San Francisco and Los Angeles each made WalletHub’s top 20 most fun cities in America list for 2024, with San Diego just barely missing the cut at 21st and Sacramento further down the list at 33rd.
San Francisco
San Francisco was California’s only city to rank in the top 10. The City by the Bay, however, was ranked fifth most expensive for fun.Los Angeles
Los Angeles ranked as the 18th most fun city in America. It placed 12th for entertainment and recreation, and 16th for nightlife and parties, but these came at a cost, as the City of Angels ranked 160th in terms of bang for the buck.
But Angelenos are in luck, as not only do they live in a highly ranked California city, but they can hop in the car and be in the top-ranked city in the country, Las Vegas, in about four hours.
California Cities Top Multiple Lists
Both San Francisco and San Diego ranked in the top five best cities for active lifestyles. San Francisco also was ranked the eighth-best sports city, with Los Angeles taking first place in that category thanks largely to a plethora of professional sports teams, including the Dodgers, who play near downtown in Chavez Ravine.
“Sports can cause rivalries between cities, but can also give people a deep appreciation for places other than their hometown. The best sports cities overall tend to be those with the highest-performing, most-popular professional teams, like Los Angeles,” said analyst Chip Lupo.
Los Angeles County and neighboring Orange County offer some of the best weather in the nation, WalletHub found.
Earlier this year, San Diego made it to the top 10 on two separate lists by WalletHub—for staycations and recreation, coming in at No. 7 on each.
In the fitness centers per capita category, Oakland ranked third and Huntington Beach ranked fifth.Where California Falls Short
California cities failed to rank in certain key categories in this year’s most fun cities survey, including park playgrounds per capita. In that category, Las Vegas, New York, Chicago, and Cincinnati tied for No. 1 overall. Houston ranked fifth.In addition, not a single California city ranked in the top five for acres of parkland per capita. The closest city to California’s border in the top five is Scottsdale, Arizona, which ranked fifth.
Stockton, in Northern California, ranked 99th and Santa Ana, in Southern California, ranked 102nd for acres of parkland per capita.
No California cities ranked in the top five in the “accessible bars” category, with Fort Lauderdale, Florida coming in at No. 1. A pair of Golden State cities placed in the bottom five, however, with Fontana at 178th and Moreno Valley at 181st. Fremont came in the bottom five for dance clubs per capita at 156.
Certain California cities also ranked poorly for their high movie costs, with Rancho Cucamonga and Ontario tied for 172nd and Long Beach and Los Angeles tied for last at 181st.
Four California cities made the bottom 10 on the list overall. They include Oxnard in the 177th slot followed by Fremont, 178th spot; Santa Rosa, 176th spot; and Chula Vista, 173rd.
What Makes a City Fun?
Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn, associate professor of Public Policy at Rutgers University, said cities can become more fun to visit by loosening restrictions and regulations.
“Just make it more like Latin America or Europe, more walkable, less restrictive (e.g., food stands everywhere, drinking in public, music OK, mixed-use zoning, etc.)—see wonderful,” he told WalletHub.
“The U.S. is a strange place—on one hand puritan and uptight: no drinking in public, no loitering, no smoking; and on the other hand, look at inner cities: it is a zombie apocalypse in San Francisco, Philadelphia, etc.”
“Las Vegas is the most fun city overall, boasting an extremely large number of attractions and restaurants rated at least 4.5 stars,” WalletHub stated. “For some things, it’s even relatively inexpensive—it’s the fourth-cheapest city for grabbing a burger, for example, and it has the 13th-cheapest average fitness club membership cost.”
In its study, WalletHub compared 182 cities—including the 150 most populated U.S. cities and no fewer than two of the most populated cities in each state—in three areas: entertainment and recreation, nightlife and parties, and costs. They examined these factors using 65 metrics.Wallethub determined each city’s weighted average and used the resulting scores to rank the cities. WalletHub considered only each city proper, and not its surrounding metro area.
