Dangerously Well: The Top 25 Metro Areas in the U.S. for Your White Lotus Vacation

Their failure speaks to many of the show’s viewers, perhaps because, while we can’t all disconnect at 5-star resorts with a personalized menu of spa treatments, more and more of us are incorporating some of the principles of balance, restoration, and healing into those times we can disconnect.

It’s reflected in the places we’re going: spots like New York City’s Othership have hit the radar as upscale travel destinations. The thermal spa casts “journeyers” into a sober environment combining breath work with live music, cold plunge baths, and sound therapy. And it’s evident in that, for the first time in a decade, this year’s Burning Man festival and its raucous dust and fire party didn’t sell out.

We wanted to know where green juice is replacing ecstasy, where sunrise trail hikes are supplanting seedy basement clubs, and where yoga events and wellness festivals create a vibe that’s about depth, not drinks.

So we looked into the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S., scouring Yelp for wellness opportunities in each location. We factored in healthy restaurants, specialty food, spas, and resorts, adding alternative health, yoga, and hiking opportunities. Finally, we awarded bonuses to cities with top wellness resorts and festivals. Ultimately, we compiled three scores: Resorts & Dining, Self-Care, and Fitness & Outdoors.

So, where can you find that White Lotus feel across all 3 categories?

The overall winner is Honolulu, HI.

Key Takeaways

> Honolulu, HI, is the overall winner, beating out #2 Reno, NV, and #3 San Francisco, CA.

> Mid-size, Western U.S. metros outshine other cities with diverse festivals, outdoor, and foodie activities like Albuquerque, NM, and Tucson, AZ. And almost half of the top-25 cities (48%) could be classified as college towns, from Durham/Chapel Hill, NC, to Austin, TX, and Lincoln, NE.

> Looking to get away? Head to Honolulu, HI, where there are more wellness resorts and healthy food restaurants than any other U.S. city.

> Commune with your self-care soulmates in Reno, NV, where spas, saunas, and alternative medicine opportunities should reset your inner compass.

> Shape up in the San Francisco metro area, with more fitness instruction, hiking, and yoga studios than anywhere else.

Relax Better in These Top 25 Cities

Sure, Honolulu, HI, gets score bonuses from both a yoga festival and a top wellness resort that you’ll need a boat or plane to explore. However, Honolulu would have still swept the overall rankings without either reward. The tropical capital lands #1 in Resorts & Dining, #2 in Self-Care, and #2 in Fitness & Outdoors.

So, after exploring the city, don’t be shy about jetting off from the Aloha state capital to the lush Garden Isle, Kauai, to get in your sun salutations at the volunteer-led Aloha Kauai Yoga Festival, where you can take part in meditations, sound healing, and yoga on the beach.

Alternatively, head to the Four Seasons Lanai (Sensei), which Newsweek names one of the country’s top 100 wellness resorts (though it’s not the location of White Lotus season one, which filmed at another Four Seasons Resort on Maui).

Mid-size cities like Reno, NV, Anchorage, AK, and Lexington, KY, score high, accounting for 44% of the total top 25. Their small(ish) populations give them a statistical edge, but that doesn’t mean their concentration of services isn’t real. These cities legitimately cultivate a healthier vibe (and offer a more serene escape from urban hubs).

Many top cities are also tourism hotspots, where food, resorts, and spas cater to a disproportionate number of tourists. That includes Las Vegas, NV, San Francisco, CA, San Diego, CA, and Anchorage, AK — a base for cruises and wilderness tourism.

Wellness culture and a reputation for health-conscious locals help elevate many cities in the top 25, like Denver, CO, and San Diego, CA. The reputation is strong among the Pacific and Mountain West, whose cities take 13 of the top 25 spots (52%). And Western cities with cold climate sauna cultures, like Anchorage, AK, Denver, CO, and Reno, NV, (with spillover from nearby Lake Tahoe) are likely to be among them.

Top Resorts & Dining Cities

1. Honolulu, HI

2. Reno, NV

4. New Orleans, LA

5. San Francisco, CA

Honolulu, HI, offers 1.58% more resorts than its closest competitor, as well as 55.49% more specialty foods, catapulting it to #1 in the Resorts & Dining category. So whether your stress meter is calling out for a stargazing tour offered from the deck of an infinity pool or a pineapple-topped Ahi poke roll, you’re covered — and so is your sense of wellbeing.

Interestingly, Anchorage, AK, snags the #2 spot for dining alone. While that doesn’t lift its category ranking beyond 6th place, it’s worth noting that its 18 specialty food options per 100,000 residents, including ramen, Latin-fusion, and Russian dumplings, outperform the offerings of larger metros (with 2.16% more to munch than #3 foodie Philadelphia). Anchorage even scores a resort bonus as a gateway to the remote Denali Backcountry Lodge, which you’ll need a helicopter ride to access.

Overall, tourist-centric category high-scorers like #2 Reno, NV, and #3 Las Vegas, NV, score well because of the sheer number of resorts per 100K residents (along with Honolulu, these are the only American cities with more than one resort per 100K residents). Touristy Orlando, FL, sneaks into the #10 position for the number of resorts, helping show that while crowds may favor certain tourism hotspots, resorts alone won’t turn a destination into a “Resort & Dining” wellness center.

