Favorite Cities

I know some of you live in or visited some great cities.

I'll start with Kyoto,I stayed 10 days there,before going up to Hokkaido for an Ice Festival in 1989.It was winter and snowing even in Kyoto.I stayed in a tiny room in small inn.The small table & Futon both folded only room for one at a time.I would read about a place at night in a book called Introducing Kyoto & go there the next day.

It was between Festivals ,I felt like the only tourist in town.Was at Ryoan-ji by myself,it was snowing.Every day was like that unforgetable experience.

Somewhat in order:

Madison
Milwaukee
Chicago
Quebec City
Montreal
Dusseldorf
San Antonio
Portland
Seattle
Houston
New Orleans
Charleston
Savannah
Kalamazoo
Atlanta
NYC
DC

-AJ
Columbus

München

:Beersausage:

I agree with Muenchen. Been there often, very familiar with the local brewing culture

My other favorite in Germany is Freiburg. Nice old city, has a mid-sized university so there is a lot going on in terms of culture etc. And within 1/2 hour you can be in the Alsace or in Sitzerland, 4h to Italy. Oh, and Berlin has gone through major changes in the past 2 decades and is definitely a great place now.

Other than that, I spend the most care free and funnest summer of my life in Madrid, so that is on my list as is Barcelona which is closer to home and where I have been at least a dozen times. If it were closer to an ocean, Sevilla would also make the list.

I think Honolulu is not a bad place, would be even nicer if I had the money to afford living here, it does get pricy. While I was only there for a few days each, I liked both Sydney and Brisbane. Generally, if the places get too big, I love visiting for a few days but could not imagine living there, like in NYC or Bangkok. I also thought Taipei was interesting, didn't really have a concept of the city before I went there for a conference, and was impressed by the mix of tradition and modern cultures. Mumbai has impressed me deeply, but in a very ambivalent way, I find the huge gap between extreme poverty and a modern capitalist city hard to tolerate.

Stefan

London, UK - Easy to get around, as long as you didn't drive. Tons of stuff to see and do.
New York, NY - Ditto
Seattle, WA - A large city that didn't seem that big.

Barcelona - lived there 2.5 years; best soccer/football team on earth. Also, nearby Grenada, Cadiz and Lisbon for their special ambience.

Singapore - never lived there, but visited many times from Malaysia. So organised and good standard of living for its citizens.

Colombo, Sri Lanka - lived there 2 years. Actually, it's a mess, but not as crazy as Indian cities and on the many holidays when there's little traffic you can walk on quiet roads with huge trees giving shade, watch cricket or order a gin&tonic, and imagine the place in the languid old days.

Ubud, Bali - my wife used to work around there and I've visited many times. Not a city but a town that swells with tourists and traffic, but still it's at the centre of a beautiful place, which is one of the greenest places you'll ever see, and which has a special atmosphere. Those volcanoes and terraced rice paddies! Love to rent a motorbike and ride around the island from there.

Kyoto - the mountains and the temples, and now of course the stones

Hong Kong - the highrises, mountains and misty air

Sfax, Tunisia - lived up around Tunis and visited Sfax in the south. Quiet place, but with an intact medina which isn't at all touristy

San Fran - visited briefly once and was easily able to imagine high speed car chases up and down those roads

Marseille - because port cities are just cool

Toronto - my university town; lots going on and you can walk/cycle anywhere you need to go, a rarity in North America

Anywhere new
Austin (because I know exactly what I like there, so it's always a blast and a half)
Fort Worth (because it impresses me more every month)

Singapore interesting city large population of diff. ethnic groups living together in a relatively small area.Clean & organized shows laws work.

Spain never been I know they have produced some great cyclist,motorcycles too,and of coarse soccer.

San. Fran. eat & eat some more wt. good wines.

The ones I don't have to get near

Ok Fairbanks was not to bad, 15 minutes and your out of town

1. Cologne (Koln)
2. Boston
3. St. Louis
4. Austin
5. Moab

Firenze and Paris! Both cities looked like a museum or movie set... Seoul was also very interesting and fun... good food.

I enjoy a little middle of no where type of places in Japan too (needless to say, Tokyo is my absolute favorite as a shopping destination).

Not that I've been to many cities, but Barcelona is a good one. I went there for a week on a trip a few years ago with my University. Every day consisted of sightseeing/studying in the mornings, sleeping in the afternoons then partying at night every day for a week which was pretty awesome

Also Barcelona for me it just have all what you need best arquitecture super nightlife and beach

I can't say I have a "favorite" city that I've visited, but it's rare that I won't want to return somewhere.

I'm fascinated with Tokyo; this will be my third quick visit. I love Singapore and Hong Kong. Sydney and Brisbane are near the top of my list, but I want to see more of Melbourne before I decide where to retire. I have season tickets to the Brisbane Lions football team's home games...

I love many cities in Europe -- which could I choose??

Jerusalem, Buenos Aires, Rio... They were all memorable visits.

BurkeCutlery said:

Anywhere new
Austin (because I know exactly what I like there, so it's always a blast and a half)
Fort Worth (because it impresses me more every month)

Click to expand...

I spent 45+ weeks/year on the road for work for 8 years and IMO, DFW is the best food center in the US, and scores high in a number of other areas as well. Kind of a well-kept foodie secret (Central Market is awesome).

New Orleans is a great town too.

Also Brighton, UK is an amazing food town.

Zwiefel said:

IMO, DFW is the best food center in the US, and scores high in a number of other areas as well. Kind of a well-kept foodie secret.

Click to expand...

Funny, I would've thought KC (Arthur Bryant's or Fiorella's Jack Stack!) or Minneapolis would hold that title. Then again, Dallas has Mia's on Lemmon and Ye Ole Butcher Shop in Plano, so maybe D is indeed a foodie Mecca.

I can talk about albums but I don't travel much. I kinda like Indianapolis.

Valletta. Fun & creepy all at once.

Hello kalaeb,
great to hear you like the city I live in first place. What's the story about this?

Buenos Aires
Chiang Mai
San Francisco
Moscow
Darwin
Newcastle (UK)
Hanoi
Kyoto
NYC
La Paz
Firenze
Phnom Penh
Toulouse
Dubrovnik
Pokhara
Medellin
Sapporo
London
Cartagena
Christchurch
Edinburgh
Marrakech

apicius9 said:

I agree with Muenchen. Been there often, very familiar with the local brewing culture

My other favorite in Germany is Freiburg. Nice old city, has a mid-sized university so there is a lot going on in terms of culture etc. And within 1/2 hour you can be in the Alsace or in Sitzerland, 4h to Italy. Oh, and Berlin has gone through major changes in the past 2 decades and is definitely a great place now.

Other than that, I spend the most care free and funnest summer of my life in Madrid, so that is on my list as is Barcelona which is closer to home and where I have been at least a dozen times. If it were closer to an ocean, Sevilla would also make the list.

I think Honolulu is not a bad place, would be even nicer if I had the money to afford living here, it does get pricy. While I was only there for a few days each, I liked both Sydney and Brisbane. Generally, if the places get too big, I love visiting for a few days but could not imagine living there, like in NYC or Bangkok. I also thought Taipei was interesting, didn't really have a concept of the city before I went there for a conference, and was impressed by the mix of tradition and modern cultures. Mumbai has impressed me deeply, but in a very ambivalent way, I find the huge gap between extreme poverty and a modern capitalist city hard to tolerate.

Stefan

Click to expand...

What about little old dunners?!?