My Top Ten ‘Cities’ – where and why.

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Having just read the newly released Lonely Planet’s Top 10 cities for 2012,  I thought I would create my own list.   Would love to hear your thoughts on both!

1. DUNEDIN, New Zealand – has to take the number 1 spot, it is my home town and a fabulous city.

Dunedin is amazing for so many reasons aside from the more personal ones, (dunedin is still home to most of my immediate family and some very dear friends), some reasons for your to visit Dunedin when you are in NZ include;

  • beautiful scenery

Dunedin city from Highgate
Harwood, Otago Peninsula - my brothers view!

  • the stunning and diverse range of wildlife, home to the Yellow eyed penguin, the Royal Albatross, Sealions, and seals to name a few… have a look at this link http://www.elmwildlifetours.co.nz/ if you would like to know more.  We also have the recently opened Orokonui Ecosanctuary, a must for bird lovers http://www.orokonui.org.nz/.

  • wow! i could write a whole post about Dunedin, it really is number 1 for me

2. KORCULA – my current home town, where I met my wonderful husband and so much more…..

Korcula - Stari Grad (Old Town)

again, there are so many reasons that I love Korcula, you can see some of my other blog posts for more about Korcula and have a look at www.korculaexplorer.com for more island information and recommended places to stay during your visit.

  • Korcula is also the home of our small business,Seba Dizajn, home of fabulous Traditional Filigree Jewellery and so much more….

3. QUEENSTOWN, New Zealand

Lake Wakatipu - looking towards Glenorchy

With scenery like this, and a cute niece like this (below), what’s not like to like about Queenstown?  It is also NZ’s self claimed adventure capital and tourist meca, offering literally hundreds of entertainment options and more bars and restaurants than any other small ‘city’ I’ve visited to date.

Like Aunt like niece...do u see the resemblance?

4. VICTORIA/VANCOUVER, Canada – a draw for 4th place

12 years ago I started my current travellers journey in Vancouver and headed on to Victoria on nearby Vancouver Island, both cities rank highly for me as I have GREAT friends living in the two places, therefore they are always fun places to visit.

Both cities also offer a fantastic selection of places to eat, easy to use public transport, & proximity to mountains and sea that are hard to beat.  Try The Reef, http://thereefrestaurant.com/ for some extra tasty treats & cocktails and fabulous customer service. Yummy!

5. KATHMANDU, Nepal – oh so many reasons to love this vibrant city.

    • the PEOPLE of Nepal are fabulous, friendly, resourceful – once again I am reminded how blessed I am to have met such fantastic people in my travels;

An oldie but a goodie; Ram, Chiya, Susmiti, Sushmita and John Kathmandu - November 2007

  •  the FOOD, Kathmandu has some of the tastiest places to eat you can imagine

  • the CULTURE, Nepal’s predominant mix of Hinduism &Buddhism create a colourful and vibrant cultural mix, and a calendar doted with frequent celebrations and holidays!

At a friends blessing ceremony, November 2010

  • Kathmandu and the Kathmandu are also home to our wonderful FAIR TRADE supplies, you can find out more about them in my ‘Who is Sewing Your Sequins?’ post.

  •  And I have to make a quick mention of Verena, the wonderful bar keeper and owner at SAM’s BAR – always a friendly welcome, and a friend indeed during my many solo visits to Kathmandu, thanks Verena!

Fergus, Ruth & Verena @ Sam's Bar April 2007

 6. GRANTOWN ON SPEY, Scotland – a little bit of a push on the ‘city’ category here but I make the rules!

Really the same rules as above apply to Grantown, friends and scenery make a ‘city’ special for me – ‘no comment’ on the Grantown food options! Although the Royal Chippy and a pint of Belhaven Best at The Claymore must rank somewhere in my most memorable ‘meals’ of Scotland.

Belhaven Best, chips, mayo, curry sauce & a wee blue WKD @ The Claymore
Cheers!

Boys will be Boys!

  • and of course there is the Scottish WEATHER as a draw card to Grantown???

Grantown winter 2009 – my hoose

7. BERLIN, Germany – family, food, culture, galleries, shopping…. a great mix of good things!

Birthday BBQ July 2010

    • the public transport, easy to negotiate, cheap and full of beautiful people!

A Colgate moment, Berlin underground
U know who you are, more underground beauties!

        • Berlin also has fabulous NIGHTLIFE, especially if you have a FABULOUS GUIDE!

  • Berlin is also home to some amazing artistic talent, including that of Helen Bogun of http://helz-design.com/, look at this FABULOUS tree she did for our Christmas website….

8. PRAGUE/MLADA BOLESLAV, Czech Republic – another draw; Chocolate, architecture, FAMILY, and Skodas!

Prague
This one's for you Roy, I visited the Skoda factory purely because my brother Roy likes Skodas! Was interesting and there were a lot of classy skodas on show.

9. WELLINGTON, New Zealand – friends, food, scenery, seaside dwelling, the wind?

Wellington in New Zealand’s capital city and home to some VERY fine people, and it will always hold a dear spot in my heart, we hope to make it to Wellington next time we are in NZ as we sadly had to miss it last time round.

