Skateboarder Lorran Freitas cruises through a Rio de Janeiro sunset.
© Rodrigo Poroco
Skateboarding

The best skate cities to shred before you pile out

Check our guide to the finest skateboarding cities on the planet, from the famous to the surprising. From Los Angeles to Guangzhou, these are our top 26 places to skate.
Written by Gaston Francisco
19 min readUpdated on
Skateboarding is predominantly an urban expression. Street skating was created and developed on the slopes and pavements of cities and the relationship between the urban sprawl and restless, thrill-seeking youth is at the core of our beloved activity.
To this end, we thought we'd pool our collective experiences of skating around the world to choose 26 cities that we can recommend to any skater looking to bust out and see somewhere new.
01

Barcelona – the mecca

6 min

Greetings from Barcelona

From the OG’s to the young bucks, we go street-level in skateboarding’s capital city.

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What is there to add about the most famous skate city on the planet? Barcelona started being heavily noticed during the late 1990s; some of the Transworld videos portrayed incredible lines in an amazing spot with the best ground and ledges. That spot was MACBA, and it remains to this day one of the most iconic skate spots in the world.
Blessed with great weather and the most innovative architects, Barcelona has been in the limelight of skateboarding for over a decade and always evolves, adding new spots to existing ones or transforming classic spots in new ways. A city with an intense nightlife, easy and relaxed lifestyle, and a beach filled with beautiful human beings, it's every skater's dream city.
I love Barcelona, it’s like heaven for skateboarders. Smooth ground everywhere you go, nice weather and interesting people
02

Sydney – forgotten ancestral story

8 min

Shredding down under

Ryan, Corbin Harris, and Ryder Lawson jam around Sydney, grab some custom sunglasses, and shoot some hoops.

Polish +8

What is really interesting about Australian skateboarding today generally and specifically with regards to Sydney is how much of a cultural resurgence it is having. Australia, you see, is skateboarding’s forgotten ancestral story. The climate, coastal connection to waveforms and a society that is all about being outside and alive have made Australia by extension one of the wellsprings of skateboarding culture worldwide. Entire skate scenes from elsewhere in the world would de-camp to spend months avoiding domestic winters and absorb the good life on offer.
Sydney has more than 80 skateparks, which should come as no surprise given the city’s nexus between outdoors culture and surf paradise Bondi Beach which forms part of the city’s shoreline. Sydney also has some of the most varied legal skate terrain anywhere in the world.
03

Berlin – a summer must

6 min

Greetings From Berlin

Join Jan Kliewer & Lennie Burmeister on a skateboard journey through Germany’s spot-packed capital.

At the beginning of the new millennium, Berlin emerged as the go-to European city. Heavy reconstruction that's been ongoing since reunification in 1989 has brought a lot of new and impressive spots to the most diverse city in Germany.
Such diversity also makes it a very open-minded place, where street artists, skaters and young people in general have found a place to call home.
Come in the summer months and enjoy the virtues of one of the most beautiful cities in the world and a very relaxed ambience while scouting for some unique spots. Do not miss the Kulturforum, which is the equivalent to Barcelona's MACBA.
04

Los Angeles – where it all started

3 min

Denny Pham taking care of Coastal Business

Two skaters, two cities, one mission: watch Denny Pham going hard in Los Angeles.

A staple classic. The streets are lined with immense palm trees which flourish under the ever-present blazing sun. One of the cradles of skateboarding and to this day home of the skate industry and a large percentage of professional skaters, LA has always been on every skater’s bucket list for several good reasons.
Over time, it's become harder and harder to skate the streets of this beautiful, city but the infamous school yards are still everybody's meeting point on the weekends, when the kids leave and the older guys with their skateboards start jumping fences. J-Kwon is a must on Sundays, but keep your eyes open for police strolling by every now and then.
05

Guangzhou – the Asian skate El Dorado

4 min

The Rice Diaries - Exploring China Part 2

The Canadian crew continues their journey exploring China’s unique view on skateboarding.

