You don't need to even travel. Compare downtown to Katy. Houston has plenty of nice parts with tons of nature, they just also have 50 square mile cookie cutter ranch house subdivisions.
I like urban centers even when they're relatively devoid of nature. What I don't like is when nature is pointlessly absent. A bunch of tall buildings providing living, working and recreational space efficiently to lots of people? Excellent. Asphalt to the horizon so that people can drive to Walmart and then drive to Applebee's? Soul-crushing.