Source: WalletHub
With nearly 85% of Americans planning summer trips in 2023, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2023's Best Summer Travel Destinations, as well as expert commentary, to supplement its Best Travel Credit Cards and Currency Exchange studies.To help travelers plan the perfect summer getaway, WalletHub compared 100 metro areas across 41 key indicators of budget- and fun-friendliness. The data set ranges from the cost of the cheapest flight to the number of attractions to the average price of a two-person meal.
| Top 20 Summer Travel Destinations | |
| 1. Atlanta, GA | 11. San Antonio, TX |
| 2. Honolulu, HI | 12. Salt Lake City, UT |
| 3. Washington, DC | 13. Greenville, SC |
| 4. Wichita, KS | 14. Austin, TX |
| 5. New York, NY | 15. Philadelphia, PA |
| 6. Chicago, IL | 16. Oklahoma City, OK |
| 7. Tampa, FL | 17. Grand Rapids, MI |
| 8. Orlando, FL | 18. El Paso, TX |
| 9. Richmond, VA | 19. Los Angeles, CA |
| 10. Springfield, MO | 20. Minneapolis, MN |
Best vs. Worst
- The average flight to a popular summer destination costs $413, lasts 4 hours and 13 minutes and has 0.4 connections.
- The Los Angeles metro area is the most attractive destination on the West Coast and the Washington, D.C. metro area is the most attractive destination on the East Coast.
- Florida and Texas are home to the most top summer destinations in the U.S., each with at least two metro areas in the top 15. Oppositely, California has among the largest number of the unpopular summer destinations, with at least two metro areas.
- The Houston metro area has the lowest nightly rate for a three-star hotel room, $28, which is 9.1 times less expensive than in Portland, the metro area with the highest at $254.
