Serious travelers pinpoint their favorite spots

Take it from thousands of avid travelers out there: They’ve left their hearts in San Francisco, their minds in Salzburg and their loyalties with an entirely new airline.

Those are just some of the details to emerge from Condé Nast Traveler’s annual Readers’ Choice Survey, which polled 32,633 travelers about their favorite cities, cruise lines, airlines, hotels and resorts worldwide.

The full Readers’ Choice Awards, to be featured in the magazine’s November issue, essentially provide a roadmap of cities to visit, places to stay and smart ways to travel if you don’t have the time or energy to have your expectations dashed during your next break from work.

Granted, readers shared their most cherished recommendations a few months ago, before bleak economic news began dominating headlines and many people started curtailing their travel plans. Nevertheless, the survey results are telling, said Kate Maxwell, a senior editor for Condé Nast Traveler.

“People believe that travel is really something of a right these days,” Maxwell said. “It’s important to people and it can be the highlight of their year. These results show they really feel strongly about it.”

Here are a few highlights from the awards, which are now in their 21^st year:

• Charleston, S.C., beat New York City out of the number 2 spot for best U.S. city to visit.  San Francisco remained number 1 and New York City fell to number 3.
• San Francisco won the top U.S. city designation for the 16^th consecutive year.
• Virgin America, a new airline that launched in August 2007, was named the best U.S. domestic airline. JetBlue Airways grabbed the number 2 spot.
• For the 19^th time, Singapore Airlines was named the number 1 international route airline.
• In the ranking of the best European cities, Florence took the top spot for the fifth year in a row, Rome ranked second and Salzburg and Venice tied for third place. The Austrian birthplace of Mozart scored well for its ambiance and cultural sites and landed its highest ranking ever this year.
• Prague reappeared on this year’s list of top 10 European cities after a four-year absence.
• Damascus, Syria stayed near the top of the list of best cities in the Africa/Middle East category after climbing up the list last year.

And here is a list of this year’s top award winners in each category:

Top Cities — United States:

1. San Francisco
2. Charleston, S.C.
3. New York City

Top Cities — Europe:

1. Florence, Italy
2. Rome, Italy
3. Salzburg, Austria and Venice, Italy

Top Cities — Asia:

1. Bangkok, Thailand
2. Chiang Mai, Thailand
3. Hong Kong

Top Cities — Africa/Middle East:

1. Cape Town, South Africa
2. Jerusalem
3. Damascus

Top Cities — The Americas

1. Buenos Aires, Argentina
2. Vancouver, British Columbia
3. Quebec City, Quebec

Top Cities — Australia/Pacific:

1. Sydney, Australia
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. Queenstown, New Zealand

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