The Best Cities in America to Spend New Year’s Eve—Ranked

Before you buckle down and get to work on those life-changing New Year’s resolutions, you need to ring in the New Year properly. But fighting the crowds and spending hours in freezing temps just to watch the ball drop in Times Square? Not your jam. We hear ya! Thankfully, we’ve found the very best cities in America to spend New Year’s Eve—no extra hassle required.

To determine the nationwide ranking, WalletHub narrowed their data set down to the 100 biggest cities in the country. The cities each received scores based on 25 essential components of a top-notch New Year’s Eve celebration, including the legality of fireworks, the average price of a New Year’s Eve party ticket, and weather outlook for December 31. Then, the data crunchers calculated each city’s weighted average across all of the metrics and ranked them accordingly.

New York City ranked as the top place to spend New Year’s Eve in the country. No surprises there—the countdown in Times Square alone draws at least one million people every year. But if you’d rather skip the crowds, the Big Apple was the top-ranked American city for entertainment and food options, as well. On the flip side, you can always rock New Year’s Eve alone with these awesome solo adventures.

Looking for a more low-key destination? Consider booking a trip to Orlando, Florida or San Francisco, California, which also ranked high on WalletHub’s list. Not only did both cities have the most nightlife options per capita, but Orlando also tied with New York for the most restaurants per capita, too. In other words, these cities provide have no shortage of ways to join the countdown to 2018.

Cheers to that! But before you raise your glass to the New Year, brush up on these toasting etiquette tips from an expert.

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