Yeah, Vancouver still rocks!

2004 American Automobile Association (AAA)

Travel agents who work under the American Automobile Association banner in the U.S. have recently deemed that Vancouver is one of the top world destinations for their clients. The recent AAA survey says that Vancouver is ranked fourth in the world behind London, Paris and Rome in terms of booking preferences. YVR was ranked ahead of Shannon, Ireland in fifth place in the survey, which just asked agents for their top five choices.

August 2004 Research Worldwide

Research Worldwide, which calls itself "The Worldwide Commercial Real Estate Information Portal", released a list stating that Vancouver was the second best city in the world for expatriates to live.

June 8, 2003 Georgia Times-Union

Georgia Times-Union notes that Vancouver was voted as one of the top destinations for students at StudentUniverse.com

January 2004 Out and About

Out and About - www.gay.com - votes Vancouver one of the top ten up-and-coming Gay Travel destinations for 2004.

July 2003 ABTA Magazine

ABTA Magazine states that Vancouver International airport has been rated top North American airport in the annual IATA survey.

Economist Group: Melbourne, Vancouver top cities in world

Friday, October 4, 2002

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Melbourne and Vancouver are the best cities in the world for expatriates to live in, according to a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Both Australia and Canada fared well in the survey, with the west Australian city of Perth ranking third, and Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide tying in eighth place.

Toronto and Montreal also made the top 10, while Calgary was 16th. (Full list)

Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea came in last place, while the European Union was considered the best region to live just ahead of North America.

Conducted by the London-based EIU -- the business information arm of the Economist Group -- the survey assessed the level of hardship for expatriates in 130 cities.

It looked at 12 factors including housing, education, recreational activities and climate, rating every city on a five-point scale in each category, with five indicating extreme hardship.

Melbourne weather, notorious for providing four seasons in a single day was all that prevented it from receiving a perfect score of zero.
Port Moresby

On the other end of the scale, Port Moresby managed a hardship score of 80.

There, expatriates "must take extreme security precautions ... Education and health indicators are poor, corruption is rife and high humidity makes the climate oppressive all year round," the report said.

Rounding out the top ten cities were Vienna, Geneva and Zurich (all equal fourth) while Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Oslo were also equal eighth.

The Japanese cities of Osaka and Tokyo were the highest rated in Asia in equal 21st spot. Next best was Hong Kong in 44th place. The most livable mainland Chinese cities were Guangzhou and Shanghai at equal 73rd.

London was also rated 44th while Honolulu was the preferred U.S. city in equal 21st place. New York was ranked 52nd.
Middle East

Vancouver, home to around 2 million, and equal best city in the world

Regionally, the highest hardship was found in Africa and the Middle East, the report found.

The European Union was the least affected by hardship, but North America was also "a good place to live."

"Despite the increased fear of terrorism and high levels of violent crime in some cities, the United States and Canada have fairly low hardship ratings thanks to a highly developed infrastructure, good education and health indicators and the widespread availability of recreational activities," the survey said.

The EIU report found a clear gap between west and east European cities, while hardship in Asia and Australasia also was grouped in two extremes.

Compared with the low hardship ratings in Australia and also parts of Asia, the region was home to cities where expatriates encountered severe hardship, the survey found.

The Pakistani port city of Karachi received the second highest hardship rating of 74, the Indian cities of New Delhi and Mumbai scored 62 and 57 respectively, while the Indonesian capital Jakarta polled a high 56 coming in 119th place.

Elsewhere in Asia, Bangkok scored 45, Manila 47, Colombo 52, Hanoi 54, Ho Chi Minh 55, Phnom Penh 70 and Dhaka 71.

