Why WalletHub says Atlanta is the best destination for winter holidays

Even though Atlanta’s winter wonderland is expected to be a cold and wet one to go walking in, it’s the top U.S. destination for the holiday season.

“Travel this winter should pick up and show some robust growth as restrictions are removed and people feel more comfortable traveling especially after vaccinations,” Amit Mehrotra, assistant professor at New York City College of Technology, told WalletHub. “However, domestic travel should see higher growth than international travel. International travel should pick up eventually and should have a higher growth starting next year.”

In order to determine the best winter holiday destinations, WalletHub compared 69 of the most populated U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, across six key dimensions: travel costs and hassles, local costs, attractions, weather, activities, and safety.

The financial website then evaluated those dimensions using 39 relevant metrics, each of which was graded on a 100 point scale, with a score of 100 being the most ideal winter travel conditions.

Each MSA was then classified as either a “cold” or “warm” destination according to the following temperature guidelines:

When the scores were tallied, Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta came out on top as the best winter vacation destination, with a total score of 67.38. The city ranked in the top 10 in five of the six key dimensions.

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta was the only Southern city in the cold weather ranking. The best warm weather destinations were a different story, however. All of those cities were in the bottom part of the United States.

One Georgia area — Augusta-Richmond County, Geogia-S.C. — finished at No. 18 for warm weather destination, with a total score of 52.32.

You can read the full analysis on WalletHub.com.