So here is debate that will depend much on personal taste but where gets your vote for the most beautiful city in the world and why?

Hmmm, I don't really feel qualified to answer, as there are so many places I haven't visited yet, but so far... I'd say Luang Prabang, Laos gets the nod over San Francisco or Chiang Mai. I love its clash of colourful Laos culture and the grand white buildings and chequered tablecloths of the French colonial times. Fill it with some of the friendliest people on earth, several buddhist monks and top it off with a Wat on a leafy hill and you have something very beautiful indeed.

Like Stevejames I don't really feel qualified to answer this as I have yet to be to every city out there, but so far I would have to say Rio. Rio has an energy about it that would be hard to beat. The people are amazing, the views are stunning, the music is like no other, the culture as a whole gets my vote. It's a city where I can just sit and watch the people and the culture unfold before my eyes, and love every minute of it.... I can't wait to go back. Recently I found out that a co-worker has a beach house near Rio (his wife is from there) and has offered to let me stay there!! Yay!

Hi guys,

I think it's impossible to pick just one so I'm going to throw in a handful.

Florence (classical architecture)
Stockholm (medieval architecture on lovely waterways)
Kyoto (Japan - magical temples in the most serene environments)
Edinburgh (Scotland - unusually shaped but very pretty at the right time of year)

and being born and bred there, Sydney - Australia (sun, surf and a great skyline).

I haven't been to Paris yet but I think it will rate up there when I do. Also Rio as incrediblelife mentioned - has to be pretty spectacular so looking forward to getting there one day...

Keep trekkin'
TT

For me the most beautiful big city that I've ever been to is Paris.

Rounding out my Top 5 Most Beautiful Cities: Venice, Italy; Seville, Spain; Lijiang, China (the old town); and Antigua, Guatemala.

Also worth a mention: Vienna, Austria; Munich, Germany; and Prague, Czech Republic.

I'd better stop now before my list gets out of hand. Still, I find it impossible to pick only one.

The list goes berserk!!!!!

How about we pare this down and try to figure out the most beautiful city, the single one, for each major civilization as its difficult to compare across cultures. For a definition of a "major civilization" see the map at the front of Samuel Huntington's "A Clash of Civilizations"

This way we could select a few of the best, let the real advocates slug it out (electronically) and the best arguer/descriptive writer wins. Then how about if we turn it into one of those decision trees that Maxim loves to publish and voila, we have a cool feature for Travelpod!

You might have to define "beautiful" !! Is it the architecture, layout & design, or is it atmosphere, culture, cleanliness etc.
Its a very difficult question as there is always something beautiful about most cities....

I would have to say Prague...

that's probably because I went there having no expections, I don't think I even knew the Czech Republic was a country before I went.

It's so beautiful though.

Having been to a few places in my time, here are my favourites

Sydney - Nothing like crossing the harbour bridge
Berlin - Changes all the time
Barcelona - Gaudi is awsome
Paris - Just because it is Paris
Rome - The Romans did something right
Krakow - The best Eastern European city
Veliko Taranova - Lovely place in Bulgaria
Lahore - Yeah, its polluted, but it is a good place to boot
Luang Prabang - Nice and relaxed
Hanoi - The French got it right
Bagan - The best set of temples in SEA

And I could go on and on and on, as we are discovering new things everyday

Cape Town (South Africa) is by far the most beautiful city I have ever seen. I would put San Fran and Sydney in 2nd and 3rd place (prob in that order but not neccessarily). Back home in the UK I'd say Edinburgh (I'm British though - not Scotish)- but it's not on the same page really...

My parents are more travelled - and say that Cape Town is by far their favourite - with 2nd place perhaps going to Rio, and Hong Kong being a good one too (they also like San Fran and Sydney - and say vancouver is a good one too).

Of course - those are mostly for natural beauty... Paris / Prague / Florence / Rome etc. feature very highly if architecture is the main factor.

well, as a couple of people have said Rio.. i can only tell you about the girls as they are very distracting from the pleasures of christ the redeemer, sugar loaf and err.. Brahma?etc, ...but my cultural side would go with hobart ,as it's a lovely fishermans harbour.. surrounded with stunning backdrops.. a cute craft market along with the freshest of air... mmm

..but i'll wait a couple of years along with steve and incrediblelife to give a qualified answer.. mmm i can't wait to get 'qualified'...

Heaven

For those who choose to go there.

Wow, practically all of the members are moderators/administrators. I am so jealous

A hard question to give just one single answer but in terms of people, Zurich (Switzerland) is number one: since everyone just makes you feel like you belong with heartfelt greetings instead of the tick tak- laking "wassup dawg" you get in New York.

