This Canadian city with vintage British charm was just named the word's 'best small city'
A Canadian city just pulled off a global three-peat, and it's not the one you might expect. In a new ranking of the best small cities in the world, one charming destination in British Columbia has officially taken the top spot for the third year running.
The 2025 Readers' Choice Awards from Condé Nast Traveler dropped on Tuesday, based on more than 757,000 votes from travellers. And for the third year in a row, Canada's west coast flexed hard.
The latest edition of the "best cities in the world" list named Victoria, B.C., as the No. 1 small city worldwide in 2025, beating out some of the most famous places to visit in the world like Florence, Lucerne and Puerto Vallarta.
It's not just about the tea and crumpets — though you'll definitely find those too. CN Traveler calls Victoria "a popular day trip from Vancouver" but says it "deserves a standalone visit."
The ferry ride across Swartz Bay — which CN Traveler describes as "one of the world's most scenic" — is a big part of the appeal, along with historic hotels like the "bucket-list-worthy" Fairmont Empress and the gateway access to lush Vancouver Island.
According to CN Traveler, this year's rankings are based on reader scores across multiple categories like food, sights, friendliness, shopping and overall vibe, all crunched into a percentage-based rating system. To even be considered, each place had to hit a minimum number of responses and score high across the board.
Victoria is the only Canadian destination to appear on this list over the last five years. It wasn't ranked at all in 2021, then surged to No. 2 in 2022 before taking the top spot in 2023, where it has stayed for both 2024 and 2025.
But it wasn't the only Canadian city to get a nod in this year's awards. In the large cities category, Montreal landed in ninth and Vancouver came in seventh — both impressive, but still far from the No. 1 spot, which went to Tokyo.
Here's the full top 10 list of the best small cities in the world for 2025, according to Condé Nast Traveler readers:
- Victoria, Canada
- Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
- Florence, Italy
- Lucerne, Switzerland
- San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
- San Sebastián, Spain
- Galway, Ireland
- Palma, Spain
- Valetta, Malta
- Hobart, Australia
It's worth noting that this ranking comes from Condé Nast Traveler, the U.S.-based publication. Their U.K. counterpart Condé Nast Traveller didn't include any Canadian cities in its top 20 list this year — so it seems the American vote is definitely giving us more love.
AI tools may have been used to support the creation or distribution of this content; however, it has been carefully edited and fact-checked by a member of Narcity's Editorial team. For more information on our use of AI, please visit our Editorial Standards page.
