Hook-ups for Smooth Operators

Grab the gang and set out for America's top 10 'Meet Markets'

White sand, mai tais, blackjack or back country -- a single person can cite any excuse imaginable for why he/she went on this particular vacation. What they're really thinking is: "When the heck am I going to meet someone?"

Okay, maybe that's overstating it somewhat. Of course, there are those solo pleasure travelers who just want to duck into a strange bar to grab a beer without having every head swivel and stare. And, screaming kids can similarly dampen the mood. Their needs, too, have been considered.

Yet for the most part, this top 10 list -- culled from weekend warriors, travel agents, girls-night-out specialists, and bachelor party vets -- focuses on those cities where, at the very least, you stand a good chance of going home with a cocktail napkin covered with digits.

1.) Las Vegas

Does anybody go to Vegas to gamble anymore? On any given night, it can seem like there's more action away from the tables than at them. Choose anywhere in the Hard Rock Cafe or clubs like Tao at the Venetian, Pure at Caesar's Palace or Jet at Mirage and find a dizzying blur of bare midriffs and brazen tattoos whooping it up until dawn cracks across the desert.

And then, the day party starts, most notably at Mandalay Bay's wave pool-soaked "beach," where private cabanas provide perfectly shaded perches from which to scope the action. Or, to fit with the in-crowd, drop by Hart and Huntington Tattoo Company at the Palms, where DJs spin hip-hop while your bicep gets a fire-breathing dragon.

Of course, some Vegas visitors are soon-to-be altar-bound, like those bachelorettes at Thunder from Down Under (an Australian male strip show) or their male equivalents, living it up at Spearmint Rhino.

Yet the overall numbers are favorable. The city's tourism board says a quarter of the visitors last year were divorced, widowed or single. That's about 10 million lonely hearts -- good odds for any gambler.

2.) Miami Beach

Look no further than your hotel for a chance encounter with Mrs. Right. The scene at art deco marvels like the Raleigh, Fontainebleau and Albion is around their gorgeous pools, ideal for early-morning paddles or late-day disco naps.

This year, Miami Beach welcomes a half-dozen new places to stay, like the Regent South Beach -- with its rooftop hot tubs -- and the Nicky O Condo Hotel, from the other Hilton sister. And they're not far from the latest clutch of cutting-edge dance clubs -- like Snatch or Mokai -- in the burgeoning Mid-Beach district.

3.) Chicago

Chicago's flyover status means its singles scene often gets short shrift, which is too bad.

In warmer weather -- which can mean 60 degrees -- locals gather at the city's spectacular public spaces, like the new Millennium Park, a new use for old railroad tracks. Also, a long-running party on Lake Michigan at the "Playpen" harbor joins beer with inner tubes for a heady party. Meigs Field, formerly an airport, is now a prairie-grass flecked park called Northerly Island, with a 7,500-seat pavilion for concerts.

Distinct neighborhoods make up the city itself, and each proudly puts on its own festival every year, like the recent Oktoberfest in South Lakeview, when the streets fill with the smell of brats and the beats of oompah bands.