OAKLAND, Calif.-
What do Paris, London and New York have in common with Bled, Slovenia, and Luang Prabang in Laos?
All of them appear in Lonely Planet's new "Cities: A Journey Through the Best Cities in the World" ($50), a coffee-table book describing 200 of the world's best cities, as ranked by Lonely Planet's staff and readers.
The top five choices are not too surprising–Paris, followed by New York, Sydney, Barcelona and London–and the next 15 also include some of the world's most famous urban places: Rome, San Francisco, Bangkok, Cape Town, Istanbul, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Katmandu, Prague, Vancouver, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Jerusalem and Montreal.
But the top 100 offers many destinations that are not on the typical travel itinerary, including Damascus, at 53; Luang Prabang at 54; Brazil's Salvador da Bahia, 62nd; Kolkata, India, at 65; York, England, No. 76; Esfahan, Iran, 82; Tallinn, Estonia, 88th; Bled, at 90; and Dhaka, Bangladesh, at 100.
Nos. 101-200 include other surprises, like Carcassonne, France, described as one of the largest and best preserved wall towns in the world; Lubeck, Germany, lauded for its medieval architecture; Arequipa, Peru, noted for its rich culture, churches and museums; Apia, Samoa, which offers "a certain shabby and romantic charm"; Bukhara, Uzbekistan, recommended for its "fascinating Islamic architecture"; Agadez, Niger, which offers "exotic mud minarets, swarming markets and nomadic culture"; beautiful Kairouan, Tunisia; the winter resort of Aswan, Egypt; the beaches of Maputo, Mozambique; and Madang, Papua New Guinea, nicknamed the "prettiest town in the Pacific."
Each entry includes recommendations for top attractions and experiences, including some offbeat suggestions and a few tidbits about what the locals are obsessed with, summed up in a box called "Cityspeak."
The page on Paris, for example, recommends coffee and croissants on Place de la Contrescarpe, strolling through the Latin Quarter and over the river to Ile St-Louis, then on to Marais for shopping, followed by lunch and wine on Place des Vosges. Topics for "Cityspeak" include the Iraq war, the controversy over banning Muslim headscarves in French schools, and the best new restaurants.
