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Houston soars in Forbes’ top 10 best cities for summer travel
We're as surprised as you are.
Looks like people from all over the country will be flocking to Houston this summer — at least according to a new report by Forbes Advisor.
The report listed the best and worst cities for summer travel and Dallas fared surprisingly well, coming in as the No. 10 best summer travel destination in the nation.
The study, published June 1, compared 43 of the most populous U.S. cities across 16 metrics in three major categories: City experience, air travel experience, and driving experience.
Houston earned an overall score of 36.57 out of a total 100 possible points. That puts the Bayou City between No. 9 Chicago (36.04 points) and No. 11 Baltimore (36.86 points) in the rankings. Jacksonville, Florida earned a perfect (and dreadful) score of 100 points to solidify itself as the No. 1 worst vacation destination for summer travel.
This is how Forbes breaks down Houston's' ranking across the three key dimensions:
- 18.16 – City experience score
- 44.73 – Air travel experience score
- 43.84 – Driving experience score
"Visitors to Houston enjoy the lowest median hotel price during the summer ($122.33 per night) and the city’s two major airports reimburse the second highest percentage of summer property loss and damage claims in full (52.4 percent on average)," the report said.
Bad news for Big D
Sadly, our neighbors to the north didn't fare as well. Dallas came in as the No. 13 worst summer travel destination in the nation with an overall score of 57.20 points.
"Dallas’ two major airports have the sixth highest number of property loss and damage claims during the summer (1.3 per 100,000 domestic passengers)," the report said. "The city also has the seventh highest number of extreme temperature days in the summer (76 on average)."
San Antonio (No. 20) and Austin (No. 24) also fared better than Dallas in the overall rankings, showing that Central Texas is a far better place to be during the summer when it comes to statewide vacations.
Texas travelers may want to consider going out of state to places like Minneapolis, Minnesota, which was ranked the No. 1 best summer travel destination in the U.S.
The top 10 best U.S. summer travel destinations are:
- No. 1 – Minneapolis, Minnesota
- No. 2 – Long Beach, California
- No. 3 – Washington, D.C.
- No. 4 – Seattle, Washington
- No. 5 – Omaha, Nebraska
- No. 6 – San Diego, California
- No. 7 – San Francisco, California
- No. 8 – Columbus, Ohio
- No. 9 – Chicago, Illinois
- No. 10 – Houston, Texas
Category 6 is the largest waterpark at sea, according to Royal Caribbean.Photo courtesy of Royal Caribbean
