I always found it odd how some cities I visited much more that others, here is my personal list of most visited.
1. Skingrad, Has the largest, best house in the game, so I visited skingrad about once every 30 minuets to store loot.
2. Anvil, Lots of fun quests in anvil, a few fighters guild quests here too, and fort strand is my heavy armour farming location. Also has a blacksmith right next to the gate.
3. Imperial City, visited the market district if I ever had to sell anything of high value, or buy something specific, and done a lot of arena stuff. I cannot even remember visiting the elven gardens district while playing.
4. Bruma, useful while doing the main quest.
5. Leyawiin, useful doing fighters guild quests, and also near Rockmilk cave, my favourite loot farming site.
6. Chorol, Useful doing fighters guild quests
7. Cheydinhal, Useful doing fighters guild quests
8. Bravil, visited it perhaps 4 times in the whole game.

Putting all of my characters in forever together, I think my list would go like
1- Anvil
2- Chorrol
3- Skingrad
4- Imperial City
5- Bravil
6- Bruma
7- Cheydinhal
8- Leyawiin.

I've made stacks of characters, but I've never had one living in Leyawiin. Its not like I hate the place, but its just too out of the way.
Like with Cheydinhal, I've had many characters living there, but I just don'tt seem to spend a lot of time there.

Most visited has to be Skingrad.
Least would be Chorrol, but it's a great town.

Bravil is where I bought my first house, and it's also where I store my alchemic instruments and ingredients (I never carry that stuff around with me for some reason)

I'm starting to find things about all the cities that I really like. Some I like more than others though. I mostly like the southern inspired cities with lots of farmland and lush vegetation.

Most visited:
1. Skingrad (love the vinyards)
2. Cheydinhal (love the little bridges and the river)
3. Leyawiin (love the big river flowing there and the vegetation is awesome. Like the layout too)
4. Anvil (cause of the coastal environment)

Least visited:
1. Bravil (don't like the swamp-like atmosphere)
2. Chorrol (nice city but pretty boring)
3. Bruma (although I live in a hut right outside Bruma. The city doesn't appeal to me)

Although Bruma is my favorite city, I think I spend the most time in Anvil (my close 2nd favorite). I avoid Leyawiin as much as possible, although it was the first city I ever owned a home in.

Buffy travels so much that she really visits all the cities quite a bit. If pushed, I guess this would be about right:

Most visited:
Bravil. It's home. Daenlin and Kud-Ei live there. So does Aradroth (Winter Wolf's character).
IC. The University is there.
Leyawiin. It's close, and Buffy's fellow Knight of the White Stallion lives there.
Kvatch. Savlian Matius is there.
Chorrol. It's pretty. Earana doesn't live there anymore (thanks to Buffy).
Anvil. It's beautiful. Angel (bobg's character) and Carahil live there. Alawen lives nearby.


Less visted:
Cheydinhal. Even though Buffy's black mare comes from there, she just doesn't find lots of reasons to visit.
Skingrad. Beautiful, but Buffy can sense vampires, and she feels the presence of one as she goes by the castle - so she doesn't spend a lot of time there. The good news is that Tamika makes her wine there!
Bruma. Brrrrr! The good news though is that Lothran (mirocu's character) lives there.

Most visited for me is:

Imperial City
Bruma
Chorrol
Bravil

I visit Skingrad and Leyawiin fairly often but not alot.

Least visited is:

Kvatch, no reason to ever go back after closing the gate and escorting Martin out, I play on the 360 so no Kvatch rebuilt for me.
Anvil, too far our of the way and I rarely ever explore that far west for some reason.
Cheydinhal, 3 of my characters dont like Dunmer and there are alot there, plus the house there I dont like much so even the ones that dont hate them or the Orum gang dont live there anyways.

I tend to just stay in central Cyrodiil, but do travel north and south (most of the time anyways, depends on the character) which is why I like the towns that i do.

My characters visit the IC most. I suspect that, truth told, most magic-using-types do, simply because that's where the spell-making and enchanting equipment is. It's where you sell your vampire dust, too.

It's also central, and I suspect that anyone who goes from Bravil to Bruma (for instance) without visiting the IC is Fast Traveling. I almost always have some marketplace business there, on the way from Hither to Yon.

Aside from that, it seems to come down to a character preference thing. One of my characters couldn't wait to buy the place in Anvil, even with the "problems." Several have been quite content living on the IC Waterfront. Only one has gone for the house in Skingrad; I understand the appeal of such an imposing place, but I don't see the need. Is anybody really home that much of the time?

On the least visited, I voted with the crowd. Leyawiin is just geographically challenged; it's "way down there" and not on the way to anywhere else. I like the town, though. Maybe my next character will make a home there... (Edit: As if I have anything much to say about it...)

I don't like to stop in the IC, and when travelling that route that you mentioned, I only really stop at Weye or Aleswell.
And I've never had a character live there because of that house, the house part of the waterfront is the Leyawiin of the IC, I've always wanted a house in the Elven Gardens...

Yeah, I think the IC waterfront shanty is more "central" if you water-walk a lot. I play more mages than other types, and the IC shack makes a good enough storage/sleeping location for an itinerant alchemist or conjurer. It's really quite close to the university.

