User blog comment:Mattp123/Best city in Skyrim?/@comment-1647479-20120306021424/@comment-4588723-20120307175520

Ditto that, Markarth for looking awesome, Whiterun for having the best stuff in it (Skyforge, Merchants, Jorrvaskr, etc.)...but Riften has the best ambience, it's like Tamriel's tamer version of Sin City.