What American city has the right mix of natural and man-made beauty?
 

Now that spring is here, I am looking to visit Americas most beautiful city. I am looking for the city that has it all: lots of beautifuly designed buildings, mixed with natural beauty such as: lakes, trees, streams, flowers, hills, vistas, etc. Again, the most beasutiful city (of any size) that matches both man made and natural beauty. Where should I go?

Stars Hollow, CT. Stop in at Luke's Cafe for a cuppa joe & say hi for me.

Don't overlook Columbus Indiana, set in America's heartland and filled with buildings by the world's most esteemed architects.

The SF Bay Area is fantastic. The bay on one side and the Pacific on the other. Islands like Alcatraz and Angel. Golden Gate Bridge. Golden Gate Park. Transamerica building and the rolling, steep hills the city is built on.

I know that San Francisco is always rated as the best mixture of man made and natural beauty but I strongly disagree. SF has not much building. Outside of Golden Gate park the city is basically all concrete. The few trees there are are transplants from the south Pacific and small 10 feet high in planters.<BR><BR>Hardly like Washington DC which has thousands of beautiful huge trees, rolling hills, a beautiful river and lots of beautifully built buildings and monuments. My vote goes to WDC.

Cinncinatii is actually very pretty.

America's best kept secret - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!

Charleston SC and Santa Barbara CA are two of the most beautiful cities.

I would recommend Chicago. Fabulous man-made beauty,lots of history and the wonderful lakefront of Lake Michigan!You could also include the marvels of the sand dunes of Indiana(not too far away)and going up to Wisconsin or any of the small lakes in Lake County (Illinois) which is about 45 minutes from Chicago.Chicago is a clean city,great shopping and eating,tremendous cultural things to do and see yet you could still do quite a few activities in any of our parks along the lakefront-our city planners were smart enough to realize what a "jewel" Lake Michigan was and saved quite a bit of the land for the people to enjoy the area up and down the lake.I do not think that you would be disappointed!

Portland Oregon. 1000 foot high hills right next to downtown and tons of pine trees.<BR><BR>Seconf runner up goes to cities in New England, home hidden under a sea of green.

All the squares and historic buildings make Savannah pretty unique. <BR>But I agree about Portland. I have never seen another city with such an obsession about usable and beautiful green space everywhere within the city.

Portland Oregon! Huge park blocks downtown, wonderful public gardens with beautiful views of Mt Hood, wide river with wonderful paths on both sides.

Gary Indiana! Fabulous!!

The San Jose/Silicon Valley area has the mountains on the east and west sides of the city, Alum Rock Park(known as "little yosemite") in the east foothils overlooking the city, and Guadalupe River Park in the Downtown area. In the winter you can see a view of the snow on the top of Mount Hamilton framed by the downtown skyscrapers. Much of the architecture in the older parts of the city include victorian, as well as bungalow, and tudor style cottage homes.

Cotton Port, Louisiana<BR><BR>Beautiful cotton fields to the east. Even lovelier cotton fields to the west. Magnificent cotton fields to the south and to the north, would you believe, miles of cotton fields. We do have a new water tower on the south side with the town's name in burgundy letters. Quite lovely actually.