Hands on the wheel and gas in the tank: we’re ready for summer! Few things are as fun as the slow pace of a road trip, watching the miles evaporate as you chat with your carmates, blast tunes and stop for gas station snacks. This summer, nearly 80 percent of Americans say they plan to take some kind of road trip—and a whopping 100 million plan to drive more than 250 miles from home, according to The Vacationer (the population of the U.S. is currently 331.9 million, so that’s quite the statistic!) To help us out with figuring out where to aim the car, personal finance website WalletHub has released its annual report on which states are hot for summer road trips.
Of course, details like gas prices figured into the report’s methodology, along with 31 other metrics. Those included data on a number of attractions throughout the state, road conditions (potholes and long construction delays? Boo!) and even “traffic indiscipline,” which covers the number of incidents of bad behavior like cell phone use while driving, harsh braking, and aggressive driving. We want people to let us merge! Other data points are miles of shoreline, fairs and festivals scheduled for the summer, the amount of money each state spends on parks and recreation, and even this road trip ender: the number of car thefts per 1,000 residents.
The top state for your 2023 road trip? Texas. While it didn’t place first in any of the subcategories, it earned an overall best score. In fact, none of the top five states won in a subcategory—not until Louisiana at #6 do we have a winner, and that’s for low costs associated with road-tripping.
The winner for safety is Maine (it won this category last year, too!), and the winner for activities available to you when you step out of your car is California (it also won last year).
Here are the top 10 best states for road trips this summer:
- Texas
- New York
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Idaho
- Louisiana
- Florida
- Wyoming
- Minnesota
- Maine
For the full report, click here.
Our personal recommendation? We will always love the Loneliest Road in America—but also check out our ranked list of the best road trips.