For a lot of people, a trip away is when the drinking starts: a beer at the airport, wine with dinner, a nightcap at the hotel bar. For anyone in recovery, or just taking a break from alcohol, that makes choosing where to go a bigger decision than it looks.
THE BALANCE, a private residential treatment clinic for addiction and mental health, ranked the 100 largest US cities for sober travel. The Sober Getaway Index compares local binge drinking rates and the number of bars with the availability of attractions, parks, and cafes. It also measures access to recovery meetings for travelers who need that support.
Key findings:
- San Francisco ranks first with a score of 69.0 out of 100. It has the most parks per square mile and the most cafes for its size of any city studied, and one of the widest ranges of attractions. Seattle and Boston come second and third.
- California has 13 of its 15 ranked cities in the top 36. Texas has no cities in the top 40; its highest-ranked city, Lubbock, places 48th.
- Port St. Lucie, Florida, ranks last with a score of 28.5 out of 100. It has the fewest recovery meetings of any city and sits near the bottom for attractions and cafes. North Las Vegas and Cape Coral rank just above it.
- Denver has the highest binge drinking rate of all 100 cities at 24.4% of adults and ranks 97th overall. Washington, DC has the second-highest binge drinking rate, followed by Lincoln, Nebraska.
Which US city is best for sober travel?
San Francisco takes the top spot by a clear margin, almost ten points ahead of second-placed Seattle. It is the only city in the index to lead on more than one factor, and recovery meetings are easy to find as well, with more per resident than most cities.
Seattle ranks second with a similar mix. It is second only to San Francisco for cafes and third for parks, and it has plenty of attractions.
Boston ranks third. Only San Francisco has more parks per square mile, and Boston also offers a wide range of attractions and cafes.
Santa Ana ranks fourth for different reasons. It has one of the highest numbers of recovery meetings of any city, relatively few bars, and less binge drinking than most.
Long Beach, fifth, and Cleveland, sixth, round out the top of the list. Long Beach scores well for parks and cafes, while Cleveland has the most recovery meetings of any city and a wide range of attractions.
Where is sober travel hardest?
At the bottom of the ranking, the problem is not bars. Some of these cities have fewer bars than average. What they lack is everything else: attractions, cafes, parks, and recovery meetings.
Port St. Lucie ranks last. It has the fewest recovery meetings of any city and sits close to the bottom for attractions, cafes, and parks. North Las Vegas (99th) and Cape Coral (98th) follow the same pattern.
