My state has many popular vacation locations that locals travel to for summer vacation. In fact, many people I know don’t vacation outside of our state since my state is surrounded by lakes. This makes me wonder if other states have popular vacation destinations for locals or do most need to go outside of the your state to get to popular vacation spots like mountains, lakes, oceans, or popular campgrounds, etc?
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I grew up on the north side of Chicago. Everyone who could, had a summer cottage in Wisconsin.
We now live in suburban southern California. Recreation / vacation spots abound, from 10 to 1,000 miles away, all in California.
Ohio….we have a good handful of them.
The Hill Country, South Padre Island, San Antonio Riverwalk (and SeaWorld), Big Bend (if you’re into hiking)
I can’t think of any state that doesn’t have either campgrounds in a state or national parks/forests or some type of family friendly or luxury resort. Even Indiana and Ohio have vacation spots.
Every state has state parks, so there are at least some vacation spots. Not everything is grand as Yellowstone or Grand Canyon, but there are spots. I’ve never been to Theordore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. In Minnesota, there’s Itasca State Park which has the headwaters of the Mississippi River. There’s also the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Voyageurs National Park, and the North Shore of Lake Superior.
I grew up in Oklahoma. There are definitely locations that residents frequent in the summer. Floating the Illinois River in Tahlequah and Turner Falls are pretty popular. Lake Tenkiller or Eufala are also popular spots.
Florida, specifically the Gulf Coast, is extremely popular with Hoosiers.
I assume most states have local spots that are mostly for locals (people within two hours or so). These are good for long weekend trips and what not. Not good enough for much longer, and nobody is coming in from farther to go there.
Places like quiet lake/beach/mountain towns. Big enough to have a few restaurants, has nice views, maybe an activity or a winery nearby.
I know that’s true of the coastal states, the great lake states, and the rocky mountain states. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of other places.
Can any North Dakotans let us know where your vacation houses are?
Genuinely curious what their equivalent to the “Chicagoan who has a lake house in Wisconsin” phenomenon is.
Currently in Chicago. Most people leave the state. Either Wisconsin or Michigan.
Previously lived in Michigan, most people went to the lakes or up north.
I would assume that all states have at least *some* vacation destinations. At least known to locals.
There are several states where I wouldn’t have any desire to vacation to, because my mental image of those states doesn’t include any travel destinations. Like, I would never think to vacation to Kansas (for example). But I’m sure there are vacation-worthy places there. I just don’t know about them from here in Ohio.
My state has mountains, lakes, rivers, and plenty of campgrounds, and ocean too….. I still want to get the hell out of it when I can and travel somewhere different lol
Here in Illinois, we mostly go to your state or Wisconsin
I don’t think it’s super common for Louisianians to vacation within Louisiana. Like I have gone for an overnight in some campgrounds but wouldn’t really count it as a vacation. Most people drive to Alabama or Florida beaches in the summer, though.
From Michigan but live in Mass now. Everyone either goes to the cape or up to Maine for vacations.
That’s basically what we do here.
I think most probably do. Virginia has places to stay for an overnight trip and several good camping locations, but most of us leave the state before we actually consider it a vacation.
Yes. Every single one of them.
Except Illinois.
Sure. In Massachusetts it’s very common to vacation at Cape Cod or some other ocean beach or have a cottage at a Massachusetts lake. Then outside the state common to go to Vermont, RI, NH, or Maine. But that is summer.
The winter is different and varies. Lots of people go to Florida because it’s cheap and easy. Lots go to the Caribbean because it’s close and nice. Some go to Mexico or Central America.
Oregon has the coast and the cascades
Summer vacation? God no, Kansas summer weather is generally hot and humid.
The Kansas City area is great in spring and fall, but I’d say most out of town visitors end up on the Missouri side except when they go to KCK for barbecue.
I’m from WV, where you can hike the mountains, snow ski, whitewater raft, BASE jump, visit multiple Dark Skies Parks, see a large radio telescope installation, drive 2 lane highways through old-growth forests, ride a scenic railway to a point where you can see 7 states at once, visit a coal mining museum where you can ride a simulation of the elevators miners rode down into the mines, go to a sternwheel boat regatta, fish on quiet lakes or waterski/speedboat on a large river. In my little hometown you can visit a Shawnee chief’s grave (Cornstalk) plus a Revolutionary War-era Fort and the Mothman statue/museum all in a couple blocks of each other.
I’ve lived in OH, CA and FL. So I’ve been lucky to have things to do everywhere I’ve lived. I’m sure most states that look boring on the outside have fantastic things to do if you know more about the area.
