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Your favourite city

Sandman

Sandman

Giga Poster
Whilst I'm sat here procrastinating at work I thought it'd be interesting to gauge what CF members favourite cities are.

Tough call for myself personally but I reckon I have to give it to NYC, narrowly beating Florence and Utrecht.

It's chaotic, gritty in places and often discredited as overhyped. But I love it for what it is; a concrete jungle full of diverse cultures, amazing food, an array of attractions and an icon of pop culture.

Let's hear yours!
 
Hmm. I'll list them...

Aarhus - really liked the atmosphere of this place, with lovely people and tivoli friheden and its beachside location
Birmingham - horrible grey hellscape that I wanted nothing to do with, used exclusively for transportation reasons
Bruges - used for transport BUT I had a wander around this place while we had some random extra time at night and wow this is a lovely place with its small alleyways and huge old buildings that look incredible
Carlisle - only went in the city for transport reasons, but the Center Parcs that I went to nearby was really nice
Chichester - used for transport
Exeter - didn't really like it, got a wrong bus coming back from Crealy & the walk back to the station wasn't fun at all
Gloucester - used this place to climb to the top of the Tor with my dog, great views, quite scenic
Gothenburg - liseberg & the trams are awesome but the actual city itself is a little industrial & grey, but the bike lanes are a huge highlight
London - stuffy, not enough nature, too manmade, no staying power in it
Newcastle-upon-Tyne - really enjoyed the metro for some reason and South Shields was quite nice
Oslo - used for transport
Paris - quite nice actually with very nice staff, a clean metro & the jardins were great. Eiffel tower and Louvre were cool too
Portsmouth - has potential to be great but way overdressed for the weather and didn't manage to enjoy it as much as I should have
Southampton - used for transport
Southend-on-Sea - my childhood dream was to come here as much as possible but my opinion of the place has slightly gone down as I grow up, mostly due to falling out of love with adventure island
St Albans - used to see my friends in college, seemed like a nice place and the birthplace of enter shikari
Utrecht - used for transport
York - used for transport

If I had to pick a favourite I would go for one of these.
Aarhus
Bruges
Gothenburg
Oslo
Paris
Portsmouth

Bonus:

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I moved to New York City within a year of my first visit and never looked back. There's no other city that offers so much that I care about - nightlife, food, diverse cultures, football (soccer), and amusement parks (within easy driving distances) - to name a few. That being said, there are others like Munich (where I grew up), Berlin (for all the same reasons as NYC), Amsterdam (where I spent my post-Uni years), Dublin (my mother's hometown), as well as Mexico City, Barcelona and Rome (the cities I enjoy vacationing in the most). The other U.S. cities I like are Boston (where my son lives), San Francisco (everyone needs a little San Francisco in their life), Austin (for keeping it weird), and Las Vegas (for all the wrong reasons ;)).
 
I had to think what cities I’ve actually been to, to be honest…

When I had a proper think about it, I determined that I’ve never been to a city abroad, and I’ve been to far fewer cities than I’d expected within the UK.

Using the government list of UK cities (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/list-of-cities/list-of-cities-html), I have been to:
  1. Bath
  2. Birmingham
  3. Bristol
  4. Canterbury
  5. Cardiff
  6. Chester
  7. Gloucester
  8. London
  9. Newport
  10. Plymouth
  11. Portsmouth
  12. Swansea
  13. York
(I didn’t count Westminster, as while I have been to Westminster, I’d consider it part of London)

I guess I could say that I’ve technically been to Manchester, as I’ve been to Manchester Airport, but I wouldn’t count it as I haven’t really been into Manchester properly.

In terms of a favourite; it’s hard to pick, as quite a few city centres blend into one a bit for me.

If I had to pick, I do remember Canterbury being very pleasant, and I do remember finding Portsmouth quite interesting with the likes of the Historic Dockyard. And to be honest, I’ve always quite liked Cardiff.

I’m not really much of a city goer, as you can probably tell…
 
London is the best city in the world IMO.

I've spent my whole life in/around it and will never take it for granted. Hundreds of years of history around every corner, easy to get about and a huge variety of pubs/bars/restaurants.

Some of my favourites...

Budapest
Dusseldorf
Krakow
Munich
Brasov
Valencia
Louisville
Chicago
 
For all-round awesomeness, I'd have to say it's a tie between London and Paris. Both have pretty good transport systems, lots to do and good connections to each other. Oh, and Cologne for Christmas.

I was in Delhi for work last month. Now that's a city to the extreme! Amazing culture, people, food but damn crazy traffic!
 
