Edinburgh has been named the best UK city for tourists at a prestigious awards ceremony, it was revealed on Thursday.

The city rose from second place last year to top the 2010 poll of readers of Conde Nast Traveller magazine. The Scottish capital netted high scores across the board but was noted in particular for its architecture, culture and "user-friendliness".

Oxford came second, while last year's number one, London, dropped to third place.

Jenny Dawe, leader of Edinburgh City Council, said: "This result is great news for the city and confirms what we all know: Edinburgh is a great place in which to visit, invest, live, work and study.

"The city truly has the best of everything - historic buildings and great atmosphere, a vibrant leisure and retail offering, abundant green space, outstanding schools and universities - the list goes on.

"Little wonder, then, that people continue to think of Edinburgh as a must-visit location."

Marketing body Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance (Dema) said the city was no stranger to accolades, having been voted one of the world's top 10 cities by travel magazine Wanderlust in 2008 and named the UK's favourite city break destination by readers of Guardian/Observer for 10 years in a row.

Fourth place in the Conde Nast poll was taken by Liverpool, which was praised for having the friendliest people. Scotland secured two cities in the top five, with Glasgow coming in just behind Liverpool.

All but one of the top 15 UK business hotels were in London, with The Dorchester scoring best overall. The only non-London hotel in this category was The Balmoral in Edinburgh. Scotland did well in the UK hotel spa category, with Perthshire's Gleneagles Hotel coming top.