PHOENIX — A new report says the Valley of the Sun edges out the Old Pueblo as the best domestic location to spend the holidays and get out of the cold.
But just barely.
The financial advice website WalletHub compared 69 metro areas as warm-weather holiday destinations, looking at everything from how easy it is to get there to what there is to do once you arrive.
With those metrics, Phoenix scored No. 4 in the nation, driven largely by being a hub for several major airlines, while Tucson came in fifth.
WalletHub priced travel around Christmas from Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Denver and New York and aggregated the results. The $287 cost of the cheapest flight to Phoenix was third nationally; the average flight time of just over three hours came in No. 6.
For Tucson, the problem is that, in most cases, you just can’t get here from there — at least not directly, and not cheaply. An average round-trip flight from the six cities runs $486. And it takes more than 5½ hours.
But WalletHub said the Tucson area does have some bragging rights.
For example, the survey says visitors are likely to find just 305 places that WalletHub calls “attractions” in the Phoenix area. That compares with 404 down the road in Baja Arizona.
The study also compared parks, hotel costs and top restaurants. San Diego was rated No.1.
