How many cities can the generator pick from?

183 cities in about 80 countries. The list is curated by hand, so it favors well-known and frequently visited cities over sheer size.

Can I limit it to one country or continent?

Not on this page. Every press draws from the whole world list. For the United States, use the US City Generator; for a random country first, use the Random Country Generator.

Can I get more than one city at a time?

No. The tool shows a single city per press. Press the button again to get another one; the previous pick is replaced rather than added to a list.

Where do the three landmarks come from?

They're stored with each city in the list and were chosen as the places most visitors would recognize or visit first. They are not ranked and there is no link-out, so use them as search terms.

Does it include towns as well as cities?

A few smaller entries are in there, but the list is mostly proper cities. For deliberately small places, the Random Town Generator is the better tool.

Random City Generator

Press the button to get one random city from 183 cities around the world, with its country and three landmarks worth knowing.

More Country, City & Place Generators

Random US State Generator

Random Town Generator

US City Generator

Random Location Generator

Browse all country, city & place generators →

The Random City Generator picks one city at random from a hand-built list of 183 cities in roughly 80 countries and shows you its name, its country, and three places the city is known for. Press the button and you might land on Kyoto (Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kinkaku-ji, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove), Marrakech, Yerevan, or Aarhus. Press it again for a fresh pick.

It's a quick answer to "pick a random city in the world" for travel daydreaming, geography practice, writing prompts, and games where you need a place chosen for you without any bias toward the obvious.

What each result shows

City and country, shown together as a heading such as "Lisbon (Portugal)".
Three notable places in that city. These are landmarks, districts, museums or natural sites: for Istanbul it lists the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque and Grand Bazaar; for Nha Trang it lists Vinpearl Land, the Po Nagar Cham Towers and Hon Mun Island.

That's the whole output. There is no population figure, map, photo or time zone, and there are no filters by continent or country. Every press is an even draw from the full list, so a small city like Aarhus comes up as often as New York.

What's in the list

The list leans toward cities people actually travel to rather than the largest by population. The United States has the most entries (18, from New York and Chicago to Nashville and Portland), followed by India (13), China (12), Italy and Canada (7 each), and then France, Brazil and Australia. After that it thins out to two or three cities each for places like Vietnam, Morocco, Norway, Poland and New Zealand, and single entries for dozens of other countries: Armenia, Denmark, Turkey, Argentina and so on.

Because it's a curated list rather than a database dump, you won't get obscure suburbs or duplicate spellings, but you also won't get every city in a given country. If you specifically want an American city, the US City Generator has far more coverage of the United States, and the Random Town Generator is the better pick for smaller places.

Ways to use a random city pick

Choosing a trip destination. When you've been going back and forth for weeks, let the randomizer pick and see how you react to the answer. The three landmarks give you enough to start a search.
Geography quizzes. Generate a city and have players name the country before it's revealed, or name the country and guess the landmarks. For a country-level version of the same game, use the Random Country Generator.
Story and worldbuilding settings. Writers use it to drop a scene somewhere they wouldn't have chosen. The landmark list works as a starting point for setting details.
Virtual travel and Street View games. Pick a city, then explore it on a map or in a street-level viewer and try to find the listed landmarks.
Deciding where to "cook from" this week. Some people pair a random city with a dish from that city's cuisine as a weekly kitchen challenge.

Cities vs. capitals vs. locations

This generator doesn't care whether a city is a capital. About a third of the entries happen to be capitals (Paris, Tokyo, Rome, Lima), but the rest are cities like Barcelona, Mumbai, Vancouver and Rio de Janeiro that draw people for reasons other than government. If you only want national capitals, the Random Capital City Generator restricts itself to those. If you'd rather get a random point on the map than a named city, the Random Location Generator does that. And for a random state inside the US, there is the Random US State Generator. You can browse all country, city and place generators for the full set.

Frequently asked questions

How many cities can the generator pick from?: 183 cities in about 80 countries. The list is curated by hand, so it favors well-known and frequently visited cities over sheer size.
Can I limit it to one country or continent?: Not on this page. Every press draws from the whole world list. For the United States, use the US City Generator; for a random country first, use the Random Country Generator.
Can I get more than one city at a time?: No. The tool shows a single city per press. Press the button again to get another one; the previous pick is replaced rather than added to a list.
Where do the three landmarks come from?: They're stored with each city in the list and were chosen as the places most visitors would recognize or visit first. They are not ranked and there is no link-out, so use them as search terms.
Does it include towns as well as cities?: A few smaller entries are in there, but the list is mostly proper cities. For deliberately small places, the Random Town Generator is the better tool.