Where are the best places to level up on this game? Especially near the beginningish...

And I am right in thinking experience is shared in FF9 so if you have 3 characters alive the experience points will be shared between them and if you only had one character alive they'd get more and therefore all of the experience points?

At the start of the game, there isn't too much you can do about raising levels, except taking time out along the way to wherever you have to go to fight any random enemies you may come across. Learning the Support ability 'Level Up' and equipping it can help with this too.

Once you get the Hilda Garde 3 (disc 3) and Invincible (disc 4) airships, it makes it a lot easier to level up, as you can go pretty much anywhere.

On the Mist Continent though, the ledge above Gizamaluke's Grotto is very good for leveling early on, against Grand Dragons, although they can be deadly at low levels, especially with their Lightning attack that can very well kill you if you're not protected against lightinng elemental effects.

On disc 4, land the Invincible on Vile Island (the island with the tall mountain between the Forgotten and Outer Continents) and fight Yans. These cute little lamb-like creatures yield huge amounts of EXP and AP, but their attacks are DEADLY, so only fight them if you know what you are doing, as THEY-WILL-HURT-YOU.

Finally, the final dungeon (Memoria), is also a good place for raising your levels at the end of the game, as you can make up your party with any of your characters (you are not forced to have Zidane as the main character while in there). Plus, the monsters found there are not too difficult and give decent EXP and AP, making a very good location for gaining quick experience.

Cool, and I'm right in thinking experience points are shared between characters?

So if I get 1000 from a battle, each character won't get 1000 each but an even split amount? i.e 4 characters, 1000exp = 250exp each?

Vile island IS a good place to train up,but yans have to be one of the evilist things in the game.

Vile island IS a good place to train up,but yans have to be one of the evilist things in the game.
true, I normally fight in one Yan battle on Vile island, and just go back to Daguerro island and fight the Grand Dragons there.

Yes, experience point are shared.
I sometimes kill one of my party members so the others can level up quickly!
For levelling up early on, I find that the forests near Treno where the mandagoras are very good at levelling up, I levelled up 10 levels there!
And so is the gargan roo under Doctor Tot's tower in Treno.
In general, forests often hold creatures that are much more powerful that the grassland ones.

P.S. Why are you guys ruining the game for him!? Telling him about the airships!

Memoria is a great place to lvl up the only problem with it is that you can lvl up so far that kuja is no kind of a thread so it's not fun to play

It is pretty pointless levelling up with Yans because you don't get that much extra EXP from them compared to grand dragons and they more effort to kill.

It is pretty pointless levelling up with Yans because you don't get that much extra EXP from them compared to grand dragons and they more effort to kill.

You can also fight more than one Yan at once, though. If you get 99 Amethysts and equip Garnet's Boost ability, she'll do 9999 to all of the Yans every time. Then any other 9999 attack will finish them off (Frog Drop if you're crazy like me, Dragon Crest, or Shock will do). Also, you can take advantage of the Virus status to skew your levelling up, enabling you to get a particular character caught up or even ahead of everyone else.

I think a good place to lvl up before you go to Memoria is Deguero, I'm not sure who actually found that place, but it is a good place to train before you go there. Just on the island with all the dragons. But watch out for those bloody cats don't give em anything just run away.

Well figthing Yans is good idea and Dungero also but if you need fast lvl first at all you must defeat Ozma :P
Go abd defeat the legendary sunthesist
For low lvls go outide Gizamalukes and figth Grand Dragons with Quinas Limited Gloves =-O

i leveled up near the theives city, atop that mountin. They had creatures, like the grand dragon, potions close by, and a amazing amount of strong items. it works preety good, the thing is you don't even have the option to go there till the end of the third disc, plus you have to find it on your own the first time you get the air ship hilda. it's kinda like a detor, instead of going right after Kuja.