Jul. 20 – Readers of the magazine, Travel + Leisure, has ranked the exotic Udaipur City in India as the world’s best city for travelers.
Udaipur is also called the City of Lakes and is located in the western Rajasthan state famous for its Rajput-era palaces; some of them now converted into luxury hotels.
This is the first time the city figured in the magazine’s annual survey. Last year, the survey was dominated by Bangkok City, Thailand.
In another first, the online survey also tallied the answers of Travel + Leisure readers located in South Asia, Southeast Asia, China, Australia and New Zealand, Turkey and Mexico.
The city has been marketed as a luxury destination. Travel + Leisure editor-in-chief Nancy Novogrod told the AP that luxury hotel companies are opening properties there because “they are looking for these very special destinations that are unspoiled, that do offer a very rich and real sense of the culture of the region to guests.”
She added that she has noticed a “huge migration and interest away from the classic European capitals and classic resorts to destinations that offer a very particular sense of place. … The world has gotten smaller in some ways and the traditional places have gotten less interesting and more familiar.”
After Udaipur, the top 10 best cities behind in the world include: Cape Town; Bangkok; Buenos Aires; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Florence, Italy; Luang Prabang, Laos; New York; Rome and San Francisco, according to the results of the survey found here.
