Magazine readers rank Atlantans near the bottom for attractiveness

One day you’re smokin’ hot, the next you’re really, really not.

Forbes magazine just ranked Atlanta the best city for singles in the country. Now another seems to say if that’s so, those folks may be destined to be single the rest of their lives.

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Chris Hunt / AJC

We might think we Atlantans are picture-perfect, but readers of Travel + Leisure magazine seem to disagree.

• Blog.

According to Travel + Leisure magazine’s 2008 America’s Favorite Cities reader survey, Atlanta is home to some of the most homely, out of shape, uncultured, unromantic folks around, and they’re stuck with a pretty dreary dining and club scene.

Travel + Leisure, with the aid of CNN Headline News, polled its online readers (some 600,000 voted) on the merits of 25 U.S. cities in categories from the cultural scene to nightlife to shopping and quality of life. The highest rank our fair city received in any category: 11th best for “affordability.”

Otherwise, the ATL’s numbers were pretty dismal. A few of the categories where the city ranked at or near the bottom:

• Destination restaurants: No. 25

• Romantic escape, traffic: No. 24

• Attractive, stylish: No. 23 (tied with Las Vegas)

• Cocktail hour/lounge scene, athletic/active: No. 22

The city with the most attractive people, according to the survey: Miami. OK, but Nashville and Orlando also finished ahead of Atlanta. In fact, only New Orleans and Philadelphia ranked lower.

If you can stand to look at the ugly reality, you can find all the rankings at www.travelandleisure.com/afc.

— Michael Gray

TELL US YOUR THOUGHTS: Join the discussion about the Travel + Leisure survey on the Still Traveling blog.