The St. Mary's Blog

Now more than ever, consumers crave quick, bite-sized experiences to keep up with their fast-paced lifestyles, and travel is no exception.

Nearly all Americans (90%) prefer short getaways of three nights or less vs. a longer vacation, with Millennials in particular fueling the dramatic rise of the quick getaway trend, according to a new survey by online travel site Hotwire.

Even more notably, Hotwire found it's not just short trip durations that are trending amongst younger travelers.

Survey results revealed that Millennials have no problem waiting until the last minute to book their travels, embracing both short booking windows and short trips with spontaneous, 2-3 night "quickies." 

In the past year, an overwhelming 84% of survey respondents between the ages of 23 to 38 have booked a trip one week or less out from their departure day, and 40% say they have booked the same day.

However, not everyone is as spontaneous as this generation -- the survey reveals nearly 1 in 4 Americans have yet to take a spontaneous trip. As experts in last-minute travel, Hotwire wants to make it easy for everyone to "make it a quickie," and has ranked the country's best cities for a 72 hour or less getaway.

To create the "America's Best Cities for a Quickie Index," Hotwire analyzed more than 10,000 internal and external data points across 250 cities based on three factors: Best Bang for Your Buck (value-20%), Ease of Arrival (convenience-20%) and Things to Do (leisure-60%) to identify the top major, mid-size, small town, and itty-bitty cities that make it easy to get in and out while still finding great last-minute deals.

America's Best Cities for a Quickie Index - Top 40

Major Metropolises

1. Las Vegas, NV 
2. Los Angeles, CA 
3. San Diego, CA
4. Houston, TX 
5. Dallas, TX
6. Philadelphia, PA 
7. New York, NY 
8. San Francisco, CA 
9. Washington, D.C. 
10. Austin, TX

Mid-Size Must-Sees

1. Atlanta, GA 
2. Miami, FL 
3. Tampa, FL 
4. St. Louis, MO 
5. New Orleans, LA 
6. Minneapolis, MN 
7. Cincinnati, OH 
8. Milwaukee, WI 
9. Pittsburgh, PA 
10. Albuquerque, NM

Small Town Favorites

1. Orlando, FL 
2. Richmond, VA
3. Boise, ID
4. Salt Lake City, UT
5. Reno, NV
6. Chattanooga, TN
7. Madison, WI 
8. Birmingham, AL 
9. Springfield, MO 
10. Spokane, WA

Itty Bitty Cities

1. Newport Beach, CA 
2. Branson, MO 
3. Charleston, SC 
4. Sarasota, FL 
5. Savannah, GA 
6. Asheville, NC 
7. Palm Springs, CA 
8. Santa Fe, NM 
9. Wilmington, DE 
10. Monterey, CA

Find out more at hotwire.com.