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What is the coolest place you've ever visited?
Posted: Jan 25, 2008 in Things to do, Culture
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In my travels I thought the coolest place I'd ever been was a toss up between Florence Italy and Bath England (Stonehenge)and Vatican City.
Middle Europe in winter is up there for me. Christmas in Prague. A few days in Vienna. New Year's in Budapest. And the start of a new year in Amsterdam.
Driving from town to town up the eastern coast of Australia, in the tropical and remote far northern reaches of the country, was pretty special too.
Maringa, Brazil because of the friendly people and Oxford, England because of the historical stuff in every neighborhood
Vegas and LA. I love those two places. I hope I can move there when I graduate.
Pioneertown, Calif...Pappy & Hariett's Pioneertown Palace is a great h---- tonk, and a sort of Whisky-A-Go-Go of the 21st Century.
Coolest place, that's sort hard... Far away exotic places aren't necessarily cool. Wright's Falling Water in Western PA was pretty cool. I'll have to agree with randy, I still think Vegas is very cool... standing on the strip at night and seeing the lights and glitz is still gets my heart racing. Just wish I could have been there in say... about 1962, London Pubs were pretty cool. But I once got an "all access" sort of pass at Universal Studio in LA. Creeping around the Bates Motel and BTTF courthouse was probably the coolest place I have been.
Something more specific ... the Salish Lodge - a hotel next to a waterfall high in the mountains 30 miles east of Seattle.
It was surreal to look out a hotel room window and view a waterfall only a few yards away.
http://www.salishlodge.com
ICELAND!!! We went there last year and saw The Sugarcubes reunion show - Reykjavik, the Blue lagoon and the geologic wonders of that island are incredible.
Stonehenge is cool, but maybe just as a day trip. You can get pretty cheap (relatively) bus rides from National Express out of London to Bath, Stonehenge. You may want to visit Oxford, Brighton (beach), Greenwich, Cambridge or some other cities if you're going to go all the way over and want to see more than London.
Vatican City is also great, there are a million things to do in Rome. Including the best gelato of your life.
My personal European recommendations are Berlin, Lisbon or Prague.
The Cliffs of Dover at dawn (on a ferry), the Fen. Going to the UK again in summer, I'm expecting to feel right at home in the Highlands.
I must cast my vote for Australia where I spent three short weeks living with a family. ...but that probably sounds just like home, right Mr. Marshall?
San Francisco. Too bad it's too expensive to live there. Maybe when I become a millionaire, I'll be able to afford a one bedroom apartment.
Singapore, it's a beautiful place if you like beer you can sit out all night at one of the local coffee shops and drink the local "Tiger Beer" and enjoy the people or a local asian dish, these places never close.
I lived in Hawaii for 3 years, and Germany for one.
Probably the single coolest place was little town in Germany called Rothenberg (pronounced "Rodenberg"). There's a clock in the center of the town that commemorates their most celebrated mayor--supposedly back in the day vandals were sacking towns and they arrived at that town and the mayor begged the leader of the vandals not to destroy his town. The man responded by saying if you can drink a two-liter barrel of wine in one gulp (i.e. without putting it down), I'll spare the town. The mayor did, and the people spared the town.
So at every hour the clock strikes and the door opens to see the leader of the vandals on one side and the mayor on the other holding the barrel of wine and lifting it to his face.
Rome, Italy and NYC - those two do it for me in the coolness department. I used to live in Melbourne, Australia and that is an awesome city!
Five favorite cities I've visited, in order:
New York City: Nowhere else like it in the world.
Shanghai: In the midst of breathtaking growth and cultural evolution.
Chicago: Easy for a midwesterner to take for granted, but a tremendous city.
Bangkok: Traffic is a nightmare, but you'll never, ever be bored.
Seattle: Hate the hipsters, but love the topography and the weather.
I'm lovin' the love for Ozzie Town. Big props especially for Polina, pulling out Melbourne - my fair city, the cultural capital, the sporting mecca, the cafe heartland of my wide brown homeland - instead of Sydney. Australia is more than a rock, a coral reef and an opera house, after all.
I love that town in spring. A few extra special spots on my list: Montreal in winter, Vermont in the Fall, and Vera Cruz (Mexico) in summer.
My favorites, in no particular order:
Colorado Springs, for the charm and air quality. San Francisco for the food, performing arts and diverse population. Florence, Italy for the visual arts and architecture. The South of France for the people, the food and the joie de vivre.
Sydney, Australia. I like the people, love the scenery, and the laid-back way I felt while I was there. The four days I spent on a farm in the Blue Mountains were some of the best.
Japan - of course it's the only place that I have been outside of the us besides the Bahamas. I loved the people, the architecture and the culture there. Every one was so nice.