New York City, NY

New York is cool. I’ve visited multiple times to see my family throughout my life, and recently came back from my first post-COVID trip there. Yes, it’s very expensive — but there is no city on earth that’s more captivating in my opinion. I used to think that New Yorkers were smug by claiming that NYC was better than everywhere else, but now I totally get it lol.

My personal favourite neighbourhood is the Upper East Side, which is where you’ll find the coveted Museum Mile. But I also like Harlem and Brooklyn. Truthfully, the best thing you can do is just wander around with stops in local eateries along the way.

As another reviewer mentioned, there’s a lot of main character energy in NYC. Personally, I love that — and I always feel energised when I’m here. It makes me want to go out and achieve my biggest dreams, and the New York skyline is captivating.

In terms of safety, I actually found NYC safer when visiting than I have prior to COVID. I may have just been lucky, and I was only there for a week, but that’s my opinion/experience. YMMV, of course. Some subway stations made me feel on edge, but my experience was fine for the most part. (I still think the subway needs a huge revamp, though, as it’s definitely looking quite tired 😄).

I would love to come back here and live for 3-12 months. Anything more than that would probably be too much for me personally, but at least visiting is something that you must do at least once. And even if you come here 20+ times, there’ll always be something interesting that you haven’t seen/experienced before.

Welcome to the city of main characters. New Yorkers can be incredibly friendly, we're quick to invite you into our places and plans and most of us enjoy a revolving circle of not-so-close friends and a little core group of people. New York makes it easy to do the best work of your life and have fun all night in between. Everything is a tap away. Nightlife can be fun, but the real underground parties have all progressively moved out to no-mans-land in Ridgewood and Bushwick (semi-convenient only to those already in Brooklyn). Most comfortable pockets of the city have devolved to cater to a growing class of international people with unfathomable levels of wealth and prestigious young professional ivy-league Americans doing their 2 years before they get filtered out or realize it's not sustainable. Downtown Manhattan and North Brooklyn are the most desirable places to be, but good luck – a reasonably located 1 bedroom apartment with the living standards of any nice European easily city runs $4.5-6k. It's not hard to drop $200 on dinner and drinks for two, and probably every single night since you won't any have time to cook after working to pay for it all. I've watched $12k+ per month go down the drain over my NYC tenure, but that's the price to be in New York.

I've lived in New York City - Brooklyn - for over 20 years. For visiting tourists, the best neighborhood to stay in is NOT Bushwick. Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Ft. Green or Brooklyn Heights is preferable. Plenty of good transportation in those areas - subway, buses or Uber. Easy access to beaches in Long Island and New Jersey. There's plenty to do in NYC. Great restaurants, Broadway plays (!), and in the summer you frequently can catch a free concert.

Having spent a total of two weeks in London on two separate occasions and having lived in NYC for two years, both are among my favorite cities in the world.

Londoners are quite internationally and ethnically diverse, and seemingly better educated and more intellectual than New Yorkers in aggregate. The city very clean with a stunning mix of modern and historic architecture, and arguably has Europe's best public transit in terms of signage, availability, cleanliness and general efficiency. Meanwhile, New York is almost universally filthy and has embarrassingly decrepit public transit everywhere and drab brown brick buildings anywhere outside the hip parts of Manhattan/Brooklyn. London also has far more green space than NYC, with clean and beautiful parks throughout the city. The level of destitution that one can witness in NYC simply doesn't exist in London (or the rest of western Europe).

People are a bit nicer in London. It's easier to make friends in NYC and its nightlife is the world's best, but close friendships can be elusive in both cities due to their sheer size and the fact that most people who have lived there for any significant period of time are already saturated with social contacts. For what it's worth, I will admit that Manhattanites and Brooklynites tend to be far better looking than their central London counterparts, and I prefer the additional sunshine in NYC year-round despite the more extreme temperatures. London also lacks beaches, whereas NYC's Coney Island is an incomparably massive and eclectic beach party all summer while Brighton Beach and Far Rockaway are cleaner and family-friendlier alternatives.

New York feels like home - a really expensive home that is, but home!

Best city in the world! You can certainly live the Nomad life in NYC for a lot less than 5k a month! I've been doing it since December 2018 for around $2500/mo. AirBnB is the way to go!

One of the most well known cities, few will be surprised by what they see and experience. Very high cost of living can make it tough for many nomads. A lot of things to see and do but most of that costs money. Can feel overwhelming and oppressively business oriented (ie, full of very serious yuppies and places catering to them), especially in Manhattan south of Harlem. Ton of single people, which is good on paper but means everyone you date will get distracted by another person, or multiple, unless you are extremely exceptional, before you have a chance to meet again, never ends. Weather sucks hard from July to August and January to March/April. It's an okay city if you're a biker and varies a lot. Some areas are quite protected, others have no bike lanes. In general, it can be dangerous if you want to commute by bike, it's not Amsterdam. Friendliness of the people varies a lot. I think income/wealth, where they grew up, where they live within NYC, their job, etc. can often give you an idea of what to expect. Service at stores is usually pretty unhelpful and unfriendly but, again, it varies, even within the same store. Internet is fast for the most part. Great selection of food, just a bit pricey besides some of the cheaper pizza slices. Transportation system is good, no need for a car. However, the subway lines are notorious for having issues during rush hour and are usually jam packed. Also, the stations look decrepit and are way out of date. It's pretty safe. Street scams are more prevalent in tourist areas, pick-pocketing and random phone snatching isn't really anything most people worry about. Can be very noisy depending on where you live. You may wake up to extremely loud construction every morning.