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Where do people in your area generally go to "get away" for the weekend? Or, conversely, from what places does your city / area attract these type of tourists?
People in the D.C. area get away to many different places. Baltimore, Annapolis, the Chesapeake Bay, southern Maryland, Harpers Ferry, WV, the Shenandoah National Park/ Blue Ridge Mountains and Richmond, VA are considered to be day trips. Beaches like Reheboth and Dewey in Delaware, Ocean City and Assateague in Maryland, Chincoteague and Virginia Beach in Virginia are popular weekend destinations in the summer.
Other places such as western Maryland, Pittsburgh, Gettysburg, Lancaster County, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, the Jersey Shore and New York City are popular as well even though some of them may be farther away.
Bostonians go all over New England for vacation, but popular destinations include Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket, New Hampshire's Lakes Region, the White Mountains, the Maine coast, the Berkshires of western MA, and the Green Mountains of Vermont.
In the NYC area are quite a few options. Many people go to Long Island in particular to the Hamptons or Fire Island. Also Block Island which is off the coast of Long Island (but technically part of Rhode Island). Others go the New Jersey shoreline including Atlantic City with its famous boardwalk. Some people venture further away and go to Cape Cod area including Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
In Charleston area: usually the mountains (Blue Ridge), Asheville area, anywhere in Western NC or the TN mountains. The roads fill up for foliage season.
Myrtle Beach is biggest beach getaway other than our local beaches. Edisto Beach is huge in Colleton County and the nearby area.
Lots of people go to Atlanta to see the Braves, or to FL to see the amusement parks.
Our area gets a ton of OH, KY, and WV vacationers. Part of that is because I-77 goes to Columbia then Charleston is only 1:45 away. Lots of GA and NC day-trippers too.
For people in the Duluth area, popular destinations include:
- The Twin Cities (Minneapolis - St. Paul) Metropolitan Area, which is about 140-160 miles away or 2h-3h driving time, for the Valleyfair amusement park, Mall of America and other malls, Twins games, and anything you need to go to a big city for. This can be very easily done as a day trip, or you can stay overnight.
- The North Shore is a popular day trip from MN, but I haven't heard of too many people staying there overnight. A large percentage of people have been to Thunder Bay, Ontario, too, but I'm sure Duluth attracts far more people from TB than TB attracts people from Duluth.
- Camping, hiking, etc. in nearby campgrounds and state parks / forests.
- The BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area), about a 110 mi / 2h drive north, for canoeing, kayaking, etc., and perhaps Quetico National Park.
- The Apostle Islands, Bayfield, etc., about an 85 mi / 1.5h drive east, for kayaking, boating, etc.
- Fishing, boating, watersports, etc. on the many nearby local lakes.
- A lot of people around here have cabins on the lakes that they go to each weekend. These can be as short of a distance as about 20 miles from their homes.
- Wisconsin Dells, about a 280 mi / 5h trip, for the waterparks there. This includes the winter, as there are now indoor waterparks too.
- The Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota, about a 12h trip from Duluth, is a very popular family road trip destination, and the nearest place people can see real live mountains.
- Surprisingly few people take road trips to Chicago, about 470 mi / 8-9h (depending on traffic) away. Maybe it's because of the congestion, traffic, parking, prices, or strange people. A lot of people have been there once or twice for something or another, though.
- Another destination that is little visited is Winnipeg, Manitoba, about 380 miles / 7h 30m driving time (more for customs / border inspection).
For weekend getaways, people in South Florida go to the Bahamas (short cruises, cheap flights), down to the Keys, or up to Orlando for the theme parks. Florida is a much bigger state than a lot of people realize and it takes 6 to 8 hours just to drive up to around the Georgia boarder from SE Florida so road trips out of Florida tend to be more than just a weekend getaway.
My husband and I are going to Sarasota for an extra long weekend this week and it's going to take us about 3.5 to 4 hours to get there and if you look at it on a map it doesn't really look that far away.
In the building where I live, which is at the beach, there are people who live out in the western suburbs who own apartments here and use them just as weekend getaways.
As for who comes here? EVERYBODY and in the winter, it's EVERYBODY and their brother.
There are quite a few people who come from the Caribbean and the Bahamas for shopping. We have one of (if not the largest) outlet malls and if you go there, you'll hear plenty of foreign languages/accents and those people first go to the luggage store and buy a big suitcase and then they go shopping in the other stores and fill up the suitcase to take back home.
In the NYC area are quite a few options. Many people go to Long Island in particular to the Hamptons or Fire Island. Also Block Island which is off the coast of Long Island (but technically part of Rhode Island). Others go the New Jersey shoreline including Atlantic City with its famous boardwalk. Some people venture further away and go to Cape Cod area including Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
All true. And you can add to that list the folks who love going upstate to places like Lake George or Lake Placid in the Adirondack, or out to the Poconos and Amish country in Pennsylvania. And in NJ I like going all the way to the end of the state to Cape May. I've met other New Yokers there too, which sort of surprised me because I expected the place to be overrun with folks from Philly.
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