It’s hard for me to pick just one. In the running:
The “old city” of Jerusalem—such an amazing mix of religions and cultures. The sights, sounds, and smells were intoxicating.
The abandoned city of Petra in Jordan—it’s an ancient city carved into the red desert rock. Need I say more?
The city of Delphi in Greece—beautiful mountain setting with ruins of the most well respected Pagan oracle in the world and the temple of Apollo. You could feel the spirituality in the air.
Carcassone in France—a delightful medieval village preserved in time (except now just for tourism)
Venice—riding down the canals is just magical. A city whose streets are waterways and history is at every turn. The amount of artwork in museums and churches is astounding, even for Italy. Some people find the elegant decay disappointing. I found it charming.
Carcassonne had always been a contender as a retirement place…….until brexit ruined that.
I’m a city boy at heart and hated my two spells living in the suburbs so don’t think I’d manage in the country at all. My rule was if I make a cup of tea at breakfast time then walk to buy a newspaper and when I return the tea is too cold to drink then I’m living too far from civilisation. Both at home or on hols I want to walk to cinemas, gigs, restaurants, bars etc and a decent standard football team is essential.
Which means cool places to visit for me are major cities like: London, Havana, NYC, HK, Lisbon, LA, Sydney, Melbourne, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Istanbul, Edinburgh, Lecce, Dublin, Florence, Valencia, Bilbao, A Coruna, Rome, Porto, Lyon, Amsterdam, Cagliari, Budapest, Athens, Brussels, Napoli, Marseilles, Rotterdam, Sofia, Antwerp, Berlin, Bayonne, Bordeaux, Munich, Athens etc.
As small towns, villages, islands for very very short stays go I loved Tavira (2nd Portuguese town in from Spanish border on the med), Hydra the Greek island where Leonard Cohen lived, Aegina a Greek island 16m/30mins from Athens, St Antioca a small island off Sardinia, Leuca and Gallipoli both on Italy’s heel, Lucca in Italy where Chet baker was banged up, Saint Jean de Luz 2nd town in from Spanish border on Atlantic. Etc.
Mind you where I live now is regularly voted one of the top places to live in the UK plus we’ve got the flagship store of the UKs largest LFS chain and one of the two pubs in dispute over which is the oldest pubs in England went into receivership last week and was/is ten mins walk away. It’ll be back. 19 mins by train from central London and it runs nearly all night, Roman ruins, civil war battles, the beheading of the then king was planned here, the Ryder cup inventor lived here, I’m here……..so yeah I’d say right outside my front door is the coolest place I’ve ever visited.
If where you live isn’t then why are you still there? Get a wiggle on this isn’t a rehearsal.
Plus a lot of people feel the need to stay close to family. Then there’s the issue of not necessarily speaking the same language or being able to get a decent job wherever you’d like to move….
