Winter is a time when many people want to just get away and, given the available cheap airplane tickets and discount travel packages, now is truly an ideal time to go. By checking out Travel & Leisure Americas Favorite Cities survey you might find out your perfect destination.
Travel & Leisure readers ranked 35 American cities in 54 areas, including all in one resorts, romantic potential, and the ease of traveling around town. Seven new cities were added to the survey this year, including Anchorage and Savannah, with three of them (Salt Lake City, Savannah, and Phoenix/Scottsdale) landing in the top five for winter travel.
Not surprisingly, very cold or winter gray cities such as Anchorage, Minneapolis, and Seattle were among the five lowest rated cities.
Interestingly the survey showed that warm cities were not the only ones that ranked highly. Honolulu came in second with San Juan, Puerto Rico, placing third. Orlando came in ranked 12 this year vs. being ranked #1 in the 2009 survey. Miami came in at #15 with San Diego, Americas first place city for weather, ranked #13.
Cities with excellent indoor culture, including museums, theater and classic music did well. Santa Fe came in #8 because of its access to skiing a half hour outside the city as well as its excellent art and shopping in town.
Salt Lake City earned the overall #1 ranking in part because of its easy access to slopes, its #2 ranking as an affordable city, and its #1 ranking for being clean.
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