Yes, as far as scenery is concerned Cape Town (South Africa) takes gold and is definately not matched, the peaks around Table Mountain, the smile of the African sun and the bustling malls and interesting conversations at the waterfront truly make Cape Town irreplaceable.

Umm, very difficult to answer, but I would have to say PARIS( I know is a boring answer) but I was there with the love of my life and it was just perfect!!!

I'll vote to Chongqing~
You know there's a famous Yangtze River.Travellers can visit the beautiful sceneries by cruise.
Do you know hot-pot? That's great!I'm sure you'll love it if you try only one time.Suggest you to have some beer.That's more wonderful!Chongqing is indeed a good place to travel~

I'd have to think some more but Mae Hong Son immediately comes to mind. The Burmese style temples around the lake with mountains in background, the beautiful fresh air, excellent food and happy hospitible people (including some with 1 foot long necks) makes it a very amazing place to visit.

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND by a country mile, especially viewed from Mt Victoria for stunning 360 views of the city, the bay, the surrounding hills and the Cook Strait. The waterfront is fantastic, the people friendly and the night life brilliant. I wanna go back so bad!

I would say

1 Cape Town (South Africa)
2 Rio (Brazil)
3 Rome (Italy)
4 Vancouver (Canada)
5 Hong Kong (China)
6 Sydney (Australia)
7 San Francisco (USA)
8 Barcelona (Spain)
9 Paris (France)
10 Edinburgh (Scotland)

Rio de Janeiro is stunning. It's between it and Cape Town. Cape Town is more beautiful in terms of natural setting - but then again Rio is so vibrant and Latin... difficult. Rio or Cape Town at any rate. Rio for combination of natural beauty and vibrancy - Cape Town if we are speaking purely in terms of sheer natural beauty.

I'd say Cape Town has the edge over Rio. It's my fav on earth - and def the 1 I think is the most beautiful

Each country has its own style and special culture.I think we can't get a same answer to this question. Because we're always love our motherland and hometown.
In my eyes,love China very much~

A fun topic with a million answers, all of which I agree with, but if you told me I could only ever go visit one city again, I think I'd have to offer a slightly unfashionable answer in Istanbul. It's not classically beautiful, but it is a visually stunning cultural fusion. The people are friendly and great characters, and the only word I can come up with to describe the whole package is mentallist. Istanbul is the most mentallisticly beautifully crazy city I know.

I would definitely go for Valletta, Malta's capital. It's full of baroque buildings housed within fortified bastions.

You'll find photos and a 360 degrees tour of it on www.bellamalta.com

I would split the list in large and small cities. I have not travelled as extensively as other folks here, but this is my list:
Big cities:
1. Stockholm, 2. Paris/Versailles, 3. San Francisco, 4. London, 5. New York, 6. Prague, 7. Amsterdam, 8. Florence, 9. Munich, 10. Kyoto/Uji.
Smaller cities:
1. Siena, Italy, 2. Brugges, Belgium, 3. Cartagena, Colombia, 4. Antigua, Guatemala, 5. Toledo, Spain, 6. Portofino, Italy, 7. Friburg, Switzerland, 8. Salamanca, Spain, 9. Lucca, Italy, 10. Salzburg, Austria.
Now, of all the places I've been, I find the following as the most amazing: Angkor, Cambodia; Alhambra, Granada, Spain; interior of the island of Kauai, Hawaii; Taj Mahal, Agra, India; Sistine Chapel, Rome; Grand Canyon, Arizona; Brihadishvara temple, Thanjavur, India; Minakshi Sundareshvara temple, Madurai, India; Duomo, Milan; Tosho-gu temple, Nikko, Japan; Machu Picchu, Peru; Ascend to Jungenfrau from Interlaken, Switzerland and Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand.

Regards,

Now there are some nice cities

For a small one, I love Gothenburg.

Copenhagen also has its charms

well i am sure i have not been to as many as most,but vancouver canada is stunning.copenhagen for its beauty,charm and being able to walk to most parts of the city,just not its expense....lol

For natural beauty I would have to vote for my birthplace, Vancouver, with its' mountains in the background and the Pacific Ocean under your eyes. It has been voted as one of the best places to live, and I am fortunate to have lived here for most of my life.

My travels have so far been limited to Europe, and I think that Venice is a beautiful city. The palaces and other buildings along the canals are ancient and fascinating and the luminescent light has a special quality I've never seen before, just made for an artist to portray its' beauty.

And Rome, with its' crowded, ancient buildings tumbling one over the other, is a sight that shouldn't be missed. Many of these buildings are hundreds of years old and built so well they seem to have been there forever.

Frankfurt, with its' mixture of old and new, modern buildings is also very interesting, but I don't know as it's one of my favourites.

