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Which major American city (my definition is 3+ million in PSA, you can use yours) has the best daytrip and weekend trip options?
Let's define daytrips into three groups:
1. Frequent Daytrips: Places within 75 miles (the sports blackout zone) that people in the city tend to visit multiple times due to proximity.
2. Daytrips: Places within 150 miles that people in the city visit at least once.
3. Weekend Trips: Places within 250 miles that people in the city visit, but need more than 1 day because of distance.
I think the winners are:
1. Frequent Daytrips (<75mi): Boston - Cape Cod, Harbor Islands, Lexington and Concord, Salem, Plymouth, Providence, Newport, Block Island, The Kennebunks, Cape Ann, Portsmouth, Worcester, Manchester, Martha's Vineyard, Provincetown. The amount of sights within 75 miles of Boston is impressive.
Honorable Mention: Washington - Alexandria, Annapolis, Antietam, Baltimore, Bluemont, Chesapeake Bay, Frederick, Ellicott City, Gettysburg, Harpers Ferry, Hunt Country, Inn at Little Washington, King George, Leesburg, Manassas, Mount Vernon, Orange, Paris, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia Wine Country, Winchester. Arguably more options than Boston, but also less impressive.
2. Daytrips (<150mi): Philadelphia - An insane number of options: Atlantic City, Baltimore, Cape May, Catskills, Harrisburg, Hershey, Jersey Shore, Lancaster Amish Country, Long Island, New York, The Poconos, Washington. Within a 150 mile radius from Philly is the most populated region in the country, with hundreds of small villages and towns to visit.
3. Weekend Trips (<250mi): San Francisco - There's so much beauty packed into this area. San Francisco and all of the Bay Towns like Sausalito and Berkeley, Lake Tahoe and Reno, Sacramento, Napa Valley, Yosemite National Park, Monterey, Big Sur, Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Cruz and Capitola, Eureka, Redwood National Park, Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Mount Shasta. Incredible the amount of options.
The ones who do worst:
1. Frequent Daytrips: Detroit - nothing good within 75 miles except maybe Ann Arbor.
2. Daytrips: Houston - It's Galveston basically. I guess Austin's within 150 miles but that still doesn't diminish the fact there's nothing good around Houston.
3. Weekend Trips: Minneapolis - Des Moines, Fargo, Madison and North Country is basically it. Nothing else that's a real tourist attraction, maybe Duluth or Sioux Falls? The good thing for people in Minneapolis is they live in a nice metro. The bad thing is there's nothing good around for hundreds of miles.
Are you kidding? Detroit has everything from wilderness, to great lakes, to tourist towns to some of North America's biggest cities for day tripping/weekend trips. It's probably one of the best.
Are you kidding? Detroit has everything from wilderness, to great lakes, to tourist towns to some of North America's biggest cities for day tripping/weekend trips. It's probably one of the best.
The meme of Michigan and its economic problems is so great that it blinds people to the fact that Michigan, the state with the longest coastline of the lower 48, is one of the most beautiful states in the nation.
If you could turn the clock back a half century or so, a time when Michigan was doing well economically, you would see a state that was fully recognized for its beauty.
Which major American city (my definition is 3+ million in PSA, you can use yours) has the best daytrip and weekend trip options?
Let's define daytrips into three groups:
1. Frequent Daytrips: Places within 75 miles (the sports blackout zone) that people in the city tend to visit multiple times due to proximity.
2. Daytrips: Places within 150 miles that people in the city visit at least once.
3. Weekend Trips: Places within 250 miles that people in the city visit, but need more than 1 day because of distance.
I think the winners are:
1. Frequent Daytrips (<75mi): Boston - Cape Cod, Harbor Islands, Lexington and Concord, Salem, Plymouth, Providence, Newport, Block Island, The Kennebunks, Cape Ann, Portsmouth, Worcester, Manchester, Martha's Vineyard, Provincetown. The amount of sights within 75 miles of Boston is impressive.
Honorable Mention: Washington - Alexandria, Annapolis, Antietam, Baltimore, Bluemont, Chesapeake Bay, Frederick, Ellicott City, Gettysburg, Harpers Ferry, Hunt Country, Inn at Little Washington, King George, Leesburg, Manassas, Mount Vernon, Orange, Paris, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia Wine Country, Winchester. Arguably more options than Boston, but also less impressive.
2. Daytrips (<150mi): Philadelphia - An insane number of options: Atlantic City, Baltimore, Cape May, Catskills, Harrisburg, Hershey, Jersey Shore, Lancaster Amish Country, Long Island, New York, The Poconos, Washington. Within a 150 mile radius from Philly is the most populated region in the country, with hundreds of small villages and towns to visit.
3. Weekend Trips (<250mi): San Francisco - There's so much beauty packed into this area. San Francisco and all of the Bay Towns like Sausalito and Berkeley, Lake Tahoe and Reno, Sacramento, Napa Valley, Yosemite National Park, Monterey, Big Sur, Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Cruz and Capitola, Eureka, Redwood National Park, Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Mount Shasta. Incredible the amount of options.
The ones who do worst:
1. Frequent Daytrips: Detroit - nothing good within 75 miles except maybe Ann Arbor.
2. Daytrips: Houston - It's Galveston basically. I guess Austin's within 150 miles but that still doesn't diminish the fact there's nothing good around Houston.
3. Weekend Trips: Minneapolis - Des Moines, Fargo, Madison and North Country is basically it. Nothing else that's a real tourist attraction, maybe Duluth or Sioux Falls? The good thing for people in Minneapolis is they live in a nice metro. The bad thing is there's nothing good around for hundreds of miles.
Within 250 miles of the cities puts you near Grand Marais on the north shore, the Boundary Waters, most of northern Minnesota inclusive of the prolific wilderness and lakes, the iron range, Wisconsin's Apostle Islands, most of Wisconsin's good wilderness and hunting lands, and the driftless region. Yep, "nothing good".
It’s so hard to say because it’s going to vary based on personal preference and experience. I think LA should be in the mix somewhere in there with day/weekend trips to: San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Juan Capistrano, Big Bear, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Lake Havasu, Joshua Tree, Solvang, Temecula wine country, and Baja Mexico.
Nashville is the best daytrip city in the country, being within a few hours drive of Atlanta, Louisville, Birmingham, Memphis, Appalachian mountains, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, etc. But I guess it's not "major" under the OP's criteria.
Any place on the west coast has the best weekend trip options.
Nashville is the best daytrip city in the country, being within a few hours drive of Atlanta, Louisville, Birmingham, Memphis, Appalachian mountains, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, etc. But I guess it's not "major" under the OP's criteria.
Any place on the west coast has the best weekend trip options.
I’ve been to all of those cities and while every city has its merits and things to do, those aren’t really “destination” cities that people would travel to from another big city unless they had family there. I’m not even sure they’re all day trips. Nashville to St. Louis is over 600 miles round trip.
probably the NE, SOCAL, or the Bay for most of these, hate to say it but in terms of the quality and variety these likely offer the most and best for the categories
pick your poison
generally it seems the number of places within 2, 4 or 6 hours is just more interesting on the whole
Pretty much all places have worthwhile places within those ranges just those have the most and best quality IMHO
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