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Wed 18 Oct, 2006 06:15 am
Santa Fe edged out New York but bowed to San Francisco in the Condé Nast Traveler magazine annual poll of readers' favorite places to visit in the U.S.
It was the third straight year Santa Fe came in second in the top-10 rating and the 15th consecutive year the city was voted one of the favorite travel destinations of the publication's readers.
"We were delighted,'' said Tom Maguire, interim executive director of the Santa Fe Convention and Visitors Bureau. "When you knock off New York and Chicago and Seattle and Aspen and all those others places, you have to be delighted."
A lot of cities "are amazed that Santa Fe is always in the top five," Maguire said.
"The importance of it is the consistency of us appearing on that list," said Steve Lewis, a spokesman for the Convention and Visitors Bureau. "It really delivers the message that Santa Fe is still hot, still on people's radar, still someplace people want to come and still delivering what visitors want when they do come."
The other cities on the top-10 list were Chicago; Charleston, S.C.; Carmel, Calif.; Honolulu; Aspen, Colo.; Seattle; and Sedona, Ariz.
It's just one more example of the total lack of taste in the average American tourist. Sedona is probably the one place in Arizona which I wouldn't recommend to anybody. It's just a tourist trap. If you're going to Hawaii, I suggest that Honolulu is a good place to change planes. It's my favorite airport in the whole world. But Waikiki is probably the most overrated, overcrowded, overpriced and generally blah beach in the world. I've never been to Aspen, so I can't comment on that. But I do know some less-known resorts in the Colorado Rockies (e.g. Frisco) which, I'm sure, have more gemütlichkeit than Aspen. I have no brief against San Francisco or Chicago (not to mention New York). Those are world-class cities, always worth a visit.
And Santa Fe? There was a time when I thought it was a quaint and charming town. But the last time I was there, about two years ago, I thought I had landed in Anaheim, CA and was visiting Disneyland. Except Disneyland makes no pretensse at authenticity and is cheaper.
Nods along with Merry Andrew..
though I don't really know Santa Fe yet. There are probably some ok people there. But... spreads in Architectural Digest about Santa Fe were in the neg column for my moving to New Mexico...
I'm - as some of you know - born and bred in Los Angeles. I gather more people hate it than not. Whatever, I seem to be a magnet for resentful comments. Places are not always the same thing as their hype, especially given many millions population.
re Santa Fe, I posted that article only because I found it fascinating that Santa Fe would be so popular. When traveling about New Mexico I usually go out of my way to avoid driving through Santa Fe. Back in the 60's when I hung out there quite a bit it was a totally different place. For the past 20 years it has become nothing more that a flat-roofed south-western styled boutique.
My son lives in the suburbs of Charleston SC. When I visit him, I am always delighted by the charm of that city.
See, Dys, that's exactly what I'm talking about when I say the American tourist and vacationer apparently has absolutely no taste. It seems like that's what they want -- flat-roofed themed boutiques. Sedona, AZ is just like that, too, but with less historicity to recommend it.
santa fe
Santa Fe with it's rich tradition and beautiful architeture deserves in my opinion some accolades.
Re: santa fe
robander wrote:Santa Fe with it's rich tradition and beautiful architeture deserves in my opinion some accolades.
Certainly (though I only saw parts of its suburbian area and even that in heavy rainfall, from the car.)
It's attracks quite a few people, the most prominent lately - copied from yesterday's Albuquerque Journal ...
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