A new report by WalletHub ranks Dallas as one of the top places to visit in the United States for Thanksgiving this year.
The ranking assessed 100 of the largest cities in the country, ranking them on 18 different metrics. After all the scores were compiled, Dallas landed in the No. 5 spot nationwide.
San Diego topped the list, followed by Atlanta in second, San Francisco in third, and San Jose in fourth.
“The best cities for celebrating Thanksgiving all have an abundance of high-quality restaurants and places to buy festive decorations, and their residents get very excited for the holiday based on their Google search history. Other features make individual cities stand out; for example, San Diego has great weather, Atlanta has a fantastic track record for on-time flights and San Francisco has surprisingly affordable accommodations.”
The 18 metrics all fell into one of five larger buckets:
- Celebrations & Traditions: This category looked at the number of pumpkin patches per capita, google search interest for Thanksgiving celebrations, and holiday decorations shops per capita.
- Affordability: This bucket assessed each city’s cost of a typical Thanksgiving dinner, the prevalence of highly rated and affordable restaurants, and the lowest price for three-star accommodation over the Thanksgiving holiday.
- Safety & Accessibility: WalletHub reviewed crime rates, perception of safety, traffic congestion, and other factors to grade each city’s safety and accessibility.
- Giving Thanks: This bucket looked at factors like per capita volunteer opportunities, per capita volunteer hours, and share of income donated to charity.
- Weather Forecast: To grade the final bucket, WalletHub compared each city’s forecasted Thanksgiving temperature vs. their average temperature and forecasted precipitation expected on the holiday.
Notably, Dallas scored high in the first bucket, ranking No. 2 in the country in terms of celebrations and traditions. However, the City was near the bottom of the ranking (No. 82) in terms of Safety and accessibility. This is consistent with the recently passed citizen-led Proposition U in Dallas, where residents voted to increase the number of uniformed police officers to at least 4,000 to help improve safety in Dallas.
Three other Texas cities also landed in the top 20, but none as high as Dallas. Irving was ranked No. 19 in the country, Houston No. 15, and San Antonio No. 7.
Last year, the average consumer spent $321 between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. According to the report, Americans spend roughly $1.2 billion annually on Thanksgiving turkeys alone.