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Cycling in Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia

My 20 Favorite Cities and Towns in 20 Years of Nomadic World Travels

Although I’m primarily geared towards nature and the great outdoors, I do also love cities and towns. At least great cities & towns.

I don’t have any interest in your average, run of the mill town or ugly, nondescript city. I’d rather skip those and spend my time exploring beaches, islands, mountains and forests.

But great cities and towns are an entirely different matter. I truly enjoy any city or town that has stunning architecture; offers interesting museums, art galleries, boutiques, performances and culture; includes beautiful parks and/or outdoor scenery; has delicious, readily available cuisines and good nightlife (though that’s not so high on my priority list these days. Lol).

As I’ve traveled the world for two decades, I’ve enjoyed dozens of beautiful, exciting cities and charming little towns. In this article, I pronounce my 20 favorite cities and towns around the world after 20 years of nomadic world travels.

My favorites include major, world-acclaimed iconic cities like NYC, Singapore and Kyoto, Japan, as well as relatively little-known towns like Zacatecas, Mexico and Penang, Malaysia. These latter types each have unique charms such as interesting culture & arts and/or great architecture that set them way apart from millions of other small towns around the planet.

Most are places I want to re-visit some day and a few are places I’d consider living in when I finally complete my life-long tour of the world.

To be honest, some of these places I actually visited before I began my world travels in 1998. Those include cities in the USA and Kyoto, Japan. So I suppose this is a list of my favorite 20 cities in my life thus far.

I should also point out that I haven’t included a single city in Europe! Generally, many of those cities are highly rated on most people’s ‘best cities of the world’ lists.

European cities are primarily missing from my list because I have not yet visited most of them. However, I have explored London, Paris and a few cities/towns in Spain, but haven’t included any of them as my absolute favorites. So I don’t seem to be as impressed by European cities as those in other regions of the world.

That could change next year as I’ll be traveling through Europe and the Balkan countries. Who knows, maybe I’ll discover even more stunning cities than I’ve found thus far.

But for now, to date, here are my 20 favorite cities and towns in the world:

Lash in orange kimono at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

Kyoto, Japan

One of the best things I’ve ever done in my life was to live in Kyoto, Japan for six years while saving money to travel the world.

Historically, Kyoto was Japan’s capital for over 1000 years, during most of the country’s cultural & political heights of glory. Although the capital was moved to Tokyo in 1869, Kyoto has always remained Japan’s cultural heart.

With over 3000 temples & shrines, plus several Imperial palaces, a castle, renowned landscaped gardens, pretty parks and several historic districts, Kyoto is packed with traditional Japanese history. It’s also situated in a beautiful location, at the junction of two mountain ranges and with two large rivers flowing through the city.

Kyoto is also the center for nearly every traditional Japanese art: tea ceremony, flower arrangement, kimono making, Japanese cuisine, tatami flooring, traditional house construction, landscape gardening, Butoh, No, Kabuki, traditional Japanese music & instruments, mask making and many other arts. Several of Japan’s most important and dramatic traditional annual festivals take place in Kyoto, too.

During my years living in Kyoto, I explored every nook & cranny of the city’s amazing temples, gardens, parks, shops and neighborhoods. I still count Kyoto as one of the best cities in the world.

Marina Bay and Financial district – Singapore

Singapore

Singapore is an exciting and beautiful modern city full of soaring skyscrapers, stunning historic architecture, distinctive neighborhoods, a surprising number of parks and nature, world-class museums, a plethora of Asian cuisines, exciting nightlife and annual festivals.

It has a stunning location at the very southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula, along the Singapore Straight, with one of the world’s most gorgeous city harbors. In addition, the Singapore River runs right through the heart of the city.

I’ve considered Singapore my favorite city in the world for many years. While traveling/working/living around SE Asia for 15 years, I visited Singapore as often as possible, usually taking my bicycle along for transportation and explorations.

Whenever I’m in Singapore I feel like I’m perpetually in a garden, finding myself always beside the river, harbor, sea or under beautiful tropical trees & landscaped gardens. I love re-visiting Little India, Chinatown, Orchard Road’s massive luxury shopping malls, gazing at the stunning modern and colonial buildings, visiting famed Raffles Hotel and eating heaps of delicious, inexpensive Asian foods.

