The World’s 50 Most Beautiful Cities

The multitude of blogs, websites, and social media accounts dedicated expressly to travel means that we now have a seemingly infinite number of resources to help us decide where to book our next vacation. Having the world at our fingertips is undoubtedly a great thing, but it can also make the final choice seem pretty far out of reach.

To help you decide what’s worth using that precious PTO for, Canada-based travel agency FlightNetwork asked more than 1000 travel experts—professional writers, recreational bloggers, travel agencies, and more—to share their insights on which cities around the globe are quite simply the best.

Though the resulting list is called the world's 50 "most beautiful" cities, it’s “beauty” in a much broader sense than just visual appeal. If you delve into some of the individual entries in FlightNetwork’s guide, you’ll come to find that history, culture, food, entertainment, and other elements have significantly factored into the experts’ assessments of each city.

And, according to these experts (and probably everyone else in the world), Paris really does have it all, including the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Versailles, and wine so fine it might ruin you for all other beverages.

New York was the runner-up, because apparently not even the grimy subway rats can dull the sparkle of the City That Never Sleeps. While it might not boast the same snow-capped mountain peaks of Vancouver or the radiant beaches of Barcelona, the sheer quantity and variety of activities The Big Apple has to offer make it a must-visit—maybe more than once.

“You could visit hundreds of times and still discover new things on every trip. It has it all,” David Jagger, reporter for Bradford, England's Telegraph & Argus, told FlightNetwork.

The rest of the top 10 was mostly filled up by other cities that you probably expected to see on this list, like London, Venice, and Rome. Having said that, if you’re a “road less traveled” type of person, there are plenty of offbeat options for you, too. Colombia’s Cartagena, number 44, is a beachgoer’s paradise—complete with a breathtaking cathedral and castle—and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more charming waterfront town than Bruges, Belgium, number 26 on the list.

Scroll on to see the full top 50, and read more about each city in FlightNetwork’s guide here.

1. Paris, France
2. New York, New York
3. London, England
4. Venice, Italy
5. Vancouver, Canada
6. Barcelona, Spain
7. Cape Town, South Africa
8. San Francisco, California
9. Sydney, Australia
10. Rome, Italy
11. Singapore, Singapore
12. Lisbon, Portugal
13. Amsterdam, Netherlands
14. Prague, Czech Republic
15. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
16. Budapest, Hungary
17. Istanbul, Turkey
18. Tokyo, Japan
19. Vienna, Austria
20. Buenos Aires, Argentina
21. Toronto, Canada
22. San Diego, California
23. Quebec City, Canada
24. Hong Kong, Hong Kong
25. Chicago, Illinois
26. Bruges, Belgium
27. Madrid, Spain
28. Havana, Cuba
29. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
30. Jerusalem, Israel
31. Edinburgh, Scotland
32. Quito, Ecuador
33. Zurich, Switzerland
34. Cusco, Peru
35. St. Petersburg, Russia
36. Berlin, Germany
37. Hanoi, Vietnam
38. Queenstown, New Zealand
39. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
40. Seoul, South Korea
41. Dubrovnik, Croatia
42. San Sebastian, Spain
43. Bangkok, Thailand
44. Cartagena, Colombia
45. Dublin, Ireland
46. Marrakesh, Morocco
47. Bergen, Norway
48. Jaipur, India
49. Beijing, China
50. Athens, Greece