MELBOURNE • OAKLAND • LONDON 000-citiesbook-000-front-matter.i30-citiesbook-000-front-matter.i3 3 88/07/2009/07/2009 33:10:18:10:18 PPMM Best Cities 01-10 The heart of this book was set beating by our travellers who provided us with the list of 200 cities for inclusion in the book, via a survey we ran on www.lonelyplanet.com asking travellers (and our staff ) to nominate their favourite cities. Paris 304 001 The top fi ve held no major surprises – Paris, New York, Sydney, Barcelona and London – although a quick glance at the top 25 cities certainly speaks to the adventurous spirit of our travellers. In the top 10 we have Cape Town and Bangkok, and the top 25 features Kathmandu, Buenos Aires and Jerusalem. In the 200 cities selected, we were able to display the great diversity of city life as it is experienced all over the globe: in the classic Western European cities such as Paris; ancient South American cities such as La Paz and Quito; island cities such as Apia in New York City 296 Samoa; trading centres such as Nairobi, hi-tech/futuristic cities such as Hong Kong and Tokyo; 002 and those iconic cities like London, Florence or Rome, where time appears to stand still and accelerate in the same moment. The incredible diversity of day-to-day life explored through these pages challenges our very notion of a consistent ‘city lifestyle’, and yet something about the energy, pace and commonality of experiences connects these cities. We don’t set too much store by the ‘rating’ of these cities, but it was interesting to see just how the city standard is set by Paris. There are several other cities in this book that claim the 003 Sydney 372 reputation by association: Budapest, as the Paris of Eastern Europe; Beirut, as the Paris of the Middle East; Buenos Aires, as the Paris of the South; and Melbourne, as the Paris of the southern hemisphere! 004 Barcelona 68 005 London 232 006 Rome 326 007 San Francisco 334 008 Bangkok 66 TITLE PAGE CITY LIGHTS Photographer: Brian Stablyk / Getty Images Cape Town 108 RIGHT 009 GRAND BASSIN IN JARDIN DU LUXEMBOURG Photographer: Bruce Bi / LPI PAGE 11 A STANDOUT PARTY ANIMAL REVELS IN THE MASSES AT BERLIN’S LOVE PARADE Photographer: Guy Moberly / LPI PAGE 23 THE HELIPAD OF THE EXTRAVAGANT BURJ AL ARAB HOTEL, DUBAI 010 Istanbul 188 Photographer: David Cannon / Getty Images 4 000-citiesbook-000-front-matter.i40-citiesbook-000-front-matter.i4 4 88/07/2009/07/2009 33:10:18:10:18 PPMM 5 000-citiesbook-000-front-matter.i50-citiesbook-000-front-matter.i5 5 88/07/2009/07/2009 33:10:20:10:20 PPMM Best Cities 011-200 Page 011 Melbourne 262 043 Sarajevo 348 075 Innsbruck 186 012 Hong Kong 184 044 Seville 356 076 York 418 013 Kathmandu 204 045 Kyoto 216 077 Mumbai 284 014 Prague 310 046 Las Vegas 222 078 Hamburg 166 015 Vancouver 398 047 Perth 306 079 Oaxaca City 300 016 Buenos Aires 102 048 Shanghai 358 080 Galway 158 017 Rio de Janeiro 324 049 Los Angeles 234 081 Siena 360 018 Berlin 84 050 Lisbon 226 082 Esfahan 150 019 Jerusalem 194 051 Stockholm 368 083 Wellington 410 020 Montréal 280 052 Kuala Lumpur 212 084 Ljubljana 230 021 Edinburgh 148 053 Damascus 134 085 Seoul 354 022 Venice 402 054 Luang Prabang 236 086 San Cristóbal de 023 Hanoi 168 055 Seattle 352 las Casas 332 024 Amsterdam 38 056 Phnom Penh 308 087 Taipei 374 025 Singapore 362 057 St Petersburg 366 088 Tallinn 376 026 Tokyo 386 058 Cuzco 130 089 Lhasa 224 027 Florence 156 059 Dubrovnik 146 090 Bled 88 028 Dublin 144 060 Delhi 138 091 Hobart 180 029 Mexico City 268 061 Moscow 282 092 Jaipur 190 030 Kraków 210 062 Salvador da Bahia 330 093 Brussels 96 031 Toronto 388 063 Beijing 72 094 La Paz 218 032 Cairo 106 064 Helsinki 174 095 Québec City 316 033 Budapest 100 065 Kolkata 208 096 Valparaíso 396 034 Chicago 122 066 Santiago de Chile 344 097 Naples 292 035 Havana 170 067 Fès 154 098 Memphis 264 036 Madrid 246 068 Auckland 58 099 Heidelberg 172 037 Munich 286 069 Manila 252 100 Dhaka 140 038 Athens 56 070 Puerto Vallarta 312 101 Amman 36 039 New Orleans 294 071 Chiang Mai 120 102 Monaco 276 040 Vienna 404 072 Varanasi 400 103 Washington DC 408 041 Ho Chi Minh City 178 073 Cartagena 116 104 Quito 318 042 Marrakesh 256 074 Zanzibar Town 422 105 Christchurch 124 6 000-citiesbook-000-front-matter.i60-citiesbook-000-front-matter.i6 6 88/07/2009/07/2009 33:10:26:10:26 PPMM 106 Glasgow 162 138 Montevideo 278 170 San Salvador 338 107 Muscat 288 139 Yangon 412 