Favourite European city

[norwaysaint]

I'm not a fan of cities, so not really aimed at me I suppose, but my favourite of the ones I've lived in was Gøteborg. It always felt so open and relaxed. I was in Rome this summer and although it's a fascinating place, I wouldn't want to live there. Just like anywhere else, I'd rather be in the Italian countryside, or on the coast, than in the cities. I understand the attraction for a short visit though.

 

Quite rightly, no Norwegian cities should make anyone's list. If you come to a country with the breathtaking landscape you find here, and choose to spend time looking at a city, you're an idiot.

[Joe Kirkup]

Munich for me.

When you can get a farmers breakfast and a pint at 7.30am and it is accepted as normal is fine by me.

[Unbelievable Jeff]

I'm not going to include British cities - but for me London is the greatest city on Earth if we are.

 

In relation to Europe, Florence is stunning. Carcassone is also an amazing citadel.

[aintforever]

Another vote for Amsterdam here, just got back from my 4th trip there. It's known for the nightlife (and those who dwell in it) but it's actually a really nice place as well. Beautiful canals, great museums and loads of little bars and restaurants. I find that it's incredibly clean as well, unlike London, Paris etc. The green is just the cherry on top!

 

Amsterdam is a great city, I don't get why they feel the need to pack it with whores and drugs to get visitors.

[Batman]

London

[Turkish]

I'm not going to include British cities - but for me London is the greatest city on Earth if we are.

 

In relation to Europe, Florence is stunning. Carcassone is also an amazing citadel.

 

London on a summers day is a fantastic place.

[Goatboy]

Amsterdam is a great city, I don't get why they feel the need to pack it with whores and drugs to get visitors.

 

They don't need to but why take the risk?

[hutch]

Both already named, but for me Florence and Carcassonne, and not necessarily in that order.

[NI Saint]

Berlin is pretty good, but I'm biased as I live there. I like Vienna and Barcelona, not too keen on Dublin. I've never been to Italy but I reckon one of the cities there would beat Berlin. In the UK, at least for now, I like Edinburgh and London is a great place to visit but there is no way I would want to live there.

[CB Saint]

Spain - Seville, Barca and Granada (one of the few places left where they serve free tapas with your beer)

Italy - Florence and Venice

[Wes Tender]

Italy has the top several best cities in the World

 

Venice

Florence

Rome

Sienna

Bologna

 

It is hard to match their architecture, history, culture, food, scenery and so on.

 

Otherwise Vancouver and Hong Kong get honourable mentions

Turin, etc

[LGTL]

Kiev was excellent but doubt it these days. London, Dublin, Barcelona and I love Seville too.

[Toadhall Saint]

Florence every time - beautiful architecture, fantastic food, and not as bullish as Rome.

 

Forgot about Florence oh and Sienna both beautiful and food that is top notch.

[aintforever]

Has to be Venice, the place is magical. I remember the first time I went we arrived at night and took a boat down the grand canal to the hotel and the fog was coming in - no where else in the world like it.

[Minsk]

I guess it depends on what you want from, or to do, in the city. There are many cities already mentioned in this thread that I really enjoyed and others that I was disappointed with. In general, I am not really a 'city' person. Give me the sea or mountains any day. However, three cities that I definitely want to revisit and spend more time in are Vienna, Budapest and Berlin. I also really like Vilnius (which I visit often) and have Krakow on my 'recommended to do' list.

[mightysaints]

Annecy beautiful lakeside city in the Alps.

[Horley CTFC Saint]

Annecy beautiful lakeside city in the Alps.

 

An lesser known gem - was there for the Tour some years back and can confirm its certainly a place worth visiting

[SO16_Saint]

Paris, stunning architecture all over the place.

Dirty filthy place

Venice for me BTW.

Smelly

Barcelona - it's got the lot

Beautiful place

[Jonnyboy]

Barcelona - rife with pickpockets and muggers.

[Whitey Grandad]

Barcelona - rife with pickpockets and muggers.

 

And polluted air. It's covered in a pall of yellow smog most of the time.

[whelk]

Not one mention of Madrid? Depends if talking weekend excursion or spending proper time I suppose

[CylonKing]

Barcelona - rife with pickpockets and muggers.

 

Good point out there. Forgot that the first time we went to Barcelona I ended up stopping some thieves stealing a ladies handbag while in a park during the day.