I think my favourite might be Stockholm. Due to the topography there is always something interesting to look at and for a capital city it never felt crowded even on a weekend, plus there is is a ton of stuff to do and not just the nearby parks, Stockholm has some of the best museums and boat tours and apparently has great nightlife, but I didn't get to experience it.

Prague is also a top contender for be for it's beautiful medieval buildings and atmosphere.

Some of other favourites:

Edinburgh
Amsterdam
York
London
 
Dangerous thread.

I love London but I could never live or work there - it's bad enough when I have to travel in for the odd day here or there for work. If I can come and go in my own time then it's great but it's not close to being the best in Europe let alone the world.

There's several Spanish options but Madrid is my absolute favourite by a country mile. Two theme parks, two brilliant football stadiums, the best food in Europe, cheap, it's just absolutely perfect for what we enjoy from a city. Along those lines, Malaga is basically a smaller scale Madrid BUT also has the beach and climate and that's probably a close second tbh. Notable shouts for Seville (too hot to go any higher) and Valencia (a bit rough around the edges). Barcelona doesn't really rank that highly for me.

Venice was incredible and is top three, BUT, we lucked out in visiting right after Covid before the cruises restarted so it was quiet and we got to enjoy everything without the hustle and bustle. Really good food and just a beautiful, beautiful place. Milan is alright, Turin was gorgeous but small, and Rome we thought was really overrated and dirty.

Lisbon was gorgeous. Too many hills for someone like me with a bad back but just an absolutely beautiful place to go. Food was great and not too pricey. Far too many American/stag/hen groups only there for the cheap drinks though.

Other European cities of note - Munich (Surprisingly charming), Amsterdam (Gorgeous but pricey), Cologne (Meh), Copenhagen (Expensive), Gothenburg (Boring), Oslo (Beautiful but expensive), Vienna (Boring), Luxembourg (Gorgeous but tiny), Bratislava (Massively underrated capital, tiny but cheap), Paris (****e, filthy and dirty), Prague (Nice but far too touristy).
 
Well, I mean... it's London isn't it? It just is. Greatest city in the world, always has been.
Despite that trumped up little sh*t, Sadiq Khan, and his best efforts to try and ruin it for everyone, London is still the Top Dog in my book.

NYC comes in second, what an amazing, buzzing place that is.

Shout outs to Las Vegas, the naughty city, and Amsterdam, where my mum came from (but which is also quite naughty). 😉
 
Honestly as a brit, even though i tend to completely complain about London all the time, it is one of the best cities in the world. It has such a rich history, a huge size, and has such variety. I love the iconic thames setting, the chaotic tube, and the passive agressive "excuse me!". Its known for its fashion, known for its history, and overall is just maybe the most iconic city?

In Europe i really like Cologne, Salzburg, and Vienna. All very clean and nice cities. I have Austrian/German family, and i find their cities are very orderly and nice. Vienna is my kind of city ngl. I really liked Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina too- the mix of Ottoman and Austro Hungarian influence really is cool, with like the city being half and half with its buildings and style. It has loads of history and an iconic Stari Most bridge. Dubrovnik and Venice also deserves a mention, mostly for their LUSH location.

In terms of the US, i find their cities to be kinda well too planned. European cities more often or not are built in an erratic and crazy manner. Whether it would be the turblent history of that city being passed between empires, or the fact they designed the city before cars existed. I kind of find the US cities to feel a bit boring sometimes? I just got my ETSA rejected for saying that- i only have done NYC and Chicago, which both i thought had some moments, but i would not rave about them. Maybe its the newness too?
 
I think my favourite city has to be Würzburg, in Germany. I spent a little over a week there for a uni conference, and it was great. Very chilled atmosphere, lots of fun things to see, and I just love Germany too.

I also really like Helsinki too - it's expensive, but damn it is lovely.
 
Oh man...
I don't have the heart to rank em so I'll list a few off.
Except for Helsinki of course which I'm fully certain is the greatest city in the world. Great coffee, friendly people, good food, good transport, walkable, an incredible airport, cute streets, these lovely little upmarket corner shops (R-Kioski? they're everywhere in that part of the world and the feeling they give me just warms my heart so much) and of course one of the best rollercoasters in the world smack dab in the middle of it, what isn't there to love? I love the vibe, I love everything about this place.

Just a ferry ride away from Helsinki is Tallinn, Estonia, a city I purely visited for the +1 completed country on coastercount but fell in love with the old town and it's glorious majestic buildings and lovely tram network. I'd love to spend longer here but alas I was only there for a few hours.

