A personal finance website has ranked Orlando as the third-best city for recreation.
On Monday, July 14, WalletHub released its 2025 Best & Worst Cities for Recreation, naming Orlando as the third-best city. Ranked ahead of Orlando was Cincinnati, Ohio (second) and Las Vegas, Nevada (first).
“The best cities have a wide range of leisure activities, both indoor and outdoor,” said a financial writer for WalletHub. “Those activities require varying levels of exercise and contribute to a city’s overall well-being and economy.”
While compiling this year’s list, WalletHub compared the 100 largest U.S. cities across 47 key metrics that “speak to the benefits of recreational activities.” In each of the cities, the company examined living costs, quality of parks, accessibility to entertainment, recreational facilities, and weather.
Orlando ranked second for its availability of entertainment and recreational facilities. Those facilities include Camping World Stadium, Kia Center, Exploria Stadium, and the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, to name a few.
The City Beautiful ranked 52nd for its cost of living, 57th for its quality of parks, and 28th for its weather.
WalletHub highlighted Orlando’s amusement parks such as Disney World and Universal Studios, along with the city’s numerous water parks, boat tours, water sports opportunities, zoos, aquariums, and pool halls per capita.
In addition, WallatHub pointed out that Orlando has many great places for outdoor activities, ranking at the top of the country for sports venue per capita and 13th for the availability of recreation centers. Orlando also has the 11th-highest percentage of city land that is designated as parkland.
There are plenty of places to eat in Orlando, with many affordable restaurants that have ratings of at least 4.5 stars. Orlando also has the 8th-most food festivals.
Orlando joined five other Florida cities that made the list, including Tampa (#5), St. Petersburg (#20), Jacksonville (#45), Miami (#58), and Hialeah (#95).
WalletHub compiled its list using data collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Council for Community and Economic Research, The Trust for Public Land, Yelp.com, TripAdvisor, and multiple other sources.
For more information, or to view the complete list of cities that were ranked by their recreational offerings, visit WalletHub’s 2025 Best & Worst Cities for Recreation webpage.