Which are best for holidays: America’s red or blue states?

We assess both sides of the US electoral divide to find out which is better for adventure, culture and general relaxation

You may well have noticed already, but an election is imminent. November 5 will see the USA go to the polls to decide the identity of its 47th president. The collective votes of 50 states will dictate whether Kamala Harris succeeds Joe Biden in the White House, or if Donald Trump will return to the Oval Office he occupied from 2017 to 2021. Rarely less than fraught, the contest will have huge ramifications for America – and the wider world.
But politics is one thing, and travel is another. And while “who will win?” is a significant question, here, on this page, we are concerned with another, perhaps even more important matter: which side of America’s electoral divide – Republican-voting “red states”, or Democratic-aligned “blue states” – is better for holidays, road trips, and general relaxation?
The following article builds its findings upon two particular foundation stones.
The first is the result of the last presidential election, and the map it created. States are grouped according to the way they voted in November 2020, irrespective of previous allegiances. So Arizona, which has often “gone red” in the past, is listed as a blue state because of its hat-tip to Biden four years ago. Similarly, Florida, which has swung both ways in recent history, is ranked as red, because Trump won its approval last time round.
The second factor is our own data. Earlier this year, Telegraph Travel ran a feature which listed all 50 American states in order of their respective greatness as travel destinations.
This ranking was based upon a wealth of relevant statistics, with points awarded to each state for factors as varied as its number of national parks, its length of seafront, its range of luxury hotels, the warmth of its weather, the vibrancy of its wine industry, the strength of its sports teams and the density of its population (see below for a complete explanation of the metrics used). These figures have been used again here, to establish the top 10 states on each side of the “Red-Blue Wall” – and then to compare these “rivals” accordingly.
Which side triumphs? As with the actual election, the result is (likely to be) close…
Any surprise at the high ranking for this underappreciated piece of the US jigsaw? It was only the 38th most visited state in 2023 despite its gorgeous Northwest landscape. Idaho stands back amid the treeline (it is 41 per cent forested), and keeps its own counsel (it is the US’s seventh least densely populated state). These twin indicators of tranquility are both worth points in our scoring system. So is the fact that the state is home to the westernmost edges of Yellowstone National Park.
For road-trippers, it can make for a seamless pairing with its neighbour, Washington. So seamless that you might almost forget their political division. Idaho has only gone blue once in the last 18 presidential votes (1964). While Washington has not turned red since Ronald Reagan was re-elected in 1984.
Unlike Yellowstone, another of Idaho’s protected areas, the volcanic Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve is all its own work.
The “Jewels of the Rocky Mountains” holiday offered by Journeyscape (020 3813 7147) calls upon both Idaho and Craters of the Moon as part of a wider exploration of the region. From £4,550 per person (not including flights).
Once unswervingly blue – to the extent that it backed the Democratic candidate in all but one ballot between 1880 and 1960 – South Carolina is now stubbornly Republican, having stepped out of the red corner only once in the last 15 elections. This is no surprise. The “Palmetto State” is a shiny sliver of The South, all woozy heat and inviting beaches.
It is these combined factors – affable weather; plenty of days defined by clear skies; a decent stretch of Atlantic coast; a good range of luxury hotels along it – that are mostly responsible for the state’s points tally under our scoring system. But there is more to South Carolina than sun and sand. There are cultural and dining options in the capital Columbia – and in Charleston, the historic jewel that has dotted the shoreline since 1670.
Congaree National Park is South Carolina’s only such protected space, but there is a moody magnificence to this dense tract of hardwood forest.
Ocean Florida (0208 131 0585) offers seven-night getaways to the Hampton Inn Suites in Myrtle Beach – from £1,010 a head (with flights).
Firmly in the red camp at present, Tennessee has not allocated its electoral votes to a Democrat since 1996. True, this is what many would expect of a state which stands as the spiritual home of that none-more-conservative musical genre, country. But if mournful guitars and back-roads melancholy are forever en vogue in the capital Nashville, so are the bars, restaurants and entertainments that supply some of the points total accrued here; a process that is replicated, via the blues, in Memphis.
Of course, for all the melodic buzz generated by these sibling cities, Tennessee is overwhelmingly rural in parts. This facet of its existence plays out in its protected spaces. Great Smoky Mountains may be the state’s only national park, but with 13 million visitors a year, it is the USA’s most popular.
The Country Music Hall of Fame gets to the heart of Tennessee’s musical obsession via a vast premises in downtown Nashville.
Nashville and Memphis both make an appearance in the regular 12-day “Country Roads of the Deep South” escorted tour offered by Insight Vacations (0800 533 5620). From £4,118 per person, not including international flights.
