Your Favourite Hold/City

[Crepe the Ashlander]

Simple. Just choose your favourite Hold or City, and tell us why this is your favourite Hold/City, be it the scenery, the inhabitants, or the locations.

My favourite is The Reach and Markarth, mostly because I love Dwarven ruins thus the city of Markarth appealed to me greatly, and then when I explored the Hold some more I found some fantastic sights, for example that tower that you go to in the far south-west in the Mehrunes Dagon quest, that view is spectacular, you can see Dawnstar from the top of that tower, I swear!

[Chaos the N'wah]

As much as I love Dwemer cities, Markarth creeps me out (as does Dawnstar and Falkreath).
Windhelm, Morthal, Riften, and Winterhold all feel uninviting and worn down.
Solitude is bright and friendly, but it's at the edge of the map and Imperial biased

So Whiterun it is! Now if we could just get rid of Nazeem and all the kids...

[Crepe the Ashlander]

If I had to choose as second favorite I would definitely go for Whiterun as well, it felt very inviting, and apart from the Battle-Born/Gray-Mane debate not much action happened there as well, so it felt quite cosy.

[Giordano]

Riften, hands down. I loved the entire area of the Rift the moment I stepped foot in it, and the city was just icing on the cake.

Then, well I guess Solitude. I was walking towards it from the swamp and saw the huge rock arch over the water and thought "Hey, on top of that would be a cool place to place a tower or something." I was off more than a few buildings...

[Gallus]

I picked Markarth. City built right into the mountain. Waterfalls right in the city. Nice art style for buildings and such. Looks great and has my favorite buyable house. Markarth home imo is perfect mix between quality, and rugged looks. The home doesn't look as beat up and run down as whiterun or riften houses, but not as fruity and typical as Solitude home.

Overall though, I'd say that all the cities / areas have their own charm to them, so it was hard to pick a favorite. One of my fears when I first heard about Skyrim was that it was going to be 100% snow/ice filled box. Was great to see that the game had a good diversity in scenery and cities weren't all cookie cutters.

[OblivionDuruza]

Whiterun, it's like the new Balmora for me. Whether it be defending the city from Dragons or usurpers like the Stormcloaks, I've invested too much in the place not to love it. Plus, I think I was instantly captured by that concept art of Dragonsreach, and the entire art direction of the city, while a tad reminiscent of Edoras, is rather likeable. Now if only The Companions didn't require you to make such a strong commitment.

[Yomnom]

Whiterun feels cozier. Markath is beautiful... however its location is not the best. Riften is interesting too. I vote Whiterun, even though the house is not that special and some citizens (especially the children) are annoying.

[Frost Mage]

Whiterun, it's like the new Balmora for me. Whether it be defending the city from Dragons or usurpers like the Stormcloaks, I've invested too much in the place not to love it. Plus, I think I was instantly captured by that concept art of Dragonsreach, and the entire art direction of the city, while a tad reminiscent of Edoras, is rather likeable. Now if only The Companions didn't require you to make such a strong commitment.

This. The first time I saw those arced bridges I said to myself, "ZOMIGOD This is Balmora!", so yeah, it's definitely my favorite city, even though Markarth comes in a close second, bit it's a little lonely and as Chaos stated, creepy .

[strobacaxi]

Whiterun's my favorite hold, but solitude is my favorite city.

[Achilleus]

Riften, hands down. I loved the entire area of the Rift the moment I stepped foot in it, and the city was just icing on the cake.

Then, well I guess Solitude. I was walking towards it from the swamp and saw the huge rock arch over the water and thought "Hey, on top of that would be a cool place to place a tower or something." I was off more than a few buildings...

My man! You're the best. Riften all the way.

[Nocturnal]

Whiterun because of its location and it's pretty neutral in the early parts of the game. The only other city I like is Solitude but it's too Imperial and I feel the same with Windhelm but vice versa.

[OPMarty]

Whiterun because of its location and it's pretty neutral in the early parts of the game.

I generally feel the same way. Whiterun has a great place and is neutral, you said it.

[Pavouk106]

Markarth for city (my vote). I really like the idea of it being inside mountain and all that.

For the hold, I like Rift, because of the nature there being less depresive. And I hate mountains everywhere, that's why I don't like Reach

And I have house in Whiterun, because it's in the middle

[umber hulk]

i dont have a favourite city really, but eastmarch is my favourite area,
so windhelm is the city i tend to use the most,
i also love hjaalmarch

[Laryngitis]

Hmm...Cities I would have to go with Riften (a hive a of scum and villainy), Solitude (best looking), and Whiterun (you just can't beat the central location as a base of operations).

Holds, I would have to go with that stretch of land between Morthal and Markarth, deep river valleys with lots of fun stuff to explore. Secondly would be the stretch of land between Windhelm and Solitude (crappy, uninviting, but the vast majority of

Spoiler:

word walls

seem to be located there. Thirdly would be the the western stretch of Falkreath Hold (lots of nice vistas and interesting locations).