City breaks in Sydney are great for dining out, getting your culture fix and dancing the night away, but the Harbour City isn’t generally thought of as a hiking destination. Turns out, that’s not quite the case – with Sydney just ranking as one of the best hiking cities in the world.
The world’s best hiking cities combine the best of both worlds – all the food, culture and fun of a city break with a dose of fresh air and outdoor adventure. Plenty of the world’s best cities are nestled amongst mountains, on coastlines and close to magnificent nature reserves, but which one can claim to be the best hiking city on the planet? A study by SportsShoes.com has set out to answer that question. The research looked into the number of nearby hikes in each city, alongside the number of reviews and the average rating the hikes were given.
Topping the list? It’s Rio de Janeiro, which had a perfect score of 100 overall, thanks to 334 local hikes, which have an average rating of 4.8 out of 5, and 219 reviews.
In second place was Mexico City and in third was San Francisco. The list is dominated by US cities, which claim seven places in the ranking overall – read on to find which ones, and have a look at Time Out’s list of the best hikes in the world here.
Our very own Harbour City came in seventh place – taking the crown for the best city for hiking in the Southern Hemisphere. With a total 'hikeability' score of 90, Sydney came out as the city in the world with the highest number of hikes (an incredible 857, compared with 334 in the winning city of Rio).
These are the best cities in the world for hiking
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Mexico City, Mexico
- San Francisco, USA
= Cape Town, South Africa - Los Angeles, USA
- Portland, USA
- Las Vegas, USA
- Sydney, Australia
- Edinburgh, UK
- Kyoto, Japan
= Nashville, USA
= Seattle, USA
= Philadelphia, USA