CALIFORNIA — Be it the miles of gorgeous beaches or the constant sunshine, it comes as no surprise that California is a major summer travel destination.
Los Angeles and San Diego both landed in the top 20 summer travel destinations in a new ranking form WalletHub, with Los Angeles coming in at the No. 6 spot and San Diego at No. 19.
WalletHub looked at 100 of the country’s most populous metro areas as identified by the U.S. Census Bureau. It evaluated these cities using six categories: travel cost and hassles, local costs, attractions, weather, activities and safety, according to WalletHub.
The greater Los Angeles area — which includes Anaheim and Long Beach — took the top spot for California destinations on account of its high density of attractions and activities. Los Angeles ranked extremely low on local costs, and fairly high on safety.
San Diego ranked in the top 20 despite being one of the highest cost vacation spots. San Diego ranked high on account of its activities, attractions and safety.
Orlando, Florida took the No. 1 spot, followed by Washington, D.C. and Tampa, Florida. San Diego only narrowly beat St. Louis, Missouri.
Many other California cities ranked highly for specific travel categories, including travel cost, local attractions and weather.
Oxnard took the top spot as the state’s safest vacation spot, following Cape Coral and Tampa, Florida as the top two safest vacation spots in the country.
San Francisco took the No. 5 spot for most attractions. See the full ranking from WalletHub.
Around 80-90 percent of American households are predicted to travel this summer, mainly focusing on National Parks, National Forests and State Parks, Arizona State University Lecturer Joshua Roe told WalletHub.
“As many states in the U.S. and many countries have dropped the vaccine requirements and relaxed the COVID-19 restrictions, travel will go ‘crazy’ this summer,” Texas Tech University Professor Jing Li told WalletHub.
