Readers might be interested in a fairly recent survey of one of our "serious" newspapers; the Observer (May 26th). Asking readers for their favourite UK/Irish Cities, London did not even come in the top 20. I was suprised by the results - and in fact had not been to three of the Cities in the top 5, and I am a UK resident.<BR><BR>Top 5: 1 Edinburgh, 2 Durham, 3 Newcastle, 4 Dublin and 5 Glasgow.<BR><BR>My favourites York, and Lincoln come in at 6 and 10 respectively and and wonderful Oxford at a lowly 17.<BR><BR>(posting early - a match to watch - in case anyone hasn't heard Englands playing in the World Cup today)

Yip, I was also surprised that London didn't really get a look-in. Perhaps many of the people who responded to the survey lived in or close to London itself so didn't regard London as a holiday destination. I was born in Edinburgh so it's nice to see it being No1..... as for the England match, I'm almost too scared to turn on the TV.... even though I'm Scottish, I live in England and I do want England to win but Brasil are one hell of a team. Fingers crossed!

Glasgow?!?<BR><BR>How in the world do you rate Glasgow above London?<BR><BR>What were those people surveyed smoking?<BR><BR>US

It probably relates to quality of life. Glasgow may not be beautiful in parts (and London for that matter) but there's a lot going on if you live there and the beautiful Scottish countryside is on your doorstep.<BR><BR>It looks like Howard is going to Brazil ::::::::::::::::::::

Steve, could you provide a link to the story, or at least tell us what section it was in? I coulnd't find it on their site and I'd like to see the rest of the list, and how the question was asked.

....Durham? Newcastle? you've got to be kidding, which Observer was it in, the Durham Observer, or the Newcastle Observer?

For those interested here's the link.<BR><BR>http://www.observer.co.uk/travel/story/0,6903,722151,00.html<BR><BR>Basically its the result of a questionnaire published in the paper and on the web in January. 15500 returns. Various questions (favourite airline, tour operator, cruise company, UK city etc etc)<BR>I suspect the reason London is does not appear may well be due to the number of voters being from London. You'd hardly nominate your home city as an the ideal place to take your loved one away to... might as well pitch a tent in your back garden!<BR><BR>For the complete list of UK citiesBR>(last year's position in brackets)<BR>"Favourite UK city<BR><BR>The pull of the north dominated, with Edinburgh winning for the third year running. Dublin was voted fourth in this category, even though it is not in the UK. <BR><BR>1. Edinburgh (1) <BR>2. Durham (5) <BR>3. Newcastle (6) <BR>4. Dublin (-)<BR>5. Glasgow (2)<BR>6. York (3)<BR>7. Bath (4)<BR>8. Chester (7)<BR>9. Belfast (8)<BR>10. Lincoln (10)<BR>11. Brighton (12)<BR>12. Cardiff (9)<BR>13. Cambridge (16)<BR>14. Leeds (13)<BR>15. Liverpool (14)<BR>16. Norwich (11) <BR>17. Oxford (20)<BR>18. Bristol (21)<BR>19. Manchester (26)<BR>20. Nottingham (-)" <BR><BR><BR>http://www.observer.co.uk/travel/sto...722151,00.html

I would imagin it is in regard to quality of life. I live in London and while I enjoy the Theatre and the big city 'buzz', i do not like the fact that the average 1 bedroom flat cost over &pound;210,000. In leeds where I come from I could buy a street for that. But then thats the choice I made.

Well without seeing the original questionnaire, it's hard to guess what the respondents were thinking. But since all the rest of the questions seemed to be about vacation travel, I expect that BabyJane is right - fewer people named London as a vacation spot because most of them already lived there.

After a recent trip to London, I can see why this survey turned out the way it did.

Well at least Londons got the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships - which I am off to see next week and supporting Tim Hemman....whoops.....

To bored: I'm just curious, what cities are your favorites (all of Europe)?

It's a travel survey they do every year- one of the most respected in the UK