The 10 best cities on Earth (according to you)
Tokyo was one of three Asian cities to make the top 10 - P Kijsanayothin/E+/Getty
What makes a city a perfect travel destination? Does it need to be eye-catching from the first moment you see it – in a television show, or in an Instagram feed? Does it need a long history – promising a mini-break where you can drift back through the centuries? Does it need a bucket-list landmark – a soaring tower or an epic palace that you just have to photograph? Does it need amazing restaurants, or a lively bar scene?
Or does it need a little of all of the above – an alchemic combination that turns a maze of roads, buildings and everyday life into a vibrant hub of which holiday dreams are made?
This would seem the conclusion to be taken from the latest Telegraph Travel Awards – and, in particular, the list of the top 10 cities favoured by you, the readers. It adds up to an exclusive club, but also an eclectic one, with urban hotspots from Asia, Africa, Europe and North America all making the grade.
The following article examines each of the tantalising 10, and compares their current high rankings against previous performance in this poll. Are there notable risers and fallers? Has a city jumped from nowhere to be one of your new firm favourites? And has the winner in the last (2023) edition of the awards managed to keep its shiny crown? All is revealed below.
All the winners
20,000 of you voted in the 2025 Telegraph Travel Awards – and the results are in...
10. Singapore
2023 position: 20th
These latest Telegraph Travel Awards have seen the readership’s gaze shift a little towards the Far East. There are three cities from the region in this top 10 (only one made the cut in 2023), so Singapore is a flavour of things to come. In truth, although it has generally been absent from the upper reaches of this poll (it only made the top 10 once in the six prior awards), it is no surprise to see Singapore held so highly in your estimation.
Rising up the rankings to 10th place is futuristic Singapore - Kenny Teo Photography/Getty
The city-state at the tip of the Malay Peninsula is a classic travel destination, drifting into the evening on cocktails and polite conversation. True, it has 21st-century attractions aplenty, such as the flashing “supertrees” of the Gardens By The Bay urban park. But much of Singapore sings of prior eras – not least the Raffles Hotel, now restored to full majesty following a two-year refurbishment.
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9. Porto
2023 position: 11th
Europe has so many intriguing cities that some, inevitably, will sit just beyond your travel plans, forever the “maybe next year” option for an autumn mini-break. Perhaps Portugal’s second city is one of them. And perhaps it is coming increasingly into focus. This is the first time that Porto has been listed as one of your chosen top 10, its ascent to ninth marking a continuation of an upward curve: from 22nd in 2019 to 11th in 2023.
Moreover, it has managed to eclipse Lisbon (16th) in this latest poll – maybe because the Portuguese capital, famously picturesque, has become famously busy; maybe because Porto’s charms are obvious to those keen to look – such as the Luis I Bridge, crossing the Douro in a double-deck iron arch. There is also the two-for-the-price-of-one factor. Vila Nova de Gaia and its port lodges, on the south side of the river, is technically another city.
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8. Venice
2023 position: 2nd
In some senses, a drop of six positions should be seen as a sign of waning affections. But perhaps a plunge in Venice’s fortunes is only to be expected. Italy’s lagoon city has flirted with a less positive sort of travel headline of late: haunted by the spectre of overtourism, questioned over its introduction of an entrance fee, and framed – not for the first time – as a playground for the super-rich by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s wedding.
Venice slipped six places in our ranking - S Hansche/Getty
But equally, “La Serenissima” will always have its serenity, and while the image of canals, gondolas and bridges is recognisable to the point of cliché, there is a rare beauty to the picture all the same. It definitely resonates with you, the reader. While eighth is Venice’s lowest rank in the last seven editions of The Telegraph Travel Awards, it has not failed to be one of your 10 favourite cities in that same 11-year window. Some things – and places – are timeless.
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7. Vancouver
2023 position: 4th
The Telegraph readers’ relationship with America remains curiously muted. It is 11 years since the US appeared in the roll-call of your top 10 favourite countries (10th, in 2014). And for all the glamour of New York and Chicago, it is New Orleans and its southern charms that polls best in this particular list – although only in 26th.
It is not difficult to understand the appeal of Vancouver - E+/Getty
It is a different matter, however, on the far side of the border, Vancouver preserving an ever-present relationship with the top 10 which also dates back to 2014. It is not difficult to understand the appeal of this urban giant at Canada’s south-western corner – a haven for skiing in the cold months, when the slopes are alive at Whistler Blackcomb and Cypress Mountain; a sensation in summer, when the sun catches on the totem poles in Stanley Park, and adjacent Vancouver Island beckons for road trips.
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6. Copenhagen
2023 position: 21st
Every time the results of The Telegraph Travel Awards are announced, this top 10 tends to feature at least one city which rises to prominence from a previously unheralded slot in the statistics. In 2023, it was Rio de Janeiro, surfing a wave of post-pandemic escapism to surge from 31st to seventh – only to drop back whence it came (to 37th) this time around.
