The Cities Book: A Journey Through the Best Cities in the World

Initially, I bought this book as a gift for my brother, but once I looked through it, I found it so hard to part with that I ended up buying one for myself too. Although it doesn't quite measure up to the sheer bliss that is Lonely Planet's The Travel Book, this sleek coffee table book is chock full of stunning photography and interesting trivia about 200 cities around the globe. Admittedly, the rankings are subjective (the order is based upon the results of an online survey), but the cities included in the book are very diverse, and one doesn't need to put much stock in the rankings to enjoy vicariously wandering through each city. One thing I couldn't help but notice: since the book is geared toward tourism, it tends to whitewash the horrible conditions existing in some of the cities it describes, leading to rather silly-sounding descriptions such as "Strengths: lovely foliage; friendly people; excellent coffee...Weaknesses: rainy weather; expensive golfing; land mines; summary executions; boring food." Also, you can tell things are bad in a given city when it receives a Gold Star for "optimism." With the holidays approaching, The Cities Book makes an excellent gift...and you may consider buying one for yourself.

A must buy. The photographs are fantastic. The topics are neat and so interesting. I especially like the surprises of each city. Great Coffee table book. I can visit each city vicariously.

Inspires new travel ideas, allows you to reminisce about past travels.

Lonely Planet has done it again. I loved the Travel Book and now they have something similar... but its Cities. I starting flipping through this in a bookstore, was totally mesmerized and had to buy it. There are the usual suspects (Paris, London, New York) and then cities that I've never even heard of. Each page is dedicated to a specific city with beautiful photography and the usual Lonely Planet sass and humor. One of my favorite parts is the first few pages where there is a history of the city and an exploration of its future. Highly recommended!

For anyone with wanderlust in their blood, this is the coffee table book for you. Having thoroughly enjoyed the Lonely Planet's photo extravaganza predecessor, "The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World", I was excited to see that editor Roz Hopkins has chosen to follow up with this subjective ranking of the two hundred cities deemed traveler favorites by Lonely Planet's readers and editors. Smaller, lighter and admittedly less definitive than "The Travel Book", "The Cities Book" is just as entertaining - slightly over five pounds of often glorious photographs and thumbnail sketches of the chosen cities. The format is straightforward. Each city has a two-page spread with four defining photos and the following information consistently presented: --Vital Statistics: Quick facts providing the date when the city was born, its elevation, its geographic size and location, its population and its nickname. It's amazing how Paris has set the standard for so many other cities, e.g., Budapest is known as the "Paris of Eastern Europe" and Beirut the "Paris of the Middle East". --Anatomy: Description of the geographic layout of the city and how to navigate within. --People: Ethnic breakdown of the denizens. --Typical Native: Profile of what characterizes the city's typical native and what he/she thinks is important. --Defining Experience: A sequential series of personal experiences unique to what the city offers, which can be done fairly easily by a traveler. --Strengths: List of places, events and experiences that identify the best of what the city offers. --Weaknesses: The flip side of what areas of development the city may have, e.g., Tokyo's high cost of living or St. Petersburg's collapsed buildings. --Gold Star: One unique characteristic of the city that approaches the transcendent, e.g., carnival in Venice or the four Unesco World Heritage sights within Kathmandu. --Cityspeak: Top conversation topics of natives. --Starring Role in...: Selected books or films in which the city is prominently featured. --Import: List of things (e.g., sports, foods, types of people, etc.) that have been historically absorbed in the city from other places. --Export: List of personalities icons, famous items of interest or pervasive traditions that have their roots in the city. --Sensory recommendations: See, Eat, Drink, Do, Watch, Buy, After Dark...sound bites about things to do to tantalize your senses in the city. --Urban Myth: A colorful story, usually apocryphal in nature, about the city's history. Obviously not as all-encompassing as "The Travel Book", which covers all the countries of the world, the list of top 200 cities will clearly elicit arguments as to which ones have been selected, where they rank and most critically, which ones did not make the cut. It hardly reflects the most scientific of methodologies as it is based on a poll taken for three months in early 2005 on the Lonely Planet Web site asking readers to vote for their favorite