So, the news is out – on the front page of the Dom­Post, an advert­ising col­our sup­ple­ment, and ban­ners all along the Golden Mile: Wel­ling­ton is the “coolest little cap­it­al in the world”.

Yep, that means Wel­ling­ton has beaten out oth­er little cap­it­al cit­ies such as Vat­ic­an City, Dili, Kabul and Apia to be the coolest. Ha – take that, The Pope!

The excerpt from the Lonely Plan­et’s Best in Travel 2011 guide (and let’s remem­ber, this is a massive pro­mo­tion for Lonely Plan­et’s book, as well as Wel­ling­ton tour­ism) sum­mar­ises the best of the city, and notes that “loc­als love their city”. Hey, that’s true!

But maybe more impress­ive than the “best little cap­it­al” title is to check out Wel­ling­ton’s place in Lonely Plan­et’s top 10 list of travel des­tin­a­tions for 2011:

1. New York City, USA
2. Tangi­er, Morocco
3. Tel Aviv, Israel
4. Wel­ling­ton, New Zea­l­and
5. Valen­cia, Spain
6. Iqui­tos, Peru
7. Ghent, Bel­gi­um
8. Del­hi, India
9. New­castle, Aus­tralia
10. Chi­ang Mai, Thai­l­and

Yep, those are some really amaz­ing cit­ies on that list (includ­ing my fave New­castle – a cul­tur­al gem!). It’s choice to be amongst such com­pany.