Top Memorial Day Destinations

Posted by Evelyn Kanter May 22, 2007

Where are you going this Memorial Day Weekend, the traditional kick-off to the summer travel season?

The internet travel service company Priceline.com .has just released the results of its 5thannual survey of the 50 most-popular destinations for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend (May 26-28). The survey is based on more than 30,000 hotel room booking requests by priceline.com customers for the weekend.

The survey is based on actual bookings, not preference polls or people who might log in and vote for a favorite idol or destination multiple times. So, it's a pretty reliable predictor of Memorial Day, even beyond.

So where are we going? To the big city, not to the beach.

Rainy and cool weather for extended stretches earlier this month -- and last year's cool and rainy Memorial Day in much of the United States -- seem to have played a role in this year's selections.

Chicago tops the Priceline list this this Memorial Day, with the Windy City's Millennium Park neighborhood coming in as the #1 favorite destination and North Michigan Avenue coming in at #4.

New York City took four spots among the top 10 destinations. Jersey City, just on the other side of the Hudson River, was popular among visitors who wanted to see Manhattan without paying Big Apple hotel rates.

As usual, a long weekend in Las Vegas was very popular, with the Strip coming in at #2.

Most Memorial Day travelers elected to stay in the U.S. Possible reasons -- the dollar isn't going as far as it used to in Europe. Currency exchange rates on May 21, one dollar was equal to roughly half a British pound. And the typically short duration of Memorial Day getaways. London was the only European city to crack the top 50 list.

Elsewhere in Europe isn't much better. I was in Italy a couple of weeks ago, where a $50 bill got me 30 Euros. That meant the 8 Euro after-dinner glass of wine in Venice's Plaza San Marco cost more like $12, pretty pricey, even though it came with a live orchestra dressed in tuxedos.

Back to Memorial Day Weekend -- Canadian destinations making the list included Montreal, Vancouver and St. Catharines.

One surprise on this year's list was the emergence of Charleston, SC, as a Memorial Day 2007 favorite. For the first time, the city's downtown area made the list at #50 and its Mount Pleasant/Isle of Palms area was #49. The real surprise is what took this historic city dripping with moss and Southern charm so long to make the list.

Other destinations in the top 25 are Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Philadelphia, San Diego, Oahu, Miami, San Antonio, Boston and Baltimore.

So where are you going this Memorial Day Weekend?