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The gulf coast of the Tampa Bay area. St Pete Beach up to Clearwater.
Heck, even St Pete itself is very clean and devoid of street begging and visible homelessness, at least in the main downtown area. It's almost eerie for such a big American city to be missing that grittiness.
Agreed about the Pinellas County gulf coast beach towns.
Downtown St. Pete proper is fine, though the whole section of the city immediately south of there is not good at all. If the OP wants no risk of sketchiness, I’d make a hard pass on that suggestion. The OP passed on Daytona, after all. Many cities would qualify otherwise, such as Ft. Lauderdale and Key West, both of which are fine but have respectively bad or mildly dicey areas.
Do you have a budget for Hawaii? Friendly, touristy and beautiful. The locals dont trouble the visitors. In some parts of the town, you can have whole beach for yourself. And its still within the US with all the rules, safety etc.
Western side if sketchy with hots of homeless people living in tents, drugs etc but if you pay no attention you should be safe .
Do you mean the western side of Oahu? I drove through that area a long time ago, liked it a lot but was not there long. I walked all over Honolulu at all hours of the night during two trips in the early 90s, and didn't get into any real trouble (other than running into some whores). But I certainly know that things have changed over the last twenty five years and Honolulu has some major "issues" now. Kauai was great, I encountered NO issues at all there. I would definitely go back to Kauai. I don't know as much about Maui or the Big Island.
Agreed about the Pinellas County gulf coast beach towns.
Downtown St. Pete proper is fine, though the whole section of the city immediately south of there is not good at all. If the OP wants no risk of sketchiness, I’d make a hard pass on that suggestion. The OP passed on Daytona, after all. Many cities would qualify otherwise, such as Ft. Lauderdale and Key West, both of which are fine but have respectively bad or mildly dicey areas.
I have visited a few times without ever encountering anything remotely sketchy or blighted without crossing over to the Tampa side. Maybe it was just dumb luck, but it wasn't like I researched ahead of time to avoid bad areas.
The gulf side beach towns are on another level though. You can definitely tell that they are moneyed communities
Just looking for a decent, reasonably-priced place where the kids can have some fun, and sketchiness is taken out of the equation.
IMO, Cozumel and Isla Mujeres are such places.
Being islands without a large population, they're not worth the trouble for miscreants. Not enough $$$ there.
I've walked everywhere in San Miguel in Cozumel... no trouble at all.
I have visited a few times without ever encountering anything remotely sketchy or blighted without crossing over to the Tampa side. Maybe it was just dumb luck, but it wasn't like I researched ahead of time to avoid bad areas.
The gulf side beach towns are on another level though. You can definitely tell that they are moneyed communities
Most of the area immediately south of the Dali Museum and Tropicana Field is decidedly not good. It's unlikely you'll run into trouble in the downtown core just north of there, where the museums and such are located, especially during the day. My concern was to honor the OP's wish to avoid any potential sketchiness, and that's an issue given this.
There should of course be no concern with the Gulf side beach towns, agreed.
I have no fear of going to vacation places that are sketchy around the edges....I have been to quite a few. I would just like our next trip to be totally free of all that. I'm looking for eastern US or Caribbean.
Examples of places that were sketchy in certain areas: Daytona Beach, Oahu, Dominican Republic, Washington DC, Phoenix, Jacksonville, Miami, Mobile, Savannah, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, and I think Barbados (although I can't really remember it too well).
A few places that had no sketchiness were Tybee Island, Key Largo, Alligator Point, and Sedona. Possibly Lake Powell too, although we weren't there for long.
I have no interest in Orlando. Most of the islands are automatic rule outs (Google Earth is great). I could go back to someplace we've already been but would prefer to try something new. It can't be super-exclusive because we're not rich.
Any ideas? (And does any one else also get tired of going places that have sketchy areas just outside the touristy areas....or maybe even mixed in with them?)
Disney World. Stay on Main St. USA. You'll be safe.
IMO, Cozumel and Isla Mujeres are such places.
Being islands without a large population, they're not worth the trouble for miscreants. Not enough $$$ there.
I've walked everywhere in San Miguel in Cozumel... no trouble at all.
Every location has its "sketchiness," or at least one in your list of prerequisites.... Unless of course you go somewhere that has no other people, but granted you have to get there somehow
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Any place that doesn't have sketchy areas
