Don’t get me wrong, I love Richmond. I edit this website, damnit.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Richmond. I edit this website, damnit. I’m acutely aware of how awesome so many parts of this city are and I’ll be the first to say “man, you’ll have a blast if you visit RVA and hit these spots.”
But a new list of “Best Places to Travel in 2016” posted by Travel & Leisure Magazine put our fair city 3rd from the top, with cities like Lille, France, Lanai, Hawaii, and Douro Valley, Portugal BEHIND us.
As for how they came up with this list, T&L provided a few whimsical guidelines:
Which under-the-radar gems are most exciting to our network of contributing writers and global correspondents? Which destinations are our A-List travel specialists fielding requests for? Which classic vacation spots are starting to emerge—but for entirely new and compelling reasons? Which global events and changes in travel restrictions have made certain destinations easier to get to?
Again, I’m not trying to trash RVA, but this is freak’n delusional. You find me one person who says “I was gonna go to Hawaii, but Richmond just seemed ______,” and that blank spot isn’t filled with “cheaper,” “easier,” or “more reasonable,” and I’ll find you a god-damned liar.
And in the list’s defense, it says “which spots are emerging,” and we’ve gotten some solid travel press as of late, but we’re the only American City in the top 10 (except for Asbury Park, New Jersey, which is just as confusing in the top 10 comparably).
“Tour nearby Jackson Ward, a beautiful neighborhood that was once the epicenter of Richmond’s black culture,” reads the summation of RVA as an awesome tourism spot – glad to see our gentrification is an additional commodity.
Sure, we’ve got great bike trails, awesome beer and an only semi-toxic river. We’ve got fancy new and old hotels; we’ve got history ground into our streets like a red wine stain on our sleeve.
But what in what universe is Richmond a “better” place to visit than freak’n Frankfurt, Germany (number 9 on the list.) Some how we’re a better place to visit then Iran too – the most believable part of this list is anyplace is probably a better travel destination than Iran (which was number 5).
All I’m saying is awards look really good on a shelf, but kind of cheapen the good thing we’ve got going on here when they’re tossed around like solo cups at a frat party.
Alright, I’m probably just a jaded local, and by all means please tell your friends to come to town.
And check out any of the other superlatives RVA has won over the past year – kudos to whoever is sending out applications for these:
Richmond tops Gogobot’s list of 10 most artistic mid-sized cities in America
Cloverleaf Mall Makes Buzzfeed List of America’s Most Abandoned Malls
Arthur Ashe Statue Proclaimed One of the Most Unintentionally Horrifying Statues In the World
