I quite like Whiterun's vanilla look.
Green trees all over everywhere just look out of place.
It makes no sense to me that settlers wouldn't have deforested the grounds they're going to build a city on.
It makes the city look more Fable-ish. I like it. It was really dull before, even though the trees take away the realism a bit.
Also, I like this docks of solitude mod. I normally hate mods that add new areas just for the sake of adding things or that are not part of the lore, but i like mods that enhance stuff. The docks of solitude mod really livens the place up, I recommend for anyone who is interested to check it out http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/22821