In KY we also have a ton of lakes, and lots of people have lake houses, there are also lots of popular areas like the Red River Gorge that locals go to. When I first moved here I was told that everyone goes to vacation in the Gulf Shores, and since then we’ve gone twice. Gorgeous sand beaches in the Florida panhandle through Mobile, AL, and half the price of places further south in Florida.
Pretty much, greetings from the Grand Canyon State
I think most states large enough have an are where people can easily drive for recreation. There may be exceptions in the NE for very small states, but I think even there people go the the shore or the mountains, depending on how they’re situated.
Middle of Illinois. People go to the Ozarks, The Dells, Shawnee National Forest, etc. It also seems like everyone’s grandparents live in Arizona now.
I live in New York, so… yeah. Loads of state parks all over the state. Adirondacks. Long Island has beaches on both north & south shores. Montauk Point. Green Lake State Park. Niagara Falls. Thousand Islands. Finger Lakes. Cooperstown and the MLB Hall of Fame. And that’s without even mentioning the obvious. 😉
We have the world’s largest natural cave system as our national park! People come camp and visit it
Every state even smaller ones like Rhode Island have popular vacation spots.
Depends on the state and income. I grew up in Pennsylvania, which is landlocked in a mostly low income area. If you were high middle class you went out of state to the beach. Low middle class, you went to the Poconos. Poor you either did nothing or went nearby to a camping spot with a lake you could swim in.
I think many places, at least in the east where states are smaller, both are true. Pennsylvania has many vacation spots but many go to NJ, DE, MD etc for Beach. Maryland has many vacation places but for amusement park I’d got to Pennsylvania or Virginia.
The coast is very popular for vacationers, along with Crater Lake NP and Bend.
People in Iowa real quiet in this thread xD
Rocky Point (Puerto Peñasco) in Mexico is almost exclusively visited by Arizonans as it’s our closest beach (not to mention much cheaper than going to the beaches in CA).
All states have areas where people could potentially take a vacation, but some states are obviously much bigger attractions than others.
My state has a few cool vacation spots but I’m more likely to leave the country than I am to see them. It’s less time and energy to go to an airport than take a road trip
I once heard Kansas descibed as an endless field of nothing
I once heard Kansas descibed as an endless field of nothing.
NJ here. We have multiple beaches and beautiful towns to Vacation in. We also have lakes and ski areas as well
California has ski resorts, wine regions, state/national parks, beaches, theme parks, cities, and probably more that I can’t think of off the top of my head
Nebraska doesn’t have a whole lot, but Omaha is popular in the summer for the college world series and of course our fantastic zoo. Lincoln has some nice qualities, but I’m not sure it’s a vacation destination. Out west we have the sand hills and some of the best golf courses in the nation if that’s your thing. Lake McConaughy draws in lots of boaters and campers.
I think every state has some kind of vacation area; everyone needs recreation, even people who don’t want to or can’t travel too far from home.
I do feel lucky in California, but there were places that could be “vacations”/a weekend away when I lived in Maryland certainly. Certainly back in Massachusetts. And while it’s been a long time I’m sure there were some cute BNBs in Connecticut…
Massachusetts has beaches and mountains but we still go to Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont for their beaches and mountains 🤷 I think we do it out of spite because we know they don’t want us there
My state has the most visited National Park in the U.S. Nashville also draws a bajillion visitors. Memphis is also a draw.
Born and raised in MA people would leave for Florida in the winter.
College crowd hit up Miami
Outside of that everyone stayed on the cape and New England in general
Not really in Kansas. People tend to vacation in the Ozarks in Missouri or the Rockies in Colorado. There isn’t really anywhere interesting to visit in state. Even Kansas City is pretty meh compared to Chicago or even St Louis
I live just outside of Charleston SC. For some reason, makes no sense to me, a lot of locals here go up to Myrtle Beach for vacations. I guess because it’s cheap, but the beaches right here on our front porch are 1000x better. It’s called Dirty Myrtle for a reason.
Santa Fe is a hugely popular vacation destination domestically and internationally…but people who live here don’t really “vacation” to Santa Fe. We can go up for a day trip or whatever, whenever we want…my wife and I will occasionally spend the weekend, but for vacation, we go elsewhere. We travel quite a bit internationally as well as domestically. Even if we had some kind of big lakes, I couldn’t imagine just never leaving my state and that being all I ever did for vacation. There’s a lot of cool ass shit to see out there.
Probably. It’s the Poconos for Pennsylvania.
