For every decent traveller. visiting a city means visiting a great city of contrasts. Alas, which city should I visit? Grumpy traveller has found out with the help of global media.
Same procedure as every year. People discussing their holiday plans and the one thing they all agree on is: it has to be a city of contrasts. City-of-contrastism means significantly more money to the travel industry than cruise, caravan and sextourism together.
Now, which is the top-ranking city of contrasts? Grumpy Traveller has found out. Not shrinking away from work either in the field or in the lab an army of handpicked top analysts has performed extensive research. Our sources are authorities from the top newspapers and magazines all over the world. After months of controversial debates they finally have come up with exactly 65 cities offering the most and best contrast. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the one and only list of cities of contrast.
- Tokyo, Japan: “Futuristic, frustrating and fascinating sum up Tokyo, a city of contrasts…” – Reuters via the Sydney Morning Herald.
- Kampala, Uganda: “Kampala, a bustling, hilly city of contrasts, where extreme poverty exists alongside malls and middle-class neighborhoods.” – Washington Post
- Berlin, Germany: “Visitors to modern Berlin will see a city of contrasts.” – Daily Mail
- New Orleans, USA: “New Orleans has always been a city of contrasts.” – The Independent
- Odessa, Ukraine: “It is a city of contrasts. On Deribasovskaya, a pedestrian avenue, poorly dressed residents pass luxury shops and restaurants frequented by the nouveaux riches.” – AP via Los Angeles Times
- Canberra, Australia: “This is a city of contrasts, the winter air a strange companion to the expanses of brown grass in a rain-deprived area.” – New Zealand Herald
- Stockton, California, USA: “Stockton is a city of contrasts – from an empty and boarded-up Main Street to a gleaming marina.” – BBC
- Doha, Qatar: “The capital, Doha, is a city of contrasts” – The Guardian
- Lucknow, India: “ Consider Lucknow. The city of Nawabs and kebabs, is fast emerging as a city of contrasts.” – Times of India
- Goteborg, Sweden: “Sweden’s “second city” of Goteborg is a city of contrasts, with slick museums, raw industrial landscapes, pleasant parks, can-do designers and cutting-edge food.” – Lonely Planet, via The Daily Telegraph.
- Genoa, Italy: “Genoa, city of contrasts” – New York Times
- Delhi, India: “City of contrasts prepares for festival of sport.” – The Guardian
- Cape Town, South Africa: “Cape Town is also a city of contrasts: of sybaritic pleasure and depressing poverty; of pounding seas and vine-carpeted valleys” – The Telegraph
- Dundee, Scotland: “Dundee: city of contrasts – old industrial mixes with new hi- tech.” – The Independent
- Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine: “Dnipropetrovsk, known simply as Dnipro to those who live here, is a city of contrasts.” – BBC
- Baghdad, Iraq: “Raids leave capital a city of contrasts.” – Washington Post
- Madrid, Spain: “Madrid is a city of contrasts: It’s a graceful lady with a wild party side.” – Los Angeles Times
- Manila, Philippines: “Manila is a thrilling city of contrasts.” – Daily Mail
- New York City, USA: “Pretty much anything you can find in this city of contrasts, you can find its opposite.” – New York Times
- Auckland, New Zealand: “It is a city of contrasts, with something for everyone.” New Zealand Herald
- Kochi, India: “A vibrant city, a cosmopolitan crowd yet a sad party scene. Yes, Kochi sure is a city of contrasts!” – Times of India
- Athens, Greece: “Athens is a city of contrasts: a bustling modern city with the ruins of the ancient city poking though.” – BBC
- Sao Paulo, Brazil: “Sao Paulo is a city of contrasts. Rush-hour traffic can be maddening, so savvy locals know where to get away from it all.” – Sydney Morning Herald
- Tripoli, Libya: “Tripoli was a city of contrasts Friday with bodies lying outside, while men headed to afternoon prayers.” – Toronto Star
- Austin, Texas, USA: “Combining one of the coolest live music scenes in the U.S. with a brash Texas pride that makes some visitors roll their eyes, Austin is a colourful city of contrasts.” – Globe and Mail
- Canoga Park, California, USA: “Canoga Park is instead a city of contrasts.” – Los Angeles Times
- Anaheim, California, USA: “Anaheim is a city of contrasts that ranges from upscale, hilltop homes to packed, gritty apartment complexes.” – AP, via The Guardian.
