Honestly, I have to say that for us nothing beat boots on the ground.
I know my kid pretty well, and I suspected she would like Boston (since it’s where I grew up), but H’s memory of Boston (from 25 years ago when he visited me) were less than stellar. (cold, dreary, “unfriendly” people). He went up there with D and both came away very impressed. It was a 2 bird one stone thing for me-D found that she really liked the city, and H is now ok with her attending school there (at whatever college she picks).
There are a lot of intangibles that you just can’t always figure out until you’re there. For instance, D loved San Francisco and the surrounding area, but she went from wanting to apply in Cali to feeling like it was really too far (we’re in Georgia) for undergrad. That is one long flight.
She’s going up to MD and VA later this month (again with H) and over to Alabama with me, and it’ll be interesting to see her reaction. I have no idea how she’s going to feel about those places, since we’re not very experienced with them, either. She has some very strong positive/negative reactions once she visits-it’s why Duke and UGA fell off her list.
I like the Google walking man on the maps-I like to look at the people we see captured in the pictures, and we’ve used it to narrow down places that we might want to move to next, but honestly, it’s only one data point. We’d never decide where to spend time without going there.