School is out, the weather is nice — most of the time — and the open road beckons. Many places are reopening after keeping their doors locked last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, and people are ready to leave their houses.
If you’re ready for a trip but wary of getting on a plane or train, a road trip might be the perfect solution.
To determine 2021′s Best and Worst States for Summer Road Trips, financial website WalletHub compared the 50 states across three key dimensions: costs, safety and activities.
It then evaluated those dimensions using 33 relevant metrics on a 100 point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for summer road trips.
According to Kathleen Richard, chair of undergraduate programs and assistant professor of hospitality and tourism management and merchandising and retail management at the School of Business – Madonna University, the top five factors for making a good summer road trip are:
- Proximity to water, beaches, resorts and national parks. This includes any of the East, West and Southern coastal states, starting at Maine and going south to Florida. States in the South, such as Alabama, Louisiana and Texas. And Western states such as Arizona, (Grand Canyon) New Mexico, California, Washington and Oregon.
- Proximity to resorts such as Disney Land and Six Flags, to name a few.
- Proximity to National Parks, such as Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Great Smokey Mountains, etc.
- Proximity to landmarks such as monuments, cemeteries and battlefields
- Proximity to family and friends
New York’s third-place finish in both the safety and activities dimensions propelled it into first place, with an overall score of 59.86. It was followed by Texas, Louisiana, Maine and North Carolina, in that order.
Georgia landed in the top third, in 16th place. The Peach State scored 51.51 overall and ranked No. 4 in the cost dimension, which included the metrics of average gas prices, maximum toll costs and average cost of car repairs, among others. Georgia had the second-highest average cost of car repairs.
We were No. 31 for safety and No. 30 for activities, however.
Rhode Island came in last place, with an overall score of 38.76.