Pretty common for many Pennsylvanians to vacation in Pennsylvania. Lots of places to vacation. Pittsburgh, Lake Erie, Philadelphia, the Pocono Mountains. But most of them vacationed to the Jersey Shore, the OBX of NC, and delaware beachesz
For Californians, the most popular vacation destination is California itself. The state is not only huge, but also has a huge variety of destination categories: beaches, mountains, cities, lakes, theme parks, wineries, and so on. Residents of major urban areas like the Bay Area, Sacramento, LA, and San Diego usually have some go-to day trip or weekend destinations within the state.
However, it is also popular to vacation outside of California. Las Vegas is a super popular weekend destination, and Portland and Seattle are also popular. Hawaii is very popular as well, but more so for longer trips than for just the weekend.
Colorado here, we have everything except the ocean. National parks, mountains, ski resorts that offer other activities during the summer, historical sites, Olympic museum, beer, dinosaur relics, casinos, hot springs.
Many people go to Yellowstone, Vegas, or travel to wherever they moved here from on vacation.
I’ve lived in 4 states now.
South East Idaho: lots of wilderness. “Staycations” were very common. Benefit to a lot of the wilderness was that most tourists didn’t know anything about it, so it was mostly local people. The tourists end up in Island Park and Yellowstone.
Northern Indiana: it was common to take a few days off and stay in the area. Silver Beach, along lake Michigan, was actually a nice beach. some good local restaurants within easy walking distance. However, it wasn’t common for people to take an entire week off and just stay there. Chicago was within easy driving distance, or they would fly off and do a traditional vacation. Staying there was like a “take 2 days off for a long weekend” kind of thing.
Colorado: yes. Although most well known spots are super touristy.. if you’re a local it’s easy to find quiet places that aren’t.
Northern New Mexico: ehh. There are some really great places to go and things to do, but I’d say 80% of the time people will fly somewhere else.
Are you in MI? If not yes a lot of people who live in MI vacation within the state especially summer time due to all the water and camping.
California rings in. At a basic level you live in three areas – Central Valley, NorCal, SoCal. There are more sub areas but I feel the Central Valley is different enough from the main two.
Anyway you have beach, mountains, lakes, and do on like within 2 hours.
I would think it’d be hard not to
Lake Chelan, Olympic National Park & Rialto Beach, Mt Rainier National Park, Leavenworth, the San Juan Islands, and in winter, any of the Ski Resorts.
Even tiny Rhode Island has vacation spots
Every state has tourist attractions and reasons for people to travel there. But it depends on what you want to do while on vacation whether you can find it in your own state. (For example if you live in Miami, a beach might feel mundane to you…so you might prefer to go to the mountains for your vacation. You won’t find mountains in Florida, but Florida beaches are still popular vacation spots.)
In ohio you have a couple. Nature? Hocking hills region. Beaches and roller coasters? The lake. Kayaking, canoeing, stuff like that? Any number or scenic rivers and camp grounds.
Yes, I think all states have some kind of touristy area. That said, I also think it’s also more useful to draw a line which may or may not respect state lines, but a lot of people do vacations, especially long weekends, that are with 100-150 miles of home. I am in the Poconos, and we get people from PA but also NJ and NY. The Jersey shore gets lots of people from NJ but also other states. When I was a kid in WI, plenty of people from there vacationed there, but also it was a cliche that Chicago people vacationed there (FIBs).
I live in Iowa- there are popular lakes, popular campgrounds, state parks. And people do go on vacations or getaways to these; but certainly, for people who can afford to, the more popular vacations are outside of the state.
We regularly go on weekend trips around the state. We do not go on “vacations” here.
I live in the Coastal part of the Mid Atlantic region on the beach. I love it! I also love going to other beach destinations! Up north there are premium lobster rolls. Down south there is Jambalaya. Just because I live a block away from a beach doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy other beaches! (mermaid at heart) 😬
There’s not a place I know in the 3orld that doesn’t have a vacation spot used by locals…if they can afford it.
Washington.
You’ve got the coast/beaches, though I’d say most probably hit up the Oregon beaches. Mountains; within the Olympics, Cascades, and Blue Mountains. Countless lakes, and the Columbia River. You can relax, hike, mountain bike, 4×4, and do water sports all over.
In New Mexico the mountain towns of Red River and Ruidoso are basically Texan outposts.
For Albuquerque the Jemez Mountains are sort of the local spot for camping and beating the heat. In winter a lot of people hit southern Colorado for ski weekends. I have a friend with a cabin near Durango and it is just awesome. Some of the most epic scenery in the country, only 4 hours away.
Delaware!
