re: #72 zombie

My first suggestion is to stay away from large cities altogether, which would include many on your list. Major urban agglomerations tend to all look alike, wherever they are.

Smaller and even mid-size towns often keep their local character better. So: open your mind to the smaller places.

However, a downside to that is that all the smaller places that are prototypical in some way are overrun with tourists, wherever you go on earth these days. Cute now equals overpriced.

Anyway, as for specific suggestions…hmmm…

A friend of mine went to Tasmania recently and loved it.

Here are a few recommendations from me, either of places I’ve been to and liked, or have always wanted to visit but never gotten to yet:

Zanzibar
Hong Kong
Bled
Cape Town
Molokai
Surinam

Thank you — I love a post like this. Cape Town is on both of our short lists, so that makes me go “hmmm…”

You’re quite right about the tendency of big cities to look like each other, especially when taken broadly. It’s definitely important to seek out the local character in big cities. When I went to London, I did this. I sought out neighborhoods that actually functioned like small to medium-sized towns and had a great time. I rented an apartment on a residential street, rather than staying in some cookie-cutter chain hotel. Let’s just say I wasn’t into the Piccadilly Circus aspect of London. (Speakers Corner on Sunday in Hyde Park, with all of the ex-Pakistanis standing on stepstools ranting and arguing with Christians — now THAT was a trip…

I notice also that Hong Kong is on your list — of course, that is the most densely populated city in the world (although I’ve never been there), so I suppose the suggestion is in this case, that some big cities can be so intense that they transcend the prescription not to visit big cities… (?) Singapore and perhaps Bangkok also hold that kind of “dense city” appeal…