Sometimes, the best place for a vacation is the city you're already living in. The phrase "staycation" is pretty obnoxious, but taking one is a cheaper alternative to hopping on a plane or in a car, traveling to a different city and forking out wads of cash in the process.
But some of the hottest cities for tourists aren't exactly the best places to take a staycation. To rank the best cities to live in and vacation in, WalletHub looked into a number of factors that it considers make for quality staycations, including the amount of recreation per capita, the cost and accessibility of food and entertainment and the quality of weather in the summer. Their methodology found that Floridians take the cake in terms of cities to take a staycation (which is fine—just another excuse for Floridians to stay in Florida). Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa had the three highest "staycation scores" in the study.
The study looked at the 150 largest markets in the country, and New York ranked third to last. This is kind of surprising, but if you told a New Yorker that they should stay in town on their day off instead of taking a trip you might get your eyes clawed out. Plus, in its methodology around areas like recreation and food, the study looked at things like golf courses per capita, movie ticket prices and affordable meals, not exactly areas that New York would expect to score big on.
L.A. wasn't much further ahead, ranking 143rd in the study. Chicago ranked 99th, somehow coming in two spots behind Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The problem with places that are great for staycations? You also have to live there.
Check the map below for the best and worst cities for staycations in the country: