<p>^^^ and you could stop in the White Mountains going from LL Bean to B&Js!</p>
<p>Looks like this list is solely created by the place where the MOST folks have visited. In CT…Hammonasset is a HUGE beach, drawing lots of folks in the summers. I’m not sure I think it’s popular for any other reason. I mean really…if the nearest BIG beach was in RI, a beach would NOT have won.</p>
<p>I would have thought Mystic.</p>
<p>Mall of America appears to be #1, behind Times Square, Las Vegas and any Disney. That, to me, is a big surprise! </p>
<p>I’m just glad ours (Va) is not a mall, as is advertised by said mall. LOL.</p>
<p>I’ve been to several of these, but really, how does one “count” for some of these places?</p>
<p>The current mayor of Chicago and the one before him, have this grand idea that Chicago’s River Walk will rival the one in San Antonio. It has a loooong way to go.</p>
<p>I’m sure the visitor numbers are right for Atlantic City, but I’m guessing most aren’t going there for the Boardwalk. 
For places people are actually going to for the place itself, I would have guessed the Sandy Hook part of Gateway National Park.</p>
<p>Ours is Independance Hall, which makes sense. But I agree that it would have been more fun for each state to have a non-commercial and commercial,category. I wonder how the statistics were derived – I can’t believe more people visit Ben & Jerry’s than Stowe, for example.</p>
<p>I’m sure that there are a zillion people on the Blue Ridge Parkway every year but if anybody had asked me I would have said the beaches on NC. Based on the time we spend in traffic on the Outer Banks, there must be millions headed there.</p>
<p>A few years back, for MA it would have been the Cheers bar. Lines of tourists outside all day long. I couldn’t pick a favorite for MA because there are so many. </p>
<p>Greenfield Village/Henry Ford Museum is one of the great places in the US to visit. But my favorite place in MI is my old high school and associated stuff, Cranbrook, with the science museum and art academy and grounds. Or Sleeping Bear Dunes.</p>
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<p>Yeah, some of these posts seem as though they are interpreting this list as reflective of merit of the particular place vs. the factual aspect of how many people visit them. </p>
<p>On the post on Florida, yeah, if you counted numbers of visitors to all Florida beaches vs. any one in particular, it would of course impact the numbers vs. Disney.</p>
<p>I agree with you, thumper. I would’ve thought Mystic (Seaport and Aquarium) would’ve been first in CT. I’ve lived in CT for 33 years and I’ve never been to Hammonassett Beach (I’m not a beach person).</p>
<p>We visited Mystic as tourists but never went to beaches in CT. I’d vote for Mystic too. </p>
<p>I’d say Utah’s is a bit misleading. If you’re staying in downtown Salt Lake City, Temple Square is a short walk from your hotel, and all you have to do to “visit” it is turn onto the correct sidewalk.</p>
<p>The numbers for Parks like Zion or Arches might technically be lower, but I’d say they give a more accurate picture of tourism in Utah.</p>
<p>@soozievt-So in the summer of 1978, DH and I were in Burlington one day and saw this gas station that was selling ice cream, so we stopped in. The original Ben & Jerry’s. How lucky we were and didn’t even know it. 
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<p>Another Michigander here … The Henry Ford is awesome, for sure. However, I vote for Sleeping Bear Dunes … heck, the whole Lake Michigan coast … but I don’t know if that is “popular” in the way the article measures popularity. Because so many school-kids and families visit The Henry Ford, the numbers are huge. It would be more difficult to measure visitors to the Dunes.</p>
<p>As much as I dislike the weather here sometimes (especially this never-ending winter), we sure do have an amazingly beautiful state.</p>
<p>Another CP fan–I worked there for 3 summers, and had a great time.
My current home state has the least-visited attraction of any state. I’ve been to 12 of the listed attractions, but not to the one here-- Tallgrass Prairie (I had to look up where it is). Many of the most popular attractions for KS residents are in KC, Missouri.
The most popular attraction in KS is actually the Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead in Overland Park. (Many more visitors than the Tallgrass Prairie, and only open April-Oct.) A few others would be the Oak Park Mall, Sporting Park, home of ML Soccer champs, Sporting KC, Overland Park Soccer Complex, and Kansas Speedway (NASCAR track).<br>
If I didn’t like the Farmstead so much, I’d nominate I-70 as the most popular attraction in KS. </p>
<p>It does not make sense to pick one attraction to represent a state.</p>
<p>I was in Mall of America once but I did not feel anything special. Perhaps because I have been too many shopping malls, many theme parks, zoos, and marine aquariums in California, Florida, DC,…</p>
<p>I didn’t see anything in the link which says it has anything to do with “representing a state.” It’s simply noting the “most popular” attraction in each state based on attendance. I’m not reading anything more into that.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think this list just has to do with the raw number of visitors annually. I’m originally from Texas, and yeah, the San Antonio River Walk probably gets the most visitors. It’s free, open all year round, and everyone visits it - from tourists to local folks on their lunch hour. </p>
<p>Another Michigander chiming in here- I think we take The Henry Ford Museum for granted. But when @beadymom was in town doing college visits and asked me what they should do on their free day, I suggested The Henry Ford. They did the museum and the truck plant tour. But really- The Kennedy car? The Reagan car? The chair Lincoln was in when assassinated? There is some incredible history in that museum. I like Greenfield Village better, but since it closed part of the year, I can see why the museum would get more visitors. I agree Mackinac Island is probably high on the list, but The Henry Ford is close to where conventions are held and where most of the people in the state live. </p>
<p>Ema- You are missing out on a gem You should check it out. </p>