- Marrakech, Morocco: “Marrakech is a city of contrasts and colour, and a short trip to this vibrant city is enough to clear most winter cobwebs.” – Daily Mail
- Manukau, New Zealand: “Dr Sharples said Manukau was a city of contrasts, with affluent and poor areas.” – New Zealand Herald
- St Petersburg, Russia: “Historically the most ‘western’ of Russian cities, St Petersburg is a city of contrasts: beside the fabulously restored palaces, you find the homes of people who have not made it in the new Russia, people traumatised by the changes and uncertainty of a life that has become unpredictable.” – BBC
- Patna, India: “And drives to every corner of this city of contrasts throw up huge stretches of all major thoroughfares and crossings devoid of traffic policemen at any time of the day.” – Times of India
- Nairobi, Kenya: “But that’s Kenya’s capital for you: to paraphrase a well-worn tourism cliché, it’s a city of contrasts – just not always in a way that the marketing types would embrace.” – The Independent
- Virginia Beach, USA: “A city of contrasts.” – Washington Post
- Bangkok, Thailand: “Or you could spend a few days in Bangkok, another city of contrasts and an explosion of sights and sounds.” – The Telegraph
- Santa Barbara, California, USA: “The dank scent of seaweed hung over Santa Barbara, a city of contrasts as the sun shone in bright blue skies while residents trucked mud, water–even frogs–from their homes.” – Los Angeles Times
- Beirut, Lebanon: “Beirut is a city of contrasts: of refugees and brazen snobbery, poverty beside ostentatious wealth, sectarian liberalism coexisting uneasily with fundamentalism.” – Sydney Morning Herald
- Milan, Italy: “It soon becomes evident that Milan is a city of contrasts; Roman ruins exist beside ultra-modern glass towers, haute couture fashion struts the sidewalks along with skinny hipster jeans, high culture at La Scala exists alongside grassroots street soccer inspired by AC Milan.” – New Zealand Herald
- Boston, USA: “Known as “The Hub” of New England, Boston is also a city of contrasts.” – Toronto Star
- Zagreb, Croatia: “Zagreb is a city of contrasts. Old meets new, and concrete meets, err…concrete.” – BBC
- Kolkata, India: “A city of contrasts. A city whose charm lies in its dichotomy. An intriguing puzzle to any city planner.” – Times of India
- Nice, France: “Nice is a city of contrasts, both exciting and execrable with its combination of billionaires and beggars, diamonds and dogshit.” – The Telegraph
- Lagos, Nigeria: “A city of contrasts, Lagos is home to a minority of wealthy elites, a growing middle class and an overwhelming majority of people just trying to get by.” AP, via Washington Post.
- Lisbon, Portugal: “Today, Lisbon is a city of contrasts, still maintaining the marks of its early history along with a rich cultural mix of immigrants from former colonies.” – BBC
- Istanbul, Turkey: “Bonbon Palace is a microcosm of contemporary Istanbul: a city of contrasts and contestations, where both continents and cultures meet.” – The Independent
- Phnom Penh, Cambodia: “Today’s Phnom Penh, a city of contrasts.” – New York Times
- Vancouver, Canada: “As far as cultural entertainment goes, it is a city of contrasts.” – Sydney Morning Herald
- Durban, South Africa: “It sounds a cliché to describe this as a city of contrasts, but I’m really struggling to come to terms with just how varied Durban is.” – BBC
- Rio De Janeiro, Brazil: “A city of contrasts, visitor’s to Rio are usually drawn to the city for its beaches and carnival.” – New Zealand Herald
- Nashville, USA: “But Nashville is a city of contrasts. A place that can claim the world’s biggest Bible shop and the world’s biggest pornographic book shop must have something going for it.” – The Sun
- Calgary, Canada: “Calgary itself is a city of contrasts–a prairie town with an urban beat.” – Los Angeles Times
- Paris, France: “Paris is a city of contrasts and has its fair share of social problems such as homelessness, and lives up to its name on many levels as ‘the most beautiful city in the world’.” – Daily Mail
- London, England: “A city of contrasts. The most expensive apartment in the world rests atop a new steel-and-glass monument to luxury on the southeast corner of London’s Hyde Park.” – Washington Post
- Limoges, France: “When we finally arrived in ‘Limoges’, we found a city of contrasts.” – BBC
- Mumbai, India: “With 19 million people crammed on to a narrow peninsula, Mumbai is the travel writer’s archetypal city of contrasts.” – The Telegraph
- Johannesburg, South Africa: “A city of contrasts Judith Chalmers would have called Johannesburg, but she was usually talking about the delights of a European old town versus a wide shot of a new gleaming skyscraper.” – Daily Mail
- Nyon, Switzerland: “Nyon: city of contrasts. City of high-end hotel conferencing suites, but also high-end conferencing hotel suites.” – The Guardian
- Dubai, UAE: “Dubai is currently a city of contrasts – in one part of town there is the tallest building in the world, the incredible Burj Khalifa. At 828 metres high it is the ultimate symbol of opulence.” – BBC
- Hamburg, Germany: “Germany’s second-largest metropolis is a city of contrasts.” – The Sun-Herald
- Mosul, Iraq: “Progress amid decline: Mosul a city of contrasts” – AP via Seattle Times
- Belfast, Northern Ireland: “Belfast, city of contrasts, has a hypnotic effect on its many writers.” – The Independent
- Rome, Italy: “Rome is a city of contrasts, from its magnificent buildings and piazzas to its areas of grime and dereliction.” – New Zealand Herald
- Shanghai, China: “Shanghai is a city of contrasts and contradictions.” – Sydney Morning Herald
- Novosibirsk, Russia: “Novosibirsk, a city of contrasts” – Washington Post
- Hong Kong: “As visitors quickly discover, however, Honkers is a city of contrasts in many other ways.” – The Sun-Herald
- Leeds, England: “His Leeds is a city of contrasts.” – BBC