Welcome back to Underrated Cities, bringing you unexpected (and occasionally controversial) ideas for your next destination.
This edition: quite proud of how unlike each other these cities are. There's no real common thread! Beaches, maaaybe, though asking an Invercargill resident "where's the beach" while getting pounded with sleet might raise an eyebrow.
Know a city that's criminally underrated and should be featured in a deeply excellent email series? Hit reply and let us know your top tip.
In the meantime, find your next destination below... |
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Three hours northwest of Monrovia on a rough road, Robertsport (thanks for the tip, Chris W!) is where Liberia's surf culture was born (now there's a sentence you never thought you'd read). The country's civil wars ended in 2003. A few years later, visiting Americans brought surfboards. Locals picked it up and called it sliding. Now there are five left-hand point breaks along the coast, consistently excellent, and you'll likely have them to yourself. On the beach sits a cottonwood tree where freed American slaves carved their names after landing from Norfolk in 1829. It's remote, the roads turn to mud in wet season, and you'll want cash and mosquito repellent. None of that matters when you're the only human on a 200-metre left. Our tip: Robertsport Surf Club for board rental and lessons right on the beach. |
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Invercargill, New Zealand
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Invercargill (thanks for the tip, Matthew!) is where you refuel on the way to the Stewart Island ferry, sleep before the Catlins, or grab a coffee between Queenstown and the end of the road. It very rarely gets to be The Destination. The wide, flat streets feel like someone designed a Scottish town and forgot the hills. Locals roll their Rs in an accent you won't hear up north. And inside E Hayes & Sons, a working hardware store on Dee Street, sits Burt Munro's original 1920 Indian Scout: the bike that set land speed records on the salt flats in Bonneville, UT. Invercargill is cold, often sideways-rainy, and nobody pretends otherwise. But Bluff oysters in season are worth the detour alone. Our tip: gotta be Oyster Cove in nearby Bluff, right on Foveaux Strait. |
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Morocco's actual capital, forever in Marrakech's shadow. Which is precisely why you should go. (Thanks for the tip, Blaise!) Rabat's medina has the same blue-and-white Andalusian alleyways, the same mint tea, the same mind-melting tilework, but at a pace that lets you take a breath. The recently restored Chellah layers Roman ruins under a medieval necropolis, all overrun by nesting storks. The Kasbah des Oudaïas spills into sweeping Atlantic views. You're 80 minutes from Tangier on Al Boraq high-speed train, and a world away from the Marrakech gauntlet. Summers get properly hot, and touts still work the medina, but the pressure's a fraction of what you'll endure elsewhere. Our tip: mint tea at Café Maure in the Oudaïas. |
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Our rec for the Minaal gear best suited to these destinations? You'll want to pack enough to visit the kiwis on Rakiura, but still fit your bag under the seat on Al Boraq. So of course, it's the Carry-on 3.0. |
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"I love my Minaal 3.0 Bag. The thing I love about it most is the safety for my laptop and iPad. I need to carry those for work, and they are my most treasured travel items, and it is reassuring to know they are protected." – Jesse M., Minaal Owner |
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Got a city you think is underrated? Hit reply!
Let's get planning,
J, D, & the Minaal team |
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