QuoteWizard, a LendingTree company, and one of the nation’s leading online insurance marketplaces, released a new report ranking the riskiest places to travel to this spring break and Arizona ranks No. 28 among riskiest places to travel for spring break.

Georgia, South Carolina and California are the riskiest states for spring break travel, according to the report.

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It’s been a long and arduous year, with much anticipation as we passed the one-year mark of America’s first COVID-19 case. Each year during March and April, thousands of people load up their cars or hop on flights to find warm and relaxing spring break destinations. This year seems to be no different. According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), over the last few weeks, U.S. airports have experienced a record number of Americans traveling since the beginning of the pandemic.

Although COVID-19 vaccinations have become available and we are seeing an increase in adults being vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is still advising against travel and considering the risks involved. Despite the CDC’s warnings, thousands of people descended upon Florida for Spring Break 2021.

Riskiest places to travel for spring break

Dr. Fauci warned people to be careful amid pandemic travel. He said, “We want people to have a good time on spring break, but don’t put your guard down completely. Just be prudent a bit longer. We are going in the right direction, we’re almost there.”

As businesses slowly begin to reopen, COVID-19 cases continue to rise. According to the New York Times database, around 30 million people across the country have tested positive for the virus and 536,400 people have died.

Depending on where you’re traveling, some destinations may be riskier than others. The research team at QuoteWizard compiled a number of travel risk factors to see which states were considered riskiest to visit this Spring Break. We looked at dangerous driving comparisons to evaluate road travel risk and compared those figures with COVID-19-related risk factors. Overall, we evaluated eight risk factors in each state to compile the rankings of the riskiest states to travel to this holiday season. These factors include:

• Seniors with underlying health conditions

• Dangerous driving states: accidents, speeding and DUI rankings

• Hospital capacity

• Adults vaccinated against COVID-19

• COVID-19 cases and death rates

Methodology

QuoteWizard analyzed six safety metrics and the most recent (March 16, 2021) Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention (CDC) data on United States COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by State per 100K in the last seven days from all 50 states to determine which states are safest for pandemic spring break travel. Each metric was ranked on a 1-50 scale, with an ascending score representing the least safe to safest conditions for specific state travel. Researchers then determined each state’s safety ranking by averaging across all metric scores to calculate its overall ranking and used the resulting scores to rank-order each of the states.