What does?

Take it from surprising top performers like Lincoln, NE, and Lexington, KY.

Both fall within the top ten for their high concentration of speciality food offerings, which helps these smaller cities feel indulgently healthy compared to large metros. So if you’re looking for fresh, innovative charcuterie nibbles beside your yoga mat, head to Lexington’s Grove, a micro-collective of small businesses. In Lincoln, check out a new summer food truck pop-up presence or restaurants serving up the diverse flavors of midwestern immigrant communities, from Russian to Vietnamese.

Top Fitness Cities

1. San Francisco, CA

2. Honolulu, HI

3. New York, NY

4. Reno, NV

5. Los Angeles, CA

6. Denver, CO

7. San Diego, CA

8. Las Vegas, NV

9. Anchorage, AK

10. Greensboro, NC

The San Francisco metro area (including Berkeley and Oakland, CA) outhikes even #2 Honolulu in Fitness & Outdoor opportunities. Aside from boasting 15.07% more fitness opportunities than the closest competition and 11% more yoga studios, Fog City comes in 3rd for hiking, a category that includes access to trailheads, parks, and beaches. And the city seems to ooze healthy festival energy, with 4 different festivals dedicated to yoga and wellness.

Because fitness winners embrace both yoga studios and trailheads (along with large-scale festivals), its top contenders include both large urban metros (like #3 New York City and #5 Los Angeles) and surprising upstarts (like #10 Greensboro, NC).

Both Los Angeles and New York collect big bonus points from yoga and wellness festivals (L.A. alone sports 18 health festivals to attend, from SoCal VegFest to Huntington Beach’s OC Yoga Fest.

While Greensboro’s 100 miles of trails might seem like why this Piedmont gem performs so well, it’s actually the city’s #2 performance in per-capita yoga studios. This hotbed of asana options has you covered, from heated power yoga to inclusive classes.

Top Self-Care Cities

1. Reno, NV

2. San Francisco, CA

3. Anchorage, AK

4. New York, NY

5. Lubbock, TX

6. Lexington, KY

7. Durham/Chapel Hill, NC

8. Colorado Springs, CO

9. San Jose, CA

10. Tucson, AZ

It may seem like the once divorce capital of Reno, NV, would win on resorts but fall short regarding indulgent wellness options. But the Biggest Little City in the World also has the biggest alternative healthcare market per capita in the U.S. (13.36% higher than any other city) and boasts the highest number of beauty and spa locations (26.30% more). It also comes in 2nd in the number of saunas visitors can visit to pamper themselves.

Reno brings the spas and alternative medicine, but it can’t beat Anchorage, AK, for saunas. Cold climate and proximity to Russian maqiviit (steambath) and Yup’ik (fire bath) cultures naturally elevate it to the U.S. sauna capital, with 1.25 saunas per 100K people, 22.88% more than in Reno.

And surprisingly, isolated Lubbock, TX, has the nation’s highest number of beauty and spa options per capita. Lubbock shares its status as a college town with 3 other top ten spa cities (Lexington, KY, Durham/Chapel Hill, NC, and Tucson, AZ), suggesting that the popularity of beauty/spa services in these towns may be driven by a substantial student population.

While Honolulu ticks many boxes that make up the wellness lifestyle, not every traveler pictures themselves trekking Diamond Head’s Summit Trail or hitting the sauna in an already tropical getaway.

Instead, you could luxuriate in one of Newsweek’s top spas inside a Las Vegas casino, “escaping” the hustle and noise of the slot machines with a suite of personal discovery experiences.

Or maybe your sweet spot is a beachside wellness fest in San Diego, sweating from classes that energize you as much as the sweeping views of the Pacific.

Regardless of how you find your inner peace, all these top cities have a suite of offerings and festivals to charge your inner batteries. So don’t discount smaller and less traditional metros on your path to wellness. After all, they may be off the radar, but they’re firmly on the map for wellbeing.

Methodology

We started with a broad swath of America’s largest 100 cities, then scoured Yelp for their roster of hotels and resorts, natural wellness factors, and urban wellness amenities, weighing factors in three total categories: Resorts & Dining, Self Care, and Fitness & Outdoors.

> Resorts: 3X

> Hotels per 100K residents: 1X

> Specialty Food per 100K residents: 1X

We added a bonus to the scores of metro areas featured in Newsweek’s Top 100 U.S. Fitness and Wellness Resorts.

> Alternative medicine services per 100K residents: 1X

> Beauty and spa treatment services per 100K residents: 1X

> Saunas per 100K residents: 1.5X

> Fitness instruction per 100K residents: 1.5X

> Hiking opportunities per 100K residents: 1X

> Yoga studios per 100K residents: 2X

We further weighted the scores of cities with a wellness or yoga festival, sourced manually and linked to the nearest U.S. metro area.

We consolidated 100 cities into 70 top metro areas. We scored metro areas across these categories, assigning each location a normalized score for every category and a composite “total score” to determine