Although it went red at the last election, this sizable chunk of the Midwest is something of a bellwether – its collective vote for Donald Trump in 2020 was the first time it had failed to back the election victor since supporting Richard Nixon over John F Kennedy in 1960. Perhaps this leaping from party to party has seeped into its image as a travel option – because, for the British market at least, Ohio has rarely been a firm choice.
In part, this has generally been a matter of inaccessibility; something that the launch of a direct British Airways flight to Cincinnati in June 2023 has helped to correct. That city is one of three major urban areas. Columbus and Cleveland are the others, boosting Ohio’s score in our survey with their various restaurants, bars, museums and major-league sports teams. The state’s greatest asset, though, is its “coastline”, along the waters of (Great) Lake Erie.
Cedar Point, the hive of rollercoasters and thrill rides which adorns the lakeside near Sandusky – some 60 miles to the west of Cleveland.
The 11-night “Best of Cities & Lakes” itinerary offered by America As You Like It (0208 742 8299) calls on all three of Ohio’s major cities – as well as Pittsburgh and Indiana. From £1,470 per person (with flights and car).
Alaska is arguably the deepest red of the red states. It has only voted Democratic once since it entered the union in 1959 (helping to return Lyndon B Johnson to the White House in 1964). It is also the USA at its biggest and bulkiest. “Big” in the sense that it is (by far) the biggest of the 50 states (were it a country, it would be the planet’s 17th largest, outmuscling Iran for size); “bulky” in that its 665,384-square-mile expanse is a wonderland of peaks and troughs.
This, of course, makes it a destination for those who love adventure. Its eight national parks (a total only surpassed by California) are worth 45 points in our scoring system, and include some of the country’s most pristine areas of wilderness. Such as the aptly named Glacier Bay National Park, and its myriad ice-sheets.
Denali National Park and Preserve cradles the highest peak in the whole of North America (Denali/Mount McKinley rises to 20,310ft/6,190m).
KE Adventure Travel (017687 73966) sells a 14-day “Alaskan Wilderness Adventure” that follows the Root Glacier Trail through Wrangell-St Elias National Park, and hikes in Denali’s shadow. From £5,795 per person (with flights).
The “Pelican State” turned blue in every presidential ballot between 1880 and 1944 – but, fellow Southerner Bill Clinton aside (in 1992 and 1996), you have to time-travel as far back as 1976 to find the last time Louisiana voted for a Democrat. This should be a shock to nobody. Only Texas and Florida sit further down the map, and neither of those places is really considered to be part of “The South”.
Louisiana keeps to the template in the sticky heat and antebellum architecture of New Orleans – whose bars, restaurants and museums, plus its direct flight from the UK, account for some of its total. But points are also accrued for an often undersold coastline, and the beaches on it. Louisiana is the fifth most gifted American state when it comes to seafront, its 397 miles beating Texas by 30.
Oak Alley – arguably the most spectacular of the 19th-century plantation houses along the Mississippi, as seen in numerous movies.
New Orleans is part of the 14-day “Tracks of the Deep South” tour sold by Great Rail Journeys (01904 521 936), from £4,095 per person, with flights.
Solidly red over the course of the last 70 years (albeit with a purplish tinge; Barack Obama, Johnson and Kennedy all gained its collective approval), North Carolina marks one of the points where, in political terms, The South really begins. Its climate certainly feeds into this idea.
The state’s generous quota of days of sunshine is an important element of its respectable score in this poll; better still, it comes coupled to a significant share of the American shore (with 301 miles, it is the US state with the seventh longest seafront). But North Carolina is not simply about warmth and waves; it also has a share of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. While around half of that enormous treescape falls within Tennessee, its forested heights are an example of this Southern belle’s beauty.
Wright Brothers National Memorial; the idyll among the grassy dunes of the Outer Banks where the aviation pioneers first took off (in 1903).
Original Travel (020 3958 6120) sells “Fly-drive the Carolinas”; a 12-day route through both states. From £3,830 per person, including flights.
Staunchly Republican – it has placed its cross in the red box in 17 of the last 18 presidential elections – Utah’s political outlook is perhaps mirrored by its geography. Here is a place which might well be termed “no-nonsense”, in the dust and drama of its landscape. Its five national parks account for a heavy chunk of the state’s overall score – and while not the sum total of its offering to tourists, are a huge part of its appeal.
These are top-tier protected areas, where the American west unfurls at its starkest. If time allows, it makes sense to visit each of Arches, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Zion National Parks in turn – although an afternoon amid the rock formations and serrated shapes of even one of them will fill your phone (and your memory) with photos.
