Riften. Natural Beauty, nice architecture. I only wish that Shor's Stone had the same architectural style as the other buildings in The Rift.


Falkreath is a close second. It's a nice little village.

Whiterun, I love the open planes and the textures, and the city itself looks awesome. My only issue is that i'm there so often that all the amazing is wearing off.

Whiterun feels incomplete to me... Like half the city is missing. Solitude feels that way too. It's like, where do the people who aren't spanking rich live? Windhelm has the Grey Quarter, Markarth has the Warrens, Riften has Beggar's Row and The Ratway. I've heard some argue in Solitudes Case, that Dragon's Bridge is "Poor Solitude", but I'm not too sure... Seems a bit far.

Falkreath

See Olava the Feeble's and Ysolda's houses in Whiterun. While they don't live like beggars, they have very small homes and little in the way of valuables.

In terms of Solitude ... I have no idea. The Dragon Bridge theory seems very reasonable ... Perhaps Solitude's poor simply can't afford property in the city?

Same here for Markarth, I mean, the guards and forsworn are stupid, but I like the beauty of the city

I liked Markarths scenery as well, at least on the outside it's quite a view.. I don't feel the same about the inside but I don't hate the place.

The Palace of the Kings in Windhelm is a cool place to be in, and though I have only gone inside the Temple of Talos twice now, it's a cool place too. Will probably visit it more often.

I like Solitude partly because if the capital of the Province.. when I first started playing the game I didn't know which city was the capital, and it took me awhile to find out. I also like some of the quests that take place in and around the city.

There's also Jorrvaskr and Dragonsreach in Whiterun but nothing else is of interest to me.

In the end, I suppose I don't really have a favorite hold capital though.. but these are at least my favored. I tend to like the big buildings and the cozy feelings I get inside them.. but I wish there was a place to hang out with NPCs who had decent conversation

Well, I suppose Markarths scenery is good on the inside.. but I just remember how I felt about looking at the city from the outside with mountains in the background. I tend not to pay much attention to the inside but it's still a cool enough place.

Ysolda and Olava are also individuals, the other large houses are entire families, or clanhomes. There's also no difference in atmosphere either, unlike with the examples I gave. It makes Whiterun and Solitude just feel way too artificial, and the cities in Skyrim are way too small to get away with it.

Riften is home. It has a nice feel. All the wooden walkways and the water together, everything easy to find, Honeyside (which can be accessed from outside of Riften), the dead random thieves with loot on their bodies, and little touches like Mjoll's human-puppy stalker. It's cozy. I like most of the people. The surrounding nature outside is nice too. No snow in the immediate vicinity. Tried living in other player houses in other cities. Keep coming back to Riften. I suppose nostalgia has something to do with it as well. Refusing to start the main quest right away, I couldn't buy Breezehome. Honeyside all the way. Although the one big blight on the place is Maven Black-Briar and her awful family. (Why must she be essential? WHY?!) Sometimes I just spend days there making potions, jewelry, lazing about.

Falkreath is a close second. I like the dreariness, the large graveyard, the layout, the names of buildings. It would be number one if I could buy a house there. Alas. They really missed a good morbid pun for that one. What sounds cool? Dead Head Hall (bonus for certain music fans), Hollow Skull House, Mourning Manor, Shivering Sepulchre...this is fun. A creepy castle would be perfect there, just looming over everything else.

Solitude, simply because it looks like Minas Tirith from LoTR and looks like it has grown out from the mountain.

Probably a toss up between Falkreath, & Markarth.
Markarth has my favorite architecture by far, & Vlindrel Hall is my favorite house. Plus, I love the Hag's Cure, Bothela, & Muiri are great. It's the best city for climbing about on roofs as well. And most importantly it's apparently the Cannibal Capital of Skyrim.

Falkreath though, I could just never leave Falkreath. It's so pretty, & calm. The shops, & such all have great names. I like every single NPC in town, which I can't say for any other hold.
Sindig's there, & he's my bro. Also, Runil the priest, & the Steward are my two favorite Altmer. It's too bad there's no house in Falkreath.

Solitude. It is very Ebonheart-esque.

I'm not really sure... Solitude is BEAUTIFUL, in my opinion and yet most of the hold capitals have their own charms.

I also agree, though, that many of the bigger cities feel incomplete and whilst I could come up with tonnes of lore-ish, in-game reasons it really probably comes down to what they had time for, etc. That's my guess, anyway.

I'd love to see them fleshed out, which is one of the reasons I'm moving onto the PC.