Alexandria Makes Travel + Leisure Best Cities List For Third Year

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Alexandria has landed on Travel + Leisure's Best Cities in the U.S. list for a third year among the likes of Charleston, New York, Santa Fe, Honolulu and New Orleans.

Travel + Leisure readers decided the Best Cities in the U.S. list as part of the magazine's World's Best Awards for 2024. Alexandria ranked 15th of 15 cities on the list just behind Boston.

More than 186,000 readers completed the World's Best Awards survey, casting over 700,000 votes in different categories, such as hotels, cities and more. Readers rated cities based on several factors: sights and landmarks, culture, food, friendliness, shopping, and value.

Here's what Travel + Leisure says about Alexandria:

This historic city, which is just five miles from Washington D.C. but feels worlds away, strikes the perfect balance between sophisticated and small-town. Readers were drawn to its picturesque waterfront of Old Town, and also praised attractions like the Torpedo Factory Art Center and the Mount Vernon Trail, ideal for bird watching and easy bike rides.

The city first had ranked on Travel + Leisure's list in 2022. In 2023, Alexandria ranked in the top 10 of Travel + Leisure's list among the likes of Charleston, Nashville, Honolulu.

Visit Alexandria, the city's membership-based organization promoting tourism, has been seeking high-profile rankings like Travel + Leisure to promote Alexandria as a visitor destination and boost visitor-related revenues. City officials see visitors as a way to boost consumption tax revenues and offset the cost to residents. Along with the Travel + Leisure ranking, Alexandria has most recently been on 2023 lists from Condé Nast Traveler, Money magazine and Fortune.

The top 15 cities as decided by Travel + Leisure readers were:

1. Charleston, South Carolina

2. Santa Fe, New Mexico

3. Savannah, Georgia

4. Honolulu, Hawaii

5. New Orleans, Louisiana

6. San Antonio, Texas

7. Fort Worth, Texas

8. New York, New York

9. Chicago, Illinois

10. Aspen, Colorado

11. Taos, New Mexico

12. Annapolis, Maryland

13. Nashville, Tennessee

14. Boston, Massachusetts

15. Alexandria, Virginia