Homes on a Wellington hillside

Wellington is a vibrant buzz of a city, home to some amazing galleries, museums and artisans.  Te Papa is of course the most well known museum and hosts some fabulous touring exhibits.  The gallery I want to mention is located in Lower Hutt, just outside of Wellington, Expressions Gallery is  a fabulous community that hosts a gallery, theatre, cafe and recreation centre all in one, http://www.expressions.org.nz/ IMPRESSIVE!

Wellington also hosts a huge variety of fun events throughout the year, steam, food and FUN!!! here, http://nz.totaltravel.yahoo.com/experiences/a/-/10047793/kapiti-foodies-go-full-steam-ahead/

A Wellington walk, 2007

It looks like I need a new trip to Wellington to update my photos, something to look forward to for 2012.

10. ROME, Italy – the city of romance and rendezvous, fabulous food, wine, CHEESE, shopping and more.

I have recently written about Rome in my ‘5 Lost Years – where does time go?’ post, I met a dear friend in Rome 2 weeks ago and we had a blast walking the town and taking in the city sites and coffee!  Rome holds a LOT of special memories for me, in 2010 we met my Mum and some friends there for a pre-wedding party, and in 2008 I was lucky enough to be there to meet more friends and my lovely now husband!  Here are some of my favourite Rome photos;

A, D & H Nov 2008
the angelic Shellie
Four fabulous kiwis in Rome, January 2010
Fab friends on a tram in Rome.

There it is, my TOP 10 ‘Cities’ – would love to hear you thoughts, what’s your TOP CITY and why? Where do you think I should visit next?  Thanks again for joining us and remember you can sign for all the Seba Silver updates in the box at the top right of this page.

Family and friends make it for me everytime, of course great food gets a look in too!

Thanks to all of you, mentioned, photographed and not.

14 thoughts on “My Top Ten ‘Cities’ – where and why.”

  2. WOW! These pictures are incredible. I haven’t been to most of these places and you make me want to book a trip right NOW. Especially to New Zealand. Those pictures are fantastic!

    Where would I suggest? If you’ve never been, I happen to think everyone should visit New York City at some point. It is one of my favorite places on earth simply because you can never see and do it all. It always leaves me wanting to come back for more!

    Reply

    • Hi Martha and thanks for your comments about the blog and photos – had to choice cities I had good photos of. Have only spent a small amount of time in New York, would love to return and see some more. I was there for a friends wedding and then we travelled on to Marthas Vineyard for a few days. I believe the US has some GREAT cities, have had fun in Chicago and Seattle too.
      You will love NZ when you make it there, have to recommend my cities in the top 10 list, Dunedin, Queenstown and Wellington. I would recommend northland, north of Auckland – for beautiful beaches, weather and amazing scenery. A flight to Wellington for some days there… then the ferry crossing to Picton, a beautiful journey and lovely way to arrive into the South Island. From Picton I would hire a car and take yourselves to Nelson and down the west coast of the south island for STUNNING scenery – into Wanaka and Queenstown. From Queenstown for can carry onto Dunedin via central Otago or via bluff and the Caitlins depending on your time frame. I would also recommend driving over the Lindis Pass… oh so many things…. can you feel my NZ passion?!

      Reply

  3. love it
    fantastic idea 🙂
    and so beautiful pictures.
    i just want to pack my suitcase and enter a plane to go on traveling.

    will do my own blogpost on my top 10 cities, towns, or places 🙂
    one of my favorite towns is san francisco 🙂
    love the view over the bay
    and as you said: food nice food 🙂

    Reply

  4. Interesting how much Korcula resembles Prague! I’ve never been to NZ, but you make it look inviting and wonderful. Perhaps I will go there one day. Does look like you get a lot of snow! (We get around 205″ per year!) But your seasons are opposite of the States, correct?

    Reply

    • Hi Jamie, thanks for joining us. Am sure you will love NZ if you don’t mind the long haul flight to get there. Yes indeed, our seasons are oppostie so you can summer:summer or winter:winter as you fancy!

      Reply

  6. Really like this post as I’m also the travel lover. Of course home country and places should be in #1 destination. So my 2nd best city is San Francisco/CA 3rd, Victoria/BC, 4th Highlands of Scotland 5th Barcelona …. All these cities are my best cause I’ve been there, there’s many other beautiful places but cant express as I never been there….About Korcula I never hear this small town name but after Ruth is attached with this city then only I came to know….so this city also looks really beautiful…Anyway thanks for posting and hope there will be more nice posts in future soon.

    Reply

    • Hi Nabin! Thanks for joining us, we look forward to you visiting us in Korcula one day, then you can add Korcula to your list, I am sure you would enkoy it here… a little quieter than Kathmandu – more like the Scottish highlands that we both also love. Looking forward to your guest blog post for us!

      Reply

  7. I really loved all these wonderful wonderful post. All these pictures are extremely beautiful and love to visit one day.
    In my top ten list , i like to includes places like Lhasa( Capital city of Tibet), Dharamsala (Tibetan Exiled Settlement,India ), Bangalore,Mysore,Kerala,Scotland High Lands.
    I have never seen these pictured places but all these are looking so nice to make a visit.

    Looking forward for some of very nice and helpful post in coming days.

    Reply

    • Hi Dawa, thanks so much for joining us. Would love to travel to Tibet oneday, especially with members of your family as our guides… something for the future. You are very well travelled, hopefully you will be able to visit us here in Korcula one day!

      Reply

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