Hong Kong harbor view

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a super-condensed, uber-populated, bustling & chaotic modern city situated on the southern coast of mainland China, plus Hong Kong Island and several neighboring islands. It’s phenomenal harbor, packed with hundreds of gleaming glass & steel skyscrapers, competes with Singapore and Sydney, Australia as the world’s most beautiful city harbor.

I’ve visited Hong Kong twice, both times for 1-2 weeks. The city is buzzing with high energy and fast-paced activity. It offers many distinct neighborhoods, parks and attractions.

Some of my favorites are visiting the huge walk-in, hillside aviary; hiking along the ridge of Mt Victory, with its phenomenal panoramic views of the city and harbor; riding the harbor ferries; gazing at the amazing modern skyscrapers and visiting the many Chinese markets, temples and small neighborhoods.

Wat Ben – the Marble Temple – Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok is one of SE Asia’s most famous cities. It’s massive, chaotic, crowded, humidly hot and bursting with intriguing Thai culture.

The city has hundreds of elaborate Thai temples, each one unique; delicious & diverse Thai cuisine on practically every block, sidewalk, market and mall; thick, chaotic traffic; huge city parks; one of the world’s largest weekend markets at Chatuchak; famed (and infamous) nightlife and several distinct neighborhoods.

Chao Praya River runs through the center of Bangkok and many small canals also serve as transportation off the crowded, noisy streets.

Bangkok was my ole stomping grounds for many years. I’ve visited the ‘City of Angels’ uncountable times, making it my ‘base’ while traveling around SE Asia. I’d stay for one week up to one month at a time and never tired of re-visiting the gorgeous temples, Royal Palace grounds, river-boat trips, local produce markets, huge inner-city malls and Chatuchak weekend market. It’s a city where nobody could ever get bored, no matter what their interests.

KLCC shopping mall at the base of Petronas Twin Towers is Kuala Lumpur’s most exlusive mall – Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur was my ‘base’ in SE Asia for several years after I shifted down from Bangkok. That shift wasn’t about moving away from Bangkok, but because of the cheap flights started up by Air Asia in the early 2000s. Suddenly I could get everywhere I wanted to go in the region much cheaper from KL than Bangkok.

Luckily, KL also has everything I want in a ‘great city’. Massive & hilly Perdana Botanical Gardens Park is one of SE Asia’s best city parks. KLCC Mall at the base of Petronas Twin Towers is one of the region’s very best urban malls and the Twin Towers are one of the highest twin towers in the world.

KL has fantastic & diverse neighborhoods, including two India towns, old Chinatown and the more upscale, modern Petronas Twin Towers and Bukit Bintang areas. There are stunning Muslim mosques, beautiful Chinese and Indian temples and some gorgeous colonial British/Moorish buildings.

The city also has fantastic rooftop cocktail bars and some great nightclubs. And like Singapore, KL is bursting with every type of Asian cuisine, all at very low prices, and found on nearly every block of the city.

Goddess of Mercy Temple – Penang

Penang, Malaysia

Penang is a small hilly island just off the coast of northwestern Malaysia. Georgetown, the island’s only real town, was one of the most important towns on the historic Asian trading route. It’s packed with beautiful colonial western-Chinese style shops, homes and stately British colonial government buildings.

Most have been restored, but there’s an eclectic mix of everything from crumbling shops and slowly decaying mansions to hundreds of beautifully-restored buildings.

Georgetown was declared a UNESCO World Heritage City in 2008 for its vast number of intact colonial buildings and rich culture. While technically, Georgetown is its name and Penang the island, most people refer to the town as Penang.

In terms of people, Penang is a huge melting pot of Malays, Indians, Europeans and Chinese, most of whom have descended from immigrants who arrived during Penang’s huge hey-day in the 1800s. The Chinese come from several distinctive regions/cultures of China and still organize themselves into ‘clans’ and speak varying dialects.

As a result, Penang has several distinctive areas, including Little India, the Muslim Malay mosque region, the main downtown, the colonial government buildings area, a coastal dining & shopping mall area and several upscale historic mansion neighborhoods.

There’s nearly every type of Asian temple as well as churches, and a great diversity of cuisine, arts, clothing styles, music and people. Penang is particularly famed in Malaysia as having the country’s best street foods.

