U.S. News Announces New Global Travel Rankings

U.S. News Travel released the 2012-2013 editions of several popular Best Vacations ranking lists. These rankings include — for the first time — destinations from Asia, Australia and the Pacific, Central and South America, and Africa and the Middle East.

The new rankings are available online at http://travel.usnews.com/.

The top-ranked destinations in three popular categories are listed below:

Best Beaches in the World
#1 Bali
#2 Kauai
#3 Seychelles

Best European Vacations
#1 Barcelona
#2 Paris
#3 Berlin

Best U.S. Vacations
#1 Yellowstone
#2 New York City
#3 Washington D.C.

The complete Best Vacations rankings, overall and sorted by region, are available here: http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/

The new rankings identify the top vacation spots based on a methodology that combines expert and consumer opinions. They reflect how strongly a destination is recommended by travel experts and U.S. News Travel website users.

“We are pleased to expand our coverage of top travel destinations to a worldwide scale,” said Chad Smolinski, Vice President of Rankings and Reviews at U.S. News & World Report. “This expansion allows us to make comparisons between places as geographically disperse as Bali, Corfu, and Rio de Janeiro. For someone planning a major vacation or a honeymoon, this can be important.”

Today’s launch is a part of the 2012-2013 U.S. News Best Vacations rankings. In total, more than 200 destinations were considered in the current rankings.