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best city 2014

The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2014 is a month-long competition where your favorite place in the world can help make your wallet $300 heavier.

To enter, all you have to do is name your favorite city in the comments of this post before next Monday, February 24th Saturday March 1st at 12:00pm US EST.

One City Per Person First Come, First Serve

My newsletter subscribers were given the first 27 picks in this year’s tournament (sign up is free if you don’t want to miss out next time) so the cities listed below are already taken. Scan the comments underneath this post, look for the city you want to nominate, then type it in if someone else hasn’t already claimed it. Please keep in mind that many comments automatically go into moderation where they remain invisible until they’re approved. Selections are still first come, first serve, keep checking back to see if you got the city you wanted or need to pick an alternate.

sibiu christmas market romaniaThese Cities Are Already Taken

A total of 128 cities can be nominated in The Best City to Visit Tournament and a quarter of the slots were taken earlier in the week:

  • Istanbul, Turkey – (Connie)
  • Chicago, IL, USA – (Katie)
  • Mandalay, Myanmar – (Stephanie)
  • Penang, Malaysia – (Are Peace)
  • Kyoto, Japan – (Derek)
  • Paris, France  – (Amy)
  • Portland, OR, USA – (Heather)
  • Singapore – (Lash)
  • Shanghai, China – (Lauren)
  • Viareggio, Italy – (Marie)
  • Luang Prabang, Laos – (Gretchen)
  • New Smyrna Beach, FL, USA – (Gwen)
  • San Sebastian, Spain – (Lorraine)
  • Ashgabat, Turkmenistan – (Farial)
  • Banos de Agua Santa, Ecuador – (Manola)
  • Buenos Aires, Argentina – (Walter)
  • Cusco, Peru – (Carolyn)
  • Kampala, Uganda – (Benson)
  • Venice, Italy – (Carmen)
  • Sibiu, Romania – (Beniamin)
  • Freiburg, Germany – (Vatsal)
  • Izmir, Turkey – (Natalie)
  • Cape Town, South Africa – (Nicole)
  • New York City, NY, USA – (Anil)
  • Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – (Jane)
  • Alba Iulia, Romania – (Oana)
  • St. Petersburg, Russia – (Mike)
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vancouver canucks 2010Important Contest Dates

The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2014 runs right into the beginning of April with several quick voting rounds starting on Tuesday, March 4th. Next week, I’ll be writing about some of the best ways to put your city in a position to win the contest but based on the past 5 years I can tell you staying on top of the early rounds is important. They’re the easiest – and hardest – rounds to make or break. Below are the dates to keep in mind.

  • Tuesday, March 4th: Preliminary Round
  • Thursday March 6th: Round of 64
  • Tuesday March 11: Round of 32
  • Thursday, March 13th: Sweet 16
  • Tuesday, March 18th: Elite 8
  • Tuesday March 24th: Final Four
  • Tuesday, April 1st: Championship
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The winner of this year’s tournament will be announced on Tuesday, April 8th and prize money sent to you by July 1, 2014. Those are quite a few dates to keep up with – the best way not to miss anything is to get my posts sent directly to your inbox.

Where Will You Send Me This Year?

I always visit the winning city before the year is up and have been fortunate to see the beating heart of optimism in Sibiu, photograph Sarajevo’s abandoned 1984 Winter Olympic track, plus set foot in Harry Potter’s Porto birthplace. Who knows where you’ll send me in 6 weeks from now although I’m sure it will be delightfully unexpected since any city large or small can win, in what annually turns out to be an unpredictable competition.