Looking for an affordable skate trip with some of the best spots in the world? Consider China's third largest city Guangzhou for your next destination. This massive, sprawling city is practically made of marble, with hundreds of amazing plazas scattered throughout the city; a lot of the handrails even have a perfect marble approach.
If you get tired of the perfect plazas, don't not, as the city is also filled with plenty of other unique spots, like the famous ribbon quarter pipe as seen in just about every skate video from 2014. The city is very affordable and getting around is easy, and cheap, via the subway system or taxis.
It's an expensive flight, depending on your location in the world, but once there you and your crew can go and live like kings on a shoestring budget, all while enjoying some of the best dim sum on earth. Combine that with it being just a short ride to Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and it's no surprise that Guangzhou is heralded as one of the world's best cities for skateboarding.
06

San Francisco – where history was made

6 min

Greetings from San Francisco

The travel guide for skate exploration this time takes us around the US west coast metropolis.

What remains to be said about the mother of all skateboard cities? Before Barcelona, before Berlin, there was San Francisco, home to Thrasher magazine, Deluxe distribution and more skate folklore per square metre than anywhere else in the world.
True, the Embarcadero and other iconic spots may have fallen victim to their own popularity and been re-developed beyond skateboarding use, but in 3rd and Army you have arguably the greatest street spot of all time and the city's status as bohemian El Dorado remains despite the skyrocketing rents caused by the influx of digital revolutionaries.
The hills remain terrifying to traverse on any wheels, the tram tracks are still a bigger Ollie than you would like to do at the speed required to clear them and the Mission district burritos are still bigger than one person should eat. Put simply, SF has to be done if for no other reason than to realise how much skate history was made here.
07

Manchester – documenting a city's resurgence

14 min

Manchester

Explore the thriving skate scene in Manchester, England, with Margielyn Didal, Jake Wooten and Jamie Foy.

English +3

Despite a central architecture that reflects the city’s previous importance to the cotton trade, Manchester’s skate scene has survived council bans and inclement weather – and is absolutely flourishing right now. In fact, you could say that England's cultural juggernaut of a city makes for one of the country's most interesting skate scenes precisely because it has got so much going against it.
Join the sessions with the great and good of Manchester skateboarding – including Lewis Threadgold of the history-logging Manchestalgia Instagram account – and learn about what's going on inside the skate scene in one of the UK’s most character-filled cities. Read more about the skate scene in Manchester today!
08

Melbourne – Down Under spots galore

Chris Joslin - Backside Flip

Chris Joslin - Backside Flip

© Sam McGuire

As a rule of thumb when it comes to cities, the second biggest is usually the interesting one. Principal cities tend to take first bite of everything and become predictable as a result. Second cities (and third, and fourth) tend to be more liveable, less showy and better loved.
Melbourne is the textbook example of this. While Sydney does, of course, have Bondi, the Opera House and Bowlarama, Melbs (as locals seem to refer it) is the skateboarding hothouse of Australia and almost everyone will tell you it is Australia's coolest city by a country mile.
Why? Simple city layout, terrific food, groovy arts scene, open urban planning and 20 skateparks within a 15km radius, including not one but two outdoor vert ramps, mean that while San Francisco may be the most storied city in skateboarding’s history, Melbourne is the world’s most skateboarding city today. Plus, Australians are overwhelmingly decent skins who look after visitors like their own, so you can't lose.
09

Copenhagen – eco and skateboarding friendly

5 min

Streets On Fire: this was the CPH Open 2017

After the biggest-ever turnout is recorded, where can 'skateboarding's Woodstock' go from here?

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark and this bicycle-friendly city is also one of the greenest in the world, with plans to be carbon-emission free by 2025. Copenhagen made a big impact in the skateboarding world with a little help from the CPH Open contest, one of the best events in Europe, which resembles the laid-back contests of the '90s. The spots here are pretty futuristic and the people that inhabit the city are very progressive.
If you make it out here, rent a bike, go watch the contest and visit the district of Christiania which holds the infamous wooden bowl immortalised by Tom Penny.
10

Moscow – Eastern marble block

1 min

Antiz and Absurd get lost in Moscow

The AA Connection: Antiz link up with Russia’s Absurd crew to rock Red Square.

The Russian capital boasts Soviet architecture, which makes it very different to most cities in the world, and one of the few in which you actually can escape globalisation and feel that you're truly in different place. The marble monuments depicting grandiose moments from the Soviet epoch are all over the place and produce some of the best spots you've ever seen.
The traffic can be intense and it's not the safest place to be, but the reward for taking such risks are worth it. Jump on the Metro and be stunned by its luxury and go all the way to Victory Park to skate one of the most famous spots this country has to offer.
Local skaters are very friendly and open to showing visitors around, provided they are respectful of their customs.
11

Mar del Plata – Latin America's skateboarding cradle

5 min

Skateboarding in Argentina´s surfing cradle

A long skate history, spots and nightlife has made Mar del Plata a haven for Argentinian skaters.

