The 5 Best Cities for Walking Business Travelers

By Robert McGarvey

I walk 10,000 steps a day (actually I average 12740), about 5.96 miles, and when I travel I want to maintain the pace.  Nowadays too business trips are a hectic blur – it seems I’m doing something every minute for 16+ hours daily.  I often do not have time for a walk, at least not a walk for walking’s sake. That’s why I have developed a real fondness for five cities that are made for walkers.

5. Phoenix. Yes, it’s hot from mid May to late October, just about 6 months, but Phoenix is also an easy town to walk in – particularly early in the morning and after sunset.  A key: stick to central Phoenix, the corridor that runs along Central Ave, as does the light rail. If it is just too hot, hop on the train to get where you are going. Don’t tempt fates when the mercury climbs above 110 F.

Also, bring a bottle of water when you do walk. A pint probably will do you.

My advice: stay at the Clarendon Hotel – famous as the spot where investigative journalist Don Bolles was murdered 40 years ago; it’s now a delightfully updated and budget friendly independent hotel.

Walk in the morning to the downtown convention center or whichever downtown venue you are going to for a meeting. That will log 3.2 miles.

It’s a nice walk. Don’t miss the spectacular mid-century architecture along Central Ave.  

Walk everywhere at the venue and, bingo, you have 5 miles, 10,000 steps.

Take the light rail back to the Clarendon. Exit at Osborn. Then walk back to the hotel; that’s another .7 miles.

You are over quota.  

And you didn’t even break a sweat.

4. Washington DC. Washington DC is a spectacularly beautiful, human scale town.  It’s center nowadays also is very safe.  Decades ago when I lived in the District it was a dystopian reality but today you can – safely – walk just about everywhere in the city core.

I usually stay at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Thomas Circle (a few blocks from the White House).  The mid century architecture is a hoot, the location is ideal, and it is affordably priced.

Walk to Dupont Circle and it’s a mile each way. Good for restaurants, bars, and often I have to visit an office for a meeting.

Walk to the Convention Center and it is a mile round trip.

Walk around the Convention Center and, soon, you will hit your quota.

Bring an umbrella.  Washington has “measurable precipitation” one in three days – it rains 43” per year.  Be prepared.

3. Manhattan.  I think the last time I took a taxi in Manhattan was maybe a decade ago and, no, I have never used Uber there. I walk and when it it is too far to walk, I take the subway. Manhattan is a walker’s paradise.  Flat and so much to see.

Where to stay? Whatever turns up cheap is my preference. I have no real neighborhood preference – just something vaguely midtown.

But walk, walk, walk in Manhattan.  Things are closer together than you may think.

Walk from the New York Public Library to Katz’s and that’s 2.4 miles.

I cannot recall not easily logging 10,000 steps in a Manhattan day. Just skip the cabs and you’ll hit goal.  

2. San Francisco. Usually I stay at the Hotel Carlton, a Joie de Vivre hotel on the edge of the gritty, authentic Tenderloin – and typically too I log miles walking through the Tenderloin every day.

It’s about one mile to Powell Street.

Look for steep hills – a San Francisco treat – and you will find them.

Walk Powell Street from Union Square to North Beach and there’s a nice elevation, plus it’s a good neighborhood tour.

Stop in City Lights Bookstore.  

History, elevation, urban grittiness – these parts of San Francisco have it all.

Note: the Tenderloin is not an especially dangerous neighborhood. But it is not safe either. Use discretion and if you are an urban wimp, probably you want to walk in other parts of the town.

But you cannot go very wrong in San Francisco. It is a lovely town for walkers.

1. Las Vegas  Surprised by my top pick?  I go to Las Vegas a lot – I have never been for pleasure, by the way, only conventions and conferences – and I have found it a dream town for a walker.  It is shockingly easy to pick up 10,000 steps just walking around a big exhibit hall, walking from the hotel elevators to the convention center (where you have to thread your way through the casino), and walking from one meeting venue to another to lunch.

I have never “gone for a walk” in Las Vegas but I easily notch my daily quota, probably because the venues are so huge.

Yes, this is all indoor walking but in Vegas it works. For me at least.

I don’t say “no” to Las Vegas trips.
How do you like that? An entire story about urban walking where the only appearance of ‘flaneur’ is in sneer quotes at the end.