One month from now, you may have $300 extra dollars in your pocket if your city wins The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2013.
To enter, all you have to do is name your favorite city in the comments of this post before this Thursday, February 28th at 12:00pm US EST.
Cities Already Selected
Each year I give my newsletter subscribers the first opportunity to choose cities in the tournament. (Don’t feel left out next year, sign up is free.) Since each person can only select one city, you’ll have to pick an alternative to these and any others listed in the comments section already.
- Philadelphia, United States – (Jason)
- Chicago, USA – (Vera)
- Jerusalem – (Judy)
- Barcelona, Spain – (Fazla)
- Muscat, Oman – (Raymond)
- Aswan, Egypt – (Mina)
- Pattaya, Thailand – (Kemal)
- Cairo, Egypt – (Sherell)
- Zanzibar City, Zanzibar – (Clabbe)
- Rome, Italy – (Bethaney)
- Buenos Aires, Argentina – (Walter)
- Lisbon, Portugal – (Rui)
- Tbilisi, Georgia – (Katie)
- Edinburgh, Scotland – (Betsey)
- Beijing, China – (Ren)
- Delft, Netherlands – (Dave)
- New York City, USA – (Anil K.)
- Santiago, Chile – (Sarah)
Not sure if your choice is large enough to be considered a city? Here’s what is a city.
Those are the first 18 entries, leaving 110 more cities to be selected. Don’t be disappointed if your first pick has already been taken, feel free to choose an alternate! Also, you’ll notice that last year’s winner Sarajevo hasn’t been selected yet – it’s yours to take if you can claim it first.
Dates, Deadlines, And How The Tournament Works
By this Thursday, February 28th 12:00pm US EST weβll have 128 cities. The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament is a single-elimination tournament. Voting will begin later that day Thursday, February 28th to seed the cities (determining match-ups) and next Monday, March 5th readers will begin voting that group of 128 down to 64. Each week, through voting, the cities will be halved until there is only 1 remaining.
- The person who selected the winning city will receive $300 from myself. And, as I’ve done the past 2 years, I’ll visit the new champion city before the end of 2013.
Voting will happen on these dates, so get your mouses ready!
- Round of 128: Monday, March 5th; Round of 64: Thursday Mar. 7th; Round of 32: Tuesday, Mar. 12th
- Sweet 16: Thursday, March 14th
- Elite 8: Tuesday, March 19th
- Final Four: Thursday, March 21th
- Championship: Tuesday, March 26th
The winner will be announced on Tuesday, April 2nd and prize money sent out before the beginning of May.
Will There Be A First-Time Repeat – Or A New Best This Year?
Sarajevo’s 14,211 votes last year send it past a close race with Guimaraes, but no city has ever won two back to back Best City To Visit Travel Tournaments. Who will win this year and follow in the steps of 2009’s Sydney, 2010’s Zermatt, 2011’s Porto, and reigning best city Sarajevo?
So head to the comments and nominate your favorite city before Thursday, February 28th at 12:00pm US EST. Good luck everyone and every city!
Istanbul, Turkey!
I nominate Singapore!
Barcelona, Spain
Already taken, feel free to give an alternate city.
Oh it’s that time of the year again! I haven’t participated in this last year as I was finishing my dissertation and was just too busy. Now, I graduated, and got a job in a research institute, so I am nominating my new home city: Berlin, Deutschland!
I nominate Savannah, Georgia!
I nominate Bangkok, Thailand
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Rapid City, South Dakota! π
Vancouver, Canada!
Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Gotta love those Silk Road cities!
Granada, Spain
this year WE WILL win!
I nominate Prague, Czech Republic.
Copenhagen, Denmark.
Salzburg, Austria
I have to go with Montreal, Quebec, Canada π
Cape Town, South Africa!!
Scotland was picked as the #1 destination to visit this year by CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/01/travel/top-destinations-2013, and whether that helps or hurts my nomination of Edinburgh will be interesting to see.
