The top-ranked destinations in three popular categories are listed below:

The complete Best Vacations rankings, overall and sorted by region, are available here: http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/

The new rankings identify the top vacation spots based on a methodology that combines expert and consumer opinions. They reflect how strongly a destination is recommended by travel experts and U.S. News Travel website users.

"We are pleased to expand our coverage of top travel destinations to a worldwide scale," said Chad Smolinski, Vice President of Rankings and Reviews at U.S. News & World Report. "This expansion allows us to make comparisons between places as geographically disperse as Bali, Corfu, and Rio de Janeiro. For someone planning a major vacation or a honeymoon, this can be important."

Today's launch is a part of the 2012-2013 U.S. News Best Vacations rankings. In total, more than 200 destinations were considered in the current rankings.

About U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is a multi-platform publisher of news and analysis, which includes the digital-only U.S. News Weekly magazine, www.usnews.com, and www.rankingsandreviews.com. Focusing on Health, Personal Finance, Education, Travel, Cars, and Public Service/Opinion, U.S. News has earned a reputation as the leading provider of service news and information that improves the quality of life of its readers. U.S. News & World Report's signature franchise includes its News You Can Use® brand of journalism and its annual "Best" series of consumer web guides and publications that include rankings of colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, mutual funds, health plans, and more.

SOURCE U.S. News & World Report