171 Cardiff 114 108 Panama City 302 140 Arequipa 48 172 Minsk 272 109 Dakar 132 141 Bucharest 98 173 Thimphu 382 110 Bratislava 92 142 Apia 46 174 Khartoum 206 111 San Sebastián 340 143 Belgrade 80 175 Anchorage 40 Bern 86 Dar es Salaam 136 112 144 176 Mecca 260 San Juan 336 Kyiv 214 113 145 177 Aswan 54 Aleppo (Halab) 30 Bukhara 104 114 146 178 Yerevan 414 115 Dubai 142 147 Male’ 248 179 Luxembourg City 240 116 Rīga 322 148 Caracas 110 180 Georgetown 160 117 Asmara 52 149 Tirana 384 181 Maputo 254 118 Kabul 198 150 Suva 370 182 Baku 62 119 Bath 70 151 Tbilisi 378 183 Belize City 82 120 Copenhagen 128 152 Agadez 28 184 Essaouira 152 121 Macau 242 153 Ushuaia 392 185 Santo Domingo 346 122 Sofi a 364 154 Kampala 202 186 Addis Ababa 26 123 Hoi An 182 155 Bogotá 90 187 Pyongyang 314 124 Marseille 258 156 Bridgetown 94 188 Lahore 220 125 Zagreb 420 157 Ulaanbaatar 390 189 Cayenne 118 126 Manchester 250 158 Abuja 24 190 Almaty 34 127 Antigua 44 159 Christiansted 126 191 Mombasa 274 128 Reykjavík 320 160 San’a 342 Valletta 394 129 Yogyakarta 416 161 Livingstone 228 192 Antananarivo 42 130 Carcassonne 112 162 Alexandria 32 193 Miami 270 131 Lübeck 238 163 Belfast 78 194 132 Tel Aviv 380 164 Savannah 350 195 Bamako 64 133 Hiroshima 176 165 Nuuk 298 196 Saint-Denis 328 134 Mendoza 266 166 Jeddah 192 197 Granada 164 135 Nairobi 290 167 Johannesburg 196 198 Beira 74 136 Beirut 76 168 Kairouan 200 199 Madang 244 137 Vilnius 406 169 Austin 60 200 Ashgabat 50 7 000-citiesbook-000-front-matter.i70-citiesbook-000-front-matter.i7 7 88/07/2009/07/2009 33:10:27:10:27 PPMM Tony’s Best 10 Additional Cities Detroit Jakarta Karachi Mandalay Oslo VITAL STATISTICS VITAL STATISTICS VITAL STATISTICS VITAL STATISTICS VITAL STATISTICS NAME: DETROIT NAME: JAKARTA NAME: KARACHI NAME: MANDALAY NAME: OSLO NICKNAME: MOTOR CITY NICKNAME: BIG VILLAGE NICKNAME: CITY OF LIGHTS NICKNAME: CITY OF GEMS NICKNAME: TIGER CITY DATE OF BIRTH: 24 JULY DATE OF BIRTH: 22 JUNE DATE OF BIRTH: 1795; DATE OF BIRTH: 1857; DATE OF BIRTH: AD 1048 1701; WHEN FRENCH 1527; WHEN IT WAS NAMED WHEN THE MIRS OF TALPUR WHEN IT WAS ESTABLISHED (ACCORDING TO THE NORSE EXPLORER ANTOINE DE LA JAYAKARTA (CITY OF GREAT CONSTRUCTED A MUD FORT AS A NEW CENTRE FOR THE SAGAS); HOWEVER, MOTHE CADILLAC SET UP A VICTORY) BY FATAHILLAH, A AT MANORA TEACHING OF BUDDHISM ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH FUR-TRADING POST ON THE LEADER FROM A HAS UNCOVERED CHRISTIAN HEIGHT: 4M HEIGHT: 74M DETROIT RIVER NEIGHBOURING SULTANATE BURIALS DATING FROM SIZE: 1994 SQ KM ADDRESS: MYANMAR BEFORE AD 1000 HEIGHT: 177M HEIGHT: 1M (MAP 5, J5) ADDRESS: PAKISTAN HEIGHT: 629M SIZE: 219 SQ KM SIZE: 661 SQ KM (MAP 1, CC12) POPULATION: 801,000 SIZE: 454 SQ KM ADDRESS: USA (MAP 1, L9) ADDRESS: INDONESIA POPULATION: 9.3 MILLION (MAP 1, HH16) Kipling never actually took the ADDRESS: NORWAY POPULATION: 951,000 ‘Road to Mandalay’; the road (MAP 3, J2) POPULATION: 9.3 MILLION From my fi rst birthday to my Detroit is the Motor City, Tamla fi fth this was home and, like to Mandalay is really a river, POPULATION: 529,000 Motown and home to Henry Indonesia’s sprawling capital is any childhood memories, my the mighty Ayeyarwady, but Cold, conservative and mouth- Ford’s Greenfi eld Village, but yet another city considerably pictures of Pakistan’s troubled this is still the heart and soul of droppingly expensive, it’s it’s also the doughnut city, a overshadowed, in the popularity port city are rose-tinted: a Myanmar. Quite apart from hardly surprising that Norway’s symbol of urban decay whose stakes, by a smaller and more melange of camels, sailboats, the huge Mandalay Fort capital and largest city doesn’t centre was abandoned as people glamorous sister city, in this sandy beaches and exotic (gutted during the closing feature on the city hit parade. moved out to a fringe of rich, case tourist favourite and colours. Way back then phases of WWII), there’s a host Choose a sunny summer day, thriving suburbs, trying to turn cultural capital Yogyakarta. Karachi was going through of temples and assorted however, and Oslo can still their collective backs on a core Nevertheless, Jakarta is, in its wrenching changes as India Buddhist sites around the city. charm you with leafy parks, that might as well have been own fashion, a mega-city that and Pakistan tore themselves Plus it’s the home of street busy cafés and restaurants, nuked.