Still, had a great time there last year and want to go back again soon.

[Unbelievable Jeff]

London on a summers day is a fantastic place.

 

I love how everyone is quoting architecture as amazing parts of other cities - London has as much, if not more than any of these other cities.

 

I think London is under-appreciated in that regard.

[KelvinsRightGlove]

Barcelona - rife with pickpockets and muggers.

 

Got pickpocketed my first night there when on holiday with the gf. On the plus side, the copper we spoke to when reporting it was probably the nicest, most charming man I have ever met. Recommended loads of things to do, cafes and bars and even booked a table for us at his Wife's sisters restaurant who provided us an absolute feast for next to nothing. The general population are so nice it cancels out the pickpockets.

 

And polluted air. It's covered in a pall of yellow smog most of the time.

 

I've been 7/8 times in the last three years (my company has an office there), can honestly say I have never seen this.

[lil 1]

Not my favourite city,but London is the best in Europe

[svetigpung]

for a visit during the dark winter months i would recommend ...

 

Krakow

 

place has real character

[View From The Top]

I don't like Barca either. Much prefer Saville.

[Patrick Bateman]

As said earlier, I favour Budapest, but a good point about the UK. London is obviously the best city by a long way, it really does have everything. But also I feel a big mention now to Manchester - that place has come on leaps and bounds, with some really interesting places to visit, good shopping (if you like that), some decent enough places to eat and bars. Definitely over taken Birmingham surely as the UK's second city?

[pap]

As said earlier, I favour Budapest, but a good point about the UK. London is obviously the best city by a long way, it really does have everything. But also I feel a big mention now to Manchester - that place has come on leaps and bounds, with some really interesting places to visit, good shopping (if you like that), some decent enough places to eat and bars. Definitely over taken Birmingham surely as the UK's second city?

 

London is fantastic if you can afford it.

 

Adopted bias probs, but I'd take Liverpool over Manc any day of the week. I'm a coastie though.

[hypochondriac]

As said earlier, I favour Budapest, but a good point about the UK. London is obviously the best city by a long way, it really does have everything. But also I feel a big mention now to Manchester - that place has come on leaps and bounds, with some really interesting places to visit, good shopping (if you like that), some decent enough places to eat and bars. Definitely over taken Birmingham surely as the UK's second city?

 

I went to Budapest for two weeks this year. Enjoyed it but it isn't a patch on Italy imo. Cheaper sure buy that's about it.

[Halo Stickman]

I previously mentioned Stockholm, but I would also agree with others that on a lazy sunny afternoon Florence with its beautiful architecture set against the Tuscan hills is a stunning place to stroll or sit with a few beers watching the world go by. Also, for iconic buildings, places, venues etc, all within a relatively short distance of each other, London is hard to beat.

[CB Saint]

I don't like Barca either. Much prefer Saville.

 

You're probably the only one that does

[View From The Top]

You're probably the only one that does

 

. Just noticed my typo.

[View From The Top]

As said earlier, I favour Budapest, but a good point about the UK. London is obviously the best city by a long way, it really does have everything. But also I feel a big mention now to Manchester - that place has come on leaps and bounds, with some really interesting places to visit, good shopping (if you like that), some decent enough places to eat and bars. Definitely over taken Birmingham surely as the UK's second city?

 

Manchester has really cool vibe about it now where as Brum is now an utter shiitehole.

[buctootim]

I previously mentioned Stockholm, but I would also agree with others that on a lazy sunny afternoon Florence with its beautiful architecture set against the Tuscan hills is a stunning place to stroll or sit with a few beers watching the world go by. Also, for iconic buildings, places, venues etc, all within a relatively short distance of each other, London is hard to beat.

 

Can recommend staying here. Great wine and olives grown on the estate.

http://www.fattoriadipetrognano.com/home_eng.html

[Halo Stickman]

Can recommend staying here. Great wine and olives grown on the estate.

http://www.fattoriadipetrognano.com/home_eng.html

 

Cheers,Tim. As someone who has already benefited from one of your previous holiday recommendations (Menorca), I might well investigate that further.

[buctootim]

Cheers,Tim. As someone who has already benefited from one of your previous holiday recommendations (Menorca), I might well investigate that further.

 

Sorry, posted up the wrong link! Stayed there but googled the wrong Petrognano. This is the one - much closer to Florence.

http://www.petrognano.com/

Edited 11 September, 2014 by buctootim

[Unbelievable Jeff]

London is fantastic if you can afford it.

