[Sealobo]

Hong Kong is the best city in the galaxy if you had the bling.

[korn]

From my personal experience (lived in all of these cities for months in some, or for years in others) my personal list would be:

1. Berlin, the most exciting city in the world, the vibe is here! A good culture mix, cheap, offers many opportunities, beautiful lakes nearby, nice easygoing people, great music shops, great fleemarkets.

2. Rome. Without any doubt the most beautiful city in the world, a fine climate, fantastic food and not expensive.

3. London. Used to be my favourite city but has passed it's best and is becoming a bit "too much". Still a good place to buy clothes or music. Way too expensive.

and the 3 I dislike most:

1. Paris. Beautiful to visit, but I hated it after a few years of living. Crap food, unless you pay lots. Horrible taxi drivers, and far to many parisians who think they are so important. Best place for Cinema, a huge choice of films.

2. Hamburg. Boooooooooooring!

3. Any city in Scandinavia. Even more boooooooring.

[Zimphire]

I think best is subjective. I would never want to live in a big city.

[kovacs]

I don't think anyone mentioned Prague yet. I also love NY, London, Paris, Antwerp ( my University ) and San Diego ( don't really like LA ).

So my top 3 would be:

1. NY
2. Prague
3. San Diego

[talisker]

Based solely on cities I've lived in (as pretty much anywhere is enjoyable for a few days on holiday)...

Edinburgh - Beautiful, but with a lot of interesting history and modern day alternative culture going on behind the touristy facade. Great pubs and restaurants, generally lively nightlife. Nice parkland within the city, and easy acccess to great countryside. Bad points - weather can be pretty crappy sometimes although Edinburgh does crystal clear, crisp cold days like nowhere else. The Edinburgh establishment / private school / lifetime dedicated to work in large financial institution / golf club snobby set can be a bit annoying. Overall though,

Newcastle (England, not Oz) - No pretensions, fun, great sense of community and pride in the city. Again, great pubs and restaurants and some pretty stylish shops. People like to dress sharp and enjoy themselves (similar to Glasgow in that respect I think). THE place for drunken pub crawls and curry. Football mad. Felt a bit cut off from the rest of the country, but I can't think of any real evidence to back that up, just a feeling.

London - Huge. How much you enjoy it I think depends entirely on (a) whether you have friends there (I imagine it could be a lonely place otherwise), and (b) how much money you have (it's not cheap). That said, there's a ridiculous amount of stuff to do. Can be lots of fun. Annoys me a bit that it seems to lack a really obvious central focal point, it just seems to sprawl. Takes a while to get to grips with it. Fantastic public transport (although Londoners are convinced it's crap). It's really a big collection of individual centres all jammed together, rather than one city. Fantastic cultural diversity and therefore great ethnic food.

Auckland, NZ - Nice city with a beautiful harbour setting (a low budget Sydney really). Really good restaurants (in fact the most consistently good food I've had in any city) and decent cafes, bars, clubs etc, although I don't think anyone would claim it's the most exciting city on the planet. Good to live in though, with lots of characterful suburbs within easy reach of the centre. Traffic can be sh*t, but you can always take a ferry! Great beaches within very easy reach. All in all, a really nice place to live. Everyone else in NZ thinks it's hell, but that's just because they live in some small town in beautiful countryside and Auckland is a city.

[Chemmy]

I travelled the world, and when the time came to move out on my own, I headed right to Boston.

We have an amazing indie rock scene. We have great colleges. We have lots of great colleges. We have a college population that's 60% female.

There's always something to do here, and our city isn't a garbage filled concrete jungle like New York.

[NYCFarmboy]

Florence, Italy..yes Firenza....its sorta a tourist haven..but...for a reason... an incredible city.

The birthplace of the rennaisance.

Incredible food.

The streets and sidewalks are paved with this dark gray stone.

I've not been in a few years though... but might go next month for a visit again.

[fat mac moron]

Originally posted by Chemmy:
I travelled the world, and when the time came to move out on my own, I headed right to Boston.

There's always something to do here...

Especially in October, when the Red Sox are playing golf in Florida.

[mrs b^3]

I would have to say that there is no way on earth I would ever live in Sydney. It's fun to visit but really unliveable.

I can only speak for cities in Australia but I would have to say that Canberra is the greatest. So it's kind of small (pop. 300K) but it's a bit like Melbourne in miniature. Great shopping, museums, markets, restaurants, not to crowded, bushland every where and about as much history and you can reasonable get in Australia. I live near the middle of the city, if I walk 20 minutes east I'm in the middle of the city, shopping, restaurants, pub's, club's, library's, theatre. Oh and cafe's, cafe essen is the best! I walk 20 minutes west and I'm in a bush reserve, trees, birds, wild life, great views, (oh and bush fires, but that's another issue). Public transportation consists mostly of buses, but it is set up pretty well, and can get you almost any where.
Where else would you see the state leader in his underpants rescuing a pilot from a helicopter that had crashed into a dam?