This small, laid-back beach town in Argentina is a perfect place to escape winter in the northern hemisphere, when it becomes summer down there – and this city goes off in summertime. Home to Milton Martinez, the city is filled with smooth spots that overlook the ocean and it also has some of the oldest transition spots in Argentina.
This is one of the the first places that saw skateboarding in Latin America, as you can tell by watching the older generations that still rip the concrete parks.
Go to a restaurant, try some steak and hang out with the locals, who'll show you a great time skating during the day and an even better one once night falls and the city comes to life.
12

Marseille – for skate terrain old and new

5 min

Hit up Marseille's latest and most legendary skate spots

Roll through the streets of France's most storied skate city with a select crew of local rippers.

Even though skateboarding was alive and kicking in Marseille before the early '90s, it was really when the Bowl du Prado came to life in 1991 that Marseille suddenly exploded on skateboarding's global consciousness. From that summer on, cohorts of pro skaters made sure to hit the new French hotspot as part of their European summer contest pilgrimage.
For several years now, the constantly evolving city has seen a lot of street spots emerge, too: City Hall, la Major and the Saint Charles train station are all worth hitting up if you're ever in Marseille. If you wander a little outside the city limits there are also a handful of other skateable gems of varying ages. Marseille has been a must-visit for a generation of skaters, but now the skate scene in all its forms and functions is flourishing like never before. Don't miss out!
Marseille’s Bowl du Prado is my second home. Really, it's where I grew up
13

Rio – where the wild things are

8 min

Greetings from Rio de Janeiro

Step inside the skate scene of one of the world’s most famous cites with the top boys from Brazil.

Spanish +1

The very name of Rio de Janeiro is the most evocative in the world. Perhaps only Paris can rival Rio as a mental picture painted in the mind's eye. A city for whom the word 'contrasts' might have been invented, Rio is a world city and life is lived with a particular gusto.
A couple of interesting things about skating in Rio: the city is hemmed-in between the mountains and world-famous waterfront, so it really took the rejuvenation of the downtown for global sports events in order to create really good ledge spots relatively recently. Rio is also home to a historic concrete bowl-skating scene, which is by no means common throughout South America. In fact, there are even DIY concrete parks in the favelas overlooking the city. Rio is about as real as skating gets. The city's reputation for wildness in all regards is not imagined.
14

Sofia – Eastern exposure

6 min

Greetings from Sofia

Come and meet the Bulgarian skaters that make up this awesome Eastern European capital city skate scene.

Sofia has a magic to it as a city. It doesn't have endless spots, but it's a city so old that they can't dig down in it without finding yet another civilisation. The opening of 5-High Skatepark on the fifth floor of a funky converted industrial unit means the locals can skate all-year-round for the first time. Also be sure to go and hang out at Grindhouse Skate Club, a hideout in the city-centre woods with an indoor mini-ramp and regular, noisy live bands. Every skater in the city seems to pass through this fantastic DIY venue at some point, so it's a great place to meet people and very friendly for visitors.
The skate scene is welcoming and lively and the Monument Park has just been approved by the city authorities to have an old municipal pond excavated and turned into a downtown bowl. Life can be hard in one of Europe's poorest countries, but Sofia is a safe city, stylish in its own way and full of life. Come the weekend, every venue is packed and the nights can roll on until very, very late indeed. One of Europe’s last great undiscovered cities and with a tight-knit, multi-generational skate scene that reaches into most facets of life there, Sofia is a place to return to. Real skaters will love it.
15

Paris – for the skate renaissance

6 min

Greetings from Paris

Go inside the skate scenes thriving all over the French capital today.

Even though Paris has a long skateboarding history, it's only quite recently that the French capital has become a must-visit city for any skater looking to collect footage or just have a good time.
The rebuilding of Place de la République, the skate/fashion explosion and the will of the city to make more public spaces accessible to skateboarders have clearly all been factors in this Parisian skate renaissance. Word on the street is that a lot more shared areas will be developed throughout the city in the upcoming years.
Several skateshops continue to thrive in Paris, including Nozbone, Day Off, Odilon and Snowbeach, all of which collectively help to keep the Parisian scene's fires burning on a daily basis. If Paris offers a lot of street architecture to skate, the same cannot be said when it comes to transition, or what we might call 'park skating'. On the upside there, Vans collaborated with Cosanostra skatepark and the city of Chelles (roughly 18km east of the city centre) to build a brand new Vans Park Series Bowl that remains in situ for the skaters of France and beyond to use daily.
16

San Diego – where times are always golden

4 min

Greetings from San Diego

Beyond it’s amazing skate scene, San Diego pretty much offers it all.

