Travel + Leisure readers love Charleston

In the United States and Canada, only New York, San Francisco and Chicago are better than Charleston, according to Travel + Leisure magazine readers. They bumped the Holy City up two spots from last year in the World’s Best Awards 2008 reader survey. Three S.C. hotels also made the list of top 100 hotels in the continental U.S. and Canada.

The top 10 cities in the United States and Canada for 2008 are New York; San Francisco; Chicago; Charleston; Santa Fe, N.M.; Quebec City; Montreal; Vancouver, British Columbia; Savannah, Ga.; and Victoria, British Columbia.

Also, Charleston Place (No. 31), the Planters Inn (57) and the Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort (76) ranked among the top 100 hotels in the continental United States and Canada. The top-ranked hotel was Triple Creek Ranch in Montana.

Readers voted on their favorite hotels, cities, islands, spas, cruise lines, airlines, tour outfitters, and car-rental agencies. They chose Bangkok as the world’s best city and the Singita Sabi Sand, at Kruger National Park in South Africa as the best hotel. Full results, which were announced today, are at the magazine’s Web site.