Retirement Relocation Second Home Get Started
The Overall Winners
Top Places - Climate
Top Places - Recreation
Top Places - Careers
Top Places - Other Notables
These locations have fewer than 300 year-round residents per hole of public regulation golf. But in season, thanks to vacationers, the fairways are as crowded as a sunny weekend in suburbia.
Door Peninsula, WI Hilton Head Island, SC Lake of the Ozarks, MO Lake Placid, NY Myrtle Beach, SC Ocean City, MD Petoskey-Harbor Springs, MI Southern Pines-Pinehurst, NC Southport-Brunswick Islands, NC
Many of the great cities in California and the southwest started as winter health resorts. Locations in Florida are winter resorts, too, but they slightly lag spots out west for winter mildness.
Bakersfield, CA Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL Fresno, CA Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Naples-Marco Island, FL Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Punta Gorda, FL Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA Santa Barbara-Santa Maria, CA Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice, FL Tucson, AZ
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Maybe it's a stretch for Buffalo or Pittsburgh to be summer escapes. But Flagstaff, Bend, and Prescott certainly are. So are Burlington, Pittsfield, and Rockingham-Strafford counties. These sixteen metros below see middling humidity and milder summer high temperatures than all the others.
Anchorage, AK Bend, OR Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY Burlington-South Burlington, VT Cheyenne, WY Flagstaff, AZ Great Falls, MT Longview, WA Manchester-Nashua, NH Pittsburgh, PA Pittsfield, MA Portland-South Portland-Biddeford, ME Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA Prescott, AZ Rockingham-Strafford Counties, NH Santa Fe, NM
With fewer than 500 in the United States, ski resorts are uncommon crowd pleasers. If you add up how many skiers can be lifted up the mountain in an hour within a 2-hour drive, here are twenty metros where it's more than 75,000 persons.
Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ Bakersfield, CA Burlington-South Burlington, VT Denver-Aurora, CO Fresno, CA Glens Falls, NY Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Madera, CA Ogden-Clearfield, UT Pittsfield, MA Reno-Sparks, NV Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Rockingham County-Strafford County, NH Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, CA Salt Lake City, UT Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA Springfield, MA Yuba City, CA
When it comes to protected outdoor recreation lands, the West rules. Here are sixteen metros ranking near the top in inexpensive housing and in National Parks, Forests, Wildlife Refuges and State Parks.
Bellingham, WA Coeur d'Alene, ID Eugene-Springfield, OR Flagstaff, AZ Fresno, CA Grand Junction, CO Idaho Falls, ID Logan, UT-ID Madera, CA Medford, OR Missoula, MT Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA Prescott, AZ Provo-Orem, UT Redding, CA Visalia-Porterville, CA