Penang is easily my favorite small town in all of SE Asia. I’ve visited uncountable times and have stayed as long as 2-3 months at a stretch.

Here I am, excitedly visiting Sydney Opera House

Sydney, Australia

Like Hong Kong and Singapore, Sydney is famed for its gorgeous harbor, punctuated by the iconic & superb Sydney Opera House and the magnificent, suspended-steel Harbor Bridge.

Right next to the Opera House is the huge, beautiful Royal Botanic garden and beyond that Sydney’s historic downtown, which is full of stately stone colonial buildings. Like most large cities, Sydney is full of diverse neighborhoods, fantastic museums, beautiful city parks and stunning views from many different vantage points due to its harbor-side location and hilly topography.

Sydney has a great blend of history and modern living in a gorgeous setting.

I’ve been lucky to visit Sydney several times thus far, my visits made considerably easier by having two good friends living there. Some of my favorite experiences there include a tour of Sydney Opera House, enjoying the Royal Botanic Gardens, visiting several great museums, cycling around downtown, clubbing and wandering around the city’s more bohemian neighborhoods.

Main Beach – Noosa

Noosa, Australia

Noosa is a tiny, upscale beach-side town at the northern end of Australia’s stunning Sunshine Coast. That’s located just north of Brisbane, pretty much midway along the country’s long eastern coast.

Noosa is set right behind gorgeous, fluffy white sand beach that stretches to the horizon in either direction and is backed solely by dunes and trees. The one-street town is located behind the dunes and filled with charming upscale boutiques, cafes, restaurants & bars.

The eastern end of town leads directly into Noosa Heads National Park, a mountainous headland of eucalyptus forests and wild beaches popular with surfers and nature lovers.

I’ve been to Noosa three times, staying about two weeks each time. I was lucky to temporarily ‘live’ at Noosa each time, as I was invited first to stay with a friend I knew from Bali, then a help exchange gig, followed by a house-sitting position.

Noosa is a place I will definitely consider living at when I eventually complete my world travels. It’s a perfect blend of stunning nature and artsy small town living.

beautiful scenery of Dharamsala, India

Dharamsala, India

Dharamsala is famed as the home of the Dalai Lama and Tibetans in exile.

Situated in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, Dharamsala is a steep hilly town surrounded by soaring Himalayan peaks, pine forests and crisp mountain air. The blend of Indian and Tibetan culture make it a unique place in India, and the world.

Not surprisingly, it’s a huge tourist mecca, with a large percentage of visitors being the types who are into Buddhism, meditation, yoga, healthy living, spiritual quests, Tibetan arts and nature. Dharamsala is undoubtedly one of the best places in the world to learn about and immerse oneself in Tibetan culture, art and Buddhism.

I’ve only been there once, for two weeks, but I certainly want to return. I loved eating the delicious Tibetan cuisine, admiring their beautiful carpets, bags, musical instruments and arts.

I also enjoyed several day hikes to neighboring forests, lakes, waterfalls and villages. Probably my best experience there was trekking up onto the awesome Triund Plateau, where I was set face-to-face with sheer granite Himalayan peaks.

Durbar Square – Bhaktapur – Nepal

Bhaktapur, Nepal

Bhaktapur is an all-brick medieval city situated in Kathmandu Valley, about 15 km / 9 miles from Kathmandu. It’s filled with open plazas surrounded by heavy brick temples & shops, narrow alleys, impromptu street markets, centuries-old temples and palaces, and shops selling all sorts of traditional Nepalese clothing, arts & crafts.

It’s a fascinating, unique town, entirely different from the modern world.

stunning Zacatecas – Mexico

Zacatecas, Mexico

Zacatecas is, hands down, my favorite city in Mexico. And that’s saying a lot because Mexico is filled with gorgeous colonial towns and cities. Zacatecas is located near the northwestern edge of the country’s high-elevation vast central plateau, 600 km / 375 miles northwest of Mexico City.

Like all of Mexico’s beautiful historic towns, Zacateca’s stunning stone architecture was created from the vast wealth of silver mines. Eden Mine, on the edge of town, was one of Mexico’s most important and lucrative, and the town’s amazing buildings are a reflection of that wealth.

