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Richmond Outranks Spots in France, Portugal as One of 2016's "Best Places to Travel"

Quirk Hotel's Facebook

Richmond is making headlines, placing in a top spot on “Travel and Leisure Magazine’s” annual “Best Places to Travel List.”

Among Caribbean beaches and European canals, Virginia’s capitol finds itself in good company -- the magazine picked out 50 cities from around the world, and Richmond placed 3rd.

Cited as part of the draw is Quirk, an airy and artsy boutique hotel that opened downtown. The lobby is already decorated for the holidays with a white Christmas tree and festive music.

Kate Brown is Director of Sales for the hotel and, although she’s new to Richmond, she’s quickly grown to love it.

“I feel like it’s a hidden gem. I want to tell everyone about it, but I don’t want to tell anyone about it, because I don’t want all the sudden all these people to be here and populating all the places that I really like to go.”

Places like the numerous art galleries, restaurants and stores that have popped up along this strip of Broad Street in recent years.

The magazine article also cites Richmond’s architecture, history, and food scene.

“And then to top everything off to have this sense of neighborhood that you get in Richmond. People who are from Richmond really feel passionately about Richmond and it’s really really difficult to not get sucked into that.”

On the annual list, Richmond ranks above cities like Seattle and Rio de Janeiro, and is beaten out only by one city in Mexico and another in Panama.

Mallory Noe-Payne is a Radio IQ reporter based in Richmond.
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