With Valentine’s Day just around the corner and America’s sweethearts planning to spend an average of $146.84 to a record total of $19.7 billion collectively on the occasion, the personal finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2016’s Best and Worst Cities for Valentine’s Day.
Scottsdale and Chandler landed in the top ten for the Best Cities for Valentines Day.
To find out which cities are the most romantic while going easy on couples’ wallets, WalletHub’s number crunchers compared the 100 most populated cities across 15 key metrics, ranging from restaurant-meal costs to number of attractions to number of florists per capita.
| Best Cities for Valentine’s Day | Worst Cities for Valentine’s Day | ||||
| 1 | San Francisco, CA | 91 | Winston-Salem, NC | ||
| 2 | Scottsdale, AZ | 92 | Milwaukee, WI | ||
| 3 | Honolulu, HI | 93 | North Las Vegas, NV | ||
| 4 | Orlando, FL | 94 | Toledo, OH | ||
| 5 | Seattle, WA | 95 | Philadelphia, PA | ||
| 6 | Las Vegas, NV | 96 | Newark, NJ | ||
| 7 | Portland, OR | 97 | San Bernardino, CA | ||
| 8 | Irvine, CA | 98 | Cleveland, OH | ||
| 9 | Chandler, AZ | 99 | Detroit, MI | ||
| 10 | Pittsburgh, PA | 100 | Hialeah, FL | ||
Comparing the Best & Worst
- The cost of a restaurant meal for two* is highest in Miami, which is four times more expensive than in Irvine, Calif., the city with the lowest.
- The average price per movie ticket* is highest in Cleveland, which is four times more expensive than in Fremont, Calif., the city with the lowest.
- The average wine price* is highest in Cleveland, which is five times more expensive than in Irvine, Calif., the city with the lowest.
- The number of jewelry stores per capita is highest in Miami, which is 45 times more than in North Las Vegas, Nev., the city with the lowest.
- The number of florists per capita is highest in Miami, which is 14 times more than in North Las Vegas, Nev., the city with the lowest.
- The number of chocolate shops per capita is highest in Orlando, Fla., which is 29 times more than in Santa Ana, Calif., the city with the lowest.
- The number of restaurants per capita is highest in Orlando, Fla., which is 10 times more than in North Las Vegas, Nev., the city with the lowest.
*Cost data adjusted by the median household income of each city.
Where other Arizona cities ranked in the 100 cities ranked by WalletHub:
| Overall Rank | City | Total Score | ‘Valentine’s Day Budget’ Rank | ‘Valentine’s Day Activities’ Rank | ‘Valentine’s Day Gift Accessibility’ Rank | ‘Valentine’s Day Weather Forecast’ Rank |
| 2 | Scottsdale, AZ | 76.33 | 16 | 18 | 10 | 1 |
| 9 | Chandler, AZ | 63.75 | 6 | 76 | 54 | 3 |
| 25 | Gilbert, AZ | 56.3 | 2 | 97 | 97 | 3 |
| 38 | Mesa, AZ | 53.27 | 36 | 92 | 86 | 6 |
| 41 | Glendale, AZ | 52.08 | 19 | 72 | 65 | 7 |
| 43 | Phoenix, AZ | 51.91 | 55 | 80 | 88 | 3 |
| 56 | Tucson, AZ | 48.82 | 57 | 35 | 43 | 9 |