If we create a virtual field trip by collecting some links, does that get our cities bonus points? π
No, but getting in touch with the various tourism boards and local businesses might mean more votes π
Savannah, Georgia – “America’s Most Haunted City”
Already taken, have an alternate city to enter?
Manaus, Brazil (got there by a 900 mile trip on the Amazon River…best trip ever).
The time has come! π
I’m announcing Seoul, Korea. I came back after 14 months of continuous travel, and I’m revisiting a lot of great sites. Seoul is my hometown, we have love-hate relationship, but I’m strongly affectionate about this city.
Wish me luck!
Good luck!
London
I know this is an easy pick, but England is where I discovered travel, and my visits to London continue to yield new and wonderful adventures.
I have to nominate Yangon, Myanmar, otherwise known as Rangoon, Burma – LOVED my visit in 2012!
I’m nominating Bucharest, Romania!!
Baku Azerbaijan
Jerusalem .
Already chosen, feel free to nominate an alternative city.
Kochi (formerly Cochin), India
Really, it has to be Paris if you have to choose one, doesn’t it? There are plenty of places to visit, but if you haven’t been to Paris there honestly isn’t a better general choice…
Casablanca, Morocco
fingers crossed π
Stephen writes in: Quebec City, Quebec
Casablanca, Morocco
Got it!
I saw it too late.
Sorry π
No problem at all. Good luck!
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!
Wellington, NZ
My home town of Glasgow, Scotland
i think as a city “delft” is best. City has so many vintage building which looks great..
I nominate Ljubljana – Slovenia!
Florence, Italy
How about Tokyo, Japan
It’s yours!
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
I nominate Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
I’ve got your pick entered.
Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland
Novigrad(Cittanova) Istria, Croatia
I nominate Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Gonna throw Queenstown, New Zealand into the hat π
I nominate Dublin, Ireland! With this year being the year of the Gatherine there’s no better time to visit this wonderful city. π
This year, I’m going with hometown pride —
I hereby nominate Boston, Massachusetts, USA. π
I’d like to nominate a world heritage site, the scene of two of the biggest military sieges in history, and once the most fortified city in Europe.
Described as “a city built by gentlemen, for gentlemen” – Valletta, the capital of Malta.
Mexico City
I nominate Sibiu, Romania – the former European Capital of Culture (2007).
Budapest, Hungary
Hong Kong !!
Voting for Stockholm, Sweden
I nominate Tunis from Tunisia!!
greets from LΓΌbeck…:-)
uhm….
Rosslyn, Virginia.
Better just book your tickets now.
(Finger’s crossed no one has picked that one already!)
Don’t worry, Shannon didn’t beat you to it π
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Seattle.
Verona, Italy
I have to nominate Paris, France. It’s classic for a reason. Paris is such a walkable, eatable, fun, and safe city.
Its already been taken. If you can get an alternate here in the next 10 minutes, I’ll take it.
Has anyone picked San Francisco yet? It did fairly well for me last year so want to give it another go π Can’t believe I almost forgot it was time for the travel bracket! I’ve been slacking on blog reading π Last year was the first time I followed the contest and its shaped a majority of my travel ideas for the next few trips! Thanks Anil π
San Francisco is all yours, good luck! Glad you caught the contest this year as well and got some good ideas from last year’s π
I’m nominating Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! It’s where I lived for almost two years, and I can’t wait to go back!
Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina!!!!!!!!!!!
It has already been chosen. Feel free to add an alternate in the next 10 minutes and I’ll take it.
It’s already been nominated, you’ve got 10 minutes to pick an alternate.
Well I just saw Rio was already picked, so let’s go with Shanghai, China, another place I’ve lived! (Hope I can still get in my entry?)
Just in time Karen, thanks!
I’ve got another entry through my newsletter, Leah is picking Charleston, SC, USA.
Hello everyone, thanks for entering. I’m now closing the nominations and will have the Preliminary voting round ready for you later today. Best of luck!
Novigrad(Cittanova)Istra,Croatia
It’s already entered, vote now:
http://foxnomad.com/2013/03/07/the-best-city-to-visit-travel-tournament-2013-second-round/