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I'm just glad to be somewhere that isn't castles and snow. I loathed Ishgard, its layout and the aesthetic of the region outside of Sea of Clouds, and I didn't give two Bolir buckets about its people. 

Overall, I think some areas of Gyr Abania were unexpectedly beautiful, like the reddish color of the sandstone and the desert flower fields. I like the Peaks most, but the city of Ala Mhigo itself looks wonderful, and it's hugely irritating we can't go back to the MSQ special zone near the end of SB. I don't care much for Rhalgr's Reach, but I do like Kugane. In Othard the area that looked nicest to me was the Azim Steppe. I get that the giant wall was kinda meant to be similar to the Great Wall, and I did like the huge amount of different elevations, but the large river basin littered with debris isn't as impressive looking because the wall obscures your vision-much like the xaelabowl in Azim Steppe, it seems like it was meant to make the area look larger by preventing you from looking from one end to the other. Which is fine, limited resources and all that, but it's much more intrusive in Yanxia. The idea itself however is good. (I'm kinda miffed Yanxia is Chinese in aesthetic but populated by Japanese-named characters, ninja and samurai, but that's another matter.)

To make that river basin area look more interesting, I would have put the large castrum tower in the distance much closer to us and maybe even make it a place we could visit, if not actually do much there. There should be much larger and more numerous wreckage. Alternatively, there ought to be more ruins than there were; you don't spend much time in the destroyed area around the castle and it's full of enemies, which is something of a drag.

Overall though I'm happy with the change of scenery and I hope the next expansion takes us to even more places that aren't generic western fantasy.