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The Hottest Labor Day Destinations for Yelpers



Labor Day is a major occasion for long-weekend getaways before the end of summer. Where is everyone getting away to? Toward bodies of water – to swim, surf, boat and otherwise enjoy the last warm-weather holiday of the year, according to Yelp data.

We looked at the cities that had the biggest spike in Yelp search volume over Labor Day last year. More specifically, where had the most searches between the Thursday before Labor Day and the Tuesday after it, relative to the Thursday-Tuesday period the week before and the week after? We set a minimum level of search volume to be sure we were getting major Labor Day destinations.

Travel & Leisure highlighted some of Yelp’s top spots for Labor Day in 2016, including No. 1 on the list: Carmel, CA. In all, 15 of the 25 top destinations — based on our search-spike detection methodology — were in California, demonstrating Golden Staters’ tendencies to head to coastal and lake destinations. Many of the other top choices outside California also were near water, including Lake George, NY; Key West, FL; and Bar Harbor, ME. (Bucking the trend, some Californians eschewed water for dry climates, heading to the Coachella Valley in Southern California for Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Indio.)

Things can change quickly for cities on the list. Galveston, TX, on the Gulf Coast was a hot spot last Labor Day. This year it is part of the coastal Texas region that has been flooded by record rainfall from the tropical storm Harvey. We at Yelp are hoping for a quick recovery and return to “business as usual” for our Texas friends, and a happy, healthy and safe Labor Day weekend to them and everyone else.

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