#walkability

#walkability

Growing up in the midsize city of Vancouver, Canada, I always dreamed of living in a big metropolis - a cultural hub where something was always going on, with endless places to explore. For a while, I did. When I started dating a Brit, I moved to his hometown of Birmingham, England, the second-largest city in the UK population-wise, with over a million residents.

School board officials in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood recently voted 4-1 to convert Lincoln Elementary school into a centralized early learning center, and re-direct all pre-kindergarten children from their neighborhood schools to there - a small but seismic change that advocates say will effectively sacrifice district's identity as a "walking school district" where virtually every student can access the classroom on foot.

If understated design, art and lake views are high on your must-have list, the best hotels in Zürich are exemplary. The Swiss city is a more subtle choice than, say, Paris or Rome, and its hotel scene is naturally more compact. How could it be otherwise? The old yet glamorous city - Switzerland's largest - is home to less than half a million people,

The city of Lisbon, Portugal, ranked as the happiest destination in the world for travelers, according to a study from BookRetreats, which offers packaged wellness vacations. That was thanks to its more than 2,800 hours of annual sunshine, expansive green spaces, and healthy restaurants throughout. "Walkability is another of Lisbon's mood-boosters," company wrote in its study. "The city is compact and easy to navigate on foot, with panoramic viewpoints that reward slow exploration."