I love most German cities but a few come to mind especially, most notable Nuremberg for its old school German architecture and charming little streets. I was lucky to come during a festival of some kind, so the atmosphere around the place was absolutely full of charm. Visited the oldest sausage restaurant in the world and was treated to some of the best food I've ever had.

Berlin is also great but less for old school charm reasons and more because it's such a culturally diverse place with incredible food everywhere and some interesting history. I only spent a few hours walking around the place but it was such an interesting few hours walking around and taking in the atmosphere I loved it.

All 3 Danish cities I've visited were absolutely brilliant but due to not spending much time in Aalborg or Copenhagen, despite how pretty they are haven't really got a good feel for them. Aarhus on the other hand is fully alive with energy and I was shocked how much of a hive of activity the place is. Copenhagen is also pretty incredible but I spent my whole day there at Tivoli Gardens so I can't comment too much on it other than how great the airport is.

Stockholm is a gorgeous city with lovely cute streets, a FANTASTIC metro where all the stations are like some sort of art showcase, rivers running through the place and rollercoasters, very important.

Sticking with the theme Oslo is also quite an incredible place with a lovely waterfront setting, some of the coolest modern buildings ever, great food and the cutest little hot dog shack somewhere north hole in the wall sort of thing that does the most amazing hot dogs they're so so so good I would be lying if I said Storm: The Dragon Legend isn't my only draw to come back to this amazing place, I would get on a flight purely for those hot dogs I swear!

Quite an underrated city in my opinion is Dunkirk, France. I've often heard it regarded as quite an ugly place but I've travelled through Dunkirk a few times now and love it's setting on the sea, history, cute surrounding seaside villages (Bray-Dunes) and most importantly of all its free to use bus network that just so happens to cross the border into Belgium into the nearby De Panne where you can ride one of the best coasters on the planet...

Paris also gets a bad rep and I can't see why. Cute streets, great cafes, great metro system, friendly staff and some of the coolest landmarks ever. Also Jardin d'Acclimation is such a cute little city park that just so happens to have rollercoasters in it, huge dub.

Rome is the most recent city I've visited and I fell IN LOVE with how many huge cool structures there are, the amount of history here is absolutely insane and I couldn't believe how large the landmarks are in person. The public transport isn't great but some of the greatest food in the world, best cafes, friendliest people and also very walkable. However, I think I actually prefer Verona as a city. It's cute, small, walkable, the streets are imo prettier, the river running through it provides some incredible views, it's a lot more digestable imo and the nearby Lake Garda is incredibly pretty.

I'm sure Salzburg would be on this list for setting alone but given that I spent not even an hour in the city proper I'm going to have to credit Vienna for it's cute streets, museums, great food, rollercoasters (duh), history and metro. However, I've found the people here to be somewhat cold and unfriendly, shame because I really do like the city.

Krakow is incredible. I originally didn't think much of it leaving the central station but upon stepping into the old town my mind changed. What a lovely, charming place. I visited while the Christmas market was on and the vibe was absolutely astounding! So excited to hopefully come back here at some point.

Bruges is another city that leaves much to be desired stepping out of the train station but once you make it into the city proper, it's incredible. Huge old buildings, very cute streets and lots of rivers running through. I've been here a few times now as a transportation hub between Plopsaland De Panne and the UK via Flixbus and I always look forward to my evenings here after a day riding into happiness.

I've often heard American cities aren't great but I fell in love with Sandusky which is apparently a city. Not only is Cedar Point visible across the lake, but the lake has these incredible old timey docks full of cute cafes and restaurants and is lovely and walkable and well taken care of and very old timey and so so so charming. Love the place.

I think I love Pittsburgh more though. It feels like a mix of the best of American cities, with the really awesome huge buildings and parks and cafes and cool restaurants and diners and all that but also European cities with good transportation and pedestrian infrastructure! The bus network here is so good, frequent, clean, there's a rail system that seems nice, and these really cool funicular railways that give you insane views of the city and all its bridges. Such a ridiculously cool place that oozes charm.

I'm actually writing this on a bus right now so I'll add some cities I want to talk more about here but don't have time to; I'll probably continue writing this post one day with details about the following cities that I also adore:

Dublin
Derry/Londonderry
Cardiff
York
Tampere
 
To live in would probably be St Helier if it counts, or maybe Gothenburg.

To visit it has to be London, so much to do I could never get bored of visiting there, and it's easier to get around than much smaller cities I've lived in / visited, it just works. I love London as a visitor, it's incredible, I wouldn't live there though, not a chance... I'll stick to the countryside thanks. :)
 
Put a vote in for Redneck vegas...

Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg

It's very pretty, a cred chasers dream, and the best people watching anywhere on earth...oh and ligjtningrod
 
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