Most preseason NFL coverage involves ranking quarterbacks, sizing up teams and picking winners on the road to the Super Bowl. This is different. This is how sportswriters really rank schedules: What’s the best NFL road trips — and the worst?

A Fodor’s for football is needed, and who better to write it? I’ve been to every NFL stadium (and many that no longer exist). I’ve been to NFL cities that have come and gone (and come again in the case of Los Angeles).

An NFL road trip doesn’t get ranked simply by the game experience. It involves the full, subjective palette of a city and football mixed with travel and weather issues. Go find the quarterback rankings elsewhere. When you’re looking to take a NFL road trip …

1. Green Bay. This is the must-do trip for a football aficionado. Step back in sepia-toned time to the frozen tundra and Lambeau Field. Get some cheese curds. Park in someone’s yard and walk to the stadium in a small-town neighborhood. It’s the only place in the NFL where if it snows it’s a bonus. The only drawback is getting there from anywhere. Or maybe that’s what keeps it great.

2. Los Angeles. The Miami Dolphins open there this season and it’s a great trip. The stadium is off-the-charts nice with its canopy top. Stay in Santa Monica and you dodge the awful traffic for a quick trip to the stadium. That’s a football weekend.

3. South Florida. Let’s throw this in to understand where we live. It might be No. 1 on any sports writer’s list. You don’t just get the South Florida scene, whatever you want that to be. The Dolphins have been first class in the Steve Ross era in everything but what fans worry about most. That includes a top-of-the-line stadium experience.

4. New Orleans. It’s a moderate flight from anywhere and a city with as much fun as you want packed into a cozy downtown. Points off for a blah, indoor stadium, but let’s stick with a general travel tip for the NFL: Anywhere you can order fresh grouper on the menu is a good place to visit.

5. Las Vegas. Yeah, it’s Vegas and you pick your fun. It’s become the hottest NFL ticket for reasons beyond football. But there’s a time-lapse caveat to any Vegas trip: The fun has an inverse relationship to the time stayed. That inverse increases for each decade you’re over 30 years old.

6. Chicago. If Da Bears ever assembled a consistent winner, this would be ranked higher. There’s a great downtown and it’s a Midwestern walk to Soldier Field.

7. Denver. You want to ski or hike some foothills before watching football? This is the place to pack a lot into a weekend. The Mile High Stadium atmosphere of a city in love with its team only adds to the trip.

8. Seattle. Great city. Great stadium. Great atmosphere. Not-so-great weather if you come in November or December. And there’s the cross-country trip.

9. Nashville. A convenient football weekend with a lyrical twang. Everything’s in walking distance of a contained downtown, from restaurants to hotels to the football stadium. Beware of a dozen bridal showers colliding downtown every weekend.

10. Pittsburgh. You want a tough, beer-and-shot football visit? This is your place. You can walk almost everywhere and enjoy yourself. It’s not a vacation stop, but for a weekend trip to watch an NFL game it’s underrated.

11. Indianapolis. See Nashville, minus the twang but including the bridal showers.

12. Buffalo. It’s easy to knock. Sometimes it’s fun to knock. But get some wings, a Genesee Cream and you’re on your way to seeing why Buffalo is a football weekend right down to a glorified high-school stadium that’s being replaced. (Note: Drop this ranking 10 places for December or January games).

13. Jacksonville. Another that shouldn’t be on the bad-rap list. Forget downtown. You stay on the Jacksonville beaches and you’ve made a great weekend. Throw in the proximity and the easy access to the stadium and it’s good trip.

14. New York. What, down here? The Big Apple? A weekend in New York is one thing. But this is a football weekend, too. It’s not so much the trip from the city to East Rutherford, N.J., as the palace of stadium blandness awaiting you.

15. Carolina. There’s a grading curve of convenience on these trips, and Carolina is another trip that mixes a lively downtown with a quick trip to a nice stadium. Nothing classic or football-crazy about it. But a compact trip and easy city to reach.

16. San Francisco. A couple of decades ago, this was a top-five visit. But replacing the historic Candlestick Park with the new stadium in distant Santa Clara makes it a different trip.

17. Tampa Bay. Nice city. Nice trip. Nice stadium. But it’s spread out and nothing stands out to put it higher on the list.

18. Arizona. You get the desert. You get a decent downtown. You get an new, indoor stadium that defines an average football experience. Just like this trip.

19. Kanas City. Ribs, restaurants and red. That’s the theme of this one. The Kansas city fans might be the closest to college fans in the NFL with their wearing red to every game.

20. New England. Love the history, the walk-around feel to Boston and, for years, the bonus of seeing the NFL’s best show. But it’s sinking in the ratings as the team settles into mediocrity and Gillette Stadium remains somewhere between Boston and Providence.

21. Minnesota. It’s an underrated city to visit. The new stadium is nice like any new indoor stadium. But unless you want to go ice fishing there’s little that sets this apart for a football weekend.

22. Cleveland. The Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame is a punt from the stadium and a surprising add-on to the visit.

23. Dallas. What, way down here? It’s an nice downtown. But the stadium’s out there. And, yeah, everything’s bigger in Dallas including the Jerry Jones’ landmark to Jerry Jones. The stadium is defined by having the biggest TV in the history of stadium TVs. That’s the problem. You end up watching the game on TV rather than the field. Makes for a weird game experience.

24. Baltimore. It’s fine. They love their Ravens and there’s the inner harbor to visit.

25. Atlanta. Not much downtown. Maybe I still haven’t recovered from the 1996 Olympics.

26. Washington. The sightseeing is worth any trip. But the football side of it? The stadium is out there, somewhere, and the Daniel Snyder era may have ruined the love you once felt in Washington for their team.

27. Houston. A nice city, but so spread out it’s tough to navigate for a quick football weekend.

28. Philadelphia. A lot of history. A lot of tradition. But run the “Rocky” steps to the art museum and you’ve hit the high point of a football trip.

29. Cincinnati. You can walk from the stadium across a bridge to Kentucky if that’s on your bucket list.

30. Detroit. Maybe for an auto convention. But I’ve done my time there on football trips.