Plymouth has been praised for its property prices and swanky eateries as well as fine buildings in the Sunday Times Best Places to Live in Britain Guide.
The guide lists all the UK's cities and points out their best features - with Bristol being named the top place to live.
While the rest of the cities aren't ranked, Plymouth does get a decent namecheck.
The guide says you can buy a five bedroom townhouse in the city for £330,000 and a one-bed for £130,000 - both near The Hoe seafront.
It lists eateries in the city from Gary Rhodes, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Mitch Tonks and mentions the annual seafood festival.
History and heritage get a mention with the Mayflower Steps highlighted as well as the city's sailing credentials being flagged up.
Georgian architecture, Saltram House, the Levinsky building and the Theatre Royal are all named.
The guide says Plymouth is "A cool combination of sea, history and fun."
Exeter and Truro were also praised.
Bristol was deemed “simply one of the best places to live in Britain” thanks to factors such as the city’s “decent schools” and “buzzy culture”.
The accolade comes in the second part of The Sunday Times’s Best Places to Live in Britain, which focuses on every city in Britain.
The supplement heaps praise on Bristol thanks to “one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, varied and beautiful housing stock, decent schools, buzzy culture and night life and access to some fantastic countryside”.
The city’s connectivity also worked in its favour, with plans to modernise the rail links between London and Cardiff set to reduce journey times between London and Bristol by 20 minutes, the newspaper said.
The Sunday Times Best Places to Live Part 2 profiles each one of the 64 cities in Britain, but does not rank them.
Exeter received high praise, with the supplement saying in recent years that it had become "a mini Bristol".
"Its airport has flights to 17 countries, the university is in the Russell Group, John Lewis has opened in the centre and Ikea is building a new store on the fringe," says the report, also name-checking the Exeter Chiefs and the impending arrival of the rugby World Cup.
"A human-scale city with sea, moors and cream teas," says the report.
Plymouth gets summed up as "A cool combination of sea, history and fun," with the Sunday Times pointing out great value housing, celebrity eateries and a long maritime history as among the city's best assets.
Truro meanwhile is dubbed: "A tiny city, with a big heart, and it loves a party".
High house prices get a mention, as does the city's high performing grammar school and its early 20th Century cathedral, cobbled streets and Georgian architecture.
The supplement covered the biggest such as London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle, as well as places such as Chichester, Ely, Lichfield and St Davids.
It also highlights the top buy-to-let hotspots, and the top 10 locations to be within hiking distance of Britain’s wildest, most beautiful countryside, as well as the best places for views, for families, for investment, for culture, and the most innovative and creative.
Home Editor Helen Davies said: “Cities can be fabulous places to live. They offer almost everything you could ever want. Many of us already live in a city and even more of us are predicted to make our home in one in the next decade.
“The urban lifestyle appeals to almost everyone: from those in their twenties starting out, families putting down roots and retirees moving back into the bustle of a city centre. Overall, the list is a celebration of city life.”
Idylls from across England, Scotland and Wales proved the most desirable for home owners, according to the newspaper’s 101 Best Places to Live in Britain, which was published last weekend.
The supplement named Skipton in North Yorkshire as the number one, praising its ideal combination of low crime rates, “top class” schools, great transport links, a “buzzing” high street dominated by independent shops, pretty and reasonably priced property, and beautiful surrounding countryside.
In second place was Newnham in Cambridge, in third was Monmouth in Monmouthshire, Wales, while seaside town Falmouth in Cornwall took fourth spot.
The guide also uses data from Parent Power, The Sunday Times Schools Guide, to reveal the top places to live to be near the best primary and state schools.
The Sunday Times Best Places for primary schools are Bermondsey in south east London, Maidenhead, Nottingham, Putney in south west London, Rossendale, Rugby, Ruislip, St Albans, Stockton-on-Tees and Wetherby.
The Sunday Times Best Places for state schools are Altrincham, Barnet, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Durham, Gloucester, Harrogate, Maidstone, Sheffield and York.