Many famous pros and skateboard companies have called San Diego home over the past 25 years. Some have moved on, but there's always been a solid skate scene. The beaches are beautiful, the weather is always perfect – as are most the skate spots. It might very well have it all. North County San Diego – about a 30-minute drive from Downtown – has a lot of spots and may well be the best place for transition skating in the world. No California skate mission is complete without visiting San Diego: enjoy the perfect weather, its great culture – and hopefully a Peter Smolik sighting!
17

Lisbon – the rebirth of cool

5 min

Greetings from Lisbon

Affordable prices, good weather and challenging skate spots, Portuguese capital Lisbon has the lot!

Lisbon recently became one of the top-three most-desirable cities in the world for tourism. Even though it's known by skaters as a city with a traditional ground surfacing known as 'Calcada', which is really bad for skating, in the last few years its received more and more international skaters who've gone to enjoy the lifestyle there and soldier on against some of Lisbon’s unique spots.
Skating alone isn’t the draw here, though – the climate is lovely and food and socialising are reasonable. It's true that Lisbon is not the easiest city to skate and realistically skating from spot-to-spot is a struggle. More likely you'll end up driving from one place to the next, but the challenges these spots provide and the overall ambience of Lisbon make it a place enjoyed not just by skate rats, but by everyone who simply likes to travel.
18

London – underground adventures are calling

15 min

London

Explore the skate scene of one of the world's greatest cities with Margielyn Didal, Jake Wooten and Jamie Foy.

English +3

What makes London so great for skating is the Tube. London's underground network means you can buy a one-day travelcard and traverse the city from sun-up to sundown, going from mini-ramp session to concrete skatepark to street sessions, taking in the incredible diversity of the city all the while.
London is home to Stockwell Skatepark, possibly the best-loved of the city's old skate spots. Located behind the Brixton Academy and well served by the Portuguese cafés up the road, it's worth the journey on its own. If you visit London, it's best to do so in high summer when a lot of the stress associated with work and hustle seems to get lost in the wind and the city really comes into her own. Make your own sandwiches and buy a travelcard. Sorted, bruv!
19

Lyon – going beyond the cliché

4 min

Greetings from Lyon

The gastronomic capital of France is also a stronghold of skateboard culture.

Lyon has long been considered France's skateboarding capital and it's truly a breeding ground for French skate culture. On the skatepark side of things not much has changed since the famous La Piste park in the early '90s, but progress is being made and some new structures have appeared of late – a new plaza in the Parc Blandan and, for winter sessions, there's the Gerland skatepark. Should you need to buy skate stuff, then you'd have to visit ABS, Wall St or Namasté skateshops. Guaranteed, these guys will help you out and maybe give you some tips about the closest spot. Oh, and don't forget that Lyon is France’s gastronomic capital, so leave time aside for some proper eating.
20

New York – don't sleep

5 min

Greetings From: New York City

A ride around one of the best cities to skateboard in the world, New York City.

One of the world’s most iconic cities, it’s not surprising that NYC has been one of the most popular skate destinations for decades. Historically, lower Manhattan has been the hub of skateboarding and sessions at the Brooklyn Banks date back to the early 1980s. The streets of downtown, midtown and everywhere in between are featured in countless videos that helped shape the aesthetic and identity of east coast skateboarding as a whole.
Lots of people wax poetic about skating the New York of yesteryear, but if you look around today, the city’s skate scene is thriving. With new spots and parks popping up all the time, and independent brands and shops that support the community, great things are happening all the time in NYC.
21

Buenos Aires – boulevards and beauty abound

3 min

Greetings From Buenos Aires

Greetings From Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is a big, thriving city. The capital of Argentina, it's home to one of the largest skate scenes in Latin America. It also has a long history in skateboarding that goes back as far as the early 1970s and the scene has grown stronger ever since.
A big spot for the scene is the small shopping centre Bond Street. This underground centre is filled with tattoo shops and skate shops – Sound Systems being one of the oldest and owned by Javier Bianco, a local legend who was actually the first Argentinian to make it into Thrasher. In the past few years over 20 concrete public skateparks have been built in the city. Today the city is full of skateboarders. If you have time and no destination, Buenos Aires might be the place to go – and the friendly locals will make sure you have a great time!
22

Glasgow – no mean city

15 min

Glasgow

Explore the legendary skate scene in the Scottish city with Margielyn Didal, Jake Wooten and Jamie Foy.

