These Are the Best and Worst US Cities For Recreation

16.07.2024 - 20:45 / travelpulse.com / Rich Thomaselli

When settling on a place to live, cost of living is certainly a factor. But so is the recreation opportunities.

After all, you can’t stay cooped up forever. You have to get out and do something, whether that’s exercise or see a concert.

The influential online site WalletHub examined the 100 best and 100 worst U.S. cities for recreation. For each city, it looked at the availability and cost of recreational activities, as well as quality of parks and the weather. 

1. Las Vegas, NV

2. Orlando, FL

3. Tampa, FL

4. Cincinnati, OH

5. Honolulu, HI

6. Scottsdale, AZ

7. San Diego, CA

8. St. Louis, MO

9. Atlanta, GA

10. New Orleans, LA

91. Fort Wayne, IN

92. San Jose, CA

93. Jersey City, NJ

94. Durham, NC

95. Hialeah, FL

96. Newark, NJ

97. Fremont, CA

98. Irving, TX

99. Oakland, CA

100. Chula Vista, CA

“Las Vegas is the best city for recreation, boasting an extremely high number of attractions and ranking at the top of the country when it comes to the number of music venues, amusement parks, zoos and aquariums per capita. In addition, Las Vegas is a great city for staying active, with a very high number of basketball hoops, hiking trails, bowling alleys, sport venues and park playgrounds per capita. Finally, Las Vegas is one of the best cities for the availability of affordable restaurants with 4.5-plus stars,” said Cassandra Happe of WalletHub.

“Municipalities should be utilizing federal granting programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to help offset the cost of large-scale recreation infrastructure projects if possible. I also like to see smaller municipalities planning long-term and creating financial tools to build up capital over time such as expendable trust funds, capital reserve funds, or special revenue funds if a municipality has a revenue-generating site. Planning over a longer time horizon allows local officials to meet the needs of their stakeholders without an undue effect on the municipal tax rate,” said Matthew Frye, M.S., CTRS/L – Clinical Associate Professor; Therapeutic Recreation Option Coordinator, University of New Hampshire.

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