16. San Francisco
San Francisco packs a remarkable variety of neighborhoods—fit for hippies and hipsters alike—into its compact 40 square miles. These distinct pockets showcase everything from pastel Victorian townhouses to elegant Art Deco skyscrapers, with plenty of independent bookstores and galleries, free-trade coffee shops, and indie-designer ateliers. Then there’s the sublime food, much of it prepared with sustainable, local ingredients—a model that’s caught on in cities across the U.S.