Sydney is only three hours away if you must go there, the beach is only two ( if you go to Batemans Bay on a summer weekend, every second licence plate is ACT, not NSW).

The weather is great, proper winters and dry summers. Autumn is a sight to behold, just beautiful, with spring close behind.

The only thing with Canberra is that you really have to spend time here, or know someone who does. Just visiting for a week doesn't do it justice, and from the outside can seem a bit boring.
But I wouldn't live anywhere else in Australia.
(and I started in Queensland)

[Cipher13]

Originally posted by mrs b^3:
I would have to say that there is no way on earth I would ever live in Sydney. It's fun to visit but really unliveable.

I can only speak for cities in Australia but I would have to say that Canberra is the greatest. So it's kind of small (pop. 300K) but it's a bit like Melbourne in miniature. Great shopping, museums, markets, restaurants, not to crowded, bushland every where and about as much history and you can reasonable get in Australia. I live near the middle of the city, if I walk 20 minutes east I'm in the middle of the city, shopping, restaurants, pub's, club's, library's, theatre. Oh and cafe's, cafe essen is the best! I walk 20 minutes west and I'm in a bush reserve, trees, birds, wild life, great views, (oh and bush fires, but that's another issue). Public transportation consists mostly of buses, but it is set up pretty well, and can get you almost any where.
Where else would you see the state leader in his underpants rescuing a pilot from a helicopter that had crashed into a dam?

Sydney is only three hours away if you must go there, the beach is only two ( if you go to Batemans Bay on a summer weekend, every second licence plate is ACT, not NSW).

The weather is great, proper winters and dry summers. Autumn is a sight to behold, just beautiful, with spring close behind.

The only thing with Canberra is that you really have to spend time here, or know someone who does. Just visiting for a week doesn't do it justice, and from the outside can seem a bit boring.
But I wouldn't live anywhere else in Australia.
(and I started in Queensland)

Why wouldn't you want to live in Sydney... what do you find unliveable about it? (just curious)

Personally, I find Canberra the most boring place on the face of the planet.

I live in Sydney. Yesterday, I went to the beach in the morning before uni to go boarding, then made my way to uni; went to my lab, finished up, and went to Vaucluse to go rock fishing. While there we did a bit of light hiking and stuff.

I just love the fact that I can go to the bush... or the beach... or the harbour... or wherever... without ever leaving Sydney.

[Mastrap]

London.

Without a shadow of a doubt the most interesting city on the planet. It lacks the self importance New Yorkers tend to bestow onto themselves, it is still cheaper, just, than Hong Kong and it is greener than Paris.

The best thing about London is also one of the worst things. Because it is such a magnet for people from all around the globe it is also a very transient city. Very few people end up staying in London, which means that you're constantly busy making new friends because your existing friends have moved home to Australia, Canada or New Zealand. London isn't the best place to raise a family and I've lost count of the number of people I know who have packed up and left for milder financial climes and better schools as soon as they got settled with a partner.

The good thing is that you end up having friends all over the world and holiday invitations are cheap and plentiful.

London is a fantastically diverse city, from the Bangladeshi community on and around Brick Lane to the shops of Mayfair it is 1/2 an hours travel but you might as well be in a different world.
London has never been planned and it shows. In the historic City of London 50% of all roads still follow the original Roman layout liberally mixed with mediaeval streets. It just sort of muddles along which is the charm of it all.

The markets are worth a visit alone, with my personal favourite being the Borough food and farmer's market. Public transport is generally good and especially the buses have been improved greatly recently. The congestion charge (�5 to enter the centre of London by car) is showing results.

Despite our love for the city we'll too be packing up our bags next year and move to Canada. This is assuming we can get the necessary paperwork and find jobs etc. We'll be moving for all the usual reasons, space, property prices, proximity to nature.

[ryaxnb]

Felton. Duh i'm biased. but in terms of actual cities, umm..., uh... whatever the city that SFO is in. Huge cities, New York. But I really like small towns, like Felton (pop. about 3,000.)

[Trygve]

Prague and Tbilisi (Rep. of Georgia) are nice in the summer, Duabi, UAE is great in the winter.

Haven't seen these mentioned, but they are among my faorites.

[gadster]

And the winner is ... Sydeney!

[Mastrap]

Originally posted by gadster:
And the winner is ... Sydeney!

Where's that then?

[DBursey]

I love Toronto. Right now, the autumn colours are near their peak, and the city is wreathed in a canopy of red, orange, gold and yellow.

