The Best Cities in North America

No. 1 Charleston, South Carolina

By Katrina Brown Hunt

To fully appreciate a historic city like Charleston, you shouldn't speed through it in car. In fact, even taking a horse-drawn buggy might be rushing it.

"Those carriage tours are popular, but the city is so walkable that it's best experienced on foot," says Caroline Eubanks, an Atlantan whose travel blog focuses on the South. "You see much more interesting things this way—like narrow alleys with street art, plaques denoting historic homes, and the stamps on each brick that tell where they're from."

Indeed, sometimes the best way to embrace a city is to take it slow, and that's one reason Travel+Leisure readers love South Carolina's Holy City, ranking it among their favorite urban centers in North America. As part of the magazine's World's Best survey, Travel + Leisure readers voted on their favorite airports, cruise lines, islands, and hotels—and also ranked the world's greatest cities for features such as arts, shopping, dining, and romantic ambience.

Travel + Leisure Charleston, SC is Number One City in North America

Urbane but quaint: This South Carolina city won the survey by balancing sophisticated tastes with small-town charm. Charleston is home to four out of the survey's top five small-city hotels in the U.S.: these boutique hotels tend to be rehabbed mansions, like the former cotton-baron home Wentworth Mansion, or the antiques-filled Planter's Inn, which dates back to 1844. Planter's Inn is also home to one of the best low-county restaurants in the city: Peninsula Grill, where you can start with oyster stew and wild-mushroom grits and finish with its signature coconut cake. Not only did these hospitable South Carolinians rank highly for their well-crafted local cuisine, but they also landed near the top of the survey for likeability.