A thoroughly American holiday, Thanksgiving is the only one that, even from its origins, revolves primarily around eating (often too much). Gratitude and gathering with loved ones also factor in, but primarily the celebration began based on the pilgrims not starving to death back in 1621.
Today, Turkey Day is celebrated by millions of Americans all around the country and can appear as anything from a humble meal shared in a family kitchen to lavish spreads for whole hosts of visitors.
Personal-finance website WalletHub today released its 2021's Best Places to Go for Thanksgiving report, which compared the 100 largest U.S. cities across 20 key metrics to help Americans discover where they can enjoy a Thanksgiving feast without breaking the bank.
Cities were analyzed based on factors like the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner, local Thanksgiving celebrations and traditions, each city's share of delayed flights, its forecasted precipitation levels and volunteer opportunities per capita.
The top 10 U.S. cities in which to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, according to WalletHub's study, are:
1. Atlanta, Georgia
2. Orlando, Florida
3. Scottsdale, Arizona
4. Miami, Florida
5. Raleigh, North Carolina
6. Virginia Beach, Virginia
7. Las Vegas, Nevada
8. Tampa, Florida
9. Greensboro, North Carolina
10. Louisville, Kentucky
WalletHub also compiled some fun Thanksgiving facts, just for curiosity's sake:
-The average American spends $312 over the five-day Thanksgiving period.
-The average American man would need to spend 10 hours and two minutes on a treadmill to burn off the 4,500 calories he consumes at an average Thanksgiving meal.
-Americans spend more than an estimated $604 million on Thanksgiving turkeys each year, with 46 million turkeys killed for the holiday.
-Residential building fires total $26 million in property loss each Thanksgiving.
-Nearly half (46 percent) of people celebrating Thanksgiving try to avoid having to discuss politics at the dinner table.
-Sixty-five percent of Americans expect COVID-19 to impact their Thanksgiving celebrations this year (although, only 15 percent expect it will be a significant impact).
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
