Attracting kindred spirits: San Francisco

With the San Francisco Giants just four wins away from a second World Series triumph in three years, you’d think things couldn’t get much better for the City by the Bay.

But now they have, with San Francisco being named the top city in the world to visit next year by Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2013.

The eighth edition of the annual collection of the best places to go and things to do ranks San Francisco ahead of Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Hyderabad (India), Derry/Londonderry (Northern Ireland) and Beijing (China) as the hottest, or in SF’s case, coolest city on earth to visit in 2013.

Dubbed by Lonely Planet the “darling of America’s west coast”, Fog City won over a team of travel experts and authors with its culture, events and food, highlighted by its hills, liberal politics and the current developments on its “heaving waterfront”.

Rounding out the best cities list are Christchurch (New Zealand), Hobart (Australia), Montreal (Canada), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Puerto Iguazú (Argentina).

Picked for its “good value and gourmet cuisine”, Sri Lanka tops the list of best countries in the world to visit next year, while Corsica (France) ranks first amongst the globe’s top regions.

The only other US destination to feature among the world’s top spots is the American Gulf Coast, which came in at number six on the best regions list.