[patforna]

I don't think there's an objectively best place to live. Some people like bars while others like mountains. Some like crowds while others like solitude, etc. And that's totally cool, because we're all different. I've lived 1 year in CA, 2 years in Sydney, 9 years in London and just moved back to Switzerland (where I'm from) a few days ago. All the places I've lived in had their nice and not so nice sides. Guess that, at the end of the day, it's about figuring out what's right for you and accepting the tradeoffs. I, for one, am very grateful that I'm able to choose where to live because not all of us can.

[lmm]

Yes and no. Different places are better for different things, but some places do combine a lot of positive factors, and some places do combine a lot of negative factors; I suspect there really are pairs of cities where you can say that X is just better than Y for most reasonable criteria.

Even if you don't believe that, many people on this site have the choice between London and San Francisco, so it's well worth exploring the differences between them here.