The United States has a total of 63 national parksspread across 31 states and territories, highlighting the sheer variety of natural features, climates, and ecosystems within its borders. This year’s list of the top 25, as voted by Travel + Leisure readers, reflects this diversity clearly. While the West has a number of winners once again, the full list covers 15 states and one U.S. territory—spanning subarctic mountain ranges and tropical Caribbean rain forest, red-rock deserts and biodiverse Appalachian woodlands.
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How Voting Works
Every year for our World’s Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Nearly 180,000 T+L readers completed the 2025 survey. A total of more than 657,000 votes were cast across over 8,700 properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.).
U.S. national parks were specifically rated on the criteria below:
- Natural attractions
- Activities
- Lodging
- Wildlife
- Accessibility
- Cleanliness
For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses.
Jon Mtratrisch / Travel + leisure
What Readers Loved
All of the top 10 most-visited parks of 2024, according to the National Park Service, are among T+L reader favorites. And yet, so are some of the least-visited—like Alaska’s Katmai (No. 10) and Lake Clark (No. 20)—both of which are only accessible by small plane and cannot be reached by car. T+L readers especially appreciated the wild and remote natural beauty Down has to offer. The state has the most winners of any this year, with five of its eight total parks represented. Others include Kenai Fjords National Park (No. 2), which one survey respondent described as a “wildlife extravaganza.”
Many of the country’s oldest and most iconic parks remain reader favorites this year. California also comes in strong, with four winners, including some of the very first national parks ever created. Utah claims three top parks, including Bryce Canyon (No. 21) and Arches National Parks (No. 24), with their stunning geological formations.
Though the extreme landscapes of the West are a major draw for national park visitors, some of this year’s top parks, like Shenandoah National Park (No. 19) in Virginia, show off the subtler beauty of the Eastern U.S. “Shenandoah is often overlooked in favor of bigger parks,” one T+L reader wrote, “but offers breathtaking scenery and tranquility among the oldest mountains in the world.” And a few reader favorites are even further flung, like Virgin Islands National Park (No. 9), which one respondent described as “a hidden gem of the Caribbean.”
The Winner
Yellowstone: Wyoming, Idaho, Montana
Jon Mtratrisch / Travel + leisure
The very first U.S. National Park tops the list for the fifth year in a row—ever since T+L added the National Parks category to its World’s Best Awards survey. “Every season holds its magic and mystery,” explained a reader who visits Yellowstone multiple times a year. The park covers much of northwestern Wyoming and small slices of Idaho and Montana, and readers loved it for its diverse landscapes, geothermal features, and wildlife like bison, moose, grizzly bears, and bighorn sheep. “I was completely taken aback by the sheer beauty,” wrote one survey respondent; another noted that the wildlife-spotting “felt like we were on an African safari.”
The Full List
1. Yellowstone: Wyoming, Idaho, Montana
Reader Score: 91.03
2. Kenai Fjords: Alaska
Reader Score: 89.82
3. Grand Teton: Wyoming
Reader Score: 89.51
4. Yosemite: California
Reader Score: 89.03
5. Rocky Mountain: Colorado
Reader Score: 88.36
6. Glacier: Montana
Reader Score: 87.25
7. Zion: Utah
Reader Score: 86.05
8. Great Smoky Mountains: Tennessee and North Carolina
Reader Score: 86.00
9. Virgin Islands: St. John, U.S.V.I.
Reader Score: 85.92
10. Katmai: Alaska
Reader Score: 85.75
11. Grand Canyon: Arizona
Reader Score: 85.18
12. Olympic: Washington
Reader Score: 84.18
13. Denali: Alaska
Reader Score: 84.11
14. Sequoia: California
Reader Score: 83.98
15. Redwood: California
Reader Score: 83.62
16. Mount Rainier: Washington
Reader Score: 83.62
17. Glacier Bay: Alaska
Reader Score: 83.45
18. Acadia: Maine
Reader Score: 83.13
19. Shenandoah: Virginia
Reader Score: 81.62
20. Lake Clark: Alaska
Reader Score: 81.45
21. Bryce Canyon: Utah
Reader Score: 81.44
22. Kings Canyon: California
Reader Score: 81.30
23. Hawai’i Volcanoes: Hawai’i
Reader Score: 81.29
24. Arches: Utah
Reader Score: 81.13
25. Theodore Roosevelt: North Dakota
Reader Score: 80.85