Sydney, San Francisco Top Reader's Choice Poll

Sydney, San Francisco Top Reader’s Choice Poll

voting ballot Sydney, San Francisco and Florence all topped the list of the world’s best destinations in Condé Nast Traveler’s 21st annual Readers’ Choice awards, which were announced last week.

The luxury travel magazine tallied votes from more than 32,000 readers, who gave their feedback on over 9,000 hotels, resorts, airlines, cities, and cruises.

The survey asked readers to vote on a scale of one to 100 according to various criteria including ambience, friendliness, culture/sights, restaurants, lodging and shopping.

Sydney, Australia ranked number one as the best city overall, and New Zealand as the best country in the world to visit, scoring an incredible 99.22 points for scenery, 96.47 for safety and 96.86 for value for money.

San Francisco beat out Charleston, South Carolina and New York City to win the top U.S. city award for the 16th year in a row.

Florence outranked compatriots Rome and Venice to snag the best European city award, and Bangkok won best Asian city. Other winners include Buenos Aires as best city in the Americas, and Cape Town won best Middle Eastern/African city.

There were some surprises in the best U.S. airline category, with Virgin America, JetBlue and Midwest airlines snagging the top three spots. The only legacy airline to make it into the finals was Continental. Not so surprising was the fact that Singapore Airlines won best international airline, an honor it has held every year except in 1994.

Honors were also bestowed on Crystal Cruises as best large-ship cruise line, Hertz as best car rental agency, and Maui as the world’s best island destination.

The complete list of winners and runners-up will be released to the public in the November issue of Condé Nast Traveler.

Links: Opodo News, Family Travellogue, A Luxury Travel Blog, Visa Bureau

By Karen Elowitt for PeterGreenberg.com.

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No wonder Sydney tops the list. This city of Australia has one of the most diverse and exciting cuisines in the world.

Roger A.C. Williams

Like everything in Condé Nast Traveler (after a friend gave me a subscription, which I didn't renew, I nicknamed it Condé Nasty Traveler, I was so disgusted with their prices), Crystal Cruises are EXPENSIVE!

Josh Friedman

As a San Franciscan and a former resident of Florence (Firenze), Italy it's logical to me that these cities would be at the top of the list.

They're both magical and condensed, so one can easiliy experience them on foot in a relatively short amount of time - especially Firenze. Of course, if you want to stop in a musuem or two (like the Bargello, my favorite in Firenze) that might require an extra night or two in your hotel. And a week or two on the treadmill before visiting SF will get you in shape for climbing some of our famous hills - a visit to Russian Hill at twilight to see Coit Tower and the Bay Bridge is not to be missed.