Maryland Ranked Among Top 20 Best States for Road Trips

By ETHAN LEVINE (Patch Staff)

Road trips are as big a part of summer culture as burgers on the grill or a dip in the pool.

A whopping 85 percent of Americans will plan a trip this summer, and close to 90 percent of those trips will be by car.

With this in mind, popular personal finance site WalletHub released its rankings of the 2015 Best & Worst States for Summer Road Trips.

SEE ALSO: 6 Places in Bowie to Take Out-of-Town Visitors

In Prince George’s County, you can get away to a concert at Allen Pond Park or take in a Baysox Game, which hosts a range of family-friendly events and firework nights throughout the season to keep the little ones entertained. Adults will also enjoy a trip to the ballpark with the stadium’s Tailgate Tuesday promotion and beer dinners.

WalletHub used more than 20 metrics to help determine its rankings, but ultimately the rankings boiled down to three main criteria: Driving and lodging costs (including the cost of gas), road conditions and safety, and fun and scenic attractions.

So where does Maryland rank on this list? Thanks to its fun and scenic attractions, Maryland climbed all the way to No. 17 on the list, one spot ahead of New York and one spot behind Louisiana.

Maryland’s attractions ranked 11th on the WalletHub list, helping it overcome its No. 25 road conditions and safety and its No. 37 driving and lodging costs.

And Maryland didn’t just crack the top 25, it actually out-ranked many of its border states. Virginia, for instance, finished 24th in the master rankings. Delaware finished near the bottom at No. 48, and West Virginia wasn’t much better with its No. 37 finish.

For Marylanders looking to plan a road trip outside the state, be prepared to drive for a while. Many of the states in WalletHub’s top 10 are located on the Western half of the United States.

The top 10 is as follows:

1. Oregon
2. Nevada
3. Minnesota
4. Washington
5. Ohio
6. Utah
7. Wyoming
8. Colorado
9. North Carolina
10. Idaho

And for those who are curious, the bottom 5 are: South Dakota, Mississippi, Delaware, North Dakota and Connecticut.