The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament in an annual contest on this site where 64 cities are matched up and eliminated by weekly reader votes. You tell me what city you think is the best in the world to visit to and if it wins, I’ll give you a $600 gift card to your choice of several online stores, including Apple and Amazon.
To enter, write your favorite city in the comments section of this post before Sunday, February 26th 8:00pm US EST.
The cities will then be placed in tournament brackets sorted by geographical region, with the first round of voting beginning on March 2nd, 2017. Each week the number of cities will be halved by reader votes, until there is one left. Hopefully the winning city is the one you picked.
Tournament Rules
Cities are first come first serve and several cities have already been picked by my newsletter subscribers (who got the first picks). The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament is a round robin style competition, with voting every week during the month of March.
Important Dates
Once you enter a city, there’s nothing you have to do but keep in mind voting for yourself isn’t a bad idea. These are the Tuesdays in the coming weeks to make note of:
- March 2, 2017: Round of 64
- March 7, 2017: Round of 32
- March 14, 2017: Sweet 16
- March 21. 2017: Elite 8
- March 28, 2017: Final 4
- April 4, 2017: Championship
Here are some other ways you can help your city win based on how previous winners have succeeded. Please remember 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.
Winner Announced April 11, 2017
The winner of this year’s tournament will be announced on Tuesday, April 11th and prize gift card delivered electronically to the winner by June 25, 2017. 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.
- The gift card can be used on the Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Delta, and Southwest Airlines online stores.
More retailers may also be added; or those above modified at any time before the end of the tournament – gift cards must be for the full $600 prize amount and cannot be split among stores, transferred into cash, and will be sent to the email you use in the comments section to choose your city. Best of luck to everyone and please let me know if you have any questions.
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; as always!
Armenistis, Ikaria Greece
Adelaide , South Australia
Walkable downtown , freesettled capital , wonderful beaches and beachside suburbs, surrounded by wineries, hills full of quirky towns , kangaroo island close by, hold koalas at cleland , mt lofty lookout, wine centre , botanic gardens , wonderful zoo,Popeye boat, splendid sandstone buildings on the square mile city. City of gardens churches and pubs!
I’ll try my hometown of Marseille again 🙂
Mumbai, India
The city that never sleeps!
San Francisco always, everyway
Oslo, Norway
TOKYO baby!
It’s another world… surreal! It should be on everyone’s bucket list to see this modern miracle, a phoenix risen from the ashes — literally.
Budapest, Hungary
Reykjavik, Iceland is my best city.
I’m feeling lucky this year. Bologna, Italy.
Kyoto, Japan. History, art, food…it has it all.
Bogotá, Colombia
Bangkok – It has history, culture, amazing food and friendly people. Never bored while visiting that city.
Hi Steve,
Bangkok’s already been picked by one of my newsletter subscribers; do you have an alternate choice?
London, England.
Tel Aviv, because it loves life!
I saw someone proposing his hometown. I will try my luck with my hometown also. It is a nice town surrounded by very high hills, near a mountain. It is said that this town is the most sunniest city in Romania, with the highest number of days with sun. This town is my hometown and it’s name is Campina in district Prahova.
I’ve written an article on my blog about this city (it is in romanian but you can translated with Google Translate): http://damianirimescu.ro/turism-2-0/despre-campina-orasul-meu-natal/
I hope some of you will like it and will visit in the future. It is a nice city with a great turistic potential.
Oh and I forgot to mention, it is in Romania 🙂
These are the cities that have already been taken by the first picks (via my newsletter):
Plovdiv
Bangkok
Istanbul
Granada
Hoi An
Cuenca
Taipei City
Vilamendhoo
Kuala Lumpur
New York City
Sarajevo
Sighisoara
Petra
Melbourne, Victoria, Aus 😊😊😊
It might sound odd as a second choice to Bangkok but Ghent, Belgium has a special place in my heart.
Not at all! Ghent’s yours, good luck.
I’m hesitant to even mention it because I don’t want it to get too touristy, but Chefchaouen in Morocco is an absolute gem.
Isfahan, Iran (sometimes also spelled Esfahan)
Here’s one people maybe don’t know about:
LVIV, UKRAINE
It looks quite simliar to Krakow – as both cities were part of Austria-Hungary for some time and so share similar architecture. However, it being Soviet and then Ukrainian has changed its feel a bit and has made it unique. Its East meets West.
Beautiful well-preserved old town, great food, and really cheap (for western tourists).
Its on the western edge of Ukraine and therefore is safe from any fighting in Eastern Ukraine.
Final note: Lviv is easy to get to from Krakow AND if you are an EU citizen then you won’t need a visa! Visit before everyone else finds out about this place! 😉
Lisbon, Portugal, my future retirement destination
Just a reminder to everyone, please when leaving your pick in the comments, in the email field, use the email you want the gift card to go to. I can’t send to another one!
Chengdu, China
I vote for George Town, Penang, Malaysia.
I was going to say head to Brazil for the weather. It’s pretty much cold everywhere else. For sightseeing I like everybody else’s picks on here. Go to Rome man then catch a train and continue exploring.
Montréal, Québec in Canada!
Wonderful artsy city with lots to do year round. Festivals & concerts, outdoor activities, great food & night life, lots of history and friendly folks. Good for friends, couples and families alike, it’s never a dull moment in Montréal! Plus our dollar is weak, it’s time to take advantage! 😉
It’s got to be Vancouver, BC , Canada
I vote for Koloa/Po’ipu, Kaua’i, Hawaii! Not only is funky little Koloa the most adorable two-block-long town you’ve ever seen, but Po’ipu Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. And although lots of tourists travel there every year, it’s also very down home and a wonderful place to live.
Tromsø, Norway
Granada is the most beautiful city in the world because the light, the mountain, the beach, the landscape and the village around