…Hi, we’re in Delaware.
No one comes to mynstate to vacation lol
I don’t think we’re very representative of the rest of the country, but here in the smallest state, Rhode Island, very few people go on vacation within the state. This isn’t because we don’t have good vacation spots. We have three that are very popular: Newport, Westerly (home to Taylor Swift!) and Block Island. But while this isn’t unheard of, locals rarely get a hotel there because the state is so small that it’s easy to day trip from wherever you are. I personally live about 35 minutes from Newport, 45 minutes from Westerly, and Block Island is a 35-minute drive plus a one-hour ferry ride (a more-expensive high-speed ferry takes 30 minutes). No reason to pay for a hotel when I can just pack a bag and go for the day.
All together, the six New England states are about the size of a relatively large state (a little larger than Washington) and people do very commonly go on vacation around the region. Cape Cod in Massachusetts and coastal Maine are just two of the popular summer vacation spots for people here. That’s really no different than being from New York and vacationing in a different part of New York.
I think it’s more proximity to home rather than state borders that determine vacation spots. There are beautiful areas of southern Illinois to visit, but it can six hours to drive there. So Wisconsin and Michigan are more popular because they’re closer to Chicagoland.
Massachusetts here. There are good vaca spots here but it’s equally as common to go to NH/VTME for vacationing within a few hours drive
Varies depending on the states. Minnesotans go Up North to their lake cabins (we’ve got over 11,000 lakes, many of which have lots of cabins on them) or sometimes to northern Wisconsin. In New England, cabins are called “camps” and are less common except maybe in northern New England, more common are beach houses.
Lots of states have state park systems that appeal to local tourists, sometimes quite scenic indeed, like the state parks along Minnesota’s North Shore or Arizona’s Lost Dutchman State Park.
We don’t leave Michigan because we’d have to go through Ohio or Indiana to go anywhere else.
I vacation more often in Ontario than other states.
Probably. Of course here we have Glacier and Yellowstone parks, and also Flathead, Canyon Ferry, and Fort Peck lakes. There are a bunch of smaller parks and lakes but those are the main ones. I live in eastern MT with family in western ND, so I’ve been to the Teddy Roosevelt parks there, Medora, and a few other places. We’ve also visited the Black Hills and Rushmore in SD and Devil’s Tower and Grand Teton in Wyoming. I’d be surprised if there were states that made Devil’s Tower and Fort Peck look like wonders of the world.
Where I lived in VA, many people had a lake house, mountain cabin, or sometimes a rental property in OBX.
I’ve lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, and California, all with wonderful vacation destinations. But in this big, beautiful country, there’s much to explore and I’ve enjoyed vacationing in lots of states. I’ve never known anyone who didn’t ever vacation outside of their state. How sadly limiting.
Where I grew up in Va people went to Myrtle beach instead of Virginia Beach…it was odd.
I’m in Southern California, Mountains, beaches, deserts, lakes, forest, all within 2hr drive. All very popular.
Yes. All states have local popular destinations.
Our state is nicknamed “vacationland” and my town quadruples in size every summer
I always go out of state
Almost the entire eastern side of my state is popular as a vacation destination. Do you like witches? Got em
You like beaches? Got em
You like historical sites? Guess what…
You like fun gay parties? Yup that too
You like the pace of a big city? Right here
You like apples? 🍎 how bout them
You like education? Hi!
I’m in New England. I love how in just a couple hours from me I can choose to either go to Cape Cod, the Berkshires, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the beaches of Maine, the beaches of RI, whatever there is to do in CT, add another hour and I could be Vermont, upper-state New York or even NYC.
Michigan is a vacation wonderland. I just got back from 5 days in a cottage on torch lake.
Im over 50 and still haven’t seen everything Michigan has to offer.
Yes, but it’s also common for the popular vacation spot to be out of town. Example- I live in Maryland and it’s popular for people to visit DC and Annapolis on vacation, but Marylanders like to vacation lots of places – the most popular probably being OBX, which is in North Carolina.
I’m in Arizona. Everyone at some point makes it to the Grand Canyon & Sedona for views & hiking.
For a certain value of “popular.” You’ll probably find fewer people at a popular spot in Nebraska or Iowa than you will at a popular spot in California or Florida, but I doubt there are any states that don’t have any good spots at all.
In NE Indiana it would probably be the Indiana Dunes.
Iowa has a big event (Iowa State Fair) but not much in the way of big things. We have a few places you could plan a vacation to if you were really strapped for time/money but generally, we go elsewhere.
Definitely
I would say not much for Connecticut.
