Time Out lists the 'world's best' cities for 2021

Yuri · #1 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 3:44 PM**

It's just entertainment, but I like their lists, for both cities and neighbourhoods. I used their "coolest lists" a lot in Germany last year and discovered very interesting districts there.

1. San Francisco
2. Amsterdam
3. Manchester
4. Copenhagen
5. New York
6. Montreal
7. Prague
8. Tel Aviv
9. Porto
10. Tokyo
12. Los Angeles
13. Chicago
14. London
15. Barcelona
16. Melbourne
17. Sydney
18. Shanghai
19. Madrid
20. Mexico City
21. Hong Kong
22. Lisbon
23. Boston
24. Milan
25. Singapore
26. Miami
27. Dubai
28. Beijing
29. Paris
30. Budapest
31. Abu Dhabi
32. São Paulo
33. Johannesburg
34. Rome
35. Moscow
36. Buenos Aires
37. Istanbul
38. Bangkok

The CNN link: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/artic...021/index.html

The original source: https://www.timeout.com/about/latest...st-city-090821

And the full list: https://www.timeout.com/things-to-do...s-in-the-world

sentinel · #2 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 3:47 PM**

The usual suspects - sure, why not?

10023 · #3 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 6:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by sentinel

The usual suspects - sure, why not?

Manchester at #3? Even British people don’t want to go there.

Yuri · #4 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 7:07 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 10023

Manchester at #3? Even British people don’t want to go there.

"British people" is not exactly a good reference either. They like Benidorm and other souless Spanish (former) boom beach towns.

I hear Manchester and other cities on the British Rust Belt have being doing a good work rebranding themselves.

10023 · #5 Posted **Sep 10, 2021, 9:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by yuriandrade

"British people" is not exactly a good reference either. They like Benidorm and other souless Spanish (former) boom beach towns.

I hear Manchester and other cities on the British Rust Belt have being doing a good work rebranding themselves.

Trust me I would never take popularity as a proxy for qualitative judgment, but the people who like Benidorm are probably the ones who like Manchester.

Steely Dan · #6 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 3:49 PM**

^^ what happened to #11?

was it a city so great that it can't even be named?

overall, the list seems very heavily "western world" biased, but whatever..... just another meaningless listicle.

homebucket · #7 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 4:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^^ what happened to #11?

was it a city so great that it can't even be named?

overall, the list seems very heavily "western world" biased", but whatever..... just another meaningless listicle.

There's a decent amount of East Asian cities on the list.

Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Bangkok.

That said, I'd probably replace Boston and Miami with Seoul and Taipei.

iheartthed · #8 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 5:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by homebucket

That said, I'd probably replace Boston and Miami with Seoul and Taipei.

I guess it would've been embarrassing had they omitted cities where Time Out Markets are located: https://www.timeoutmarket.com/

dimondpark · #9 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 5:32 PM**

Quote:

San Francisco is the world’s number one city right now according to the fourth annual Time Out Index released today. The city’s unbeatable combination of progressiveness, acceptance and sustainability earned it the coveted top spot as the best city in the world for living and social life, followed by Amsterdam, Manchester, Copenhagen and New York

Meh. Our "progressiveness" is too focused on culture war bullshit and not enough on housing the damn homeless(and everyone else for that matter) and stopping criminals. It's outrageous.

On the other hand, the way the Bay Area responded to Covid really impressed me. I wish we found such common ground on other issues.

But I digress.

homebucket · #10 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 5:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by dimondpark

Meh. Our "progressiveness" is too focused on culture war bullshit and not enough on housing the damn homeless(and everyone else for that matter) and stopping criminals. It's outrageous.

On the other hand, the way the Bay Area responded to Covid really impressed me. I wish we found such common ground on other issues.

But I digress.

It's also one of the top areas for higher education. 2 out of the top 4 colleges in America are also in the SF area. According to this list, UC Berkeley is #1 and Stanford is #4.

https://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/

The North One · #11 Posted **Sep 10, 2021, 12:38 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I guess it would've been embarrassing had they omitted cities where Time Out Markets are located: https://www.timeoutmarket.com/

Wait, this list is made by a dumb cafeteria? Now I regret even entertaining it.

sentinel · #12 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 3:52 PM**

#11 is Los Angeles, #12 is Chicago, #13 is London and so forth...the list in Yuri's post above is off by one after #10..

