World’s sexiest cities to go for holiday

What makes a city sexy? It's a quality that transcends the mere physical beauty of its inhabitants. We are talking about those special places that make you feel incredibly alive, where you shrug off the drab clothes of everyday experience almost as soon as you touch down.
That lightness of being does, it is true, often lead to thoughts about romance, and our sexy cities certainly have, shall we say, something of a reputation. Paris (in the springtime, of course) seems particularly good at macaroon-like affairs that are forgotten almost as soon as they are over; Sydney, bursting with buffed beach bodies, is just the spot for a bit of narcissistic nookie; Istanbul is all about the thrilling coming together of east and west.

Beirut

"Wherever you are in Beirut, you can feel the magic," laughs Stefan Simkovics, a local hotelier. "It's one of the sexiest cities in the world: enticing, vain, scarred, beautiful, complex and exciting."
Stroll past its countless outdoor cafés in the evening, and you'll notice how the inhabitants of Beirut love talking, eating and table-dancing - preferably all at once. The city's religious mix - Lebanon has by far the largest Christian population of any Arab country - also makes it one of the most tolerant in the region. "Like me, the city is unsure whether it's east or west, Christian or Muslim, Arab or European, serene or troubled, traditional or modern," says the celebrated Lebanese writer Rabih Alameddine.

With its sublime food and the boldest nightlife in the Middle East, Beirut is almost back to being the playground it was before the 1975 civil war and the catastrophic Israeli bombardment of 2006. Ski, sunbathe, cycle along the seafront, smoke a narghileh waterpipe - relax like the locals and consign serious talk to the bunkers of history. Spicy, flirty, sleek and dirty, battered but beautiful, Beirut zings with a zest for life.

Sydney

 An early morning stroll around the harbour - the city's gorgeous natural attribute that most Sydneysiders maddeningly take for granted - reveals the buffed bodies of surfers and sailors, cyclists and body-builders, all blending into a sassy urban portrait of the good life. Sydney long ago dropped the cliché, beloved of the jealous British, of the uncultivated Australian simpleton. The city excels at sexily designed buildings, frocks... and lifestyles, for that matter.

The beautiful people flock to Finger Wharf, with its marina, buzzy bars and Blue Sydney, a showstopper hotel in the crazily named neighbourhood of Woolloomooloo Bay. Babes in strappy dresses schmooze in Tank nightclub, in the city centre; you can dine in style nearby at the famed Est restaurant.

From such fine-dining establishments to sand-between-your-toes cafés, Sydney is renowned as a place to satisfy your culinary lusts. The sleek set tuck into seafood at Guillaume at Bennelong, overlooking Circular Quay. At Bill's, in Darlinghurst, the celebrity chef Bill Granger is credited with creating so-called Aussie brekkie chic, with his tantalising corn fritter brunches. In Sydney, hedonism comes sizzling on a plate.

Rio de Janeiro

With its bikini and Speedo army on the beach and spontaneous samba on the street, Rio is hard to beat in the overtly sexy stakes. The setting is as sensual as the Cariocas themselves, as Rio residents are called. The setting sun drips down Sugarloaf Mountain and frames the open-armed statue of Christ the Redeemer with a fiery aura.

Ipanema, where the skimpy tanga style of briefs was first flaunted, is the hottest beach, lined with fashion boutiques and bars. But the sand acts as a unifying force, attracting fashionistas and favelas slum-dwellers alike.

The city's twin talents for rhythm and exhibitionism come to a head every year at Carnival, that annual exuberant parade of posturing and swing. Sensual samba and cocktails swigged at beach bars warm up the celebrations. Caipirinha, a cocktail of rum, lime and crushed sugar, is the beach babe's tipple of choice.

Hollywood

he sign gives away the ruling spirit: "Welcome to West Hollywood. Population: Fabulous." Known as WeHo, California's coolest city doesn't do false modesty. Set below the Hollywood Hills and bathed in an aquatic blue aura, like an early David Hockney painting, the city seems to exist in a perpetual summertime.

It is here that Hollywood hotshots party with mere mortals and play-act normality. The most committed night owls prefer nice-but-naughty WeHo to the better-behaved Beverly Hills. Sunset Tower, a swanky art deco hotel that looks like a Bakelite wireless set and where Marylyn Monroe once stayed, still attracts the in-crowd.

Monroe summed up the credo of the city, cruel but compelling to so many. "They'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss," she said, "but fifty cents for your soul." Inflation may have changed the price but not the premise.

Las Vegas

Vegas is a trashy pick-and-mix kaleidoscope of a city with a behind-the-bikesheds sexiness: you can munch in a mocked-up Eiffel Tower before punting in a Venetian gondola and then snoozing in an Egyptian pyramid. A margarita-fuelled passport to naughtiness in the desert, its charms are dangerous but hard to resist. Many visitors exit having bankrupted themselves in the casinos or having married - possibly officiated by an Elvis impersonator in a pink Cadillac - someone entirely unsuitable.

The former tabloid chief Piers Morgan describes the city's current transition thus: "Vegas is moving from pure sin city, offering booze, drugs, gambling and sex, to a more refined sexy city, offering a less sleazy but just as exciting high-end entertainment resort." For now, though, it's still a neon explosion that, if it can't be seen from space, probably should be.

Venice

Venice is the city we have all been to, if only in our imagination. It's an ancient urban centre that lends itself to lyricism. Nietzsche said of it that, if he searched for a synonym for music, he found "always and only Venice".

Venetian sexiness feels like end-of-the-affair sadness, with its strong currents of delicious sadness and self-pity. Melancholy and nostalgia lurk constantly around the city's dark canal corners. The city reflects moods, aided by the capricious lagoon light. The writer Jonathan Keates describes Venice seductively as "the great masseuse of our hankerings and illusions: she discovers us not for what we are but for what each of us would like to be".