Kick Butt Tip of the Day for May 25: You Are Awesome

From English physicist Stephen Hawking: “However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”

- Don Chase's Kick Butt Tip of the Day is a daily motivational feature designed to give you the inspiration you need to power through your day. Check out all the Kick Butt Tips here.

Move over Florida, you're no longer the best state for a summer vacation, as Virginia takes home the top honors for 2023.

Our friends over at Gambling.com crunched all the numbers, and while the Sunshine State is high up there, it's actually our neighbors to the north that should be your destination this year.

A lot of research went into picking out the best spots for your vacations this year, and with so many choices, it wasn't easy.

"With this in mind, the data research team at Gambling.com decided to work out which states are the best to vacation in this summer," Peter Welch said in his Gambling.com piece. "They did this by analyzing five different data points to create a final vacation score for each state. These data points are: accommodation availability, accommodation affordability, crime rate (lower is obviously better!), levels of sunlight and number of attractions (national historical monuments and state parks) in relation to each state’s size."

Virginia scored well across all of the categories being measured, gaining a lot of ground over Florida in room affordability and crime rate in particular.

We'll take a look at the best summer vacation state in our list below, which doesn't include North Carolina. Our home state came in at a respectable 16 this year, with great scoring in the accommodation category, but marginal scores everywhere else.

Just in case you were looking for the most affordable spot, looks like it's North Dakota this year.

"North Dakota leads the country in terms of affordable summer vacation accommodation. Over one week in the middle of June, 93.7% of the available lettings on popular site booking.com were priced at $200 per night or less — meaning it could be the best destination for families primarily focused on a budget-friendly break away."

So, here's the Top 10 best summer vacation states for 2023, with Virginia topping the list.