Unlike most Mexican cities, which are flat and laid-out on a tidy grid pattern, Zacatecas is situated in a narrow curving valley with steep hills closed in on either side. As a result, its beautiful stone roads, small parks & plazas, huge churches & cathedrals, monasteries, shops and houses are set on steep winding roads up the hillsides, while main street is situated at the bottom.

For a small, practically unknown town, Zacatecas surprisingly has several astounding world-class art museums, one of which features hundreds of original paintings from Europe’s most important artists of all time, another that has more than 10,000 Mexican masks set in a historic monastery and another set in an old prison.

The town has great cuisine, many annual festivals, regular outdoor performances, roving troupes of musicians, a cable car that crosses the city in midair, a mountainside peak with panoramic views, hiking, Eden Mine and even the Eden Mine Disco, est inside the historic mine.

I wrote all about Zacatecas here.

one of Guanajuato’s many tunnel roads downtown

Guanajuato, Mexico

Guanajuato is my second favorite small city in Mexico, after Zacatecas.

They are similar in many ways. Both are set in a narrow valley with steep hills rising on all sides. As a result, they both have many winding and steep roads & alleyways, something rather unusual in Mexico, where most towns were laid out by the Spanish in a tidy grid pattern.

Both towns were built off the proceeds of extremely productive nearby silver/gemstone mines and, therefore, have hundreds of gorgeous historic buildings. Both towns have fantastic, world-class museums and lots of art, music & culture. Both towns also still have defunct silver mines that offer interesting tours to visitors.

Guanajuato does outshine Zacatecas on the street performance scene, with nightly bands of roving theater/music troupes dressed in Renaissance costumes, jugglers, musicians and other street acts. This is partly a result of the huge university student body in town, many of them studying music and art.

A few things unique to Guanajuato are its insane Mummy Museum and its amazing, extensive underground road system with several long tunnels running right under the city and other tunnels boring through the nearby hills to/from town. I wrote more about Guanajuato here.

Puebla, Mexico

Puebla is one of Mexico’s largest, most elaborate historic cities. It’s also my favorite large city in Mexico.

Puebla is generally regarded among experts as a Baroque City since it’s filled with thousands of Baroque architectural structures from the 1500s, most of which are beautifully-restored and extremely elaborate in detailing. It’s so beautiful that it was given UNESCO World Heritage Status way back in 1987.

There’s even a sleek modern museum dedicated to the Baroque arts, explaining the entire Baroque period of history and detailing Puebla’s amazing history and buildings.

Puebla also has the best cuisine I’ve found in all of Mexico (after 1 ½ years of extensive explorations). Besides all the gorgeous buildings, there are several large stone plazas, a dozen excellent museums, an intriguing under-city tunnel system, a large train museum and famous, fancy traditional sweets.

Antigua, Guatemala

Antiqua is one of the few intact colonial Spanish towns in Central America. There’s nothing else like it between Mexico and Nicaragua.

The beautiful colonial town still has its original cobblestone streets, all lined by restored colonial buildings of great design and architectural detailing from the 1500-1600s. The buildings are now filled with boutiques, restaurants, cafes, bars, luxury boutique hotels, hostels and souvenir shops.

Jaw-dropping views of Volcan Aqua, that looms right over town, can be seen from nearly every point. And the more distant, smoke-belching peak of Volcan Fuego can also be seen spewing thick gray smoke high into the air most mornings.

Traditionally-dressed Mayans sell their beautiful, brightly-colored fabrics & clothing, musical instruments and handicrafts all over town – in shops, parks, on the streets and at weekend markets.

Antigua is one of Guatemala’s main tourist attractions, and for good reason. It’s packed with culture, delicious cuisine, stunning architecture and beautiful scenery.

Granada, Nicaragua

Along with Antigua, Guatemala, Granada is one of Central America’s only intact colonial Spanish towns. Granada is beautifully-situated on the shores of vast Lake Colcibolca (20 largest in the world!) and at the base of Mombacho Volcano.

It’s been a UNESCO World Heritage City since 2000 because of its gorgeous colonial architecture. Blocks and blocks and blocks full of it, including homes, churches, government buildings, hotels, restaurants and bars.

vintage green car driving on Havana’s malecon near the ferry piers & warehouses

Havana, Cuba

Havana is my most recent favorite city in the world. I finally visited Cuba in October, 2018. Although I’m 50/50 on Cuba over all, I am quite enamored of Havana, a city unique to the world in many ways.

