Honolulu among ‘Favorite Cities’

Honolulu is one of “America’s Favorite Cities,” according to results of a survey released yesterday. In a joint poll by AOL and Travel+Leisure magazine, Honolulu topped two of the eight general categories — “The Basics” and “People“ — and ranked in the top ten in all the others. It even took second for “Romance” despite coming in dead last in one subcategory: “Meeting Someone New.”

The worst it did was 10th place for “Value.”

“The days of Hawaiian kids swimming out to meet the cruise ships are long gone, and the little grass shacks and banyan trees along Waikiki Beach have given way to gleaming hotel towers, but the fabled charms of Honolulu remain intact,” the magazine reports, offering a guide to spending 48 Hours in Honolulu.

Honolulu’s ratings across all categories were high.

Notably, the final results were based on the votes of people who had visited — votes from Honolulu residents were tabulated separately. Residents ranked Honolulu 12th for “Meeting Someone New,” for example. The only other area where visitors and residents seemed to have a split was whether Honolulu was a good place to be in the Fall. Visitors ranked Honolulu 6th, residents pegged the city at 12th.

Los Angeles came in last in the most categories.

The non-scientific survey of over 500,000 AOL users was conducted in phases from August to October of last year and included a set pool of 25 cities. Respondents were asked to specify whether they lived in or visited the cities in question, and then to rank them from 1 to 5 on a number of characteristics.

The 25 cities in the AOL/Travel+Leisure “America’s Favorite Cities” survey were Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix-Scottsdale, Portland (Oregon), San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

With the release of this year’s results, Travel+Leisure is conducting a vote to determine whether cities should be dropped or added to those included in the survey. As of this writing, San Juan — the only non-U.S. city in the group — is the one most participants hope to vote out. Tampa/St. Petersburg and Houston, on the other hand, are favored for inclusion next year.