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The Best U.S. Cities for a Romantic Proposal, Mapped

New York City, Jersey City, and Los Angeles take the lead.

ByCaLea Johnson|
See which cities in the U.S. offer the most romantic proposal experiences.
See which cities in the U.S. offer the most romantic proposal experiences. | Cloudwards

Marriage proposals are some of the happiest moments in people’s lives—even when they don’t go according to plan. The decision to build a life with someone typically starts with the old tradition of getting down on one knee and popping the question. If you’re looking for an ideal setting for the event, Cloudwards has determined the best U.S. cities for romantic proposals.

The cloud and privacy software review website created a 100-point system to rank the 100 largest cities in the U.S. Researchers from the site used three key data points—“Romantic Experiences and Ambiance,” “Shopping for Proposals and Special Moments,” and “Photogenic Proposal Spots”— and weighed each to evaluate the cities. Each category consisted of different metrics; for example, the number of romantic restaurants per 100,000 people was taken into consideration when measuring the Romantic Experiences and Ambiance dimension. Data from such sources as Booking.com, Yelp, TripAdvisor, TikTok, and Instagram were considered in this study. The results are mapped below.

map of the best u.s. cities for proposals
The crown goes to New York City! | Cloudwards

California takes the most spots on the list, with five out of the top 10 entries. Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Ana, Anaheim, and San Francisco claim the third, fourth, eighth, ninth, and 10th spots on the list, respectively. Cloudwards {PDF} explains that the coastal state has several advantages, such as consistent weather patterns and diverse outdoor scenery, that draw lovebirds to it.

Higher up on the list, New York City comes in as the top destination for proposals. It ranks No.1 for photogenic spots and No.2 for romantic experiences. The Big Apple’s neighbor Jersey City follows close behind. Although it’s lacking in the romantic-experiences-and-ambiance department, the New Jersey city is the best spot for proposal shopping and ranks highly in photogenic spots. In third place is Los Angeles. The city ranks third in romantic experiences and third in photogenic spots.

You can find the complete list below. For a closer look at the map above, click here.

  1. New York City
  2. Jersey City, New Jersey
  3. Los Angeles
  4. San Diego, California
  5. Las Vegas
  6. Chicago
  7. Miami
  8. Santa Ana, California
  9. Anaheim, California
  10. San Francisco

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