The world's best cities to travel

Despite the world economic crisis, travel has gone up with 270 million travelers leaving on vacation this year, Yahoo! Travel and Leisure reported on Thursday, quoting the Airports Council International.


Yahoo! Travel and Leisure said Bangkok is number one destination of most travelers this year, citing a readers's survey for its 16th annual World's Best cities. Florence comes close on its hees..


“Cities absolutely dominate over countryside experiences for travelers,” it quoted Priscilla Alexander of Protravel International as saying. “You won’t have someone going to France and not going to Paris.”
Yahoo! Travel and Leisure took into consideration factors such as efficient transportation and affordable dining, among others.


Here's the top 10 cities:

No. 1 Bangkok
The capital of Thailand with of 10 million people, Bangkok has sky crappers jostling for space, while beneath them are cabs and tuk-tuks inching on heavy traffic. For shopping and dinning, Bangkok has an array of bacchanalia. It has nabbed the number one post for two years running and has been listed in the top 10 destinations every year since 2002.




No. 2 Florence
This much-loved Renaissance city is set amid rolling hills studded with towers and churches. New galleries and aperitivo bars share the compact city center with more than one million works of art — among them Michelangelo’s David and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. With its high-fashion brands like Gucci and Cavalli, succulent steaks and the traditional artisan workshops of the Oltrarno, Florence beat out European cities many times its size.


No. 3 
Rome


Dubbed as the Eternal City, Rome has a series of starchitect-designed buildings. Emblematic of the bold new look are the Ara Pacis, a travertine-and-glass building by Richard Meier, and Zaha Hadid’s Maxxi (Museum of 21st Century Arts), which debuted in 2010 in the northern Flaminio zone. The Colosseum has opened its dungeons and third-floor gallery to tourists for the first time.


No. 4 New York


New York is know for its bright-lights-big-city grandeur where one can always find a quiet neighborhood. The trick is balancing the city’s outsize spectacle with intimate experiences. The latest neighborhood to pull it off is the Chelsea arts district, between 10th and 11th avenues, most notable for the just-expanded High Line, a landscaped strip of elevated public space. For a picnic lunch, stop into Chelsea Market, a food-court-on-steroids, and savor a piece of the city that’s been voted No. 1 within the U.S. and Canada every year since 2000.

No. 5 Istanbul

Straddling the Bosporus — and thus the only major city that occupies both Asia and Europe — Istanbul also spans the ancient and modern worlds. The sounds of construction compete with the call of the muezzin, and the skyline, a glittering ribbon of palaces and mosques, is dotted with rooftop nightclubs. One reason the city skyrocketed back onto the World’s Best Cities list after two absent years. The appeal of Istanbul’s latest culinary trend: resurrecting ancient Ottoman recipes, such as garlicky lamb’s trotter served on toast at Asitane and juicy kubbes — dumplings filled with beef and pignoli — at Cercis Murat Kona, on the city’s Asian side.

No. 6 Cape Town

Cape Town is sometimes labeled the least African of African cities — which, depending on who’s doing the labeling, is said with enthusiasm or disparagement. But whatever you think of the must-see destination, post-World Cup, the city radiates a palpable cool, and now it has surged back onto the World’s Best list with a higher score than in 2009 (the last time it appeared). Split your time between urban pursuits (browsing the trendy Neighborgoods Market and local artists’ galleries) and excursions to see wildlife, sample wines, and stroll the beaches of the Cape of Good Hope reserve.


No. 7 Siem Reap

Siem Reap is best known as the gateway to the Angkor Wat temple complex and other 12th-century Khmer ruins such as Ta Prohm, which remains as archaeologists found it in 1860, with banyan and kapok trees slowly reclaiming its sandstone carvings. But now the city has evolved from a cluster of riverfront villages into a full-fledged destination complete with art galleries, boutique hotels — and a World’s Best Cities designation. Sample the local cuisine at the FCC Angkor, a 31-room Art Deco hotel and restaurant, and drop by McDermott Gallery for black-and-white photographs of Angkor Wat.


No. 8 Sydney


Part outsize beach resort, part culture capital, Sydney, the perennial World’s Best City winner Down Under, exemplifies the art of relaxed cosmopolitanism: urbane but not pretentious; cutting-edge but not stressed-out. New restaurants and boutiques are channeling that Aussie energy in some oft-overlooked neighborhoods such as beachside hangout Manly. And an initiative to liven up the side lanes in the trendy Surry Hills and Darlinghurst neighborhoods has led to a slew of lounge bars opening up; try the lychee-infused tequila at Hunky Dory Social Club.

No. 9 Barcelona
Barcelona has long been famous for its art and architecture, with Salvador Dal, Joan Mir, and Antoni Gaud all leaving their marks. But this is the first year that the Catalan city has broken into the World’s Best Cities top 10 list. Though diversions like wandering the Gaud - designed Parc Güell have a timeless appeal, it’s new hot spots like Tickets, from mad-scientist brothers Ferran and Albert Adrià, that are creating the worldwide buzz. Where to stay? At the new Mandarin Oriental, where the Hong Kong hotel group’s legendary service is paired with Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola’s 98 bright, cream-on-white rooms.No. 10  Paris
 Paris where every cobbled lane, every street-side café, every patisserie window seems to have been art-directed by some impossibly savvy set designer. Yet for all that elegance and drama, Paris’s greatest pleasures are arguably its simplest ones: the hum of a neighborhood bistro; the tranquility of a churchyard; the crunch of a perfect baguette. After all, you come to Paris to eat. Indulge serious cheese fantasies at Laurent Dubois, a fromagerie with seemingly endless options.
Please  also visit our website:  The Travel Bureau
P