What are the world’s best places to live? Are you looking for the coolest neighbourhood to be seen in, the top city to work in or just the best place to score a hot (or maybe just cheap) date?
You guessed it, Australia scores rather well across these lifestyle essentials (smiley face). Oh, and the UK gets a few nods too.
Choosing a livaeble country
Which country would offer you the most livable experience? Let’s face it, you don’t want to be stuck somewhere with limited Wi-Fi hotspots or a short supply of good coffee.
Boston Consulting Group and Totaljobs crunched the numbers and they are pretty confident you would be okay in Australia. Their survey included more than 200,000 people from 189 countries.
According to their report, Australia ranked 7th in the world’s best countries to live in. This is comforting news for all those expats and locals Down Under.
You could have done worse if you chose Spain, Italy or Sweden who ranked 8th, 9th and 10th respectively. France narrowly beat Australia into 6th position and America, Britain and Canada took the three top spots.
Alternatively, a report earlier this month by the OECD had Australia at #1 country for wellbeing and Canberra (yes, Canberra!) as the world’s most liveable city.
The best world cities to work in
An Australian city made it to the top five of Boston Consulting Group and Totaljobs’s list, yes you guessed it, Sydney Australia is considered the 4th best place in the world to conduct your efforts in the rat race.
Apparently it is nicer to work in Sydney than it is to work in Madrid, Berlin, Barcelona, Toronto, Singapore and Rome – all ranking from 5th position down to 10th.
But Sydney is not as good as London, New York and Paris says the report, with those three respectively raking 1st to 3rd.
Picking the most fly suburb is vital
Is your local neighbourbood not delivering on hot, trendy, beautiful people? Then you have a few options. Thanks to the tiring work of the good folks at Thillist.com we can tell you where your needs can be met.
Through their ‘scientific’ fact-finding efforts it was established that Tamarama, Sydney is the 6th coolest suburb on Earth. Yes, on Earth!
Of Tamarama, Thrilist.com says, “A predominantly gay beach town during the ’80s and ’90s, “Glamarama” (as it was affectionately known) is decidedly less gay these days, though equally as welcoming. With nearly half its residents between the ages of 20 and 39, this seaside suburb of Sydney is exactly what you’d expect from an Australian beach community: laid back, insanely expensive, and packed to the gills with obnoxiously attractive yet friendly Aussies.
Tamarama beat Palermo Soho, Argentina at number 7, Saint-Germain-des-Pres in Paris, France ranking as 9th coolest and even Shimokitazawa in Tokyo, Japan which placed at 10th position.
Plenty of fish in the sea… in Sydney
Whatever you do, if you are single and looking for romance stay put, says The Travel Channel… perhaps surprisingly (that’s certainly not my experience – ed).
Sydney is still a good place to meet your soul mate, or at least you’d have a decent selection of singletons to pick up the dinner tab.
Sydney is the 9th best place to meet singles beating San Francisco. But another Australian city seems to be popping at the seams with eligible dates. The Travel Channel says Melbourne is an excellent place to meet singles, beaten only by New York.
Date night on the cheap
Let’s just recap. We told you where to live and it is pretty much clear that Australia is soaked in milk and honey and Sydney is top dog there, all things considered. But how much will that milk and honey put you out of pocket?
The Cheap Date Index says if you found a cool place in Sydney to live and work and you met your romantic match you had better take some cooking lessons.
Yes, the Deutsche Bank released its annual cheap date index based on the cost of a movie and McDonald’s (we guess they don’t care if there will be a second date or not). It says such a date in Sydney will set you back $104 (American).
But take heart in London; you may need to get that credit card out at $121 USD per cheap date.
Cheaper than Sydney is Melbourne at $97, New York at $93 and San Francisco at $89 for a similar night out queuing for your food and snuggling in the back row.
IMAGES: (Courtesy Shutterstock.com)