Copenhagen promises Michelin-starred restaurants and trendy bars - Sina Ettmer/EyeEm/Getty
The Danish capital’s leap to sixth in the 2025 poll – up from 21st in 2023, and 34th in 2019 – feels similarly rocket-powered. There is no reason to doubt Copenhagen’s allure – Michelin-starred cuisine at Noma and Geranium; the trendy bars of Vesterbro; the painted buildings of the Nyhavn waterfront; the theme-park kitsch of the Tivoli Gardens. Whether it can maintain its popularity with Telegraph readers, or will splash back to a lower ranking, will make for interesting viewing in 2027.
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5. Kyoto
2023 position: 9th
The second of the three Far Eastern cities in this poll stands on a firm footing. Kyoto has now enjoyed a single-figure placing in three consecutive editions of The Telegraph Travel Awards – and in rising four positions in this latest iteration, cements its reputation as one of the essential stops on any tour of Japan.
Kyoto comes with a sense of calm - Getty
None of this is a shock. In contrast to the neon gleam that illuminates many of the other major cities in the Land of the Rising Sun, the former “Heian-kyō” – the name translates as “peaceful capital” – clings to much a quieter ideal. The twin Buddhist temples of Kinkaku-ji (with its Unesco World Heritage status) and Ryōan-ji (with its karesansui rock garden) have come to symbolise Kyoto’s sense of calm, although if it is crowds and Instagram moments that you crave, a hike up through the (800 or so) orange torii gates of the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine will tick all the boxes.
4. Tokyo
2023 position: 18th
In 2023 and 2019, Kyoto was your most highly rated Japanese city. Here in 2025, it has been eclipsed by its compatriot – via a surge from 18th position (in both 2019 and 2023) to the heady heights of fourth. Of course, any long-haul jaunt to reach Kyoto will almost certainly pass through the Japanese capital, and Tokyo has clearly seized the attention of those who have made the journey.
But then, few would deny that it shines as one of the most eye-catching cities on the planet – literally, in the case of Shinjuku and Akihabara, where technicolour signs and billboards make for a 21st century glow, and in Shibuya, where the famous five-way street crossing is a constant flurry of people. Indeed, whether it is Blade Runner or Lost in Translation, a stay in Tokyo can give you the impression that you have stumbled into a movie – where each of your senses is stimulated simultaneously.
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3. Sydney
2023 position: 8th
Australia’s most celebrated city (with apologies to Melbourne) is no stranger to the top branches of this particular tree; Sydney has been listed among your 10 favourite cities in every Telegraph Travel Awards since 2014. However, its ranking in 2023 was an unusually meagre eighth – a side effect, perhaps, of Australia’s notably stern response to Covid-19, which left the country effectively closed off to international travellers until well into 2022.
Sunny Sydney rose five places to 3rd - Mike V/Alamy
Three years of relative normality have now passed, and Australia’s image as a haven of southern sunshine and astonishing geography – rather than a shuttered shop – is fully restored. With this, Sydney is back to third in this poll – the Opera House once again resplendent in its waterfront setting, the Harbour Bridge arcing mightily, Bondi Beach preening, and the restaurants of Surry Hills waiting for diners. Business as usual.
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2. Seville
2023 position: 3rd
Seville’s popularity in this poll is remarkable. Not only is it consistently named as your favourite city in Spain (it has now outscored each of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia in every one of the past six Telegraph Travel Awards), it has now risen to become your best-loved city in the whole of Europe (an achievement it also managed in 2018).
Anyone unfamiliar with the Andalusian capital might wonder how, without a beach, or a La Rambla-style mega-boulevard, Seville can be so appreciated. Anyone who has wandered through a city where memories of the region’s Moorish era as Al-Andalus swirl at almost every turn will already know the answer. The Alcazar palace recalls the distant mists of the 11th century in its tinkling fountains and cool courtyards. The Casco Antiguo tells a later story of tapas bars and boutiques – but is no less alluring.
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1. Cape Town
2023 position: 1st
We live in a turbulent era, where war rages, heatwaves stalk the Mediterranean summer, and travel can feel a more precarious prospect than we might admit. So it is reassuring to find that some things do not change. In the past 11 years, Telegraph readers have been asked the question “What is your favourite city on the planet?” seven times. And seven times, you have replied: “Cape Town”.
Cape Town has topped the ranking for the umpteenth time - Andrea Armellin
In truth, this unswerving consistency is easy to unpick. Few places can match South Africa’s most feted metropolis for photogenic power: the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront fringing the Atlantic, Table Mountain rearing as an epic backdrop, the land ebbing down to the beaches of Camps Bay and the flicked tail of the Cape of Good Hope. Then there are the winelands to the east; the promise of fine vintages in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. What price eight times out of eight in 2027?
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