Monument Valley; not a national park (it is part of the Navajo Nation), and shared with Arizona – but a world wonder nonetheless.
Trafalgar (0800 533 5619) gets to the point with its 10-day “Utah’s Mighty Five National Parks” escorted tour. From £2,903 per person; flights extra.
The Lone Star State’s days as a Democratic bastion (all but one election between 1876 and 1948) are long behind it. Texas has gone red in every ballot since Reagan’s first victory, in 1980. And yet its image as a hard-nosed desert landscape conceals a cosmopolitan streak that plays out in its cities, five of which – Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, in that order – are among the 12 biggest in the country.
This adds up to a wealth of museums, major sports teams and fine restaurants – which, in turn, translates into a slew of points in our scoring system, making Texas a brilliant place for those who want to road-trip between the urban areas. That said, and contrary to general opinion, it can also be a place for seaside holidays, its lower edge running along the Gulf of Mexico.
Space Center Houston carries visitors back to the Apollo missions of the Sixties and Seventies, with oodles of detail and period artefacts.
Travelbag (020 7001 5250) dispenses a 13-day “Great Texas Escape” which pays its respects to all five of the above-mentioned cities, as well as the Gulf seafront at Galveston. From £2,369 per person – including flights and rental car.
While you could feasibly argue that Florida is as much a swing as a red state – it has cast its vote for both sides evenly, twice each, over the last four elections – there is no doubt as to its status as a much-loved holiday destination. Of the 4.8 million British travellers who visit the USA every year, almost a third (1.4 million) go to Florida.
The attractions are many, all of them scoring weighty points in our system: The longest coastline of any American state but Alaska (and some of the country’s best beaches as a result). Three splendid national parks, defined by water (Everglades, Dry Tortugas, Biscayne). Significant cities (Miami, Jacksonville, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa) full of restaurants, museums and well-followed sports teams. And the weather. It is the “Sunshine State” for a reason.
The Everglades – the most accessible of those national parks; alligators snoozing in swampland within an hour’s drive of Miami and its seafront.
A seven-night pre-Christmas escape to Florida’s most sun-kissed city, and the four-star Moxy Miami South Beach, flying out of Heathrow on December 7, costs from £1,469 per person, through Virgin Holidays (0344 472 9646).
When the “Garden State” makes up its mind, it really makes it. Only twice in its history has it voted a different way over the course of three successive elections, and its current run of eight consecutive blue votes (1992-2020) has come in the wake of six straight nods to the red camp (1968-1988).
Holidaymakers can be equally single-minded about it. It was the 16th most popular US state among tourists in 2023, with many of these visitors heading for the fabled “Jersey Shore” and the casinos of Atlantic City. In truth, its coast – 130 miles of it; three more than the state of New York – is the main points-winner in our scoring system. The waterfront acts as a backdrop to luxury hotels, top-end restaurants and in-demand golf courses. As the adage goes, if it isn’t broken, there’s no need to fix it.
Asbury Park, the resort-town written into legend in the title of Bruce Springsteen’s debut album. Live music thrives at the Stone Pony.
A week at the four-star Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, flying from Manchester on May 3, starts at £1023 a head via Expedia (020 3024 8211).
Often held up as a “swing state”, Michigan can be rather steadfast in its political opinion. It voted Republican in 18 of the 19 elections from 1856 to 1928, and in spite of raising the flag for Trump in 2016, has sided with the Democrats in seven of the last eight ballots. It tends to be steadfast in the everyday as well.
In spite of Detroit’s presence – the USA’s 26th biggest city is a key part of the overall score, by dint of having teams in the baseball, (American) football and basketball major leagues, as well as a raft of museums – this segment of the Midwest is largely rustic. It also garners points for its low density of population (a dearth of people especially (in)visible on its remote Upper Peninsula), and for its “coastline” – Michigan rubs against four of the five Great Lakes (Lakes Erie, Superior, Michigan and Huron), and plays upon their fresh-water beaches every summer.
The Mackinac Bridge – Michigan’s pale answer to the red paint of the Golden Gate Bridge. It traverses the channel where Lakes Michigan and Huron meet.
Bon Voyage (0800 316 3012) offers a 12-day “Pure Michigan” road-trip that explores the state along both the Huron and Michigan lakesides, – and lingers in the city of Detroit (as well as Chicago). From £2,855 a head, with flights.
The inclusion of the “Peach State” in the blue column will raise an eyebrow or two; Georgia’s opting for Biden in 2020 was only the second time it had failed to turn red since 1980 (even if it unfailingly voted Democratic between 1876 and 1960). Was the last election result a blip, or a tide turning?