All my mages must purchase the shack on the waterfront while they are in "school" at the University. After they move on (not necessarily finishing the quest line, as I want to keep more mages alive than dead) they they can purchase their very own real house.
Currently I visit the IC most often, the least-traveled is Bruma.

Although her home is in Bravil, Buffy lived at the University for a long time while a student there. She stayed at the Chironasium, where there are 9 safe containers and 2 beds you can use. Even now, she stays there when visiting the IC.

I agree with glargg. As a mystic archer, my character spends loads of time at the University visiting her fellow mages and using the wonderful facilites there. Not to mention the IC has great shopping!

In Buffy's game, we embellish things a bit. The Mystic Archives is a veritable fountain of knowledge, and each of the named mages at the University has quite the personality. Under the bridge between the IC and the University is the 'Valley of Horses', where the University has its own stables for mages, called 'Equestria'. It's run by a Bosmer and his dog, and they use domesticated imps to help patrol the valley. Buffy's mare, Superian loves it, and it is so much better and safer than the alternatives. We heard that the orc who runs the city stables eats horses!

Hehe, Camarilla goes to IC for shopping too, but now that she moved away she's only back there for Arena happenings and then the occasional shopping fix.

I always go to the Imperial City because of the Arena and for the Market Place =D
I don't go to much times to Bruma, and i don't know the reason =/
I love Cheydinhal (It's the hometown of my characters) =D

Both of my characters spend the most time in the Imperial City, but only because of selling loot/vampire dust/visiting Umbacano, the Arcane University and my assassin character is also a Thieves' Guild member who favors Armand Christophe for paying bounties.

My mage character spends her free time largely at Bruma, crushin' on a fellow Altmer at the Mage's Guild there. She also enjoys Anvil, but she doesn't find many reasons to stick around there. The assassin prefers Cheydinhal, for its dark elf culture and the Brotherhood, but she also has friends in Bravil and owns a house in Leyawiin.

Most of my characters discover that Varel Morveyn in Anvil is the best merchant to use (high gold, low Mercantile skill) and go there a lot.

Leyawiin is the least visited, mainly because the White Stallion Lodge is outside, so there's little point in buying the equivalent shack in town. The other towns get a visit whenever the character is in the area, and needs to sleep, without any real preferences. They'll sleep at the Mages Guild if they haven't bought the house in town, as they ALL join the guild for the enchantment altar access.

Most visited: Chorrol, Anvil, Imperial City (especially Market District)
Least visited: Leyawiin and Bruma. I just don't like it there. Too far away from the rest and too ugly.

Normally I am around the imperial city I usually just buy the shack for convenience with the storage, tend to store most stuff there partly because I rarely train mercantile and there are buyers for everything right next to each other. If I play the character long enough I move the loot I really like or artifacts I want to keep to the skingrad house.
I rarely get around to Bruma if I do I'm just running through and the house there is kind of pointless for me, if I got enough gold for the house I already have some other storage areas and I don't need a bed there cause I spend enough time waiting to replenish health/magicka from acrobatic injuries in that area.

That's funny, I find Leyawiin really pretty. I like the buildings with the various colors and the rich plant life.

I love Skingrad, and when I do manage to buy the house there I'm there quite a bit. However the Imperial City I visit the most if only to sell a lot of my loot at the markets.

Right now I'm finding myself in Chorrol a lot because of its proximity to Battlehorn Castle.

One thing I wanted to say is I really like Leyawiin, I'd love to buy a house there, but the only house available is probably the ugliest shack in the game, If only we could buy one of those really impressive houses that some of the people in Leyawiin own, they're huge!

I find it funny that the shack is right behind one of those houses.


The city I visit least is Bravil, just never really have reason to go there.

It differs for every character. At least for my characters anyway.

Helena Aurelie likes Anvil and is trying to save enough to buy the Manor there.
Chani Belavyn likes Cheydinhal because it's close to her homeland. She dislikes Bravil and Lewayiin due to the weather, which tends to mean her clothes get dirty, and that just will not do.

None, I generally only head into cities if I have a quest there. I heart dungeon crawling.

I suppose I'd rank them on the houses as for which I prefer, with Better Cities they're all visually appealing.

I like Benirus Manor best out of the houses, a nice clean layout, with Rosethorn a close second. I also like the Cheydinhall, Bruma and Chorhol houses.

The Bravil, Leyawiin and IC crapshacks...not so much.

But I use my portable tent as a house mostly, so once I buy and upgrade them, that's about the last I see of any of them.


Ohhhh, give me a home, where the Daedra roam, and the undead and bandits all play...
Where seldom is found an unrespawned dungeon, and the sky is covered by ruins all day...
Home, home in my game...

I feel the same.
Though if you have the CS, you can just make yourself a home there.

I spend the most time in the Imperial City because it's near the center of the map and is usually the closest place to rest (level up) and pawn loot.

I spent the least amount of time in Leyawiin with my last 2 characters because it is far out of the way and I didn't have many quests or stuff I needed to look for in the blackwood region. Anvil is also far out of the way, but I had a number of quests and other things that led me that way.