With around 85 percent of Americans planning to travel this summer but inflation making trips costly, the personal-finance website WalletHub recently released its report on “2023’s Best and Worst Cities for Staycations.” To identify the best spots for staying local, WalletHub compared more than 180 cities across 42 key indicators of a fun-filled yet wallet-friendly staycation.
The data set used ranges from parks per capita to restaurant-meal costs.
The best cities for staycations were Honolulu; Orlando, Fla.; Las Vegas; Tampa, Fla.; Salt Lake City; Charleston, S.C.; Chicago; San Diego; Cincinnati, and New Orleans.
The worst places to plan a staycation in, according to the survey, were Laredo, Texas; Oakland, Calif.; Yonkers, N.Y.; Santa Rosa, Calif.; Irving, Texas; Santa Ana, Calif.; Oxnard, Calif.; Fremont, Calif., Pearl City, Hawaii, and Chula Vista, Calif.
Best versus worst takeaways were:
- Las Vegas has the most zoos and aquariums (per square root of population), 0.0138, which is 19.7 times more than in New York, the city with the fewest at 0.0007.
- New York has the most parks (per square root of population), 1.4562, which is 21.2 times more than in North Las Vegas, Nev., the city with the fewest at 0.0687.
- Billings, Mont. has the lowest cost of house-cleaning services, $40, which is 5.6 times less expensive than in Juneau, Alaska, the city with the highest at $224.