Top 15 Destinations for Winter Getaways

Historic missions, indie boutiques, local arts and theater, and local food are the highlights in survey’s best U.S. cities for a weekend escape. 

Plenty of Americans need a midwinter getaway, and most travelers strongly consider hotel and entertainment prices when making plans, according to “Best U.S. Cities for Affordable Getaways,” a survey from Travel + Leisure. Thirty-five cities are ranked in categories including bargain dining and cultural offerings.

Whether travelers seek snow or sun, the top 15 cities for wallet-friendly weekend escapes are:

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1. Kansas City, Missouri. One of the few cities where hotel prices have stayed the same or even dropped in the past year, the survey finds. Sightseeing remains a great value, and meals are well priced. Kansas City is the survey winner for budget-minded, slow-smoked barbecue.

2. Nashville, Tennessee. A locavore-friendly food scene earns the city high marks for burgers, cafes and microbrews.

3. San Antonio, Texas. Plenty of free attractions, such as all five of the city’s historic missions, including the Alamo, and the Riverwalk, a 15-mile stretch of urban ecosystem restoration, make San Antonio a popular spot.

4. Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. A down-to-earth metro area, the Twin Cities has 20 lakes and more than 200 miles of biking and walking trails. The Twin Cities scored near the top of the survey for easy-access parks, where trails get plowed during the long winters.

5. Memphis, Tennessee. Street performers provide nearly omnipresent—and free—music. Levitt Shell, where Elvis was the opening act one night in 1954, is a must-see. Finger-friendly gourmet food is easy to come by, according to the survey.

6. Salt Lake City, Utah. A pleasantly spic-and-span city, home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is family-friendly, peaceful and reasonably priced. Take advantage of a discount pass that pays for itself by bundling a long list of free meals and attractions.

7. Houston, Texas. Restaurant meals are about $3 cheaper than the national average. Houston also scored in the top 10 for its classical music. Don’t miss the barbecue or the folk art Beer Can Residence.

8. Savannah, Georgia. Pedestrian-friendly charm and loads of happy hour specials on River Street are popular features. The city also offers tours inspired by the best-selling book (and movie) “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”

9. Austin, Texas. Many of the Texas capital’s diversions have a young vibe, since they are geared toward local college students and young techie types.

10. Providence, Rhode Island. The only northeastern city to make the budget-friendly top 10 this year, perhaps thanks to its crowd-pleasing dining, arts and theater scenes.

11. Portland, Maine. Winter is a cost-cutting time to visit, and travelers can still enjoy Portland’s highly ranked microbrews, coffees and indie boutiques.

12. New Orleans, Louisiana. Live music and fabulous food in abundance, found at often-free festivals, are top features, as is St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, resting place of the famous Voodoo queen Marie Laveau.

13. Portland, Oregon. The city’s top ranking for mass transit makes it possible to avoid a car rental, a great cost-cutting measure.

14. Charleston, South Carolina. Travel + Leisure advises joining Culinary Tours of Charleston for $40, a bargain that lets travelers meet award-winning low-country chefs, heirloom bakers, and artisanal food producers. 

15. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Airfares into the Puerto Rico capital have become more competitive, making this centuries-old port city a great choice for those who want to beach it along with some historic charm. 

Alternative Strategies Important for Pensions

Alternative strategies have been successful in increasing the portfolio returns of institutions, as well as reducing investment risk, over the past 20 years.

“Private equity and venture capital have provided returns well above public market equities,” says Verne O. Sedlacek, president and CEO of Commonfund. “And hedge funds have provided alpha across market cycles and protection in down markets.”

Sedlacek is author of the recent paper, “Alternatives Reality: What to Expect from Future Allocations.” 

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Long-term asset pools, such as pension funds, have not been able to maintain their purchasing power and spending by allocating to just a mix of passively managed investments, Sedlacek adds. “Active management of long-only strategies will bridge only part of that gap. Significant allocations to alternative strategies are necessary to preserve intergenerational equity and thus fulfill the long-term obligations of institutional investors.”

In the paper, Sedlacek outlines key factors driving the success of alternative strategies:

  • Once considered exotic, alternative strategies are now seen as mainstream by investors. Over the past 30 years, endowments have increased allocations to equities and decreased allocations to fixed-income strategies.
  • Investors have been adequately compensated with higher risk adjusted returns compared to traditional strategies. Institutions that allocate capital to alternatives exhibit higher performance in comparison to those that allocate solely to traditional assets. Thoughtfully constructed portfolios including allocations to alternative investment strategies are well-positioned to continue to outperform the “traditional” 60/40 benchmark.
  • Nonprofits of all types and size have significant allocations to alternatives. Today, the largest educational endowments allocate on average more than half of their portfolios to alternative investment strategies. Pension funds, while at much lower allocations, have likewise shifted assets toward alternatives in an effort to boost investment performance and dampen volatility.

According to the paper, investment manager selection is critical. There is a wide dispersion of returns in alternative investments, making manager access and selection key determinants of returns. The paper also argues that allocations to alternatives should be used only by investors that can access top-tier managers, since the distribution of returns among alternative managers is far greater than it is among traditional managers.

The paper concludes that the fundamental principles and drivers of investment performance that have propelled returns for alternatives over the last two decades are largely unchanged. The paper also concludes that significant allocations to alternative strategies need to be “thoughtfully constructed and [overseen by] top-tier managers.”

The full text of the white paper can be found here.

Commonfund is a provider of fund management and investment services for long-term investors such as nonprofit institutions, corporate pension plans and family offices.

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