The world's greatest city?
New York, London, Tokyo, Dubai, Tel Aviv, Mumbai... you choose
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Time Out guidebooks
Union Square, Tokyo. World's Greatest Cities book cover
To celebrate the exciting launch of Time Out's new book 'The World's Greatest Cities' we are asking: 'Which city, or cities, do you consider to be the greatest in the world and why?'.
The 75 cities included in the book were selected by a panel of Time Out experts according to six criteria: Architecture, Arts & Culture, Buzz, Food & Drink, Quality of Life and World Status.
In conjunction with our local correspondents, the panel then awarded the cities scores in each category and totalled them up for an overall ranking. The results are both fascinating and often surprising.
The World's Greatest Cities: Order your copy now from the Time Out shop and save 20% online.
The results
Here are the top ten world cities as voted for by the Time Out panel:
1. New York, USA
Architecture: 9
Arts & culture: 10
Buzz: 10
Food & drink: 9
Quality of life: 6
World status: 9
Total/60: 53
2. London, UK
Architecture: 7
Arts & culture: 10
Buzz: 9
Food & drink: 9
Quality of life: 6
World status: 9
Total/60: 50
3. Paris, France
Architecture: 9
Arts & culture: 9
Buzz: 6
Food & drink: 9
Quality of life: 7
World status: 8
Total/60: 48
4. Berlin, Germany
Architecture: 7
Arts & culture: 9
Buzz: 9
Food & drink: 6
Quality of life: 7
World status: 8
Total/60: 46
Equal 5th. Barcelona, Spain
Architecture: 9
Arts & culture: 7
Buzz: 8
Food & drink: 8
Quality of life: 8
World status: 4
Total/60: 44
Equal 5th. Chicago, USA
Architecture: 9
Arts & culture: 8
Buzz: 7
Food & drink: 7
Quality of life: 7
World status: 6
Total/60: 44
Equal 5th. Tokyo, Japan
Architecture: 7
Arts & culture: 6
Buzz: 9
Food & drink: 10
Quality of life: 4
World status: 8
Total/60: 44
8. Istanbul, Turkey
Architecture: 7
Arts & culture: 7
Buzz: 9
Food & drink: 7
Quality of life: 6
World status: 7
Total/60: 43
Equal 9th. Rome, Italy
Architecture: 9
Arts & culture: 7
Buzz: 7
Food & drink: 6
Quality of life: 6
World status: 7
Total/60: 42
Equal 9th. Sydney, Australia
Architecture: 7
Arts & culture: 6
Buzz: 7
Food & drink: 7
Quality of life: 10
World status: 5
Total/60: 42
Cast your vote
Agree, disagree? Let us know which cities you consider to be the best in the world by contributing your knowledge via our 'The World's Greatest Cities' survey.
Below you'll find the list of the 75 cities.
Feel passionately that one of them is the greatest?
Then GET VOTING.
Know anyone living in, or who has visited, one the 75 cities and would like to cast their vote? Then please let them know about our survey.
Win the book
Ten lucky, randomly selected voters will each win a copy of 'The World's Greatest Cities' book.
Read more about Time Out's 'The World's Greatest Cities' book.
The world's greatest cities
Remind yourself about why you love a city so much by following the links through to one of our city guides:
Almaty, Kazakhstan
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Athens, Greece
Bangkok, Thailand (website coming soon)
Barcelona, Spain
Beijing, China
Beirut, Lebanon
Belfast, N Ireland
Belgrade, Serbia
Berlin, Germany
Bogotà, Columbia
Brasilia, Brazil
Brussels, Belgium
Bucharest, Romania (this website is written in Hungarian)
Budapest, Hungary
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Cairo, Egypt
Cape Town, South Africa
Chicago, USA
Copenhagen, Denmark
Dakar, Senegal
Delhi, India
Dubai, UAE
Dublin, Ireland
Edinburgh, Scotland
Florence, Italy
Glasgow, Scotland
Hanoi, Vietnam
Havana, Cuba
Hong Kong, China
Istanbul, Turkey
Jakarta, Indonesia
Johannesburg, South Africa
Kingston, Jamaica
Kolkata, India
Krakow, Poland
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kyoto, Japan (beta website)
Lisbon, Portugal (this website is written in Portuguese)
London, England
Los Angeles, USA
Madrid, Spain
Manchester, England
Manila, Philippines
Marrakech, Morocco
Marseille, France
Melbourne, Australia
Mexico City, Mexico
Miami, USA
Milan, Italy
Moscow, Russia (this website is written in Russian)
Mumbai, India
Naples, Italy
New York, USA
Paris, France
Prague, Czech Republic
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rome, Italy
San Francisco, USA
Sana'a, Yemen
São Paulo, Brazil
Seoul, Korea
Seville, Spain
Shanghai, China
Singapore
St Petersburg, Russia (this website is written in Russian)
Stockholm, Sweden
Sydney, Australia
Tel Aviv, Israel (this website is written in Hebrew)
Tokyo, Japan (beta website)
Toronto, Canada
Vancouver, Canada
Venice, Italy (website coming soon)
Vienna, Austria
Washington DC, USA
Buy the book
World's Greatest Cities book
The World's Greatest Cities book draws on Time Out's unique urban expertise and its unrivalled collection of photography to present portraits of the world's 75 most exciting cities. This book is a celebration of their beauty and diversity, the people who built them and the people who live in them.
Buy your copy now from the Time Out shop and save 20% online.
Time Out publishes city guidebooks and magazines to 50 of these cities. All are available at a discounted price from the Time Out shop.
4 comments Add a comment
I agree with the above post. I've had the good fortune to live in London, Paris, and New York, and have visited many of the other cities on this list. Overall, no city can compare with London.
I do not understand why London got a low mark in architecture. London has some of the world's most beautiful and diverse archtitecture in the world (see link below). Sure, there are post-war crap scattered throughout the city, but which city doesn't? Have you been to the Bronx in New York, or the various banlieus in Paris? Even in Manhattan alone has lots of run-down crap. It seems that you were comparing the entirety of London with Midtown/Downtown Manhattan and Central Paris alone. I honestly don't think that is a fair assumption. Please rewrite this ranking. Link to pictures of London's amazing and diverse architecture: http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21974
London beats NY, Paris and Tokyo easily in Education and Culture. University of London UCL is ranked 4th worldwide whereas the best university in NY Columbia University is ranked 11th according to http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2009/results. Besides, London has 8 airports, no city in the entire world has 8 airports except London. London Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest airport in terms of international passenger traffic. London Underground opened in 1863, and was the first underground railway system in the world. It is the world's oldest, deepest and longest metro system in the world by route length. The tube map, with its schematic non-geographical layout and colour-coded lines, is considered a design classic, and many other transport maps worldwide have been influenced by it. Wembley Stadium in London is the world's most expensive stadium it cost US$1.57 Billion. There are also Emirate Stadium Arsenal, Chelsea FC. London held 2 Olympic Games already and will be holding the world's greenest Olympic in 2012 :) There is no city in the world which holds 3 Olympic Games LOL ^_^ That's why LONDON is the Greatest City on Earth. :D LOL
I love New York, and have visited it extensively but how anyone can compare this city to London is a mystery to me???, there is just no comparison....it is simply not in the same league.
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