Close your eyes and imagine: It’s Sunday, and you start getting major anxiety thinking about the work week ahead. The Sunday “scaries” are creeping in hard until suddenly your phone buzzes—your BFF just hit you up for moves. So bestie, what is the move? What Sunday Funday ideas do you have up your sleeve?
There’s a universal understanding that Mondays are the worst, and unfortunately, some of that negative anticipation can spill over into your Sunday—a day that should be spent with bottomless mimosas, huevos rancheros, and a live DJ at your local brunch hotspot. In the spirit of celebrating Sundays rather than dreading them, FashionNova ranked 50 cities around the U.S. to find the best destinations for Sunday Funday.
Methodology
We analyzed 50 of the largest U.S. cities by population size to uncover which locations are best for indulging in a Sunday Funday with your besties. There’s a whole slew of factors to consider when evaluating each city. Where are brunch cocktails most affordable? Is it bar-hoppable? How much will the Uber ride back cost? To name a few.
Ultimately, we considered eight ranking factors to find out which cities are best for Sunday Funday, which fell under four categories: restaurants, booze, entertainment, and transportation. Each of the eight factors was graded on a five-point scale, with a score of five representing the best conditions. We determined each city’s score from the total of its individual factor scores, which were weighted according to their impact on Sunday Funday success. The sum of these weights is 10, which creates a total possible city score of 50.
The eight city ranking factors are listed below with their respective weights and sources:
Number of Restaurants Serving Sunday Brunch (Per 100K)
Weight: 1.5
Source: Yellow Pages
Number of Breweries & Beer Gardens (Per 100K)
Weight: 1.5
Source: Yellow Pages
Average Cost of a Cocktail (At Restaurants/Bars)
Weight: 1.0
Source: Expatistan
Number of Music Venues
Weight: 1.5
Source: Yelp
Number of Barcades
Weight: 1.0
Source: Yelp
Average Cost of an Uber Ride
Weight: 1.0
Source: Uber
Walkability Score
Weight: 1.5
Source: Walkscore.com
Number of Bikeshare/Scootershare Docking Stations
Weight: 1.0
Source: U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Keep reading to find out how your city stacks up!
The 20 Best U.S. Cities for a Sunday Funday
Ranking at the top on our list, Boston, MA scored 42.04. Minneapolis, MN squeezed in second with 40.78, and Portland, OR was the third best city for Sunday Funday with 39.65. Sunshine cities, Miami (31.78) and Los Angeles (28.85) ranked lower at 10 and 15. No average tied but some cities came close, like last place cities: Providence, Rhode Island (18), Las Vegas, Nevada (19), and Washington, DC (20).
Top 10 Sunday Funday Hotspots
Overall, you can stop and smell the rosé and start booking flights to the following cities: Boston, Minneapolis, Portland, Atlanta, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, St. Louis, and Miami.
Boston slides into first place, but not all of its scores dominate the other cities. Atlanta and Minneapolis had cheaper cocktail prices with a tie of $11. Whereas, San Francisco (45.43), Minneapolis (48.14), and Atlanta (54.74) have more brunch restaurants to choose from.
San Fran (139), Chicago (95), and Atlanta (92) can rock out the most on a Sunday Funday as the cities with the highest number of music venues in the top 10. San Francisco also had the best walkability score with 87.4%, a 5.4 difference from Boston.
However, craft beer lovers will find themselves happiest in Boston and Minneapolis. The top two cities have the most breweries at 23.09 and 23.49 per 100,000 people.
Full Data
That wraps up our ranking of the best U.S. cities for a Sunday Funday. Interested in diving deeper into the numbers for the top 20 cities, or wanting to see how your city stacks up if it’s not listed within the above charts?
We’ve compiled our full data study for all 50 U.S. cities analyzed into this interactive data table. Search for the city you call home or click on the heading of each column to sort by that category!
Yes, Mondays can be killer, but Sundays don’t have to be scary. Catch flights instead of guilt! Fire up that group chat and assemble the troops for a Sunday Funday with your “ride or dies”. Pro tip: plan your outfit ahead of time. Shop 90’s jeans for a casual Sunday Funday vibe or throw on leather pants for a saucier Sunday fit. For more Sunday Funday outfit inspo, check out our influencer looks.