We asked our Twitter and Facebook followers to vote for the most beautiful city in the world. From Europe to Asia, these are the places that came top in the poll.<\/p>\n
Vancouver is a new, multicultural city, and much of the area\u2019s earlier immigration focused on itsChinatown<\/strong>, just one of a number of ethnic enclaves \u2013 Italian, Greek, Indian and Japanese in particular \u2013 which lend the city its cosmopolitan vibe. Although a wealthy city, Vancouver\u2019s Downtown Eastside with its highly visible homeless population and addicts are at odds with the glitz of more lush residential neighbourhoods. Vancouver\u2019s youthful population has nurtured a thriving\u00a0counterculture<\/strong>, distinguished by varied restaurants, secondhand shops, avant-garde galleries, clubs and bars. And at the top of the scale are\u00a0restaurants<\/strong>\u00a0as good \u2013 and as varied \u2013 as any in the world.<\/p>\n Vancouver is not a city that requires relentless sightseeing, but a handful of sights make worthwhile viewing by any standards. You\u2019ll inevitably spend a good deal of time in the\u00a0Downtown<\/strong>area and its Victorian-era equivalent,\u00a0Gastown<\/strong>, a hip stretch of boutique shops and coffee houses. Chinatown could easily absorb a morning and contains more than its share of interesting shops and restaurants. The former warehouse district of\u00a0Yaletown<\/strong>, on Downtown\u2019s southeast fringes, is also great for exploring: a compact grid full of chic caf\u00e9s, galleries and contemporary restaurants\u00a0and bars. For a taste of the city\u2019s greener\u00a0side, hit\u00a0Stanley Park<\/strong>, a huge area of semi-wild parkland, forest and beaches that crowns the northern tip of the Downtown peninsula. Take a walk or a bike ride here and follow it up with a stroll to the beach. Be certain to spend a morning on\u00a0Granville Island<\/strong>, the city\u2019s most tempting spot for wandering, eating and people-watching. If you prefer a cultural slant, hit the spectacular\u00a0Museum of Anthropology<\/strong>\u00a0or the museums ofVanier Park<\/strong>, the latter easily accessible from Granville Island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Starting the countdown is Vancouver, and there’s little wonder why this city has made the cut. With an unrivalled setting between water and the mountains, there may not be a more stunning city in Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,18],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-breaks","category-travel","tag-videos","post_format-post-format-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}