The list in full

1. (tie) Melbourne, Australia

1. Vancouver, Canada

3. Perth, Australia

4. (tie) Vienna, Austria

4. Toronto, Canada

4. Geneva, Switzerland

4. Zurich, Switzerland

8. (tie) Adelaide, Australia

8. Brisbane, Australia

8. Sydney,Australia

8. Copenhagen, Denmark

8. Dusseldorf, Germany

8. Frankfurt, Germany

8. Oslo, Norway

8. Montreal, Canada

16. (tie) Calgary, Canada

16. Helsinki, Finland

16. Stockholm, Sweden

19. (tie) Berlin, Germany

19. Amsterdam, Netherlands

21. (tie) Tokyo, Japan

21. Osaka, Japan

21. Honolulu, Hawaii

24. (tie) Hamburg, Germany

24. Munich, Germany

24. Auckland, New Zealand

24. Wellington, New Zealand

28. (tie) Brussels, Belgium

28. Reykjavik, Iceland

28. Luxembourg, Luxembourg

28. Boston, Massachusetts

32. (tie) Lyon, France

32. Paris, France

34. (tie) Barcelona, Spain

34. Atlanta, Georgia

34. Chicago, Illinois

34. Lexington, Kentucky

34. Miami, Florida

39. (tie) Cleveland, Ohio

39. Houston, Texas

39. Los Angeles, California

39. Minneapolis, Minnesota

39. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

44. (tie) Hong Kong, China

44. Lisbon, Portugal

44. Madrid, Spain

44. London, England

44. San Francisco, California

49. Seattle, Washington

50. (tie) Singapore

50. Manchester, England

52. (tie) Dublin, Ireland

52. New York, New York

54. (tie) Milan, Italy

54. Detroit, Michigan

54. Budapest, Hungary

57. (tie) Prague, Czech Republic

57. Rome, Italy

57. Washington, D.C.

60. Taipei, Taiwan

61. Seoul, South Korea

62. (tie) San Juan, Puerto Rico

62. San Jose, Costa Rica

64. (tie) Athens, Greece

64. Montevideo, Uruguay

66. Santiago, Chile

67. Buenos Aires, Argentina

68. Dubai, UAE

69. (tie) Tel Aviv, Israel

69. Warsaw, Poland

71. (tie) Zagreb, Croatia

71. Abu Dhabi, UAE

73. (tie) Guangzhou, China

73. Shanghai, China

75. (tie) Panama City, Panama

75. Amman, Jordan

77. (tie) Bahrain, Bahrain

77. Beijing, China

77. Shenzhen, China

77. Moscow, Russia

81. Pretoria, South Africa

82. (tie) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

82. St. Petersburg, Russia

84. Tianjin, China

85. (tie) Sao Paulo, Brazil

85. Kiev, Ukraine

87. (tie) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

87. Lima, Peru

87. Istanbul, Turkey

87. Kuwait, Kuwait

87. Tashkent, Uzbekistan

87. Tunis, Tunisia

93. (tie) Quito, Ecuador

93. Johannesburg, South Africa

93. Bucharest, Romania

96. (tie) Asuncion, Paraguay

96. Casablanca, Morocco

98. Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

99. (tie) Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

99. Baku, Azerbaijan

101. (tie) Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia

101. Bangkok, Thailand

101. Caracas, Venezuela

101. Tripoli, Libya

105. (tie) Guatemala, Guatemala

105. Mexico City, Mexico

105. Manila, Philippines

105. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

105. Belgrade, Yugoslavia

105. Harare, Zimbabwe

111. Cairo, Egypt

112. Libreville, Gabon

113. Colombo, Sri Lanka

114. Douala, Cameroon

115. (tie) Hanoi, Vietnam

115. Bogota, Colombia

115. Nairobi, Kenya

118. Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

119. (tie) Jakarta, Indonesia

119. Tehran, Iran

121. New Delhi, India

122. Dakar, Senegal

123. Abidjan, Ivory Coast

124. Mumbai, India

125. Algiers, Algeria

126. Phnom Penh, Cambodia

127. (tie) Dhaka, Bangladesh

127. Lagos, Nigeria

129. Karachi, Pakistan

130. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Damn hershie, you're a vancouver media machine.

Don't tell them too much,they might come here to steal our tundra and abundance of seal meat

December 30, 2004 Travel Channel

Travel Channel names Vancouver's Wreck Beach number 3 in their list of the World's Top Nude Beaches.

I love Vancouver and would consider it high on a desireable place to live. Although lately Vienna, Brussels, and Zurich rank much higher on the list for me.

Just feel the need to counter people besmirching my city and popping off about how riddled Vancouver is with druggies and crime.

that's a lot of big event that happened there in vancouver.

Yeah, it was quite the weekend. Sweden performed the fireworks show last night, and it cost approx. $1 Million to put on the show so it's huge and lasts 30 minutes.

A wierd thing I found, when I put my place up for temporary rental on Craig's List so someone could look after my cat when I went backpacking, was that dozens of people from Phoenix responded just so they could escape the summer heat.

BTW, if anyone wants to stay at my place across the street from the ocean and beach...from Oct. 25 for 4 weeks (I am taking a 23 day cruise down the west coast through the Panama Canal and up to NYC), I would be happy to have somebody stay for taking care of my cat.

Is your cat a big cry baby too?

I'll gladly do it

Leave me your ICQ/email info and we'll talk...

No, we are both tough enough that we are not putting our tail between our legs and running away to another country because of all the crime here.

My email is hershie at adultcontentzone -dot- com

Lets talk!

Wooot! i'm in victoria... woot elli rocks.

we need to really slow down the immigration though, too many foreigners coming over and ruining the goodness of the city

You got mail

fuck yes
I love it here too

fireworks were great on saturday

Lol, what a tool.

I'm leaving this country because of the tax and weather primarily. Nothing to do with the crime. In fact, I never said the crime was bad, just that it's been getting worse over the years. It doesn't even make sense that someone would move to a third world country to escape crime in Canada.

hahha thanks man!

Hershie, you forgot! There are big signs in YVR stating that it is the #1 customer rated airport in North America!

YVR is a nice airport. Customs and Immigration setup isn't even too bad.

Stating you live in a great city is totally subjective and one thing, but it is quite another when your city is recognized by several authoritative studies as #1 in the world amongst hundreds of others looked at. There is a bit more to Vancouver than Hastings Street.

Thanks, got it and will confirm dates...and get back this week.