Yes there are some nice places to visit for a few hours but I don’t think it’s somewhere people would actually vacation.
All the other northeastern states have beach vacation spots or big ski resorts. Every state has campgrounds and state parks and hotels but I wouldn’t call anything in Connecticut a “popular vacation area.”
Most people have places within a couple of hours of where they live. I grew up on Pittsburgh & many people had cabins on the Allegheny Mountains.
I live in Ohio. At least one popular-ish vacation spot is Cedar Point. Another is Put-In-Bay, in Lake Erie, but I’d say the latter is more if you enjoy drinking and such. Outside of that, I can’t think of anything major in my section of Ohio. Most of the big areas are south of me-Hocking Hills is one, as is Amish country. Otherwise, most of the folks I know who go on vacation do so out of state-I’ve a bunch of cousins who go to Myrtle Beach every summer and I just got back from a week of vacation that was split between Lake Charlevoix and Mackinaw City/Mackinac Island, both in Michigan.
Absolutely, some have more than others. Like Oregon, Washington, California, Rocky mountain states, coastal states, Missouri has tons of beautiful places. (I think I read that it has more lake coastline than California has ocean coastline.) New England, the mid-Atlantic seaboard. Hell, why am I listing them? Each and every very state has a beautiful place to vacation, some more than others! I’d vacation in NYC if I could afford to.
Arizona- def popular spots in our state. But how close we are to California, Las Vegas, and Mexico it’s pretty popular also to go outside of the state
Louisiana doesn’t have any
My family would fly to Colorado during Mardi Gras
But old school Louisiana doesn’t vacation.
Hunt and fish year round
Utah here- we have destination National parks for many people from around the nation and world. World class snowboarding/skiing in the winter and mountains, lakes and rivers. And I still leave the state each year on a vacation. Doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy what is around me- but I want to show my kids the country we live in- not just the state we live in. We have taken week long trips to visit various places like national parks, over the years. And I don’t know if I will ever leave the state to go snowboarding on the east coast…and maybe west coast, too. It just doesn’t make a lot of economical sense to justify the cost.
I’m in California. Most of the state is a vacation spot.
Great Lake State.
Not really in Kansas, no. A lot of people here and in surrounding areas of Missouri visit Lake of the Ozarks or Branson in southern MO
In Michigan, almost everyone goes Up North regularly. That’s an imaginary East/West line near the bottom of Saginaw Bay.
Many have favorite lakes for camping/fishing and there are regular resort spots too. Others own vacation properties. We built our retirement home in the middle of all this, which has many Pros and Cons.
Pretty much. Even sparsely populated states like the Dakotas, Nevada, etc have some tourism.
In more densely populated areas it’s common to travel a state or two away
NJ had beautiful beaches that locals love. Now I am in Wyoming and everybody just goes outside. The outdoors are amazing pretty much everywhere.
Used to live in Missouri. Beautiful rivers, lakes, caves, the Ozarks. Or I could visit St Louis or KC if I wanted city stuff. Now I live in Western North Carolina, so you know, mountains, or I could drive to the coast.
My SC cousins never leave the state. They vacation in SC
New Jersey here. We have The Shore.
Put a chair on the back porch, frosty beverage in the hand, and voila instant vacation. If you want beaches, they’re nearby. We don’t bother driving far because you run out of road after an hour. Aloha!
I’m in Massachusetts. I think roughly half of people stay in state and go to Cape Cod, and the other half leave the state and go to Maine.
A majority of the Midwest likes to drive to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina or The Outer Banks in North Carolina for vacation.
I live in NC. We usually do a week at the beach or in the mountains, but plenty of lakes around too.
I live in Connecticut. I don’t know anyone who would vacation in Connecticut. Wed just do day trips. We do vacation in other parts of New England though.
Yeah, even states you wouldn’t think.
I worked in some states like Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas. All of them had several nice little areas here and there. Lakes, rivers, forest areas and hills/waterfallls.
I lived mostly in Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota and California which are prime nature areas but even the boring states all have a lot to check out too.
I traveled for work for the last 20 years all over the US and Canada.. so I’ve seen a lot of cool spots in places I’d never visit on purpose.
Nearly every state has a lake or a river. The states with less rivers (think the intermountain west) typically have mountains that have tons of camping.
From Missouri. Branson and Lake of the Ozarks are popular
Kansas has no popular vacation destination. Don’t believe anyone who tries to convince you that the Flint Hills, tall grass prairie, or feedlots are vacation destinations. Are some areas pretty? For sure! But are they “vacation destination worthy”? Nope.