Denver, at 97th, is the odd one out. It has more cafes than most cities and a reasonable range of attractions, but the highest binge drinking rate of all 100 cities and more bars than most.
Chesapeake rounds out the bottom five at 96th, with few cafes, attractions, or recovery meetings. Only Anchorage has fewer parks per square mile.
How does your city rank?
The table below lists all 100 cities in the index, from highest score to lowest, with each city’s figure on all six factors.
| Rank | City | Score (out of 100) | Binge drinking (%) | Bars per 100k | Things to do per 100k | Parks per sq mi | Cafes per 100k | Recovery meetings per 100k |
| 1 | San Francisco, CA | 69.0 | 19.5 | 95.2 | 39.5 | 7.4 | 67.2 | 47.1 |
| 2 | Seattle, WA | 59.2 | 17.9 | 75.4 | 25.9 | 5.1 | 59.8 | 38.7 |
| 3 | Boston, MA | 56.3 | 19.1 | 52.6 | 29.0 | 5.3 | 44.7 | 32.1 |
| 4 | Santa Ana, CA | 55.4 | 15.1 | 15.8 | 9.8 | 1.6 | 26.8 | 71.2 |
| 5 | Long Beach, CA | 54.6 | 15.6 | 32.8 | 14.6 | 2.7 | 39.8 | 46.8 |
| 6 | Cleveland, OH | 53.8 | 16.6 | 81.6 | 32.8 | 1.9 | 20.3 | 75.5 |
| 7 | Sacramento, CA | 53.2 | 14.3 | 29.7 | 17.2 | 2.0 | 35.8 | 39.4 |
| 8 | Richmond, VA | 52.5 | 15.4 | 42.4 | 29.1 | 1.3 | 22.0 | 52.6 |
| 9 | Portland, OR | 51.4 | 17.4 | 108.2 | 26.6 | 2.1 | 59.1 | 48.9 |
| 10 | Spokane, WA | 51.3 | 18.1 | 44.7 | 16.0 | 1.2 | 45.5 | 59.4 |
| 11 | Tulsa, OK | 50.7 | 13.3 | 41.2 | 19.0 | 0.6 | 28.1 | 48.2 |
| 12 | St. Paul, MN | 50.6 | 15.6 | 29.3 | 19.5 | 2.2 | 19.5 | 48.5 |
| 13 | San Diego, CA | 50.5 | 16.7 | 36.7 | 19.4 | 1.5 | 41.5 | 40.0 |
| 14 | Albuquerque, NM | 50.1 | 14.8 | 17.3 | 17.8 | 1.1 | 28.3 | 38.7 |
| 15 | Buffalo, NY | 50.0 | 16.0 | 62.5 | 29.6 | 2.1 | 15.2 | 54.9 |
| 16 | Washington, DC | 49.9 | 22.6 | 71.8 | 45.7 | 2.9 | 35.9 | 40.6 |
| 17 | Wichita, KS | 49.9 | 16.0 | 28.7 | 18.2 | 0.6 | 17.3 | 67.1 |
| 18 | Irvine, CA | 49.8 | 14.5 | 7.8 | 11.6 | 2.2 | 41.5 | 15.7 |
| 19 | St. Louis, MO | 48.7 | 17.5 | 111.2 | 41.1 | 1.9 | 27.3 | 54.0 |
| 20 | Tucson, AZ | 48.6 | 15.1 | 26.5 | 19.9 | 0.7 | 23.2 | 45.5 |
| 21 | Minneapolis, MN | 48.6 | 18.4 | 49.9 | 19.6 | 3.6 | 32.1 | 39.4 |
| 22 | Los Angeles, CA | 48.5 | 15.8 | 23.4 | 16.5 | 1.1 | 36.5 | 33.9 |
| 23 | San Jose, CA | 48.3 | 13.2 | 14.2 | 8.1 | 1.3 | 33.1 | 29.1 |
| 24 | Miami, FL | 48.2 | 15.9 | 54.2 | 22.2 | 4.3 | 27.9 | 19.9 |
| 25 | Colorado Springs, CO | 48.2 | 16.8 | 30.2 | 20.5 | 0.9 | 26.7 | 48.0 |
| 26 | Anchorage, AK | 48.2 | 17.9 | 23.1 | 18.6 | 0.1 | 43.2 | 43.2 |
| 27 | Stockton, CA | 47.8 | 13.4 | 9.5 | 7.7 | 1.2 | 13.9 | 48.9 |
| 28 | Riverside, CA | 47.8 | 14.9 | 9.0 | 13.0 | 0.9 | 22.4 | 42.0 |
| 29 | Boise, ID | 47.6 | 17.6 | 43.3 | 23.5 | 1.1 | 22.6 | 55.1 |
| 30 | Cincinnati, OH | 47.4 | 16.5 | 76.8 | 25.1 | 1.9 | 27.7 | 50.2 |
| 31 | New York, NY | 47.2 | 17.1 | 44.7 | 14.6 | 4.1 | 41.7 | 16.0 |
| 32 | Anaheim, CA | 46.7 | 15.3 | 21.8 | 9.0 | 1.1 | 33.3 | 38.3 |