In terms of the tourism offering, it matters little. Georgia is another Southern Belle – its allure encapsulated by the magnificent mansions and the swooning cypress trees of Savannah, that glorious throwback to 1733. But there is a modernity too, which also accrues points – an exact 100 miles of coastline, a slew of luxury hotels along it, and a regular supply of sunny days. Georgia’s love of golf is also to its credit (and score); Augusta is one of its three courses to make the country’s top 100.
State capital Atlanta weighs in with several heavyweight museums, pairing the seriousness of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights with the sugary World of Coca Cola.
Golf Kings (0808 253 9384) sells breaks to the Masters at Augusta. A four-night “Sunday Masters Experience” starts at £5,095 a head, with flights.
Placing the “Grand Canyon State” into the blue column does seem like an anomaly. Aside from its vote for Biden in 2020, Arizona has only picked the Democratic candidate once (Clinton’s second victory in 1996) in the last 18 elections. This vast slab of the American West feels indelibly “red” in its ruggedness – the geological miracle from which it takes its nickname scarring the soil as perhaps the USA’s most famous national park.
The Grand Canyon is one of three such protected areas which boost Arizona’s score here; its rosy rock-faces are joined by the fossilised landscape of Petrified Forest National Park, and the giant cacti of Saguaro National Park. Throw in 11 official Dark Sky Parks and you have a state which looks craggily magnificent by day and night, although softer points are also accrued by a big range of luxury hotels, not least in spa-happy Scottsdale.
A little hokey it may be, but the old cowboy town of Tombstone still rings to the sound of shots fired, via daily restagings of the “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral”.
Tour Compass (01279 704 135) incorporates Arizona into its 19-day “Highlights of Western USA” itinerary. From £2,249 a head, with flights.
A deeper shade of blue, Massachusetts has backed the Republican only five times in the last century (four of those switches, two apiece, going in favour of popular candidates Dwight D Eisenhower and Reagan). The very image of New England gentility, it draws in visitors every year to the flaming colours of its “Fall” foliage. Nor is it a slouch in summer, its seafront hosting tourists in hotspots like Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.
Its 192 miles of shore help to fatten its tally here, although the state scores as highly for urban life as rustic charm. While Boston is only the 25th biggest city in the US, it is abuzz with museums, restaurants and sporting glory – the holy trinity of the New England Patriots, the Boston Celtics and the Boston Red Sox providing major-league football, basketball and baseball respectively (as well as further points to the state’s total).
The Berkshire Hills – the softly rolling cluster of ups and downs in the west of the state, where the autumnal leaf-show is frequently at its most spectacular.
Boston, Plymouth and Cape Cod are important stop-points in the seven-night “Self-Drive New England Discovery” holiday served up by American Sky (01342 395419; americansky.co.uk). From £1,349 a head, including hire car and flights.
A state as blue as the ocean around it, Hawaii has only voted Republican twice (1972, 1984) in the 16 elections since it gained its statehood in 1959. The picture, in terms of what visitors can expect, is just as clear-cut.
Inevitably, Hawaii scores highly in our system for its 750 miles of coast (the fourth highest state total), the five-star resorts which decorate it on the likes of Oahu and Maui, and its sumptuous sands (three of its beaches – Duke Kahanamoku Beach on Oahu, Wailea Beach on Maui, Poipu Beach on Kauai – made the top 10 in the 2024 “Dr Beach” ranking list). Its tetchy geology is also rewarded. Kilauea and Mauna Loa accrue points both for being seismically active and for being part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The climate – tropical delight – only adds to the tally.
Kauai delivers the Instagram money-shot in the Napali Coast; an arc of shore, so sheer in its cliffs, that the road around the island gives up on either side of it.
Inspiring Travel (01244 729 756) serves up “Discover Hawaii’s Islands” – a 12-day romp around four pieces of the puzzle (Oahu, Kauai, Maui and Hawaii/“The Big Island”). From £8,125 per person, including all flights.
With its mixture of small-town countryside and big city, Washington should, perhaps, be closer to a swing state than its recent political allegiance – immovably blue since 1988 – suggests. But this inherent contrast also plays into its attractiveness as a destination. Seattle zings with enough bars, museums and restaurants to provide a decent chunk of a 797-point total, while the wider state is alive with natural wonders and wild majesty.
Washington is another member of the coastal club, even if its 157 miles of seafront deliver wave-lashed drama rather than Californian sand. Three national parks – including the snowy peaks of North Cascades National Park, and the titular stratovolcano of Mount Rainier National Park – offer scenic moodiness. And a thriving wine industry unites the two strands of Washington life – the fields of the Yakima Valley producing supple merlot.
