So, I was wondering what everyone else's favorite hold is and why - whether it be the scenery, quests, locations, etc. My personal favorite is The Reach, followed by Falkreath Hold. I find The Reach extremely beutiful with its lush, dark-green grass, towering waterfalls and misty mountains. I also think it is complemented the best by the game's soundtrack. The Rift is also very nice, an excellent 'autumn' feel. My least favorite has to be Whiterun hold, something about it just seems really dull, maybe the endless plains of brown grass. How about you guys?

Definitely The Reach for me as well.

Love Markarth, and love the scenery/terrain, and there's so much to see and so much history there.

Close second would be The Pale. I love the snowy terrain, and it has forests and mountains and coastline, and lots of really interesting locations.

I agree about Whiterun. The city itself is ok, but the region is pretty boring. Not a ton of interesting things to see and the plains get old after a while...though it is a good place for hunting and gathering alchemy ingredients.

I voted for Whiterun Hold. Because I like Whiterun town best and the scenery is decent.

Eastmarch, because Windhelm feels like a "real medieval castle." (Whatever that means)

Loving snow helps quite a bit, too.

Whiterun. Seems to be the most friendly and lacking any sort of twisted secret behind it.

I nearly voted Haafingar because I love Solitude as a city, but then I remembered Haafingar svcks as a hold. Or at least it's not very much to my liking. I find myself stressed by the mountainous roads that somehow feel difficult to travel, as well as the Ice Wraiths and all the other stuff you find there.

I then had a hard time deciding between my two favorite holds, Whiterun and the Rift. While I enjoy other holds too, such as Falkreath, the fact that I've explored them less thoroughly makes them less familiar to me, enough so that I don't find them as "homely" as Whiterun or the Rift. I definitely like the tranquil, flat landscape of Whiterun, and being able to travel easily in any direction and see far across the plains makes it feel comforting, even safe. The Rift, on the other hand, feels intriguing because while also easy to travel, it feels like you can't quite know what you'll run into if you stray from the beaten path. Also its distance from the northern cold sort of makes it feel like a "getaway" from the harsh coldness of Skyrim, and it's like you're in a whole other part of Tamriel.

In the end, I decided I like the Rift the most of all the holds. While the Whiterun plains are a sight I enjoy, I still like the forests of the Rift more.

The Boston Crab

Lol, the Rift, I presume?

I've been to most of the holds, except for a few like.. Morthal and Falkreath, but so far, my favorite holds true to Whiterun because of its pleasant atmosphere, cozy-feeling, and the number of population seems reasonable. LOL
But I kinda like Markarth too because of its mysterious and dark(?) back story, being built by dwarves makes it much more interesting that way.
And also because both cities here don't really snow, pleasant, clear summer skies are always the best.

This is sorta hard to say because Whiterun is closest town to my favorite village (Riverwood), but my favorite house in the game is in Windhelm because it has the best weapon displays and plaques and mannequins. But then Whiterun has my favorite merchants, and perhaps even more merchants than any other town in the game (3 blacksmiths, 1 general store, 1 alchemy store, castle mage, 3 food stands).

The Reach is gorgeous. It reminds me of Morrowind, which might be why I like it so much.

Whiterun, i love the tree :spotted owl:

Plus theres many npcs to sell your loot too~

Haafingar

got a variety of environments: snow, mountains, marshland, sea, plains
got the coolest best decoated road
best city overall (eveb if markarth beat it in majesty because of the waterfall)
best place to harvest ingedients
coolest dungeons (wolf queen !)
cuttest jarl (why cant we marry her ....)
only city with two castles
lots of good viewpoints from the city walls and other place to look arround and inside the city
up the mountains, near high rock, some of the most spectacular views of skyrim

oh, and once, when harvesting flowers, one of my character got jumped by a spider !!!

I just wish the city would be even larger .... but not at the cost of character details

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markath come close second, for the waterfall, for the best in-game character (bothela at the hag cure !)

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note: listing winterhold is unfair, because the city was destroyed
besside the college, which is really well done, there are just 4 tiny buildings
-a bleak house that serve as the jarl *palace*
-a frozen tavern with a bard, saved only by the mysterious mage character
-the house of a once proud family
-a small shop for a ruined merchant woman who only stay because she cant leave

otherwise, the story was interesting, but like dawnstar, I was hoping those 2 cities would be hugue,
so I was disapointed, those were among my favorites in arena, loved the city names