According to a travel magazine poll these are the top U.S. Cities:

1. San Francisco
2. New York City
3. New Orleans
4. Chicago
5. Charleston, S.C.
6. Boston
7. Honolulu
8. Santa Fe
9. Washington, D.C.
10.Savannah, Ga.

I do not agree with Chicago being ranked ahead of N.O.. Where did they ge Santa Fe and Savannah? Where is Boston in this? This was a readers choice award BTW.
Also, the following was taken into consideration when ranking:

Ambience
People/Friendliness
Culture/Sites
Restaurants
Shopping
Entertainment/Nightlifehe cities:

Cain: I'm not understanding your remarks. Chicago ISN'T ranked ahead of New Orleans and Boston is #6 on the list.

Call me clueless, but it seems like Chicago is ranked BEHIND New Orleans. And Boston is there!

Actually, the list is pretty accurate as far as I'm concerned. SF, NYC and NO are always among the most visited cities and among those that get generally good reviews from travelers.

Wooops, my bad. I ment Chicago behind N.O. Yes Boston is there, so much for copy and paste and not reading. Gues I was so upset the my city was BEHIND The Big Easy.

Wooops, my bad. I ment Chicago behind N.O. Yes Boston is there, so much for copy and paste and not reading. Guess I was so upset the my city was BEHIND The Big Easy.

Simmer down, Cain. These rankings are fun but they don't mean Chicago's not as good as New York, SF is ahead of Boston, or anything like that. It's just listing cities that the magazine's readers seem to enjoy.

Dear Cain:
Simmer down.
The Top 100 list in Conde Nast Traveler ranks things like US top cities each year.
There is a fair amount of variability from year to year, though I seriously doubt that the cities change that much.

Here is a list of the 1995-2000 polls, and the rank each city had from one year to the next (* means wasn't ranked that year):

San Francisco 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
New Orleans 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2
Santa Fe 2, 3, 4, 3, 5, 4
New York 10, 8, 9, 6, 4, 5
Chicago *, *, *, 9, 8, 7
DC *, *, *, 10, *, *
Boston 5, 7, 5, 5, 7, 9
Honolulu *, *, 8, *, *, *
Savannah 9, 10, 10, *, 9, 6
Charleston 4, 4, 3, 4, 3, 3
Tucson *, 5, *, *, *, *
Seattle 6, 6, 6, 7, 10, 8
San Antonio 7, *, 7, 8, *, *
San Diego *, *, *, *, *, 10

Overall, the top cities are:
San Francisco
New Orleans
Santa Fe
Charleston

All the rest fall in a ways behind.

So Mr. Conde Smarty Pants. Care to disclose which city came in tops for people friendliness and Beautiful People?

Aha! I know the answer, and it wasn't Miami.

Personally, I think Boston is better than both New Orleans and Charleston. I also think DC should be higher than 9th place. Just my opinion.

I can't say I agree about Savannah. It's OK, but I can think of three other cities that could have easily pushed Savannah off the list:

1. LA/beach cities - has its own ambience; nice people; great restaurants, shopping and entertainment. The only weakness is culture. For such a large city, it should have more, but still offers more than people give it credit for.

2. Miami Beach - great ambience and hits all the marks on shopping, restaurants, and entertainment. Weaknesses are the relatively unfriendly people (but THE BEST people watching) and culture.

3. Las Vegas - depending on how you define "ambience"... Like Miami Beach, people and culture/sites are the only categories where LV falls short.

If I had to rank them:
1. NYC
2. SF
3. Boston
4. Chicago
5. DC
6. New Orleans
7. Charleston
8 - 10. Honolulu (never been, but will take others' word for it); Santa Fe (ditto); LA/Miami Beach/Vegas (take your pick).

...and you wonder why there are suspicions that travel writers use Fodors as cheap research labor...

the same old merry-go-round: someone asks us in an "informal poll," which are the top US cities (but for what? Top in what? Expensive hotels? Good restaurants?). We all merrily post our prejudices and preferences.

An article shows up with the same question asked and answered.

And some poor boob REPOSTS the question and we start ALL OVER AGAIN!

Someone's definition of insanity: repeating the same action over and over again and expecting a different result.

San Diego is so underrated. People make these travel lists with winneres already in mind. Magazines need to put some more variety into their picks. I've been to NYC, and San Fran..and San Diego beats them by a long shot.
But thats only my opinion right?

Hey Kim: these are READERS' POLLS, not lists made up by editors at Conde Nast.
They reflect the sentiments of many people, not just magazine editors.

I find it very interesting that LA does not appear once.

Nor does Miami.

Nor Dallas (some fruitball here awhile back couldn't stop yammering that Dallas was the #1 city in the world in all ways and measures, or something).

And I disagree with Savannah. Should be off the list IMO.

Living in San Francisco all my life, I tend to forget what a great tourist place it is. SF might be small in size, but there are so much to do and see. If you haven't been here yet, please come. Remember to check out, Golden Gate Bridge, Pac-bell Park, Pier 39 and Wharf, Cow Hollow-Marina District, Haight-Ashbury District, Japantown, Chinatown, Castro, and of course Downtown.

Sammy: thanks my family and I were just there last week and we absolutely loved it!