[jMyles]

I don't want to take away from the importance of clean beaches and water, but there are many good answers to your question, at least as St. Pete goes:

* Live music

* Great food

* Bike and pedestrian friendliness

* Wildlife

* Sports and outdoor activities in winter

* Traditional outdoor craft and fruit markets

* Exposure to greater racial, ethnic, and lingual diversity than is present in most of the USA

[rbanffy]

It appeals to Americans, but Europeans have all that, with the exception of the last one, just a train away.

[jMyles]

> just a train away

I don't think any continental European city has the quality and diversity of live music that St. Pete has. Prague is perhaps closest.

Obviously Dublin and Glasgow are world class, if they're a train away for you.

Also, wildlife? And local fruit?

My personal anecdata is that many Europeans come to and enjoy Florida's west coast for these reasons.

[rbanffy]

For Dublin, I can use the tram (an inconvenience, as I need to reach the continent by sea or plane), but Europe is wildly diverse and, as good as Glasgow, Prague, Berlin, etc are, there's always the feeling of missing out on something a couple hours away.

Wildlife, I agree, leaves something to be desired. It's unavoidable, as this place has been inhabited since the emergence of our species as a dominant power. It's hard to walk by without stepping on someone's grave (one of the reasons we don't have a subway is that nobody dares to dig and find some invaluable archaeological site).

As for St. Pete, I have my friends who live there, and in Tampa, Orlando, and Miami, and I enjoy their company and host them when they come over here. They know how to throw a party.

[jMyles]

> there's always the feeling of missing out on something a couple hours away.

Yeah, I've certainly had that feeling many times. :-)

But I do think there's a categorical difference: in several US cities (I use St. Pete as an example, as it has had a beautiful explosion of live music in the past few years), it's possible to see Blues, Rock, Country, Hip-hop, Bluegrass, Jazz and a Grateful Dead cover band all within walking or cycling distance. I've looked high and low in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Copenhagen, Madrid, Barcelona, Naples, and while I've seen some good music here an there, I haven't been able to connect quite as tightly.

Now Glasgow, that place is amazing. You can see righteous pub trad, which runs the gammut of sounds from classical to bluegrass, in like four different places every night. It's incredible.

Am I looking in the wrong places?

It's not merely an academic question: I'll be planning my next Europe tour soon, and the venues we might play / bands for whom we might open in Prague are pretty obvious. But elsewhere, we kinda just have to plan our own events for the most part.

[FrustratedMonky]

Yeah, but even in St. Pete. How many of these activities are on the water. Like back paths, etc.. are along water ways.