(JNi.media) This year, Tourism magazine Travel + Leisure’s readers’ favorite hotels ranged from Mexico to Spain, to India and to Tokyo, but many preferred establishments closer to home—nearly 40 percent of the hotels on the Top 50 list are located in the US.
Travel + Leisure’s also picked Jerusalem among the ten best cities for tourism in the coming year.
It hurt a bit that Jerusalem only ranked in 10th place with a score of 88.178. But they gave her good copy:
Christians, Jews, and Muslims converge to worship in this 4,000-year-old holy city, and their respective churches, synagogues, and mosques surround the historic Old City.
If you don’t trust this 4,000 year figure, check it out at the Jewish Virtual Library. They have it clocked at being first Settled in 3500 BCE. That actually makes it 4,500 years old. And don’t bother checking Wikipedia — they got their numbers from the Jewish Virtual Library…
Tourist copy continues:
Here, you can tuck a miniature prayer into the Western Wall, or see a fragment of clay engraved with cuneiform at the excavation site at Temple Mount. The iconic, gleaming gold Dome of the Rock is best photographed from the Austrian Hospice, which offers unparalleled views of the city and Mount of Olives.
Jerusalem, like every other city on our list, also has a stake in the contemporary and the secular. Luxury apartment buildings now erupt like stalagmites from the Judean Desert, and high-end restaurants, such as King’s Court at the restored Waldorf Astoria, are bringing a new upmarket appeal to this arid oasis.
Now, that’s appetizing writing!
No. 9 is Cape Town, South Africa, with a score of 88.271
No. 8 Barcelona, Spain, score: 88.587
No. 7 Krakow, Poland, score: 88.693
No. 6 Bangkok, Thailand, score: 88.907
No. 5 Rome, Italy, score: 88.992
No. 4 Florence, Italy, score: 89.429
No. 3 Siem Reap, Cambodia, score: 89.57
Seriously? Better than Rome and Jerusalem? Who are these people?
No. 2 Charleston, South Carolina, score: 89.843
Is that with or without the Confederate flag?
And the No. 1 city in the world: Kyoto, Japan, with a score of 91.22
The magazine also ranked the best hotels in the world by regions for 2015.
In the category of Middle East and Africa, two of the top ten hotels are in Jerusalem, Israel, with the prestigious King David Hotel’s in sixth place with a score of 87.29, and the David Citadel Hotel ranked eighth with a score of 84.24.
The top rated hotel for this part of the world is Saxon Hotel, Villas & Spa in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a score of 94.75.
Both prestigious Israeli hotels are celebrity magnets. President Barack Obama stayed at the King David in 2013, and Kim Kardashian and Kanye West preferred the David Citadel Hotel during their vacation in the Holy Land.
Incidentally, the Four Seasons Hotel in Amman, Jordan, came third.
It makes you feel so… Average… Sigh.