Top Ten by Travel & Leisure mag.
 

The 2005 awards are out from Travel & Leisure mag:

Cities:
#1- Sydney
#2- Bangkok
#5 - Chain Mai

Hotels:
#1 -Four Seasons Bali at Sayan
#4- Four Seasons at Chaing Mai
#6 - The Penn Bangkok
#8- Four Seasons Bali at Jimbaran Bay
#11- Oriental Bangkok

fascinating that CM is suddenly so high -- it's number 3 in asian cities beating out Hanoi and Kyoto! Guess the pr push they've been doing has paid off. I love Chiang Mai but to put it #3 in asia seems a bit much to me. But then I never thought much of these polls.

Yes I agree with Gloria about Chaing Mai- but I do agree that Sydney/Bangkok are 1/2.

Here's the top ten cities.Chiang Mai beats out London and Paris as well. :-)

1 1 Sydney 88.30
2 4 Bangkok 87.08
3 2 Rome 86.26
4 3 Florence 86.20
5 n/a Chiang Mai, Thailand 84.93
6 6 New York 84.82
7 8 Istanbul 84.78
8 5 Cape Town 84.51
9 7 Oaxaca 84.41
10 n/a San Francisco N/A

I've never been to Sydney so I can't judge -- I tend not to go to modern cities no matter how wonderful unless they're a lot closer to home. Bangkok I definitely agree with, of course, but the rest seems pretty weird.

Actually I think its the service aspect that gets Thailand high marks- you pay a lot of money in London and Paris and just don't get anywhere near the service you get in Asia!
Top Island- Bali
Top Airline- Singapore Air

No surprises in these either!

Chaing Mai as number 5? That does amaze me. As others on this board know, it's one of my least favorite places in Asia. It has neither the excitment of Bangkok nor the charm of smaller places.

Ah, well, I don't expect to agree with the magazine ratings.

And it was the friendliness of Sydney people which helped with its top rating from US readers of Travel and Leisure.

Most of the readers haven't been to Rio de Janeiro for sure, otherwise the ranking would be much different!!!