The remarkable Olympic National Park – where dense rainforest cloaks steep hills within easy day-trip (and ferry-ride) range of Seattle.
The “USA Pacific Northwest Self-Drive Tour” offered by Audley Travel (01993 461 041; audleytravel.com) meanders through Washington (including Mount Rainier) and Oregon over the course of 15 days. From £4,520 a head (including flights).
A recent convert to the blue corner – it has backed the Democratic candidate in the last four elections, having voted Republican in 17 of the 22 elections between 1920 and 2004 – Colorado needs little introduction as a possible holiday destination. A solid tranche of its score is down to its (very high) places on the continental spine.
Two of its four national parks (Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon of the Gunnison) are built on hard rock and visual splendour. And the sophisticated resorts that glitter on its snowy slopes offer fine dining and cultural delights as well as winter adrenaline – five Colorado ski resorts (Aspen, Breckenridge, Snowmass, Vail, Winter Park) crop up in the Telegraph’s list of America’s ten best. Of course, there is city life too, and Denver’s commitment to major-league sport – football, baseball and basketball are all present in town – adds extra points to the total.
Another protected area, Dinosaur National Monument, pulls the Colorado story back 150 million years, via fossils embedded in cliff-faces.
Trailfinders (020 7084 6500) offers double the downhill with a 12-day “Aspen Snowmass Ski Holiday”; from £2,789 a head, not including flights.
Like Washington, New York has been unwaveringly blue since the election of 1988. And like Washington, its appeal to holidaymakers is a delicious blend of metropolitan pizzazz and back-country prettiness. Inevitably, the skyscraper-filled city with which the state shares its name supplies the backbone to its points total.
The Big Apple is an endlessly high-kicking chorus line of restaurants, museums and hotels, while its key sports teams (the Mets, the Giants, the Knicks) ensure that the three main major-league boxes are ticked. But it is sometimes forgotten that New York has a coastline (127 miles, much of it along Long Island Sound), and plenty of wild vistas. Neither of its main mountain ranges (the Adirondacks, the Catskills) have national-park status, but they are no less striking for this. The vineyards on the Hudson River, meanwhile, are a source of increasingly lauded wine.
Niagara Falls is too short (167ft/51m) to bag extra points as one of the USA’s 10 highest waterfalls, but its border-straddling spray is thoroughly unmissable.
Titan Travel (0800 988 5800) serves up a decent cross-section of the “Empire State” with “Three of the Best: New York, Washington DC and Niagara Falls”; a 10-day escorted holiday. From £2,895 per person, including flights.
It is commonly assumed that California is the most liberal of the 50 states. In fact, over the course of its history, it has voted Republican more often than Democratic, and went red in nine of the 10 elections between 1952 and 1988 – only embarking on its current blue streak in 1992. What is much less variable is its image as a first-rate place for a holiday.
Never mind political affiliation; it sits atop our data for the whole country, and does so by a distance, powered there by its nine national parks (more than any other state), it’s lovely coastline (840 miles; only Alaska and Florida have more), its award-winning wines, its wealth of five-star hotels, and the myriad attractions in its major cities (four of which – Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco – are among the 17 biggest in the entire USA). No matter who wins in the next week; California is a winner among tourists.
The Pacific-admiring Highway 1 – particularly the 500 (or so) miles of it which connect San Francisco to Los Angeles at the ocean’s edge. Road-trip nirvana.
Hayes & Jarvis (020 8106 2403) offers a 17-day “Los Angeles to San Francisco Road Trip” from £3,499 per person, not including flights.
The contest is remarkably even, but blue ultimately triumphs. While both sides of the American political divide can count high-scoring states among their number, the totals accrued by California (1,147), New York (876), Colorado (834) and Washington (797) help carry the day over Florida (949), Texas (852), Utah (779) and North Carolina (746).
Ah, you might say, perhaps smelling a conspiracy… these points totals are tallied using only the top 10 states in both cases. What if the data is extended to include the entire 50?
An excellent question – although it uncovers no skulduggery. Helpfully, the 2020 election – on which this study is based – witnessed an exact split in the state results: 25 states voted for Joe Biden, 25 for Donald Trump. This helps to keep the mathematics balanced.
It does, however, produce the same result. If our points totals are added up all the way to the bottom of the piles – apologies to, respectively Delaware (404) and North Dakota (377) – victory still falls on the blue side of the line; a total of 16,852 eclipsing 13,676.
Does this mean only the blue states are worth visiting? Not a bit, as the various recommendations and suggestions above hopefully make clear. Does this mean a blue win at the ballot box is a certainty on November 5? As the saying goes, watch this space.
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