Zurich came 21st in Time Out's huge City Life Index survey this year, with Chicago today revealed as the world’s number one city for having fun and enjoying city life. The US city is followed by Porto, New York, Melbourne and London in the Time Out City Life Index charting the most exciting cities right now.
To identify which cities are thrilling locals the most and should be on everyone’s travel hot list this year, 15,000 residents in 32 cities were surveyed by Time Out in collaboration with Tapestry Research. In the survey, each city was scored across key lifestyles areas such as food, drink, culture, friendliness, affordability, happiness and liveability to uncover what makes (and breaks) life in the city.
Out of 32 territories Zurich was 21st, with 115.3 points, ahead of Beijing, Washington, D.C., Bangkok, Moscow, Hong Kong, Miami, Sydney, Dubai, Boston, Singapore and Istanbul. The Swiss city shared the sporty top spot with Melbourne, showing that its residents are more than keen on an active lifestyle.
One of the points that let Zurich down though was its affordability with a typical night out averaging CHF170.00, even higher than Dubai (CHF149.00) and well above the cheapest city Porto, at just CHF34.48.
Some of the key qualities that make a city great to live, as revealed in the survey, include feeling liberated in one's habitat and proud of the city, good nightlife, great culture and live music. Surprisingly public transport, feeling safe and making new friends were considered less important overall.