With nearly 82% of Americans planning to take a trip this summer, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the Best Summer Travel Destinations in 2024, as well as expert commentary, to supplement its Best Travel Credit Cards picks and help people maximize their savings.
To help travelers plan the perfect summer getaway, WalletHub compared 100 metro areas across 41 key indicators of an affordable and fun vacation. 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. Salt Lake City, UT | |||
| 2. Washington, DC | 12. New York, NY | |||
| 3. Orlando, FL | 13. Richmond, VA | |||
| 4. Honolulu, HI | 14. Miami, FL | |||
| 5. Tampa, FL | 15. Springfield, MO | |||
| 6. Austin, TX | 16. Knoxville, TN | |||
| 7. Philadelphia, PA | 17. Tulsa, OK | |||
| 8. Chicago, IL | 18. Oklahoma, OK | |||
| 9. El Paso, TX | 19. San Antonio, TX | |||
| 10. Cincinnati, OH | 20. Los Angeles, CA | |||
Best vs. Worst
- The average flight to a popular summer destination costs $377, lasts 3 hours and 59 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 numbers of the most unpopular summer destinations, with at least two metro areas.
- The San Antonio metro area has the lowest nightly rate for a three-star hotel room, which is 5.2 times less expensive than in Oxnard, the metro area with the highest.