| 33 | Oakland, CA | 46.3 | 16.7 | 39.9 | 13.1 | 2.0 | 35.3 | 36.7 |
| 34 | Las Vegas, NV | 46.2 | 16.2 | 35.8 | 13.1 | 0.9 | 21.6 | 57.6 |
| 35 | St. Petersburg, FL | 45.8 | 18.2 | 50.9 | 18.3 | 1.9 | 25.4 | 52.8 |
| 36 | Fresno, CA | 45.6 | 14.0 | 14.2 | 9.6 | 0.7 | 21.7 | 38.4 |
| 37 | New Orleans, LA | 44.9 | 19.9 | 134.0 | 43.3 | 0.7 | 47.1 | 50.2 |
| 38 | Oklahoma City, OK | 44.7 | 14.7 | 31.7 | 16.7 | 0.2 | 24.1 | 38.6 |
| 39 | Toledo, OH | 44.4 | 15.5 | 49.7 | 15.1 | 1.0 | 13.5 | 57.6 |
| 40 | Scottsdale, AZ | 44.4 | 18.5 | 57.3 | 18.7 | 0.4 | 36.6 | 53.2 |
| 41 | Omaha, NE | 44.3 | 20.3 | 66.8 | 18.6 | 1.2 | 25.1 | 72.8 |
| 42 | Jersey City, NJ | 44.3 | 15.0 | 24.1 | 10.6 | 3.3 | 28.2 | 10.6 |
| 43 | Norfolk, VA | 44.0 | 16.2 | 28.1 | 23.8 | 1.3 | 19.5 | 25.5 |
| 44 | Greensboro, NC | 43.9 | 13.8 | 34.5 | 19.2 | 0.7 | 20.5 | 27.3 |
| 45 | Virginia Beach, VA | 43.7 | 16.2 | 22.9 | 16.3 | 0.9 | 24.8 | 31.0 |
| 46 | Pittsburgh, PA | 43.7 | 19.4 | 96.2 | 29.3 | 2.0 | 46.1 | 33.5 |
| 47 | Memphis, TN | 43.6 | 13.6 | 29.8 | 15.9 | 0.5 | 14.1 | 36.5 |
| 48 | Lubbock, TX | 43.5 | 17.4 | 29.8 | 15.8 | 0.5 | 19.8 | 51.5 |
| 49 | Atlanta, GA | 43.4 | 16.0 | 71.9 | 24.2 | 1.6 | 33.8 | 26.3 |
| 50 | Louisville, KY | 43.4 | 15.5 | 37.9 | 15.1 | 0.5 | 16.0 | 49.8 |
| 51 | Madison, WI | 43.4 | 20.0 | 45.9 | 21.7 | 2.7 | 27.2 | 35.8 |
| 52 | Glendale, AZ | 43.3 | 15.9 | 18.6 | 7.7 | 1.1 | 19.0 | 44.2 |
| 53 | Baltimore, MD | 43.2 | 16.0 | 59.8 | 25.7 | 1.9 | 20.6 | 28.3 |
| 54 | Lexington, KY | 43.2 | 15.5 | 35.8 | 14.6 | 0.4 | 22.9 | 41.9 |
| 55 | Nashville, TN | 43.1 | 16.5 | 55.2 | 18.4 | 0.4 | 32.1 | 41.1 |
| 56 | Philadelphia, PA | 43.0 | 18.2 | 45.1 | 19.3 | 2.1 | 27.8 | 31.8 |
| 57 | Mesa, AZ | 42.9 | 17.2 | 13.5 | 10.4 | 0.6 | 21.4 | 45.2 |
| 58 | Reno, NV | 42.8 | 19.4 | 66.7 | 18.8 | 0.8 | 21.1 | 69.6 |
| 59 | Frisco, TX | 42.8 | 17.4 | 17.4 | 11.5 | 0.8 | 45.0 | 18.3 |
| 60 | Austin, TX | 42.6 | 18.3 | 54.2 | 21.9 | 1.0 | 34.5 | 34.5 |
| 61 | Plano, TX | 42.6 | 17.0 | 15.3 | 12.6 | 1.1 | 34.1 | 21.1 |
| 62 | Chula Vista, CA | 42.4 | 16.0 | 11.5 | 5.7 | 2.0 | 24.1 | 25.8 |
| 63 | Kansas City, MO | 42.1 | 16.7 | 44.6 | 24.2 | 0.6 | 22.4 | 32.6 |
| 64 | Winston-Salem, NC | 41.8 | 15.0 | 29.3 | 18.4 | 0.4 | 15.7 | 31.7 |
| 65 | Raleigh, NC | 41.6 | 14.6 | 40.4 | 16.0 | 0.8 | 18.9 | 30.8 |
| 66 | Chicago, IL | 41.6 | 18.5 | 53.9 | 15.6 | 3.1 | 24.9 | 32.6 |
| 67 | Arlington, TX | 41.4 | 15.9 | 25.5 | 9.4 | 1.2 | 28.2 | 26.3 |
| 68 | Tampa, FL | 41.2 | 16.6 | 58.4 | 16.6 | 1.3 | 23.9 | 38.1 |
| 69 | Phoenix, AZ | 40.9 | 16.1 | 20.7 | 8.1 | 0.5 | 23.8 | 36.1 |
| 70 | Orlando, FL | 40.4 | 14.8 | 76.2 | 22.1 | 1.0 | 29.6 | 22.1 |
| 71 | Lincoln, NE | 40.1 | 20.7 | 39.9 | 17.3 | 0.9 | 25.6 | 47.9 |
| 72 | Charlotte, NC | 38.8 | 14.8 | 35.2 | 11.0 | 0.6 | 23.0 | 23.3 |