Toronto is great for a multitude of reasons, such as the oft-cited ethnic diversity / racial harmony, cleanliness etc. Of lesser mention is the fact that Toronto is one of the world's most heavily treed cities. Toronto is graced by a thick green deciduous canopy that all but obscures residential areas from sight by air. It has many and expansive parks and green spaces that brings a cloak of nature to the urban setting. The Don Valley Parkway in particular has to count as one of the prettiest urban freeway vistas in North America.

[wulf]

Originally posted by Mastrap:
reading the Sunday papers at "The Eagle"

The Eagle in Farringdon? I s'pose it is a kinda nice pub. It's one crap restaurant though. Their food sucks.

Originally posted by Mastrap:
Most private houses still have working fireplaces, whole streets scented with the smell of burning wood and coal. There's the warmth of the curry houses on Brick Lane, the smoke filled, beer scented warm noise of an old pub in the East End. There's the autumn fog when London looks like it should be looking, when everything's a film set. There's sitting in a cafe in Soho, seeing the old red buses trundeling through the mist, windows aglow in yellow and misted up. Sitting around a large table with friends while it is pouring with rain outside

Yeah I know what you mean. I like winter too. The only thing I really hate about winter in London is the cold.

And when it gets dark at four o'clock in the afternoon.

And those "tupperware" days, when it never really gets light at all, just a dull muted gray.

And black ice on the pavements...






(Honey? I've been thinking, why don't we emigrate to Sydney..?)

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Edmonton is the best place I've lived. I don't understand how Calgary was 16th, and Edmonton wasn't even on there. Calgary sucks compared to Edmonton.

You think so, eh? I dunno...I hear Calgary is better. Definitely more of a life there, anyway, I'm told.....

Me, I'm not one for big cities. I'll take a small town in the mountains any day....



greg

[Dex13]

Originally posted by deekay1:
cities i haven't been to, but would love to live in are:

usa: san fransisco!!!!
canada: vancouver
south america: rio (but only for a couple of months)
africa: johannesburg
europe: milano, dublin, berlin (okay, i've been there )
asia: phuket (thailand...), tokyo
oceania/australia: sydney, darwin, wellington, samoa, tahiti, fidji...(okay, the latter three aren't cities, but i'd still love to live there )

Go just about 35 miles down to San Jose, alot better then cold 'frisco.

[mrs b^3]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
Why wouldn't you want to live in Sydney... what do you find unliveable about it? (just curious)

Personally, I find Canberra the most boring place on the face of the planet.

I live in Sydney. Yesterday, I went to the beach in the morning before uni to go boarding, then made my way to uni; went to my lab, finished up, and went to Vaucluse to go rock fishing. While there we did a bit of light hiking and stuff.

I just love the fact that I can go to the bush... or the beach... or the harbour... or wherever... without ever leaving Sydney.

It's just a personal thing. I don't like really big places and Sydney is to big and crowded and I lose my sense of where I am. Quite frankly I felt out of my depth when I lived in Brisbane for six months. Canberra is just the right size for me.

I know about the boring thing, the first couple of times I visited was that it was really quiet, didn't look like there was much happening, but I loved the University so I moved here.
Then after being here a couple of month's I started to discover all of the really interesting stuff, now I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

[korn]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
Florence, Italy..yes Firenza....its sorta a tourist haven..but...for a reason... an incredible city.

The birthplace of the rennaisance.

Incredible food.

The streets and sidewalks are paved with this dark gray stone.

I've not been in a few years though... but might go next month for a visit again.

I suppose you wanted to say Firenze. Beautiful, yes. awfull place to have your home though.

[theolein]

Best city I've ever lived in: Berlin-Interesting crossing point of culture between western and eastern Europe where you can party till dawn and on.
Best cities I've been to: Melbourne and Sydney.
Worst Cities I've lived in:Johannesburg.

[khufuu]

Originally posted by typoon:
Best Cities I've been to.

Hong Kong (well I have relatives there so I go often) Great place though I'm not sure about living there.

New York- Just a hop skip and Jump over the George Washington Bridge, to me the Best city in the world but I guess I'm partial.

London- Pretty happening place. I liked it MUCH better than Paris.

London better than Paris?? For what exactly!! I can't imagine anyone liking London better.

[Sven G]

Originally posted by korn:
[...] Rome. Without any doubt the most beautiful city in the world, a fine climate, fantastic food and not expensive. [...] Any city in Scandinavia. Even more boooooooring.

Yes, personally I would agree with you on the Rome option: I was there a pair of days, recently, returning from the summer holiday, and... well, it's really a unique city, quite successfully blending the ancient with the modern. (BTW, being a public transportation junkie, I would also recommend a visit to the Roma Termini station - and it's official website (cookies required) - to anyone interested in contemporary architecture.)

As for the Scandinavian cities, some of them might be boring - but not K�benhavn, which is simply beautiful, IMHO...