I live in a downtown area and my bedroom faces the front of the house. Noisy every night with drunks yelling and singing, the "undesirables" in the apartment building across the street doing their thing, traffic, and yes, barking dogs. But out on my balcony at the back it's pretty quiet and I can get a good nights sleep. If I can ignore the kittykats scratching at the patio door to come outside.