You should retire here: New survey names 5 best retirement destinations

Go north, retirees.

Despite its harsh winter, New Hampshire is the best place to retire, according to personal finance site Bankrate.com.

Colorado, Maine, Iowa and Minnesota round out its top five retirement destinations.

The chosen states offer the best options in the financial and lifestyle categories that matter to retirees. From most to least important, the categories were: cost of living, healthcare quality, crime, cultural vitality, weather, taxes, senior citizens’ well-being and the prevalence of other seniors.

New Hampshire ranked in the top five in three of the categories -- well-being (second-best), crime (third-lowest) and healthcare quality (fourth-best) -- and generally performed well in other areas, except weather.

The most tax-friendly state for you? It depends.

Non-retired U.S. adults were surveyed nationally for the report, Bankrate says.

“What people think they want in retirement may not end up being what serves them best over the long run,” said Claes Bell, a Bankrate.com analyst. “It’s about a lot more than sunny skies, beaches and golf courses. As you get older, practical considerations like health care, taxes and proximity to family and friends become much more important.”

Daydreaming about packing up and heading to new and strange destinations at retirement is still common even among young workers. About half of non-retired U.S. adults would consider moving to a different city or state when they retire, the study said. More than half of millennials, 58%, expressed their desire to move, while 46% of Gen Xers said the same.

But people's desire to leave their professional and familial ties to explore new surroundings wanes as they get closer to retirement age, the study found. Only 37% of Baby Boomers and 12% of the Silent Generation said they'd move to a new city after retirement.

Warm, southern states, such as Arizona, Florida and Nevada, are still popular retirement destinations. But they didn't fare as well as the colder states cited in the report in several important categories. Arizona, which ranked 12th among all states, failed to make the top 10 in seven of the eight categories observed.

Florida ranked 17th among the states, failing to crack the top 10 in any of the categories except for the prevalence of other seniors.

Nevada was among the worst states to retire in the U.S., ranking 44th. It has the nation's worst health care quality and the fourth-highest crime rate, which outweighed its favorable weather and low taxes, the report said.

Other states to avoid when considering retirement destinations? Alaska, West Virginia, Arkansas, New Mexico and Louisiana.

Alaska came in last overall. It registered the second-highest crime rate, the third-highest cost of living, and the fifth-worst score for health care quality, the report said.