In the world of Indian English — or Hinglish — there’s a cute word to denote one who excels: a “topper.” That is to say, “one who is at the top.”
As of late, India is, itself, a bit of a topper. First, the country fighting out of the green, white and saffron corner won a Top 5 spot in Condé Nast Traveller UK’s 2006 Readers’ Travel Awards. (The Condi Rice Awards are not as quantifiable but India got nukes from the deal.) The “jewel in the crown” as the Brits dubbed India ranked 4th as a coveted travel destination. It was 5th in 2005 and moves up from 10th in 2003, according to Intelligent Traveller. The top three destinations ahead of India were (1) Italy (2) New Zealand (3) Australia. However, I think there was a caveat that Russell Crowe wouldn’t be staying at the same hotel if you visited his native Kiwi and Aussie lands . Catching a phone to the face will ruin a vacation and hurt your rankings.
Intelligent Traveller also reported on other Conde Nast wins:
- The Ananda Spa in the Himalayas ranked as the top destination spaConde Nast’s rather odd congolmeration of readers’ scores in a “best of category” which merges hotels, airports, cities, spas, countries, etc. In this potpourri category, Ananda was bested by the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge in Tanzania but beat the whole country of New Zealand and the city of Rome.
- The Park Hyatt Goa Resort’s Serano Spa made the Top 10 of overseas hotel spas worldwide.
- Jaipur’s Oberoi Rajvilas ranked 5th on the list of overseas leisure hotels in Asia and the Indian sub continent.
In some final topper news, India picked up a few World Travel awards, including the top Asian destination.
