In 2018, York was crowned Best Place to Live in the UK by the Sunday Times - describing it as the "perfect mix of heritage and hi-tech."

York has also topped a list of friendliest places to live, beating 28 other cities including Cambridge, Edinburgh and Newcastle.A survey by health insurance company National Friendly, coined ‘the Friendly Index’, questioned 3,000 people in the UK about how often they spoke to their neighbours and whether they knew the names of their local postman, policeman and milkman.

York is in the top five UK destinations, in the top 100 world destinations and in the top 25 European destinations in the Traveller's Choice Destination awards by Trip Advisor.

What do Paris, York and New York have in common with Bled, Slovenia, and Luang Prabang in Laos? They all feature in Lonely Planet’sTop 200 Cities. All of these places appear in Lonely Planet's "Cities: A Journey Through the Best Cities in the World" , a coffee-table book describing 200 of the world's best cities, as ranked by Lonely Planet's staff and readers.

Landlove Magazine readers voted York their favourite city destination in 2018 and Virgin Trains revealed York to be Britain’s Most Festive City in a recent survey on social media.