Best mountain towns in the world? (yard, cities, drive)

[Trimac20]

I'm sure there are plenty, but the only ones I've been to are:

Queenstown, New Zealand: On a lake, kind of a tourist centre for snow-sports and other adventure sports, nice setting but I find it lacks that true 'ski village' atmosphere of places in N.America and Europe.

Cradle Mountain, Tasmania: A very scenic wilderness spot in NW Tasmania, Australia.

Wuyishan (town), China, Fujian province: Very scenic, karst cliffs and lush sub-tropical rainforest.

Sapa, Vietnam: French colonial architecture, rice paddies, mountains and fog looks almost like Geneva in Asia

[BigSwede]

Portland, Oregon has a beautiful skyline with the mountains in the background, and so does Honolulu and Rio de Janeiro.

[jtur88]

Montreal has a mountain right downtown, you have to go around it (a 6-mile circle)to get anywhere. Which is a very nice feature.

[Joe90]

Originally Posted by Trimac20

I'm sure there are plenty, but the only ones I've been to are:

Queenstown, New Zealand: On a lake, kind of a tourist centre for snow-sports and other adventure sports, nice setting but I find it lacks that true 'ski village' atmosphere of places in N.America and Europe.

Cradle Mountain, Tasmania: A very scenic wilderness spot in NW Tasmania, Australia.

Wuyishan (town), China, Fujian province: Very scenic, karst cliffs and lush sub-tropical rainforest.

Sapa, Vietnam: French colonial architecture, rice paddies, mountains and fog looks almost like Geneva in Asia

Queenstown isn't what I would call a ski Village. It's primarily a summer resort, with the bonus of skiing nearby.

Australia has better ski villages than NZ by a mile.

[Pivot Point]

Interlaken, Switzerland
Stowe, VT

[ChrisInLeadville]

Leadville Colorado Baby!

It has amazing vista's, real people and a historic downtown, It is not commercialized like a lot of other ski towns.

Leadville does goofy stuff like the St Patricks day practice parade and Ski joring with horses down the main street and donkl

it is affordable living. Leadville has extreme 100 mile mountain bike and running races.

[marlaver]

Heiligenblut, Austria:



Hallstatt, Austria:

[jtur88]

Of all the places I've ever been that are higher than about 7,000 feet, Sucre, Bolivia, is by far the best. Beautiful historic old city, big university, no tourists, no dirty industries, no slums or gross poverty. Big enough to be a proper city (250,000) but small enough to not be a metropolis.

[LEFTIMAGE]

Originally Posted by jtur88

Montreal has a mountain right downtown, you have to go around it (a 6-mile circle)to get anywhere. Which is a very nice feature.

Here is the downtown mountain he speaks of. First vid scaling the mountain. Second, descending into downtown core.


Powerful Fall Colors in Montreal (DSLR) - YouTube



Downtown Montreal: Mountain approach (DSLR) - YouTube

[Thepastpresentandfuture]

Some Of The Best Mountain Towns in the World:

Grenoble, France: Grenoble and Chamonix don’t seem that known internationally. France is so much more than just Paris, and has a lot of other wonderful, impressive, worthwhile, and inspiring places to explore, get to know, and experience.

Chamonix, France

Sion, Switzerland

St Moritz, Switzerland

Innsbruck, Austria

Lhasa, Tibet China

Nagano, Japan

Lijiang, China

Shimla, India

Whistler, Canada

Banff, Canada

Aspen Colorado USA

Telluride Colorado USA.



There is also a lot of bigger cities with very close proximity to mountainous scenery:

Zurich, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Lyon, France
Seattle, USA
Portland, USA
Vancouver, Canada
Calgary, Canada
Denver, USA
Kunming, China
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Almaty, Kazakhstan
Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Thimphu, Bhutan
Kathmandu, Nepal
Tokyo, Japan
Taipei, Taiwan
Quito, Ecuador
Milan, Italy