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Who doesn't love a good beach day? Fortunately, you don't have to flock to the coast to enjoy a day at the beach. Thanks to the Great Lakes, people living in the Midwest have a closer destination for beachside fun, splashing around in the water and soaking up the summer sun.
Stacker compiled a list of 50 of the best beach towns on the Great Lakes, and 12 cities in Wisconsin made the list with several in the Top 10. Here's how the site determined the list:
"To be considered a beach town, each city needed at least one beach on the Environmental Protection Agency's National List of Beaches. [...] Rankings were determined by a number of factors weighted by importance in the following order from most to least important: number of beaches monitored through the BEACH Act, the total shoreline of those beaches, access to beach-related businesses based on Census Bureau County Businesses Patterns, and Zillow median home prices."
These 12 Wisconsin cities made the list:
- No. 1: Port Washington
- No. 2: Algoma
- No. 3: Milwaukee
- No. 8: Kenosha
- No. 10: Racine
- No. 12: Two Rivers
- No. 17: Superior
- No. 22: Sturgeon Bay
- No. 27: Sheboygan
- No. 30: Manitowoc
- No. 44: Cleveland
- No. 46: Washburn
With 12 beaches, around 6 miles of monitored shoreline, an average summer temperature of 80 degrees and median home price of $301,284, Port Washington claimed the top spot overall, also making it the best beach town in Wisconsin along the lakes.
These are the Top 10 best beach towns on the Great Lakes:
- Port Washington, Wisconsin
- Algoma, Wisconsin
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Chicago, Illinois
- Michigan City, Indiana
- Traverse City, Michigan
- Grand Marais, Minnesota
- Kenosha, Wisconsin
- Naubinway, Michigan
- Racine, Wisconsin
Check out the full report at stacker.com to see more of the best beach towns around the Great Lakes.