Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – Every year for their World’s Best Awards survey, Travel + Leisure (T+L) magazine asks readers to choose their favorite cities based on sights and landmarks, culture, food, friendliness, shopping and overall value. A teeming street life, a friendly population, and a harmonious relationship with nature are equally essential.
Now in its 25th year, Travel + Leisure amassed the results of hundreds of thousands of people that voted for their favorite hotels, islands, tour operators and more, in the annual World’s Best Awards survey, which closed on March 2, just ahead of countries restricting travel and implementing stay-at-home orders.
“The results, therefore, reflect our readers’ experiences before the pandemic,” Travel + Leisure said on July 8, when the 2020 winners of the World’s Best Awards were announced.
In the magazine’s “World’s Best Cities” category, Mexico was one of this year’s big winners, with Oaxaca and San Miguel de Allende ranking as the top two cities in the world. Mexico City finished in 11th place and Merida squeezed in at 24 on the Top 25 list for 2020.
This year’s list of “The Best Cities in Mexico” is a collection of cosmopolitan hits.
At #5, there’s Mexico’s own Silicon Valley, Guadalajara, Jalisco, where tech start-ups and contemporary architecture mingle with artists and craftspeople working to carry on the region’s cultural legacy.
Mérida, the vibrant capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán, came in at #4, due to its rich Mayan and colonial heritage and extensive and remarkable historic districts.
Third place went to Mexico City, one of the most fascinating cultural destinations in the world. You could spend a lifetime getting to know its cuisine, art, museums and millennia of history, and barely scratch the surface of all there is to discover in the country’s sprawling capital city.
Coming in at #2 is a previous all-around champ: San Miguel de Allende. Twice voted the best city in the world by T+L readers, this colonial city, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site by the United Nations, is a perennial favorite for its quiet charm and vibrant art scene.
This year’s #1 pick, Oaxaca, is a World Heritage site and culturally rich city that’s home to the country’s most vibrant crafts and art scene, some outstandingly colorful and extroverted festivities, a uniquely savory cuisine and diverse natural riches. The city’s colonial architecture, colorful buildings and cobblestone streets and picturesque views are just a few more reasons why Oaxaca was named not just Mexico’s top city, but the world’s.
In the “Top 25 Resort Hotels in Mexico” category, this year, readers overwhelmingly sung the praises of resorts on Mexico’s Pacific coast, with nine of the top 10 winners situated on the country’s western shore. Two of them are in the Banderas Bay area – the W Punta de Mita, which came in at #6, and Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta in 8th place.
To see the all of the results of T+L’s 2020 World’s Best readers’ survey, which spans more than 100 digital stories, including 91 lists, visit travelandleisure.com. The survey results are also featured in the August issue of Travel + Leisure, on newsstands July 17.