What’s the greatest city in the world? It’s not an easy question to answer – after all, cities are full of people and people are full of contradictions. Some urbanites want world-beating restaurants and unforgettable things to do at every turn. Others prefer affordability, good public transport, or friendly neighbors. Let’s discover the best cities in the world.
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10 Best Cities In The World
You think you know Kyoto-after all, how much can change in an imperial capital, where you can visit 10th-century temples and pass young geishas in the street? Though it’s still one of the most well-preserved cities in Japan, Kyoto has also been reborn following a 2011 earthquake. “Many artists moved to Kyoto, bringing a new energy,” says Lucille Reyboz, cofounder of the Kyotographie photography festival; now the city’s leafy, machiya-lined streets are draws for their specialty crafts shops and chic concept stores. There’s a thriving gin scene along with the sake scene, and, yes, about 100 Michelin-starred restaurants still. For an authentic meal without Michelin prices, try 200-year-old ryokan Kinmata.
2. Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne previously held the top spot for seven years before being demoted to two in 2018’s survey, but the city still got perfect marks in health care, education, and infrastructure for an overall rating of 98.4.
3. Frankfurt, Germany
Frankfurt places sixth due to Germany’s strong response to COVID-19 and the city’s extremely strong performance in just one metric: GDP per capita. Frankfurt has one of the highest GDP per capita of any city in Germany at slightly over $106,000 in USD. Germany also has outperformed many other neighboring European countries in its coronavirus death rate.
6. Vancouver, Canada
The second of three Canadian cities in the top 10 best places to live in the world, Vancouver received an overall rating of 97.3, with 100s for health care, culture and environment, and education.
We named Singapore one of the best places to visit in 2019 and Traveler readers agreed. Thanks to the direct flight from New York to Singapore (and the lure of Crazy Rich Asians), this bustling city-state is way more than a stopover. Singapore has a growing contemporary art scene, a new hotel seemingly every eight minutes, and a commitment to start-ups and innovation (just see the Supertree Grove, above).
All of this is to say, if you visited it once before, you may not even recognize it now. Want to relax after a day of exploring? Choose from 1,000 types of gin at Atlas bar, or check into Marina Bay Sands so you have access to that top-of-the-world infinity pool you’ve heard so much about. Come evening, dig into the city’s hawker culture—you can do a multi-country food crawl without ever leaving the hawker center.
Australia
Artistic, exquisite, and largely shaped by its musical and intellectual foundations, Austria’s capital and largest city are packed with culture. It’s the kind of city where you could happily visit four museums in a day and still have more to see, or join fellow culture vultures for an outdoor simulcast of the latest opera in the dead of winter. (There will always be a crowd for the opera.) Make time to get a figurative taste of royalty at Schönbrunn, the Habsburgs’ former summer residence, and get an actual taste of Sacher torte, a chocolate cake that’s a local treat, at Hotel Sacher Vienna’s Cafe Sacher. Just be sure to ask for the extra decadent dessert, it is schlaag-with cream.
10. New York City, United States
“New York is, above all, a gathering place where brains and bodies in indecent proximity to one another create the sparks of genius, invention, progress. Today New Yorkers stand at the ready, together and alone, on their stoops and balconies ready to defend their city,” says Resonance. “However the world emerges, evolves, or pivots out of our collective force majeure, it will happen here first.”
New York consistently ranks for its culture; it came in fifth for museums, which are continually improving as evidenced by the 2019 renovation of the Museum of Modern Art and the brand-new Fotografiska photography museum that opened in Manhattan’s Flatiron District at the end of the year. Broadway may not turn the lights back on until June 2021, but be certain-this is no ghost town.
