Australian Capital Territory, Australia

The Australian Capital Territory exists because Sydney and Melbourne refused to let the other have the capital, so a valley between them was flooded and a city was drawn on paper. Canberra is genuinely the result — planned boulevards, a lake through the middle, roundabouts everywhere, and the entire apparatus of national government sitting in the middle of farmland. Braddon has become one of the best small-bar strips in the country, Kingston is the polished lakeside end, and Namadgi to the south is genuine bush wilderness inside the territory.

The territory's character is unique in the country: a huge proportion of the population works for the government or the universities, most people moved there for a job rather than a life, and the result is a transient but unusually open social scene where nobody has a childhood friend network and people say yes to things. Quality of life is high, the bush is close, and the nightlife after a parliamentary sitting week is genuinely rowdy.

Expect smart conversation, real discretion, and well-educated people who let loose considerably harder than their day jobs suggest.

Nearby: Canberra Sydney Melbourne Newcastle