Street life: it’s the only life we know. Seriously, streets are where most of us spend our lives – hanging out, eating, drinking, working, sleeping and occasionally pulling some embarrassing dance moves. If parks are the lungs of the city, streets are its veins, carrying urbanites around each day like stressed-but-happy little blood cells. Street life is what makes the places we live feel alive. Which makes streets kind of a big deal.
Why are we telling you this? Because every year, we quiz thousands of city-dwellers around the world for our Time Out Index survey. And this year, we asked more than 20,000 people the question: what’s the coolest street in your city?
We wanted to know about the places that locals love – the very coolest bits of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world. Once we had our shortlist of the vibiest streets in each city we surveyed, we took it to the experts. Our local Time Out editors and contributors, people who know the city like no one else, narrowed down the selection. Behold the results: our 2022 ranking of the coolest streets on the planet right now.
Since our inaugural street hotlist last year, the world has crept further back towards normality. Many places still face ongoing health restrictions as well as rising living costs. But at this moment, more people are getting out and about in their hometowns – and travelling to visit the world’s greatest cities – than at any time since the start of 2020. So consider this ranking a really, really specific rundown of the best places in the world to hang out in 2022, as well as a celebration of the people that have made them their home.
From grand avenues and shopping strips to pedestrianised backstreets and leafy squares, these streets are manageable microcosms of the world’s most exciting cities – each one chock-full of independent businesses, creative humans and everything else that makes urban life brilliant. Ready to take a stroll?