Yuri · #13 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 4:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^^ what happened to #11?

was it a city so great that it can't even be named?

overall, the list seems very heavily "western world" biased", but whatever..... just another meaningless listicle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sentinel

#11 is Los Angeles, #12 is Chicago, #13 is London and so forth...the list in Yuri's post above is off by one after #10..

This! And a Brazilian article that I didn't linked here talked about 37 and when I put the numbers I was puzzled...

Los Angeles is the 11th!

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, let's bring some action to the thread: I've never been there, and I might be unfair, but I perceive Prague as a tourist trap... And Budapest, with their regressive government and even legislation, would be a completely no-no to me.

Manitopiaaa · #14 Posted **Sep 10, 2021, 5:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by yuriandrade

This! And a Brazilian article that I didn't linked here talked about 37 and when I put the numbers I was puzzled...

Los Angeles is the 11th!

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, let's bring some action to the thread: I've never been there, and I might be unfair, but I perceive Prague as a tourist trap... And Budapest, with their regressive government and even legislation, would be a completely no-no to me.

I found Budapest very overrated. The people are not very nice and though the architecture is fantastic, the city had a weird ultra-nationalist vibe. I visited in 2014 and Orban had already been there for a few years though, so maybe that clouded by perspective.

Same for Tel Aviv. The city is gritty, dirty, and has a massive nightlife scene, but I also found people extremely mean, on edge, and tribal. There was no sense of hospitality. I guess they mistook me for Arab.

Prague I enjoyed a lot. It is a massive tourist trap, but the city actually has a lot of depth and most tourists seem to stick to the Charles Bridge/Wenceslas Square/Prague Castle quadrant. I stayed in Vysehrad and had a blast. Also, much cheaper than I expected.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Montreal is #6 but Toronto doesn't even make the cut? What?

That makes sense to me. Montreal is actually cool. Toronto is fake cool. Cool cities don't feel the need to shout about how cool they are.

shappy · #15 Posted **Sep 12, 2021, 7:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manitopiaaa

That makes sense to me. Montreal is actually cool. Toronto is fake cool. Cool cities don't feel the need to shout about how cool they are.

Huh, I actually find Montrealers to be much more inclined to pump their city up than Torontonians. The older generations (gen X and older) are the best at it and there is often a jab at Toronto in the process. I find this has faded a lot in the younger generations and many find Toronto cool and exciting and just treat it like any other city.

kool maudit · #16 Posted **Sep 14, 2021, 6:22 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by shappy

Huh, I actually find Montrealers to be much more inclined to pump their city up than Torontonians. The older generations (gen X and older) are the best at it and there is often a jab at Toronto in the process. I find this has faded a lot in the younger generations and many find Toronto cool and exciting and just treat it like any other city.

Montreal was undervalued 1988-2005, correctly valued 2003-07, and is now overvalued; an analyst (of city reps on SSP and similar lol) would place HOLD at best.

Toronto is probably correctly valued after having been undervalued for the first decade of the 2000s.

A thread on this might be kind of fun, at least for those of us who spend some time with equity research (very aware of how self-cancelling that sentence appears and is).

The North One · #17 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 4:28 PM**

I don't think a city in the middle of the biggest conflict zone on earth on and under an apartheid regime should be anywhere near a best list.

Stay cringe western media.

iheartthed · #18 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 4:37 PM**

How would they know Sydney and Melbourne are cool if no one has been able to go there for almost two years?

Yuri · #19 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 4:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by The North One

I don't think a city in the middle of the biggest conflict zone on earth on and under an apartheid regime should be anywhere near a best list.

Stay cringe western media.

I beg to disagree. Johannesburg is cool.

If you're talking about Tel Aviv, although it doesn't appeal to me, people love the parties there and it's very popular with the gay crowd.

The North One · #20 Posted **Sep 9, 2021, 11:38 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by yuriandrade

I beg to disagree. Johannesburg is cool.

If you're talking about Tel Aviv, although it doesn't appeal to me, people love the parties there and it's very popular with the gay crowd.

Talking about Tel Aviv.

As a gay person, hard pass! I can find good nightlife pretty much anywhere, that doesn't make it a top ten world's best city.