Seoul Beats Tokyo as World’s Best Big City

Seoul's city government announced the result on October 8. Condé Nast Traveler released this year's Readers' Choice Awards rankings on October 6 local time, and Seoul landed at the top of the big city category. It was fifth the year before, so the city vaulted four places in a single year.

Tokyo came in second, followed by Phnom Penh, Shanghai and Sydney. Now in its 39th year, the awards are decided by reader votes, and about 800,000 ballots were cast across every category, from cities to hotels and resorts.

What the magazine highlighted about Seoul is its range. Beyond the pull of the Korean Wave, with K-pop, K-beauty and K-dramas, it pointed to a city where more than 2,000 years of history sits right next to cutting-edge technology. Beauty, wellness, art and food are all on the menu, the magazine said, and budgets can run from shoestring to luxury.

Other international outlets have been singing Seoul's praises too. The UK edition of Condé Nast Traveler ranked the city third in its 'friendliest cities' list this year. In September, Time Out named Jongno 3-ga the world's 'coolest neighborhood,' citing the hanok of Ikseon-dong, long-running restaurants, and the workshops and indie shops on Seosunra-gil, which runs along the stone wall of Jongmyo Shrine. And in a survey released in August, the US outlet Trazy Travel named Seoul a top city for global Millennials and Gen Z (known in Korea as 'MZ') for the fifth year in a row.