| 73 | Aurora, CO | 38.1 | 17.2 | 12.9 | 7.2 | 0.7 | 21.7 | 28.5 |
| 74 | Jacksonville, FL | 37.9 | 15.8 | 20.0 | 10.7 | 0.4 | 19.2 | 23.4 |
| 75 | Corpus Christi, TX | 37.9 | 19.1 | 40.0 | 11.7 | 1.3 | 18.9 | 42.9 |
| 76 | Fort Wayne, IN | 37.8 | 17.3 | 27.1 | 14.3 | 0.7 | 20.1 | 26.0 |
| 77 | Durham, NC | 37.8 | 15.0 | 28.5 | 10.3 | 0.5 | 16.4 | 25.8 |
| 78 | Dallas, TX | 37.6 | 16.7 | 43.3 | 11.3 | 1.0 | 25.7 | 25.9 |
| 79 | Garland, TX | 37.5 | 16.3 | 5.2 | 8.0 | 0.9 | 22.9 | 12.0 |
| 80 | Irving, TX | 37.3 | 15.8 | 10.9 | 8.5 | 0.7 | 21.8 | 14.0 |
| 81 | Houston, TX | 36.9 | 16.3 | 50.6 | 11.3 | 0.7 | 27.3 | 25.4 |
| 82 | Henderson, NV | 36.8 | 17.5 | 23.1 | 7.7 | 0.7 | 21.7 | 29.1 |
| 83 | San Antonio, TX | 36.7 | 16.1 | 39.5 | 12.4 | 0.7 | 20.1 | 24.2 |
| 84 | Indianapolis, IN | 36.4 | 18.0 | 32.6 | 17.5 | 0.6 | 18.0 | 25.2 |
| 85 | Milwaukee, WI | 36.1 | 15.8 | 82.5 | 18.5 | 1.7 | 15.4 | 28.9 |
| 86 | Detroit, MI | 36.1 | 12.1 | 47.7 | 15.5 | 1.0 | 5.2 | 11.9 |
| 87 | Chandler, AZ | 35.8 | 16.9 | 18.8 | 7.5 | 1.1 | 24.1 | 13.5 |
| 88 | Columbus, OH | 35.7 | 17.1 | 41.1 | 12.0 | 1.0 | 16.8 | 28.1 |
| 89 | Fort Worth, TX | 35.4 | 16.4 | 28.0 | 10.1 | 0.7 | 21.8 | 16.4 |
| 90 | Gilbert, AZ | 35.1 | 18.1 | 17.0 | 8.7 | 0.7 | 33.2 | 8.7 |
| 91 | Newark, NJ | 34.5 | 13.7 | 33.7 | 6.9 | 1.1 | 14.8 | 9.1 |
| 92 | Bakersfield, CA | 34.4 | 16.7 | 13.7 | 6.5 | 0.5 | 15.6 | 20.1 |
| 93 | Hialeah, FL | 33.8 | 15.5 | 3.0 | 2.1 | 1.3 | 13.1 | 8.1 |
| 94 | El Paso, TX | 33.1 | 17.1 | 36.8 | 11.0 | 0.9 | 20.0 | 13.5 |
| 95 | Laredo, TX | 33.0 | 15.7 | 24.5 | 10.0 | 0.7 | 12.9 | 10.7 |
| 96 | Chesapeake, VA | 31.7 | 15.9 | 11.8 | 7.1 | 0.1 | 12.9 | 9.8 |
| 97 | Denver, CO | 31.7 | 24.4 | 66.5 | 17.1 | 1.5 | 37.4 | 29.4 |
| 98 | Cape Coral, FL | 31.5 | 18.0 | 20.6 | 4.3 | 0.4 | 13.3 | 26.6 |
| 99 | North Las Vegas, NV | 30.6 | 15.4 | 12.9 | 4.1 | 0.3 | 11.6 | 7.1 |
| 100 | Port St. Lucie, FL | 28.5 | 16.8 | 9.7 | 3.1 | 0.4 | 10.6 | 7.0 |
Methodology
THE BALANCE ranked the 100 largest US cities by population (Census 2024 estimates) on six equally weighted factors: the share of adults who binge drink; the number of bars, things to do, cafes, and weekly in-person and hybrid recovery meetings per 100,000 residents; and parks and nature areas per square mile.
Binge drinking rates come from CDC PLACES 2025. Bars, things to do (museums, theaters, cinemas, comedy clubs, zoos, aquariums, and attractions), and parks, beaches, and nature areas come from Overture Maps, the open database of about 81 million places used by Tripadvisor and Uber, with land area from the Census Bureau. Cafes, coffee shops, and juice bars come from Census ZIP Business Patterns 2023, and recovery meetings come from AA, Recovery Dharma, and SMART Recovery directories. All counts are within official city limits, and each city was given a score out of 100.
