Southern city finally dethroned as best in the US by offbeat Southwest metro
The New Mexico city ranked as the best US city in the 2025 Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards, unseating former champ, Charleston, South Carolina.
Santa Fe landed in the number one spot among readers' 15 favorite cities.
Additionally, Santa Fe scored as the number 19 city on readers' list of their 25 favorite cities in the world.
Santa Fe is the only US city featured on the list of winning international destinations this year.
'Readers raved about the inventive New Mexican cuisine and the destination's natural beauty. Sitting at 7,000 feet, Santa Fe is at the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range and enjoys over 300 days of sunshine per year,' Travel + Leisure senior editor, Elizabeth Cantrell, said in a statement.
'We're number 1! This award belongs to all of Santa Fe,' said Santa Fe Mayor, Alan Webber, in a statement.
'People who visit our city feel the hospitality and magic of Santa Fe. It's in the history, culture, art, food and architecture of our community, from the air we breathe to the mountains that surround us.'
He added: 'Most important, it's in the people. Our hospitality industry and tourism team are great ambassadors for Santa Fe. So, let's toast Santa Fe: We're number 1 — it's official.'
Randy Randall, TOURISM Santa Fe Executive Director, said to be singled out as the top city destination in the entire country is an 'extraordinary achievement.'
'This honor is indeed gratifying and recognizes not only the uniqueness of The City Different, but it also underscores the diligent and hard work of our hospitality partners, who welcome and care for our visitors on a daily basis,' he said.
A few Santa Fe resorts also appeared on lists of best hotels and spas.
Bishop's Lodge, Auberge Resorts Collection, took the number 2 spot on the list of top resorts in the west and Ten Thousand Waves was number 15 on the list of best domestic US spas.
Travel + Leisure also compiled a list of the '5 Favorite Santa Fe Hotels of 2025,' highlighting The Inn of the Five Graces, Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado Santa Fe, La Fonda on the Plaza, Hotel Santa Fe The Hacienda and Spa and Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi.
'I love the mix of cultures and I think that's what's interesting,' said local Sotheby's realtor Katherine Blagden.
'You have all the Pueblo people and the Native American flavor as well as Spanish land grant families going back 500 years. And then you've got the Anglos so you kind of have a cultural mix.'
Blagden adds that Santa Fe is also a cultural hub.
'It's world class culture, art, opera, the desert, coral chamber music,' she told the Daily Mail.
'The food is also amazing, there's restaurants all over town. There are a lot of neat art festivals, like the folk art festival. There are Spanish crafts like straw appliqué on crosses and tin work and jewelry.'
Meanwhile, Charleston fell to third place on the list, after 12 straight years of being named Travel + Leisure's top US travel destination.
Voters had long praised the Holy City's historic charm and Southern hospitality, calling it 'quaint and charming.'
Rounding out the rest of the list in order were New Orleans, Louisiana, Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, Alexandria, Virginia, Honolulu, Hawaii and Greenville, South Carolina.
The bottom half of the list included New York, Asheville, North Carolina, Chicago, Illinois, Taos, New Mexico, San Antonio, Texas, Nashville, Tennessee, Boston, Massachusetts and Aspen, Colorado.
If Santa Fe is too pricey, a number of spots across the US have been named as affordable vacation spots.
The Outer Banks, a line of islands off the coast of the US state of North Carolina, famous for open-sea beaches, state parks and shipwreck diving sites, costs around $177 per day, which means a week-long stay would cost approximately $1,237.
Helen, Georgia, was also named as an affordable vacation destination.
Costing an average of just $1,297 weekly per person, this southern town is known for its Bavarian architecture and 'authentic German fare.'
The town is known for it's river tubing, biking, and wine tastings at nearby wineries.
Other destinations included on the list were Sedona, Arizona, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
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