The 16 Best Cities for Outdoors Lovers Who Hate Yardwork

When you’re playing the slot machines or savoring the world-famous cuisine in Las Vegas, NV, your getaway world rarely extends beyond the Strip. Yet for about 270,000 suburbanites who live just seven miles southeast of the Strip, there’s a world worth exploring outside the confines of a casino.

For folks who love the outdoors but hate yardwork, the Vegas suburb of Henderson just might be nirvana. That’s because Henderson blends an array of outdoors amenities and a nice climate with a fairly deep pool of pros who can take care of your lawn care. These lawn care workers free up time for Henderson residents to enjoy the city’s parks, playgrounds and other outdoors offerings.

Taking all of that into consideration, Henderson tops our list of the 16 Best Cities for Outdoors Lovers Who Hate Yardwork.

This dog statue, named Barkules, greets visitors to Henderson’s Bark Park.
Photo: Flickr/Cindy Abel

Park Proximity

One of the key outdoors benefits for Henderson is that almost 70 percent of its residents live within half a mile of a park or recreation amenity, according to the National Recreation and Park Association.

“With so many parks and trails within walking distance, Henderson residents have a unique opportunity to participate in outdoor experiences right in their own neighborhoods,” the recreation association says. “This commitment to parks and recreation brings a wealth of both tangible and intangible benefits to the community.”

Henderson boasts more than 1,300 acres at 64 parks.

“Parks provide a sense of place and limitless opportunities for people to connect in a shared environment,” Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen tells the recreation association. “They are the cornerstone of our quality of life and of our premier community.”

Henderson takes pride in its aquatic centers.
Photo: City of Henderson

Diving into the Data

To calculate the Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters scores, we examined nine sets of data for the 100 cities with the largest parks and recreation systems. Two cities — Honolulu, HI, and San Bernardino, CA — didn’t make the final cut because their data was insufficient.

For our first data point, we considered each city’s supply of pros who could take care of your lawn. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics told us how many lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs there are in each locale.

Then, we checked out data from The Trust for Public Land regarding the per-person availability of seven outdoors amenities available to the public: parks, baseball fields, basketball hoops, dog parks, playgrounds, swimming pools and tennis courts.

Next, we looked at the climate ranking for each city, courtesy of WalletHub.

Finally, we mixed all of this data — weighing each of the nine factors evenly — to come up with an Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score for each city. Henderson, NV, grabbed the top spot with a score of 7.78.

Here are the specifics about the nine categories of data:

• Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs
• Park acreage per 1,000 people
• Baseball fields per 10,000 people
• Basketball hoops per 10,000 people
• Dog parks per 100,000 people
• Playgrounds per 10,000 people
• Swimming pools per 100,000 people
• Tennis courts per 10,000 people
• Climate rank

Top Cities

The result of all that number crunching is our list of the 16 Best Cities for Outdoors Lovers Who Hate Yardwork.

1. Henderson, NV

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 7.78

Photo: Yelp

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 8.494
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 53.8
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 2.07
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 7.5
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 4.1
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 2.5
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 4.8
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 2.1
Climate rank: 4 (1 is highest rank)

2. Norfolk, VA

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 7.41

Photo: City of Norfolk

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 6.392
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 2.5
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 3.49
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 8.21
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 4.5
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 4.1
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 2.4
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 6
Climate rank: 62 (1 is highest)

We service Norfolk and the entire VA Beach area.

3. Cincinnati, OH

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 7.05

Photo: Yelp

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 6.328
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 25.2
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 3.56
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 5.9
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 1.3
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 5.1
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 8.7
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 3.2
Climate rank: 58 (1 is highest)

4. Tampa, FL

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 7.05

Photo: City of Tampa

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 6.656
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 13.7
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 3.57
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 4.93
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 2.8
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 2.3
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 4
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 1.4
Climate rank: 13 (1 is highest)

Need lawn service in Tampa FL?  We’ve got you covered.

5. Pittsburgh, PA

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 6.89

Photo: Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 6.063
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 9.8
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 4.19
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 3.5
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 2
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 4.2
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 6.2
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 2.8
Climate rank: 84 (1 is highest)

6. Boise, ID

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 6.85

Photo: Capital Group

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 7.05
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 13
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 2.33
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 2.29
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 1.4
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 3.4
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 3.3
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 3.8
Climate rank: 26 (1 is highest)

7. Tucson, AZ

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 6.63

Photo: Yelp

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 8.551
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 7.4
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 2.74
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 1.24
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 1
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 3.6
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 4.9
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 1.7
Climate rank: 16 (1 is highest)

8. Cleveland, OH

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 6.62

Photo: Rivergate Foundation

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 7.177
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 7.9
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 3.56
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 5.9
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 0.5
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 2.9
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 10.8
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 2.8
Climate rank: 83 (1 is highest)

9. Sacramento, CA

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 6.38

Photo: Trevor Snapp/American Forests

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 7.312
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 10.6
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 2.13
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 2.67
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 2.1
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 3.9
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 2.5
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 1
Climate rank: 9 (1 is highest)

10. St. Petersburg, FL

Photo: ActiveRain/Dawne Lagergren

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 6.33

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 6.656
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 24.7
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 1.68
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 2.24
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 2.4
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 3.1
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 3.6
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 2.6
Climate rank: 40 (1 is highest)

11. Denver, CO

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 6.30

Photo: Visit Denver

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 7.598
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 9.1
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 2.25
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 1.6
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 1.7
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 3.8
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 4.8
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 2.3
Climate rank: 61 (1 is highest)

12. Omaha, NE

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 6.09

Photo: City of Omaha

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 6.126
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 24.2
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 3.61
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 1.91
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 0.5
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 4.3
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 4.1
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 4.4
Climate rank: 75 (1 is highest)

13. Baton Rouge, LA

Photo: IBI Group

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 6.03

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 5.593
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 6.2
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 3.14
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 5.23
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 0.9
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 3
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 2.2
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 3
Climate rank: 51 (1 is highest)

14. Arlington, VA

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 5.99

Photo: City of Arlington

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 6.331
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 7.9
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 2.4
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 2.8
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 3.6
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 3.3
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 1.8
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 4
Climate rank: 93 (1 is highest)

Check out our Arlington, VA lawn care page. 

15. Chesapeake, VA

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 5.97

Photo: Chesapeake Parks, Recreation & Tourism

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 6.392
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 246.6
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 5.38
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 1.3
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 1.3
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 3.1
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 0
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 3.3
Climate rank: 47 (1 is highest)

We service Virginia Beach and surrounding areas.

16. Jacksonville, FL

Photo: Visit Jacksonville

Outdoors Lovers/Yardwork Haters Score: 5.96

Lawn care workers per 1,000 jobs: 7.988
Park acreage per 1,000 people: 78.3
Baseball fields per 10,000 people: 3.22
Basketball hoops per 10,000 people: 1.73
Dog parks per 100,000 people: 0.4
Playgrounds per 10,000 people: 3.4
Public swimming pools per 100,000 people: 4.2
Tennis courts per 10,000 people: 1.9
Climate rank: 69 (1 is highest)

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Top photo: River Mountains Loop Trail

John Egan

John Egan is the former editor in chief of LawnStarter.com. Now, he is a freelance writer extraordinaire. He lives in Austin, Texas.

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