Two of the nation’s top cities for Thanksgiving are right here in NC, report says
North Carolina is home to two of the nation’s best cities for Thanksgiving, a new report finds.
Raleigh is No. 5 and Greensboro is No. 9 on a list of places offering volunteer opportunities, cost-effective dinners and other holiday traditions, according to results from the personal finance website WalletHub.
To create the rankings, the website said it used data from the U.S. government and other sources to examine the 100 most populated cities in the country. Then, it evaluated each city in five categories: celebrations and traditions; volunteering and charitable giving; weather forecast; safety and accessibility; and affordability.
Raleigh was the top-ranking North Carolina city after receiving among the highest scores in the affordability category, which weighed the costs of Thanksgiving dinners, high-quality restaurants and hotel stays. The city also received a nod for safety and accessibility — a measure of several factors, including its crime rate, vaccination rate and share of delayed flights around the holiday.
Meanwhile, Greensboro got recognition for its Thanksgiving weather forecast, a category that considered precipitation and temperatures around this time of year, according to results published Nov. 8.
Neither city made it into the top 10 in WalletHub’s remaining categories, which focused on Thanksgiving-related businesses, events, online searches and charitable acts.
It’s not the first time a North Carolina city has been recognized as a top place to spend a holiday.
In December, both Raleigh and Durham ranked in the top 10 on a list of best cities for Christmas. That WalletHub report weighed generosity, access to Christmas trees and other festive qualities, McClatchy News reported.
This time around, other North Carolina cities on the Thanksgiving list include Durham at No. 12, Charlotte at No. 54 and Winston-Salem at No. 75.
Overall, Atlanta was named the most desirable Thanksgiving destination. Also landing in the top five were Orlando; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Miami, results show.
The lowest-ranking city in the report was San Bernardino, California.
This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 11:33 AM.
