Top 15 Cities to Live In
This is my list from the cities I have visited. Initially I wanted to have some hard rules for example to have spent at least 3 days in a city, in order for the respective city to make the list but this means I would have had to leave Amsterdam out, and even if I was there only for around 9 hours, what I saw and had read about this city, was enough to deserve a spot on my list.
Also, it is only a ranking list, even if my initial plan was to do the rating as well. On a scale from 1 to 10 I would have given Vancouver 9 (no city is perfect), but how much should I have given Los Angeles? Is LA so bad to justify such a difference? So no rating and without further ado here is the list:
1. Vancouver
2. Munich – Munich, This and That
3. Amsterdam – Bicycles of Amsterdam
4. Kyoto – Kyoto
5. Hamburg
6. San Francisco
7. Seattle – Museum of Flight, Seattle Art
8. Sydney – Sydney, This and That
9. Quebec City – “My country is not a country, it is winter.”
10. Montreal
11. Toronto
12. Geneva – Switzerland Trip
13. Edinburgh
14. Barcelona – Sagrada Familia, Montjuïc Castle and Camp Nou
15. London – Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace
UPDATE *** I had a feeling I missed a city, and also a city made this list only not to have LA on it :). So here goes Geneva and out with Madrid.
Samuel Johnson said : “Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
I won’t argue with Samuel Johnson and I do not want to be tired of life, so London must be on the list. ***
Oops, my initial title was Top 10, and LA was not on the list so I decided to have a Top 15 list and LA still didn’t make it 🙂 and neither Las Vegas.
What’s your list of cities you would like to live in (if you have visited them)? The comments might give me some ideas what to visit next.
Twitter @curbexcitement
I’ve been to all of these cities, and San Francisco is my home town (7th generation native). I spent part of my childhood living in Paris, and it remains my favorite place EVER to be. Capetown, SA is also one of my favorite cities; an incredibly beautiful city in an incredibly beautiful country. I love London, and go there (and Paris) as often as I can. Italy is great; love Florence, Sienna and Milan. Sydney (and Melbourne) are wonderful. Hamburg? Seriously?
Not all that fond of a lot of the cities on your list; apparently they did a lot more for you than they did for me.
I’d take BCN and MAD out. You wouldn’t want to live in a country with 26% unemployment rate.
From my personal experience I’d add in Tokyo Osaka Seoul and Zurich but take out Kyoto and Quebec City (they’re fascinating to visit but quite boring to live in)
and add Melbourne too
I would include the following cities: SIngapore, Stockholm, Hong Kong, and Helsinki.
Kyoto has been my favorite so far by a long shot!
@RF : i’d definitely wouldn’t rank Paris anywhere near the top. Their anti-foreigner snobbish attitudes are a total turnoff.
Rio De Jaineiro FTW
can’t agree with Vancouver. been living here for a while and it’s just not for me. gotta say the people who love here love it though…minus the taxes
my list would consist of not big cities because I prefer smaller places. but for big cities:
Tokyo
Amsterdam
Taipei
but no one will agree with me =]
For me, Paris and San Francisco are great, as well as San Diego. Wasn’t wild about London as a place to live–felt almost lacking amenities.
I’m curious as to what your reason was for picking Vancouver overall?
Also, LA wouldn’t even make Top 100 for me. It’s busy, dangerous, and too sprawling to get anywhere without a car or in less than a half hour.
It’s hard to believe NYC didn’t make the list, for all it’s faults it is like no other city in the the world..lt’s lil brother, Boston is our version of Rome..
Toronto I think is the best of the canada cities(chicago w/o the murders)
The language barrier I think would be too great in Kyoto (or anywhere in Japan) to live in.
Seattle is my favorite city on the west coast (lived there for 3 yrs) but I have to admit is kinda “SF lite”
Tampa is probably the best city to live in in the Southeast (Charlotte 2nd if you count it in the SE..& Orlando 3rd)
And Hands down Florence, Italy should be on the list, before Madrid (if you can make a living)..great article
@Jimmy
I didn’t go New York and neither Florence, otherwise they might have made the list. Have to visit New York though rather sooner than later.
@Robby
Climate and the city in general
Agree that NYC would be on my list, and my list would also include London and Seattle (two places I used to live) and San Francisco (where I currently live). I prefer Melbourne over Sydney and would consider living there. Agree with Madrid and probably Vancouver, but not that high up on my list. Definitely not the German cities you mentioned, possibly Berlin, but it would still be pretty far down the list. I like Amsterdam but wouldn’t choose to live there.
Disagree with the other comment that Seattle is San Francisco “lite”. I’m not sure why everyone likes to compare those 2 cities so much. They are both distinctive and I’ve lived in both. Prefer Seattle but San Francisco has a lot to offer and is a place I think I would miss a lot if I ever move away.
Would also add Santa Fe or Taos into my list. London is by far my favorite city in the world and I loved living there.
Top 15 cities in the world and 11 are in Canada and Western Europe? Hong Kong? New York? I sense some bizarre regional bias here, or you just haven’t visited enough cities.
@Truthiness
Correct, biased towards Canada and Western Europe and have not visited enough cities. Anyway, it is my list 🙂
So glad L.A. is not on this list. I question anyone who deems it a great city.
1. Nice
2. Paris
3. Bremen
4. Berlin
5. NYC
6. Tiburon
Barcelona?? Really. Everybody is rioting and defacing the monuments because of the unemployment and banking scandal….I’ll take my beautiful San Diego anyday!!!
It’s a hopeless try to ease everyone, but perhaps this list is better titled the Top 15 places to visit as an anglo-saxon tourist. Is weather not a part of your equation? 2/3rds of your list exists in grey. I have travelled/lived in all but Hamburg and Kyoto. Who here wants to live in London and Edinburgh?
If you fit the “ugly American” stereotype, Parisians attitude towards you will fit the “anti-foreigner snobbish” stereotype. Paris has long been and still is one of the world’s greatest and most exciting cities.