Best Skills Challenge Rewards?

[Wai]

I was wonder which skills challenges other players like best because of the reward it gives.  If players have any useful tips for achieving these goals.  And, why they are preferred.

I always get the "Everyone's Best Friend" as soon as possible.  I usually do this by picking a town where playing the guitar for tips is most profitable.  By the time the guitar skill is maxed you have usually completed this challenge.  The reward makes all future interactions with sims so much easier.

My second choice is Tranquil Transference because, with this, it is so quick to get to any point on the map.  (Almost as quick as the teleport cheat.)  First I get the moodlet manager, then I go to China, load my sim up with fruit and a few showers in a can and learn meditation by reading the book then sparing a few times.  Once I have the skill, I meditate until the sim can teleport to the bridge in the Chinese Garden and using the moodlet manager, shower cans and fruit I keep the sim there meditating until the 150 hours is completed.  As a side benefit, the martial arts skill itself also rises while doing this.

[Aspen]

I always go for the real estate challenges cause they are huge payoffs (become a business partner, own a venue, own 3, 5 venues, etc). Im suprised no seems to be playing the real estate game in the sims. Its usually the first thing I invest in after a bed is purchased

[Vinyl]

After playing so many strange combinations of traits, challenges, dynasties, and just goofing around my sims no longer have any 'must learn' skills or skill challenges.     Back in the day the cooking skill and the handiness challenges were great helps and at least one sim in each household would learn them!  (Now I can just plonk down a mini-fridge or a bagel bar and let them fend for themselves  )

I'd say the alchemy challenge rewards when playing an elixir maker are pretty essential.  If my sims plan on brewing a lot of elixirs with rare ingredients I'll generally have them make 150 potions of bliss with produce from the store to raise their skill and get one challenge out of the way.  Then they'll read alchemy skill books in the library until alchemy is maxed, at which point they'll finally start researching alchemy and read the seven elixir recipes to learn all the recipes and complete the second challenge.  With those two skill challenges done they'll be brewing up triple batches of elixirs with a good chance no ingredients will be used up, which is fantastic for those recipes with the really tricky to find metals and insects.

Those charisma challenges are great, definitely.  Few of my sims really need them, but I do find them a huge help when it comes to playing the World Adventure quests.  There's so many 'become friends with X in order to Y' requirements; being able to jump to friends with a single charming introduction is such a time saver!

Oh, and while it isn't a skill, if any of my sims plan on smelting or cutting gems I'll make sure they get the gem and metal collector challenges done before they so much as split a geode.