I would love to visit Belgium, a very old city with lovely buildings, and also Eastern Europe for the same. You can see I am an antique anything fan and love to learn about each country's history as I travel.

As you all know, Canada is a very new country and there are no really old buildings here, especially in the West. So I get my fill of ancient buildings in my travels...until my eyes get tired from all that looking!

Rosie

As I come from a new country as well, I can appreciate your thoughts on Europe. I love it and can not get enough. in fact, as this trip winds down, I am already planning my weekends in Europe. Catching the train to Paris is great. Why fly. Ever since I have been on the road, Lucinate and myself would start talking about where we would like to be and there is so much to see. Don't get me wrong, I love the other places I have been on this trip, but Europe holds a special piece of my heart

Thanks for your response, uncle_davros.

Yes, Europe is indeed special, and holds a "special piece of my heart" as well. I always feel at home there.

For some reason I've never been interested in Asia or the histories of its' peoples. Of course this limits my travels, but there is more than enough to see and visit in Europe that I know I will never be fortunate to see most of it.

I'm just beginning to read about your various travels, and am enjoying them immensely.

Hi Rosie

I was never interested in South East Asia or India before, and then one day, I realised I could not afford to go to the US and Canada, so we ended up going to SEA instead. I have been back numerous times and am currently sitting in Bangkok as I write this. I remember when I was in India, and I couldn't wait to get out, but once I was out, I can't wait to go back !!!

For some, Europe is far to expensive. I am lucky that I have two passports and I am able to work in the UK or Australia hence the amount of things I have seen in Europe and even though this trip finishes up on Monday, we are already planning our next part which will take in both Europe and Asia

Well I lived in Darwin for a while. Experiencing Darwin is like stepping back to the nineteen seventies. The people are so laid back they are almost on the floor and a fabulous play has been written about it called `Dragged Screaming Back to Darwin,` which encapsulates the place brilliantly. Even though you can`t really swim in Darwin very much, (salt water croc`s and box jellyfish) the beaches are wonderful, dripstone, purple and gold and red rock that looks like it has been poured on to the earth. I miss it and I loved it there. The wild life is spectacular and cannot in many cases, be seen anywhere else in the world. Darwin has the most beautiful bats, birds, lizards and everything that makes a place magical and unforgettable. My favourite city so far though...... Berlin. My son lives there so I have the greatest pleasure in soooooo many ways of visiting beautiful, poignant, architecturally magnificant, apologetic, vibrant and cosmopolitan Berlin.

Hanoi is lovely, but then again, in that area, so is Vientiane

Hi Uncle D, thanks for your response.

I gather you are from Australia? Australians must be the most adventurous travellers of all. Some say that is because, not only do you have more vacation time available than most of us while working, you live so far away from anywhere that once you decide to travel you make it a long trip while you can.

I didn't have the opportunity to travel until I was in my early 50s. Raising a family and all that took up much of my younger years, but once that was done I was raring to go, especially to Europe.

All my life I've wanted to see the historic sites in Europe. Imagine my excitement when I actually started out on that first visit. We had Eurorail passes, so after landing in Frankfurt we trained it to Paris, then on to Nice, Rome, up to Florence and Venice, and back again to Frankfurt after a stopover in Zurich, for the trip home. Between Rome and Venice we stopped off for a week of relaxing on the beach in Cattolica, a summer resort on the Adriatic, and that alone was worth the whole trip. We stayed at a lovely pensione where 3 huge and wonderful meals every day were included in the price of $40 per day for the two of us. We rented two chairs on the beach for the week, and the beach was a long one, white sand, strange little boats like I've never seen before, kiosks to buy cold drinks, an ice cream man who came around every afternoon and did a brisk business, many topless women, not all of them them pinup girls by any means, quaint shops galore for shopping in the evenings when it cooled down a bit, even our laundry was done for us if we left a worn garment hanging around, and neatly ironed and folded when we returned. It was a marvellous place, and I especially enjoyed an evening dinner cruise further south and back where we were served a delicious snack of tiny, crisply fried fish and a bottle of wine before dinner.

Wine was cheaper than bottled water, so we drank lots of both! These were wines that Italians don't export, they keep the best for themselves, so I got to taste the most beautiful wines I've ever had.

Our second trip basically hit the same places, but it was later in the year and the pollution and smog were disgusting.

I felt very fortunate to be travelling with an Italian born companion, otherwise I'd have been constantly lost trying to decipher train schedules or even how to find the train depot, amongst many other problems I surely would have had. Also, we stayed with an Italian family of relatives for a week both times, and such genuine hospitality I've never known. They took us to many places I'd have never enjoyed otherwise, including an Italian wedding and reception that alone deserves another page or two.

