Personally, I have several favorites, but if I have to pick one I would pick Solitude. The view of it from the outside is absolutely amazing! It just has a grand feel (in my opinion). One of my other favorite's is certainly Whiterun. It was my first city that I ever lived in, and I love how absolutely central it is. (It also has some of the best weather ).

Windhelm because it is supposed to have an Arena.

Riften because it has anything you need, the surrounding area is just beautiful and Thieves Guild

That would've been great!

I was really tempted to pick Riften myself. I like the dark feel of it.

Whiterun is my Balmora. It's central and has about everything I need. I dislike that the player house there has no enchanting table, but I generally go to the mage in Dragonsreach anyway and I just use the one there.

I just edited the poll to make it multi-choice so I could also pick Whiterun (for pretty much the same reason that you have).

Falkreath. I am not sure why, but I like everything about it! Must be because it is in the forest and it is peaceful.

I like Riften. A lot of merchants, Honeyside is a great house, the Ragged Flagon underneath, and I get free stuff when a random Thief gets killed.

for me its falkreach, riften an whiterun

falk cause its my first stop when im buying or selling items i just made at lakeview

riften cause of a certain black briar who looks stunning even if she cant get her own poxy ingredients an cause i like the setting an color an balimund is my bro literally ive done a character whos related to balimund lol

whiterun cause of the companions

Riften. Due to thieves guild , taverns, shops and smith all next to each other. My opinion most interesting people and places. That doesnt even include the ratway and nearby lake and other locations.

Whiterun. For my Dragonborn, it feels more like home to him than his home back in the Imperial City did and it's not as... clustered as Solitude or as depressing as Falkreath. And yes, the best weather.

Riften from an aesthetical POV, but it has some of my least liked NPCs in it... and Brynjolf counts among them for any character who doesn't want to join the Thieves' Guild.

Whiterun is also beautiful and it's nice; ok, the Jarl's kids are also among my least like NPCs but at least they're easier to avoid and don't own the city (yet). But nice sometimes gets close to boring.

Windhelm is one of those that actually feels like a city and not a small town (Markarth is the other), and it's also beautiful in its own way, plus it's the most interesting IMO...

I pick those three as my favorites.

Without a doubt, both of my Avatars love Riften.

The city is amazing, the entire hold is gorgeous and fun to just wander in. Has to be Riften.

Riften. because of the reasons above.

Solitude, because it's amazing also this where Sheogorath has a tea party with pelagius.

None of them are particularly good like the Imperial City or Vivec. But I guess Riften is pretty neatly designed.

Riften is nice, maybe the reason that it's not one of my favorite's is because I haven't really spent enough time there.

Riften, whiterun, winterhold and falkreath

Riften because autumn is my favorite seasons and there is a lot of good places to find ingredients and the city despite having a lot of crime is actually really nice to look at.

Whiterun because it is as nice to look at and it's fun to explore the Tundra around it.

Winterhold because College of Winterhold

Falkreath because huge dense forest.

I'm not a fan of the boring stone cities like windhelm and Markarth (personally I prefer the look of Morrowind's metal dwemer ruins instead of the stonecutter ruins the skyrim dwemer made) morthal is just a swamp, dawnstar isn't all that interesting and solitude is fairly boring upper class city.

Riften is getting voted for like crazy.

Bethesda should pay attention.

Solitude. I kinda fear that's the closest I'll get to Oblivion's Imperial City (unless someone has proof of the opposite). Special mention goes to Whiterun for housing the only sane Jarl in all of Skyrim: Balgruuf.

Riverwood prior to starting main quest. No guards!

Civil war quests aside, I really love Solitude. Just the view from my balcony at Winstead Manor in Morthal is awesome.

I spend the most time in Whiterun, then Riften, then Solitude. The least time get spent in Windhelm and Markarth.

MArkarth? What's that? LOL