 

Adopted bias probs, but I'd take Liverpool over Manc any day of the week. I'm a coastie though.

 

Don't disagree, must be pretty miserable place to live if you are poor (although being poor in ANY city would be pretty miserable).

[Unbelievable Jeff]

Cheers,Tim. As someone who has already benefited from one of your previous holiday recommendations (Menorca), I might well investigate that further.

 

Off to Menorca on Saturday, haven't been there since I was 11 (19 years ago now). How was it?

[Ohio Saint]

Portsmouth

[Halo Stickman]

Off to Menorca on Saturday, haven't been there since I was 11 (19 years ago now). How was it?

 

Actually Jeff, I’d always dismissed Menorca because I’d mistakenly thought it would be full of tacky and overly commercialised holiday developments. However, a couple of years ago I started a thread asking for beach-holiday recommendations and Buctootim posted a photo of a beautiful deserted sandy Menorcan beach backed by pine forests.

 

This prompted me to look at Menorca with fresh eyes, and eventually led to Mrs Stickman and myself booking into a fabulous adults-only hotel on the south-eastern coast of the island. Sure enough, a short stroll from our hotel and there were beaches exactly as portrayed in Tim’s photo – except, even better, these ones had quite a few semi-naked and completely naked women on them (oh, and some naked blokes for Mrs Stickman to ogle at as well). The snorkelling was pretty good too.

 

Sorry to digress from the subject matter of this thread – i.e. cities – so as a slight nod in that direction, the two largest towns – Mahon and Ciutadella – are both worth a visit imo.

 

Hope you have a good holiday.

Edited 11 September, 2014 by Halo Stickman

[View From The Top]

Very much looking forward to Vienna. Haven't been for close to 30 years.

[Patrick Bateman]

Manchester has really cool vibe about it now where as Brum is now an utter shiitehole.

 

That's what I thought. I used to like Birmingham, oddly, but I'd getting more and more impressed with Manchester. Birmingham for me has just become the Mailbox area and even then, that's looking dated now.

[norwaysaint]

Well, according to my wife, who travels the world with her job, the number one horrible city she's ever been to is...Hull. Mind you, out of all the exotic locations she visits, the one that she managed to bring me along to with spa hotel and luxury car on the company bill was...Nuremberg. Nuremberg is horrible, but apparently not as bad as Hull.

[RedAndWhite91]

Prague.

[Patrick Bateman]

Well, according to my wife, who travels the world with her job, the number one horrible city she's ever been to is...Hull. Mind you, out of all the exotic locations she visits, the one that she managed to bring me along to with spa hotel and luxury car on the company bill was...Nuremberg. Nuremberg is horrible, but apparently not as bad as Hull.

 

haha, Hull isn't *that* bad. I went to Uni there, it's not actually a terrible city and it's certainly no worse than Portsmouth or other places of that ilk in this country.

[Batman]

haha, Hull isn't *that* bad. I went to Uni there, it's not actually a terrible city and it's certainly no worse than Portsmouth or other places of that ilk in this country.

 

Never been to hull

But there used to be a night club call the tower (so I have heard)

 

Tower for an hour if you want to pull

[View From The Top]

In-laws live in Brough, 10 miles or so west of hull and I was married in South Cave and around there it's nice. Beverly, just up the road from Hull is one of the nicest places in England.

 

Hull, however, is a 'kin horrible place and anywhere east is pure banjo plucking country.

[Patrick Bateman]

Never been to hull

But there used to be a night club call the tower (so I have heard)

 

Tower for an hour if you want to pull

 

hahaha, yes, the Tower existed when I was at uni there (94-98), was a dump! The best club was Spiders, not because of the music, but it was proper chilled out and the fact you could get cocktails full of all sorts of shots and crap for a quid. 4 of those and you were pretty much done. Probably illegal now, sigh.

 

I think it may have been the Tower that did the rounds and bought going off beer and flogged it for 20p/pint. My memory is hazy ...

 

Edit: Beverley is really nice VFTT! Lovely place. I resided in Cottingham, that's a nice part too!

[Goatboy]

haha, Hull isn't *that* bad. I went to Uni there, it's not actually a terrible city and it's certainly no worse than Portsmouth or other places of that ilk in this country.

 

"Hull, no worse than Portsmouth" should be the motto of the city.