The Trip Advisor website had a survey for travelers to rank world cities in nine categories such as friendliest locals, cleanliness, public transportation, etc.
Tokyo ranked first place in five categories and second place in another.
Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple (image from “Trip Advisor”)
Here are the top three cities in each of the nine categories:
| Category | First place | Second place | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friendliest locals | Cancun | Tokyo | Lisbon |
| Friendliest taxi drivers | Tokyo | Cancun | Singapore |
| Best taxi services | Tokyo | Singapore | Dubai |
| Cleanest streets | Tokyo | Singapore | Zurich |
| Ease of getting around | Zurich | Vienna | Singapore |
| Best public transport | Tokyo | Zurich | Munich |
| Best value for money | Lisbon | Budapest | Bangkok |
| Best for shopping | New York City | Bangkok | Dubai |
| Safest city | Tokyo | Singapore | Dubrovnik |
And here were the ones that were voted as the worst in the same categories (except for “Safest city”…for some reason that category wasn’t listed on the site):
| Category | Last place | Second to last | Third to last |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friendliest locals | Moscow | London | Hong Kong |
| Friendliest taxi drivers | Moscow | Beijing | Brussels |
| Best taxi services | Moscow | Beijing | Kuala Lumpur |
| Cleanest streets | Mumbai | Marrakech | Punta Cana |
| Ease of getting around | Mumbai | Punta Cana | Moscow |
| Best Public Transport | Hanoi | Sharm el Sheikh | Marrakech |
| Best value for money | Oslo | Moscow | Zurich |
| Best for shopping | Moscow | Oslo | Punta Cana |
Have you been to any of these cities? Do you agree with the ranking?
Which cities would you rank as best and worst?
Tokyo Five 
I’ve visited almost all of these cities mentioned and I 100% agree. Tokyo is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Last time when I fly from the Tokyo back to Europe I was I made the stop-over in Moscow and then in London. After spending the month in Japan, it was some kind of shock. After meeting friendly an honorable people I’ve met annoying faces first at Moscow Airpot and then battered tube in London and streets covered with mess and I was so sad… thinking what makes this difference between Europe and Japan. People? Environment?
Now I’m traveling around the world so I can see how people live in another countries and try to understand and learn best of their cultures. But what can I tell it’s that seeing Japan, the culture and overall lifestyle – changed me a lot. I felt like I’m the barbarian who first time entered the city of Rome and I’d say I’m very well ethically and personally educated person.
So I’m planing to visit Japan again, again and again, and I suggest it to all people around me, because this is the civilisation from which we all can learn small but important things.
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Did you stay in Japan for a month?
Did you see much of this country?
Do you travel a lot for business? Or personal holidays?
What city are you from?
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I’m assuming the survey listed cities to be ranked as opposed to respondents filling in their own ideas. I’d like to know what all the choices were.
I thought Singapore was much, cleaner than Tokyo, but Beijing much, much dirtier than Moscow! Beijing’s filth was surprising to me b/c there are trash cans everywhere, but people continually just threw their trash on the ground wherever they happened to be standing. Conversely, finding a trash can in Tokyo can sometimes be like trying to find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, but there’s very little trash in the street.
Singapore’s public transit is much easier to use than Tokyo’s but not nearly as…..all encompassing? It doesn’t cover nearly as much of the city as Tokyo’s does. I never took a taxi in Moscow, but I can’t imagine it being worse than Beijing! The taxi service there was horrific. On our last taxi to the airport, I kept having to clap loudly and yell at our driver b/c he kept falling asleep!!!!
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The survey was based on forty popular tourist destinations … but I’m not sure what all forty of the cities were.
Rather than allowing anyone to rank any city, the TripAdvisor site asked a few thousand people to rank the cities that they’ve actually visited based on the nine criteria.
And … if I was in a taxi with a sleepy driver, I’d have him pull over and let me out … and I’d recommend that he take a nap!
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Staying in the taxi and trying to keep the driver awake seemed the lesser of two evils. Getting out of the taxi would have meant being stranded on the side of the expressway, in a remote area, in the middle of the night, with 3 kids, in a country where I don’t speak the language!
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I see your point … that’d be a dilemma.
Wouldn’t want to be in a car with an unsafe driver and wouldn’t want to be stranded either!
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I’ve got to admit we do love Tokyo! We usually spend at least 4-5 days there whenever we are in Japan.
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How often do you visit Japan?
(And… Merry Xmas, by the way )
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I would totally agree with Tokyo as having the cleanest streets. That still amazes me. And in comparison, when we visited Washington DC a few months later, it made it feel like they should be in last place for that. Ugh. And the smell? Gross.
I can’t speak to the taxi situation because we never needed to take one. Which is why it surprises me that Tokyo didn’t make the top three for ease of getting around. The train system made that a piece of cake!
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I think Tokyo didn’t rank high on “ease of getting around” because it was based on how easy it is for someone who doesn’t understand the spoken or written local language can get around the city.
There’s more English in Japan than there was twenty-some years ago … but still not alot.
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