CEDAR RAPIDS — Location, location, location.
Cedar Rapids made Livibility.com‘s list of best home base cities for road trippers, but not necessarily for any attractions here.
Coming in at #2, Cedar Rapids was cited for its affordable housing (the median home price is $134,0000) paired with “amazing job opportunities at Fortune 500 companies, quirky startups and everything in between.”
The list, which also includes cities such as Tucson, Ariz., and Sacramento, Calif., was compiled based on: an affordable cost of living (so you can save your money for gas); a central location with easy access to other cool cities, cute towns or stunning natural scenery; and an abundance of quirky roadside attractions and things to do nearby.
For Cedar Rapids, that means easy access to St. Louis, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Chicago, Kansas City, Iowa City and the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, according to the listing, which cites the Field of Dreams in Dyersville as the best roadside attraction near Cedar Rapids, just a little more than an hour away.
For other road trip ideas, learn about Iowa’s Scenic Byways.
The list also mentions trips from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City, with a detour to Coralville Lake to enjoy the private beach and the Devonian Fossil Gorge; Iowa City to Davenport, stopping for a meal at The Machine Shed restaurant; Davenport to Dubuque to ride the Fenelon Place Elevator (“the world’s shortest, steepest scenic railway”) and the Dubuque Arboretum — the country’s only volunteer-run arboretum.
No mention of Brucemore, Czech Village, NewBo City Market, the Downtown Farmers Market, National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, Seminole Valley Farm Museum or other attractions in Cedar Rapids, but hopefully, locals are already aware of all of those.
Top 10 list of best home base cities for road trippers from Livability.com:
1. Twin Falls, ID
2. Cedar Rapids, IA
3. Chattanooga, TN
4. Easton, PA
5. Tallahassee, FL
6. Tucson, AZ
7. Lawrence, KS
8. Billings, MT
9. Sacramento, CA
10. Bismarck, ND
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