First off are the thousands of vibrantly-colored vintage cars driving the city streets. Nowhere else on Earth can you see these gorgeous, colorful 1950s beauties. Secondly, Havana is still primarily filled with densely-packed, 4-5-story colonial buildings, most of them in varying states of decay, but still inhabited.

In contrast, a few beautifully-restored iconic buildings, like La Capitolio and the Bacardi Building brighten up the city. Havana also has four main stone plazas lined by beautiful historic buildings, stone churches & cathedrals, four massive stone fortresses, several small leafy parks and over 300 museums.

Havana’s stunning setting on the Atlantic coast provides sweeping views along miles of coast-hugging road & walkways, called the malecon. Across the harbor, a tall cliff holds two of four fortresses, creating more stunning views, both from the city and atop the cliffs.

And daily Cuban life, played out on the streets, cafes, bars, restaurants, parks and plazas is also quite unique and intriguing. All in all, Havana is a very interesting and diverse city full of history and culture.

NYC

I first visiting NYC at age 11 with my parents. Wow, what a thrilling, high-energy mega-city for a young small-town girl! I loved it the very first time and I returned many, many times from then on through university days.

With its hundreds of soaring, densely-packed skyscrapers, NYC is a truly one of a kind city. I love it for its unique buzzing energy, that crazy feeling of being dwarfed by towering buildings, its phenomenal museums and art galleries, its super- off-beat neighborhoods and wild nightlife.

San Francisco – photo by Tim Benedict Pou on Flickr CC

San Francisco

San Francisco is probably my favorite big US city. If it weren’t for the chilly, wet, constantly changing weather, I would seriously consider living in San Fran (or at least I used to)when I complete my world travels.

The city has several fabulous neighborhoods, the country’s best alternative nightlife, the most beautiful city park in the USA and lots of hip, trendy, alternative people. My kind of place!

Added to that, there’s San Fran’s astounding setting with its massive harbor, harbor-side attractions, Golden Gate Bridge and the Pacific coast. You really can’t beat San Fran for its amazing combination of stunning, wild nature and happening modern urban life.

Pittsburgh

I attended the University in Pittsburgh, Pa and lived in the city a total of 10 years before moving to Kyoto, Japan. At the time I didn’t fully appreciate Pittsburgh, though I certainly took advantage of all it has to offer.

It’s only been since I’ve been traveling the world for 20 years that, from a broader more-experienced view, I can fully appreciate that Pittsburgh really is a very nice small city. It has everything that I consider a factor for ‘great city status’.

Set at the point where the Allegheny River and Monongahela River meet to form the Ohio River, Pittsburgh has a stunning location. Several historic steel bridges spanned the three rivers, a tall rock cliff towers across the Monongahela River directly across from downtown, and the entire city is hilly and filled with several excellent large parks.

On the cultural scene, there are several important universities and museums, Pittsburgh Ballet, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, an annual arts & music festival, a great diversity of restaurants, small but quite diverse night life scenes and many interesting neighborhoods. Downtown Pittsburgh is full of gorgeous historic stone buildings, small lovely parks & plazas, and a handful of great modern skyscrapers. All in all, Pittsburgh is a great little US city.

St Petersburg – Florida – marina

St Peterburg, FL

I discovered St Petersburg by accident. My brother has been living there at least 25 years and, as a result, my mom & step-dad moved down there in 2011 to escape the cold of the northern USA. So nowadays when I go stateside to visit family, St Pete is where I stay. And I’m very glad of that.

St Pete has so much going for it that it’s the one (and only) place I would actually seriously consider living in the US some day in the distant future. Situated on the Gulf of Mexico and vast Tampa Bay, St Pete is surrounded by water, and being in Florida, that means lots of fluffy, white-sand beaches and dozens of marinas & yacht clubs with sailboats.

But St Pete stands out from most other Floridian towns for its interesting history, great historic architecture and neighborhoods, impressive art scene, important world-class museums, large Asian community and just about any kind of ethnic restaurant you could think of.

I wrote about all of St Pete’s many charms and attractions here in this article.

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