English +3

Meet the locals behind the many DIY skate projects that have filled a physical and cultural gap left by an ambivalent local council and discover how a skate scene survives partially undercover in a country where rain is no stranger.
A bluesy and soulful place with a historically resourceful and independently-minded skate scene (one great early example of which was the success of Clan Skates’ locally sourced Poizone clothing label of 30 years ago), Glasgow’s skate scene has a feel and energy all of its own. Among the total dons we linked up with in Glasgow for this episode is Danny Aubrey, who's personally rescued thousands of skateboards, raised good money for skateboarding non-profit organisations and given a platform to more than 50 artists – all from a business started in a garage back in 2010.
23

Santiago- rolling deep

18 min

Santiago

Around 20,000 skateboarders live in the greater metropolitan area of the Chilean city – let's roll with them!

English

Chile is the sleeping giant of South American skate culture, with capital city Santiago being home to an estimated 20,000 skaters.
It wasn't until the emergence of Go Skateboarding Day in 2004 however that Santiago city council realised the demand for skateparks and the city began to become a skateboarding trailblazer – not only as a destination for skateboarders throughout Chile, but wider Latin America as well. This episode hears that remarkable story, as told by the skateboarders who made it all happen. Just wait until you see how many skaters hit the streets of Chile's capital city every year to wild out.
24

Johannesburg – where the heart is

20 min

Johannesburg

Meet Brandon Valjalo and 30 more top dogs from South Africa's biggest skate scene in our super city report.

English +7

What Johannesburg lacks in perfect surfaces, it makes up for in heart. It's one of the friendliest and most unified skate scenes we’ve come across on our journey to connect grassroots skate scenes. The theme of 'do it yourself' is the through-line of our city report from the streets of South Africa – from the Westdene DIY skatepark, which was created from nothing by brothers Jarryd and Brandon Barnard, to Skate Society Soweto, fronted by the charismatic Sechaba The Bakersman.
Among those like-minded souls we connected with in Johannesburg is Thato Moet of the Island Gals skate crew, who’s become the emerging face of what’s new in the Johannesburg skate scene, thanks in no small part to the sterling photographic work of local ripper Karabo Mooki, who has spent the past 12 years documenting the Joburg skate scene and the generational changes in skateboarding.
25

Richmond – the good kind of crusty

13 min

Virginia

Enjoy a different side of American skateboarding culture, ripping up the Virginia skate scene with the locals.

English +7

We highly recommend you stop in Richmond, Virginia if ever on a cross-USA skate trip. One of those relaxed, inter-generational heartbeat skate scenes of a lesser-seen America, which is its own kind of wonderful, Richmond is one of those city scenes that will resonate with anyone who comes from a skate scene of tennis court box ledges, edge-of-town ‘cheese grater’ ditch spots and DIY parks built in the footprint of demolished buildings.
Good examples of Richmond's skate terrain are the Midlo Ditch and River Bowl – the first complete with spined Jersey barriers only a local can handle, the latter a DIY micro-bowl on a massive concrete slab overhanging a fast-running section of the James River. Any trip to Richmond should begin with a visit to Venue Skateshop for the lowdown on all matters skate-related in the parish.
26

Philadelphia – all love

17 min

Philadelphia

Go street-level in one of skating's most influential cities with the locals who make up the Philly scene.

English +3

Philadelphia has proven pivotal in skateboarding's history. Seat of the 1990s East Coast movement and home to uber-spot Love Park throughout that era, Philadelphia has it's own energy, style and codes of conduct.
With passing generations and see-sawing municipal attitudes to young people and civic space the Philadelphia scene has spread prismatically throughout the city in new and exciting ways. As we say, it's all love in Philly, but don't go expecting perfect spots because that's not how this city rolls.
Before you head out to skate these incredible cities, you'll need the prefect soundtrack to your travels, so download skate star Zion Wright's essential Spotify playlist:

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