Edinburgh has been crowned as the best city in the world in an extensive new study.
The Scottish capital has been named best-of-the-best by Time Out magazine, which quizzed thousands of city-dwellers worldwide about their hometowns.
They asked about the food scene, what bars and pubs were like, how beautiful and extensive art galleries and museums are, and about many other qualities such as nightlife and the dating scene.
"The idea is to create a global snapshot of city living, and point people in the direction of the places locals are really raving about," the magazine explains.
After two years of pandemic - during which time the focus of the rankings shifted to how cities coped with coronavirus and pulled together - the study now gives extra weighting to how places are coping post coronavirus peak.
"Our top cities this year are the ones with thriving nightlife, amazing food and drink, and art, culture and museums galore," the magazine continues.
"We’ve highlighted places that aren’t boring or overly expensive or overrated, and we’ve ensured that our top picks also score well for practical stuff like walkability, good public transport and safety, as well as sustainability."
Brits, and particularly Scots (or at least those living on the east coast), will be proud to discover that Edinburgh is now globe toping.
Time Out highlighted its many new openings, such as Glasgow Asian-inspired favourite Ka Pao, Stockbridge chocolate café Ocelot and Leith neighbourhood gem Cocorico.
Edinburgh ranked highly across all categories and came top for both the number of residents who thought the city was beautiful (95 percent) and those who deemed it walkable (93 percent).
It's a double whammy for Scotland this year, with Glasgow behind just Chicago and Medillin in Colombia in fourth place.
"Casual kindness and good humour prevail in the city voted friendliest in this year’s Index," writes Time Out.
"Glasgow excels at being outgoing and at going out. At SWG3, the world’s first body-heated club, dancing literally helps keep the lights on.
"There are now two Michelin-star restaurants after a long drought (Cail Bruich and Unalome), yet a burgeoning dining scene is best characterised by friendly informality and good value for money (Glasgow was the city second least likely to be described as expensive)."
The next highest scoring entry from Britain is Manchester, which came in at 13.
Despite losing the top spot to Glasgow, a huge proportion of Mancunians (74 percent) still vouch for their city’s friendliness.
On the flipside, just 11 percent said they thought Manchester was a beautiful city – the lowest in the world.
It will please the northerners and Scots that London has been left in fourth place in the UK rankings, coming in 17 overall.
A sizeable 94% of Londoners said the city had a great variety of things to do, and many praised the resurgence of nightclubs and festivals.
Behind London in 22nd place is Birmingham, which was praised by its residents for diversity, cheapness and as a place where you can express who you are.
To see the full rankings click here.
