Top 10 cities according to Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2014

The Mother City, home to soaring Table Mountain, golden beaches and bountiful vineyards, is an old pro at capturing people’s hearts.
The World Design Capital 2014 is in the process of using innovative design to transform the city. It’s already one good-looking metropolis, from the brightly painted facades of the Bo-Kaap and the bathing chalets of Muizenberg to the Afro-chic decor of its restaurants and bars, and the striking street art and innovation incubators of The Fringe and Woodstock.

New Zealand's indigenous Maori people call this land Tāmaki Makaurau, desired by many and fought over for its riches. Auckland is full of things to see and do, where stunning natural beauty goes hand in hand with big city sophistication.

Adelaide has transformed itself into the perfect host city. It has accumulated some of Australia’s most popular sporting and arts events, including the cultural tour de force of the Adelaide Festival, the Adelaide Fringe Festival and WOMADelaide. The year 2014 beckons big changes for the city’s heart, with the completion of the multimillion-dollar refurbishment of the Adelaide Oval, which will link central Adelaide with the Oval and its beautiful surrounding parklands, and historic North Adelaide further on.

Experience a city buzzing with energy in the vibrant downtown and colorful neighborhoods. Whether you're visiting for business or pleasure, you will find world-class dining, shopping, entertainment, and hotels and accommodations here in the largest and most-visited city in the Midwest.

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. The 2011 census recorded 603,502 people in the city, making it the eighth largest Canadian municipality. Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada.

The buzz about Shanghai is electric: welcome to the city everyone wants to see (and be seen in). If China is the world’s industrial motor, Shanghai is China’s high-performance V8. The metro system – which ran to a modest three lines in 2000 – will open the 59km-long, high-speed line 16 by 2014; it’s now the third-longest network in the world. Upon completion, the twisting 121-storey Shanghai Tower will be the tallest building in China, the second-tallest in the world and the jewel in the Lujiazui crown. It will house the highest hotel in the world, a coveted trophy Shanghai has held twice over the past 15 years. To cap it all, Shanghai recently expanded its visa-free transit quota to 72 hours for citizens of 45 nations, so if you’re heading on somewhere else and don’t have a Chinese visa, you can still get a three-day look in.

The European Athletics Championships are coming to Zurich. Around 1400 athletes from 50 countries will be hunting for medals in 47 disciplines. 250 000 fans are expected to attend the competitions at the legendary Letzigrund Stadium. 360 million viewers will be watching the event on TV. And the city itself will be under the spell of an athletics festival, full of action, suspense, and emotion during six days.

Today, with two decades of freedom (and a renewed status as Latvia’s capital) under its belt, Riga is reclaiming its rightful title as the cosmopolitan cornerstone of the Baltic. Over the past few years hipster-chic cafes have spread like wildfire throughout the city centre, sweaty pork-and-potato dinners have been swapped for savvy new-Nordic-inspired dishes, and hundreds of crumbling facades are being restored to their brilliant, art nouveau lustre – all in time for Riga to earn the long-deserved honour of being named the European Capital of Culture
Riga is also known for its great accommodation - The Radisson Blu Hotel Latvija, Riga offers excellent business & leisure facilities. Located in central old part of Riga.

The waterfalls just outside of the town in Topes de Collantes are beautiful.
There is also salsa dancing in the square at night. Check out the colonial homes and furniture too. The houses are open and some of the antiquities are visible from the streets. Casa de la Música: It is an open air location where there is a small platform from which groups perform at night. Usually, there is salsa musica and great salsa dancers there enjoy the music and dance and perform with foreigners. It is great to enjoy a few drinks there as well.

Paris is being reborn. Following a push to reduce the cars clogging one of Europe’s most congested cities, particularly its Unesco World Heritage–listed riverbanks, 1.5km of former expressway on the Seine’s Right Bank now incorporates walkways and cycleways. The pièce de résistance is the Left Bank’s new 2.5km-long car-free zone between the Pont de l’Alma and the Musée d’Orsay; floating gardens on 1800 sq metres of artificial islands and pedestrian promenades breathe new life into the once traffic-choked stretch. And that's not all: a gold ‘flying carpet’ roof crowns the interior courtyard of the Louvre’s new Islamic art galleries. Nine new bells replicating the original medieval chimes ring out from Notre Dame. After years of renovations, the Musée Picasso will again display works inside a 17th-century Marais mansion. The world’s most beautiful city is now even more beautiful.