Planning an RV road trip? Still haven’t quite made up your mind on where to go? Here’s some help. Want to know the truly outdoor-friendly cities? Or how about the ones that aren’t so outdoor-friendly? Peer-to-peer RV rental company RVshare says they know the Top 10 most – and least – outdoor-friendly cities.
How did they come up with the lists of both the famous and the infamous? The RVshare list came after studying multiple factors, including the behavior of residents within each city, access to outdoor recreational activities, and geographic proximity. The study also looked into how residents in each U.S. city perceived their own stomping ground.
In the study, the most important factor making a city top tier, or bottom of the rung, were visits to public lands and parks. Access to federal outdoor recreation was critical. How did locals weigh in as to whether or not they perceived their city as an outdoor recreation destination?
The 10 most outdoor-friendly cities
- Seattle, Washington
- Denver, Colorado
- Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Miami, Florida
- Portland, Oregon
- Nashville, Tennessee
- San Francisco, California
- Richmond, Virginia
- Los Angeles, California
- Charlotte, North Carolina
How did Seattle make it to the top of the list? Here’s a lift from the final report.
The graph and the chart shows in what percentile each factor falls. In Seattle’s case, it ranks in the 5th percentile of all cities for visits to public lands and parks. It’s at the 12th percentile for access to federal lands.
Now, about those “other” cities.
The 10 least outdoor-friendly cities
- Houston, Texas
- Rochester, New York
- Hartford, Connecticut
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Detroit, Michigan
- Buffalo, New York
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Fresno, California
Poor Fresno. How did that California city hit the bottom of the charts? We’ll let the graphic tell-all. But don’t miss the “silver lining” comments on the right.
Click here to get the low-down on the best and worst outdoor-friendly cities by downloading the (pdf) report.
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Wow! At least five of “The 10 most outdoor-friendly cities” are some of the dirtiest and most street crime infested cities in the nation.
I would never go back to any of them without bodyguards.
Thank you, Russ and Tina! 🙂 Seeing Nashville on the first list is funny, as in ha ha funny. Nashville starts when one gets to Murfreesboro to the SE (along I-24). It is similar in all the other directions. So lots of development, and little country. I guess they like the idea of the outdoors. Thanks again, have a great week, safe travels, and safe stays! 🙂
Hey isn’t standing in a line outside any and every music / drinking venue, any time of day or night in the city, still considered being outside in nature? 🤔😅
Having grown up in the suburbs of Detroit and still having relatives in the region, I will agree that the city is unfriendly to camping/RVing visitors. There are few sites available within 30 miles of the traffic congested area. Not all that many RV dealers for repairs given the population size. We had an unexpected family funeral to attend and needed to arrive with our camper. My sister checked and it was okay to park and stay at her curb for a couple days, but the cops came by and told us we couldn’t put our electric supply line across the sidewalk. The nearest dump station I could find was 30 minutes away and apparently mighty proud of it given the fee.
Wow, Seattle? While Washington state has some beautiful and nice camping areas and RV parks, there is not one “real” RV park in the city of Seattle. The only camping there are broken down RVs randomly parked in the streets. This rating is unreal.
I am from Rochester NY and would be the first to consider it RV unfriendly. There is only one RV park in the county and it is a really limited county park with only 2 or 3 sites for anything over 30′. There is a state park with camping on Lake Ontario about 30 minutes from the city center. There are plenty of great parks for hiking, birding, sight seeing in the county but none are inviting even for a day visit with an RV. Even the mall parking lots are engineered to make an RVer’s life uncomfortable. Stay in the Fingerlakes and plan day trips in for George Eastman Museum and Nation Museum of Play as well as other museums and galleries.