I downloaded the megahood a while back, fell in love with being able to connect sims from different towns. Hardly ever play Veronaville though.

Maxis hoods boring?? Too bad for us all that Maxis couldn't see the obvious and hire (for big money) some of our best modders w.in the community. Twojeffs is the first one I thought about. Heck, it took a modder way back in Sims 1st edition to create a decent rug! (Echo) And still, years later, with all the new E.P.s, they're still creating crappy-azzed furniture, when so many creators do such beautiful items..Maxis hoods boring? If only they'ed have grabbed up some of our finest!

I quite like Riverblossom Hills and Desiderata Valley myself. I think all the neighbourhoods have more good points than bad points, except perhaps Veronaville, which I never really played at all, never got past looking who lives where. However - I think most of them offer a good deal of fun.

I play Belladonna Cove mostly because I love the urban layout and lower- mid- and high-income areas and the fact that you can add beach lots. I've made a lot of edits to it and have removed about 80% of the existing lots and love the way it looks with a lot of tree-lined brownstones, rowhouses and run-down buildings. The Sims are boring in my opinion and there doesn't seem to be a lot of adult townies in the game -- whenever my Sims go out it's mostly teens and elders on the lots so adding some good-looking townies to the game is my next project.

Desiderata, Belladonna and Riverblossom were pretty boring....
That is until I spiced it up with some remodeling and some drama

And that´s exactly how Desiderata Valley became my favourite neighborhood

For me Belladonna Cove is least appealing. I like how it is outlined like a real town with different neighborhoods, but even so I hardly ever find myself putting sims in and play them for more than a few days. And with all the premades already in play I simply have no interest in the new ones and their backstories (except the familys in the bin that I put into Desiderata Valley).

Depends on your playing style and preference when it comes to architecture/drama/various aspects of gameplay, I think? Or even what you're in the mood for.

Personally, I play with a ton of mods and CC, so I like to have large neighborhoods with various types of architecture and backstories where I can try them out. I also love drama, big parties vs. intricate small groups of friends, etc., so I like having a large cast of characters to choose from. For that reason, I obviously find myself gravitating away from 'hoods like Riverblossom, Desiderata or even Strangetown. (The latter admittedly has its fair share of drama, but since it's supposed to be a small, abandoned town in the middle of a desert, it makes for very limited variations in architecture if I want to stick to the story.)

But since I also play rotation-style, it can get tedious after a while going through every single household in bigger neighborhoods - especially since the population continually keeps increasing - not to mention the never-ending stream of slapfests, fights and crying that ensues upon all that drama. So after a while, I tend to shift to those smaller neighborhoods just to get a change of pace (and peace), until I get bored with everybody marrying their childhood friends and being chummy with their parents... which is when I return to the slapfests again. :P


EDIT: As for subhoods, I think it depends on what 'hood you pair it with. Adding Bluewater to Desiderata made it a whole new experience for me to play since I could finally make use of the hobby-oriented families in businesses, not to mention a refreshing addition of characters (I gave the premades there a bit of an "upper-middle class" feeling to balance it out with Desiderata's already suburban vibe, so people who lived there generally had higher wages, children attending private school, more lavish clothing, etc.). But adding Bluewater to Pleasantview just added onto the endless list of households (read: slapfest get-togethers) to play before I could get onto the next rotation.

Provided your computer doesn't explode from the strain, though, I'd recommend using Meetmetotheriver's cleaned up sub-hoods, which include the main ones. That way you can mix and match your faves if you want, then temporarily remove the EAxian originals (after backing up, of course!) from your Neighborhoods folder until you want to play them separately again.