LA Home to Nation's Hotties, Survey Says

You’re beautiful, Los Angeles!

But you’re not as hot as Tampa, or San Diego, or Charleston, according to the Travel + Leisure website. The website named Los Angeles the nation’s fourth most attractive city. The sort-of-compliment is based on reader surveys valuing qualities such as attractiveness, athleticism and likability.

If being named a runner-up hurts, take comfort in the fact that the City of Angels didn’t land on the website’s list of the 10 ugliest cities. The readers of Travel + Leisure chose to kick Detroit while it’s down, naming the bankrupt metropolis the nation’s ugliest city.

To make the list, part of T+L’s annual America’s Favorite Places reader survey, bling counted for a lot. So did wealth and snobbiness. That we deduce by looking at the qualities that again made Miami No. 1 on the most-attractive side of the list. Los Angeles ranks for its pretty people and equally pretty shopping opportunities.

According to Travel + Leisure,

“Looking camera-ready is always important in this celebrity-dotted city, which also scored well for grade-A people-watching. It’s no surprise, then, that voters also acknowledged L.A.’s fabulous shopping opportunities like Fred Segal on Melrose or the revamped, open-air Santa Monica Place, which includes Barneys, Kitson, and AllSaints. Perhaps ironically, the well-toned folk in the City of Angels also have serious sweet tooths, ranking at No. 8 for bakeries. You can eat your way through town with the éclairs at Chaumont Bakery & Cafe in Beverly Hills, the snack-cake-style Ding-a-lings at downtown’s Semi-Sweet Bakery, and the featherweight macarons at nearby Bottega Louie.”

Patch Staffer Beth Dalbey contributed to this report.