Though I'm not a city kind of guy, having traveled to many cities both in the US and abroad, I'm inclined to say that San Francisco is still my favorite. Say what you will about your own favorite haunt, in the Bay Area, San Francisco is the proverbial Center of the Universe... pretty much anywhere in Northern California, -- and certainly in the surrounding bay counties -- when somebody says "I'm going to the city," it's understood: the speaker means San Francisco.

It's one of the most cosmopolitan places anywhere, filled with diverse cultures from around the world. And yet, it doesn't take itself too seriously. Original home to the United Nations, it embodies a multi-cultural worldliness matched by few other places in the world. As much as any other city, it can rightly claim to be "meeting place of the world."