star-spangled celebration
Houston is the 15th best U.S. city to celebrate Independence Day
Texans love to celebrate their independence.
Though the saying goes, "Everything is bigger in Texas," that might not necessarily be true about the state's Fourth of July celebrations. A new report by personal finance website WalletHub says there are 14 U.S. cities that do it better than Houston.
Despite earning high recognition for having the second most affordable means to celebrate in the city (including the third cheapest hotels in the nation), Houston only came in at No. 15 in WalletHub's "Best and Worst Places for 4th of July Celebrations."
The report compares the 100 biggest cities in the nation across 18 metrics like affordability, variety of attractions and activities on July 4th, weather favorability, and safety.
Houston's worst category was safety (No. 93), with additional room for improvement on the variety of recreational activities surrounding the Independence Day holiday (No. 30). One category that (unfortunately) can't be improved is the weather, where the city ranked No. 33.
Dallas (No. 8) and San Antonio (No. 9) were the only Texas cities to rank higher than Houston in the overall report, while Austin came in at No. 21. That may come as a surprise to some who live in the capital city.
California cities dominate the top 10, with Los Angeles and San Francisco taking the top two spots, respectively, and San Diego coming in at No. 6. The remaining cities that round out the top 10 are New York City (No. 3), Las Vegas (No. 4), Seattle (No. 5), San Diego (No. 6), Orlando (No. 7), and Milwaukee (No. 10).
Here's a look at how other Texas cities stacked up:
- No. 26 – Plano
- No. 31 – El Paso
- No. 29 – Fort Worth
- No. 50 – Irving
- No. 51 – Arlington
- No. 69 – Laredo
- No. 82 – Lubbock
- No. 90 – Garland
