1/2/3: What Jin said. XD
4: San d'Oria has a slightly more convenient layout to get around than Bastok, and Windurst is much more inconvenient than either of the other two.

If you end up on Asura, feel free to hit me up if you need a Newbie 101 class. ^^ Look for Nyarlko or Cthuuko and either me will be happy to help (as long as you don't catch me while I'm actually doing something like an LS event. lol)