet. They ranked #9 in the country on a Travel & Leisure list for rudest cities in America. 

Portland might have a reputation for being weird, but it's starting to develop a reputation for being rude as well. That's a strange combo, but when it comes to strange, no one does it better than Portland. 

New Haven: home of Yale University and home to a lot of rude folks too. They were another high ranker on a Travel & Leisure survey about unfriendly American cities. 

Is Providence rude or aloof? This is another city where residents' standoffishness could either be custom or rudeness. 

Let's be honest--you knew Newark was going to be on this list, and Newark knew that it was going to be on this list. Rudeness is just a natural part of New Jersey life. 

There's not a ton of reasons to travel to Wilmington, Delaware in the first place, but it's doubly true when you consider that they ranked #13 on Conde Nast's most unfriendly cities in the world list. 

There's a stereotype that Mormons are absurdly nice and friendly people, so we're genuinely perplexed that the Mormon Mecca of Salt Lake City would be considered rude. But they ranked 6th on a Travel & Leisure list of America's rudest cities. 

If you want to experience the beauty and history of the American southwest, you might want to try somewhere besides Santa Fe--they've got a reputation for rudeness. 

You'll be among the educated when you visit Ann Arbor, the home of the University of Michigan, but you'll also be among the rude. It ranked at #10 on Travel & Leisure's rude American cities list.