Will you be traveling on the road this summer? Texas ranks third in best road destinations

LAREDO, Texas.- This week officially kicked off summer, which also means that the holiday season has already begun, which brings with it the search for places to visit and do tourism. The financial site WalletHub took on the task of comparing the 50 states of the country to launch a ranking of the best to the least attractive of them to visit this summer.

To make the leaderboard, the company took into account 32 key metrics such as safety, costs, activities, miles of coastline, urban interstate congestion, and more, to identify the most fun, scenic and affordable road trip destinations. .

The first position in the ranking was taken by the state of New York, mainly due to the various activities offered by said destination and the security it has.

In second place is Minnesota, a state that wins the position for the safety of its streets and highways, and thanks to the costs it offers.

In third place is Texas, which gets this location on the list thanks to the variety of activities to be carried out in the state, and the cost-quality ratio offered by tourist services to travelers.

Regularly, the most interesting to visit by road are Texas and California. And it is not surprising that the Lone Star State is one of the main ones, since it offers 1.1 million kilometers of asphalt, in addition, it connects with the most important highways that connect Mexico, the United States and Canada.

The closest road entry point to Mexico City is Laredo, Texas, and this is also the most important port of entry, receiving close to 10 million tourists each year. From this point, travelers enjoy the most modern highways, all of them with strategically located and well-equipped rest areas -rest areas-, the most guarded in the entire country.

Most highways in Texas are free, while in New York most are toll roads. For example, the cost of tolls between New York and Washington DC is approximately 70 dollars. The cost of tolls between Laredo and Dallas can be as low as $14.

This summer, the price of gasoline is estimated to be between 5 and 6 dollars a gallon, which is only about 23 percent above the average cost in Mexico.

Other aspects that WalletHub takes into account through this study is the average price of gasoline, where Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi top the list of states with the lowest fuel prices; while in Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Hawaii and California, the costs are more expensive.

To take a road trip it is important to also know the average prices of car repairs. This is a list that Ohio leads, followed by Maine, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana for being more accessible. While the most expensive places for this service are Georgia, Utah, Colorado, Connecticut and California. Texas is in the top 20 cheapest states.

Although New York and Minnesota rank higher than Texas, according to Google Trends data from the last five years, search interest related to road trips favors the latter state.

Nearly 80 percent of American adults are expected to have plans to take some form of road trip this summer as a result of the easing of much of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.