SEQUIM — Sequim won the title of Best Northwestern Small Town while Port Townsend took fourth place in the USA Today 10 Best Readers’ Choice online travel contest.
Results of the regional contest of towns in six states, in which the two North Olympic Peninsula towns maintained Top 10 status for the entire competition, were announced Friday at http://tinyurl.com/northwesternsmalltown.
Sequim held the lead for all four weeks of the contest, in which readers voted for their favorites, while Port Townsend moved from eighth place to fourth.
“We’re really thrilled to come out on top in this competition against so many wonderful small towns in the Northwest, including our neighbor to the east,” said Barbara Hanna, Sequim’s communication and marketing director.
“Sequim residents rallied for the voting competition,” voting daily and sharing it on social media after the city of Sequim was notified in March that it had been nominated, Hanna said.
The winner gets braggin’ rights.
Readers choose among 20 small towns with populations less than 10,000 in the West. The towns in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming were nominated by the 10Best editors and a panel of travel experts.
Christina Pivarnik, Port Townsend’s director of marketing, said she was thrilled for Sequim and that Port Townsend stayed in the Top 10.
“I want to extend my congratulations to Sequim,” Pivarnik said. “These competitions are really hard work. They do an awesome job.
“I was hoping for a 1-2 result, but I’m thrilled Port Townsend came in fourth.”
Second place went to Florence, Ore., while Buffalo, Wyo., took third place.
Sitka, Alaska, won fifth. Friday Harbor ended in sixth place. Winthrop won seventh place. Wallace Idaho took eighth; Cook City, Mont.; ninth and Talkeetna, Alaska, 10th.
The online contest describes Sequim as an old mill town on the Olympic Peninsula with a walkable downtown and a historic grain elevator, “famous for succulent Dungeness crab, as well as the fields of fragrant lavender at its outskirts.”
Port Townsend “was originally meant to be a major harbor on the West Coast, and while that never came to fruition, the town retains much of its historic charm,” USA Today says on its website.
”Water Street passes through the heart of the historic district, where architecture buffs can spot numerous Victorian buildings, like the Hastings Building and the Rose Theater.”
________
Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.
