Noise cancelling headphones are very much a personal preference. What might work best for one person may not be the best solution for another.
Certainly Bose, Sennheiser and Panasonic have some excellent offerings. Your best bet is to find a good Hi-Fi shop and ask if you can try and pairs that you’re interested in.
If you’re on a budget, we recently tried Lindy’s noise cancelling headphones, we found them to be of great use during car journeys or in any environment where there are high levels of background noise.
Certainly, no set of noise cancelling headphones will eliminate 100% of the noise, and nor would you want them to. It’s important to maintain some appreciation of the world around you in case of emergency.
We would also accept a set of phones that cut out slightly less noise, if they were more comfortable. If you listen to music for extended periods of time then it may be more beneficial to have a well fitting set of phones than ones that cut out the most noise.