For the second year in a row, Charleston is the bridesmaid. Travel + Leisure readers named Santa Fe the best city in the United States again, and again Charleston landed at No. 2.
It stings a little more here because of the history. Charleston held that title from 2013 straight through 2024, a record 12-year reign, before Santa Fe knocked it off last year. So this is not a fluke. It's a rivalry.
There's a silver lining. Charleston climbed from third last year to second this year, and it kept beating the usual heavyweights: Savannah, Honolulu, New Orleans, and Chicago all finished behind it. Greenville snuck in at No. 10, giving South Carolina two cities in the top ten. More than 661,000 readers voted.
The hotels did their part. Ten Charleston properties made the readers' list, led by The Loutrel, the young French Quarter hotel that also placed seventh among all U.S. hotels. Out on Kiawah, The Sanctuary was named the top resort in the state on the heels of its 50th anniversary.
"There's no question that tourism is one of the Charleston area's most important economic drivers," Helen Hill, CEO of Explore Charleston, told the Post & Courier, pointing to the jobs, air service, and new restaurants a strong visitor economy supports.
The recognition arrives at an interesting moment. City leaders recently unveiled a Bloomberg Associates study urging Charleston to spread visitors beyond the peninsula and chase higher-value tourism over sheer volume. In other words, the crown may matter less than what the city does next.
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