My third trip to Europe was alone, to London for a few days of sightseeing, (I'd go back to London in a heartbeat), then to Madrid where I hooked up with a conducted tour of really great people, and off we went all over the highlights of Spain, down to Morocco for several days, back up to Spain and then Portugal, where we had a break again on a beautiful beach before going all the way up Portugal and eventually back to Madrid, (I found Lisbon fascinating) and then London, where I spent a few more days before it was time to get back home and to my job.

I had such great times on all these trips that not only do I long to see all the countries I missed, I'd love to see all the things I have already enjoyed all over again. It's ironic and unfortunate, in my case at least, that when I worked I made good money but didn't have much time for travelling, but now that I'm retired I have all the time in the world for travel, but don't have the funds. Maddening.

Even I was completely museum and art galleried out by the time the trips ended, but what a thrill to see all the famous paintings and buildings I'd read about for a lifetime.

Will you go home before your next trip?

Will I go home before the next trip ???

Good question. I can't answer that, but then again, I consider a weekend away as a trip, and as I am going to France and Belgium in two weeks to see some WW1 battlefields and graves, I would have to say no.

I love Europe, but I love loads of places. The more I travel, the more I realise that I have not seen much. In fact, I have never been to Madrid, so, hopefully, this time here, we will get there !!! And from what I remember of Spain, beer is cheaper than wine

Oh my poor poor liver !!!

Has to be Machu Picchu... perched in the Peruvian Andes, high above the rest of the world. Severe, cloudy mystery, one of the most stunning, awe inspiring spots on the planet. Ok, no longer occupied but you didn't say people still had to be living there!

Hi, Kuching (Capital of Sarawak, Borneo) and Mae Hong Son (Capital of Mae Hong Son province in Northern Thailand) are two that immediately come to my mind.

Both have a peaceful feeling, clean air, plenty of greenry. Mae Hong Son has a beautiful lake at it's centre with two Burmese style temples beside it and the mountains in the background. Kuching has a river running through it and mountains in the background.

Both have fascinating cultures surrounding them and influencing them.

I couldn't say that they are the most beautiful, but they are very beautiful.

Marrakesh, the Djemm is touristy but beautiful and the rest of the city holds up, except I want to kill everone on a moped.

For America I really like DC, Seattle, and Homer, Alaska.

I can't agree on the beauty thing, but the night market in the square is great. I have had some of the best food in all of my travels from there.

Venice for sure. Watching the sun set over the sea is surely one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

Although I had never thought I would love Paris...it is an amazing city, the energy, nighttime is aboslutely breathtaking. But another town, so different from Paris, is a small town in Austria, Lofer. Our $60.00 a night accomodation had breathtaking views of the swiss alps. This is a hometown and just an amazing experience of living in a small austrian village. Liking small towns, I never thought I would love Rome as I did, but it was truly amazing....just to realize that these amzing structures were able to be built at the time they were. Another small town....Bellagio in Lake Como....wonderfully charming, great food, beautiful scenery! I also loved Positano on the Amalfi coast.....the energy of the Italians make every city delightful, but staying in a hotel with our view over the water......great way to end our italian trip.

Surely Istanbul. The epitomy of Islamic culture and the previous European Christian culture that it destroyed. Incredible food as well.

For beauty I think Florence is a top contender.

I also love Talinn, Estonia and Bruges, Belgium for their fairy tale appeal and beauty.

Madang - the town itself isn't that much to look at, but has a great market, a park with crocodiles, and is next to some amazing diving sights and tropical islands, and has the mountainous jungle just next door.

Great night life hanging around with the local rascals etc if you are into that sort of thing.

Its hard to say, I would say Rio too I think...
It always depends on what you see as beautiful..

Gimmelwald, Switzerland, though not really a city, has yet to be dethroned on my end... It's high up enough to give an epic view of the valley below, with the Alps' tallest mountains right next door, yet low enough that you're still close to a grocery store and other civilization things.

Honorable mention for me hometown of San Diego, CA. Even Bali's beaches and the Italian Riviera couldn't trump good ole Torrey Pines.

Yes, Gimmelwald is beautiful.
Is that where the waterfalls are in the mountain?

Yea, not exactly but it's part of the same general area (the Lauterbrunnen Valley.) Gimmelwald is a tiny village above & across from where that waterfall is.

I think for setting it has to be Rio de Janeiro or Hong Kong

Hi, i am from Bulgaria, from town of Haskovo, where is the largest statue of the Holy Mother with little Jesus in the world heigh 33 meters or 109 feets. It is a nice place to go. This is link to show you the town and the statue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR6aCrcPCxs