Hanoi and Saigon Make Travel + Leisure’s Best Cities in Asia List

Popular American travel magazine Travel + Leisure just released their 2015 edition of their “World’s Best Awards” wherein Vietnam’s two largest cities ranked in the Asia top 10.

Hanoi remained in the seventh position for the second consecutive year, while Saigon made the list for the first time at number nine, just ahead of New Delhi.

Here are is the full Asia top-10:

1. Kyoto
2. Siem Reap
3. Bangkok
4. Tokyo
5. Hong Kong
6. Singapore
7. Hanoi
8. Shanghai
9. Saigon
10. New Delhi

The annual awards are based on responses to a questionnaire distributed by the magazine. Following the final submission date on March 2, “respondents were screened by Travel + Leisure and responses from any identified travel-industry professionals who completed the survey were eliminated from the final tally,” according to the magazine’s website.

As for the scores:

"The scores are indexed averages of responses concerning applicable characteristics…For each characteristic, respondents were asked to rate a candidate on a five-point scale of excellent, above average, average, below average and poor. Required component ratings were then averaged, creating an overall score.”

The “Cities” category grades were based on sights/landmarks, culture/arts, restaurants/food, people/friendliness, shopping and value. 

[Photos via Andrew Hux and Richard Hopkins]