The multitude of blogs, websites, and social media accounts dedicated expressly to travel means that we now have a seemingly infinite number of resources to help us decide where to book our next vacation. Having the world at our fingertips is undoubtedly a great thing, but it can also make the final choice seem pretty far out of reach.
To help you decide what’s worth using that precious PTO for, Canada-based travel agency FlightNetwork asked more than 1000 travel experts—professional writers, recreational bloggers, travel agencies, and more—to share their insights on which cities around the globe are quite simply the best.
Though the resulting list is called the world’s 50 “most beautiful” cities, it’s “beauty” in a much broader sense than just visual appeal. If you delve into some of the individual entries in FlightNetwork’s guide, you’ll come to find that history, culture, food, entertainment, and other elements have significantly factored into the experts’ assessments of each city.
And, according to these experts (and probably everyone else in the world), Paris really does have it all, including the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Versailles, and wine so fine it might ruin you for all other beverages.
New York was the runner-up, because apparently not even the grimy subway rats can dull the sparkle of the City That Never Sleeps. While it might not boast the same snow-capped mountain peaks of Vancouver or the radiant beaches of Barcelona, the sheer quantity and variety of activities The Big Apple has to offer make it a must-visit—maybe more than once.
“You could visit hundreds of times and still discover new things on every trip. It has it all,” David Jagger, reporter for Bradford, England’s Telegraph & Argus, told FlightNetwork.
The rest of the top 10 was mostly filled up by other cities that you probably expected to see on this list, like London, Venice, and Rome. Having said that, if you’re a “road less traveled” type of person, there are plenty of offbeat options for you, too. Colombia’s Cartagena, number 44, is a beachgoer’s paradise—complete with a breathtaking cathedral and castle—and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more charming waterfront town than Bruges, Belgium, number 26 on the list.
Scroll on to see the full top 50, and read more about each city in FlightNetwork’s guide here.
- Paris, France
- New York, New York
- London, England
- Venice, Italy
- Vancouver, Canada
- Barcelona, Spain
- Cape Town, South Africa
- San Francisco, California
- Sydney, Australia
- Rome, Italy
- Singapore, Singapore
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Budapest, Hungary
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Tokyo, Japan
- Vienna, Austria
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Toronto, Canada
- San Diego, California
- Quebec City, Canada
- Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Chicago, Illinois
- Bruges, Belgium
- Madrid, Spain
- Havana, Cuba
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Jerusalem, Israel
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Quito, Ecuador
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Cusco, Peru
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- Berlin, Germany
- Hanoi, Vietnam
- Queenstown, New Zealand
- San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
- Seoul, South Korea
- Dubrovnik, Croatia
- San Sebastian, Spain
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Cartagena, Colombia
- Dublin, Ireland
- Marrakesh, Morocco
- Bergen, Norway
- Jaipur, India
- Beijing, China
- Athens, Greece
Originally published on Mental Floss – http://bit.ly/2sob5me