With my own summer vacation rapidly approaching (we always go to the Adirondacks), I thought it would be interesting to see what the most popular attractions were in each state. Putting together data from the National Parks service and local tourist groups, Time magazine’s Laura Stampler created a map that not only lists the most popular site in each state, but also includes its attendance.
Some Details
Not surprisingly, most (30) of the leading attractions were some type of park. I was pleasantly surprised that most of them (21) were primarily natural parks and that the rest were historical (9). The next biggest group were primarily commercial locations, such as the Vegas strip and Times Square. While there were only ten of them, I was a little disappointed that they grabbed the top three spots. Of those I was a bit shocked that Minnesota’s Mall of America was #1 with 40 million visitors ahead of the Disney parks (by a wide margin) and even more than the Las Vegas strip. Speaking of theme parks and zoos, they were the leading attractions in seven states. The odd one to me was that Idaho’s top site was a theme park rather than a natural park.
Of the Fifty-one attractions I’ve been to seventeen including the top six. I’ve been to two of the least visited attractions (Alabama’s US Space and Rocket Center and Iowa’s Amana Colonies). Of the remaining thirty-four sites, I’m most interested in seeing Yellowstone (tops in both Montana & Wyoming), the Grand Canyon, and Crater Lake in Oregon. Given reality, I suspect the next one will either be Cedar Point or the Ben & Jerry’s factory.
How many have you visited? Which one was your favorite and which of the remaining are you most excited about adding to your list?
As always thanks for reading.
Armen
I was surprised to see that I’d actually been to 11 of them. No doubt I have passed through a number of others on my way to somewhere else. When the Hubs and I were on the East Coast, we did a lot of driving between one historical battle site and another. We may have been in the Alaska one–it’s hard to say. I’d look forward to any of the national or biological parks.