It was also the most likely to be called ‘accepting’. This former hippie enclave came first in the ‘progressive’ category – with 73 percent of respondents describing it as such – and second in ‘sustainability’. We’re leading the way in: Progressive politics. If only all cities had: Hundreds of beautifully crafted parklets that now make the city feel like one giant street party (plus the kind of weather that allows for outdoor dining year round). Neighbours stepped up to take care of each other through far-reaching mutual aid networks, and one genius even had the idea of hanging sourdough starters from trees to fuel all the baking people took up. But that didn’t dampen community spirit in the Bay Area: businesses got creative to stay afloat, while innovative initiatives like the SF New Deal put restaurant employees to work making meals for those in need. And when things got tough over the past year, SF sprang into action with one of the strictest Covid responses in the US. What makes us great: San Francisco has never been known to follow the pack. 🍸 The 28 coolest bars in the world right now

🌊 9 cities that could be underwater by 2030 🖼️ The 20 best museums and galleries in the world Read on to find out how your city fared – and what it can learn from other amazing places across the globe.ĭon’t agree with our list? Have your say next time! Follow Time Out Everywhere on Facebook, on Instagram and on Twitter, and you’ll be the first to hear when we launch our next global survey. This list was put together based on answers across every category in the poll, along with insights from Time Out editors and experts worldwide. The ones making life better both for us and for our grandkids.Īnd here are the results: the best cities in the world in 2021. We were after the cities that were not only thinking about the now, but also the future. We wanted to find out which cities really stepped up and pulled together this year. So we asked you not just about food and culture, as we always do, but also community projects, green space and sustainability. So, once again, we launched the Time Out Index: a poll of 27,000 city-dwellers from Melbourne to Madrid, Chicago to Copenhagen and Tel Aviv to Tokyo. Now many of us have emerged from lockdowns and are taking tentative steps back towards semi-normality, we thought it was time to recognise all the great things our cities have achieved over the past 18 months. And – somehow – we even found ways to have fun. We fought to help our businesses survive. And these being big, sprawling metropolises, it’d be easy to feel a bit hemmed in when you can do little else but hang out in your flat.īut there you’d be wrong. During lockdowns, much of the fun and culture and social life that define urban living are off the table. You’d think a pandemic might defeat the point of living in a city.

City time traveller