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Ithaca is pretty cool if you’re passing through upstate NY. It is largely a college town for Cornell University and Ithaca College. Lots of old buildings, vertical terrain, lots of restaurants, right at the tip of Lake Cayuga, good public transit.
Talkeetna, Alaska. It’s a hippy town. Pretty much any town in Alaska is a small town.
Thomas, WV is another excellent small Appalchia town. Really beautiful, crammed onto the side of the mountain so it’s basically just two or three parallel roads stacked on top of each other. Lots of cool art galleries and shops. It’s an extremely small town (about 650 people), but unlike most, it’s actually growing over the last two decades. It’s been bolstered by wilderness tourism in what seems like a very healthy way, and is a popular ski/snowboarding stop.
Of course, you probably already know about it, because it’s a very short distance from Davis! If you’ve passed through one you’ve certainly passed through the other.
Another great Appalachian town is Nelsonville, OH, home to a big music fest and with an old hippy vibe.
I drive through those towns (Thomas/Davis) occasionally when I go on a long hiking trips. Honestly they seem like shitholes. I think I looked them up and the population was something like 99.8% white. (So like literally one nonwhite person lives there.)
excellent small Appalchia town
These words do not belong next to each other
There are plenty of immigrants who would love the unearned privilege of being born in America that these jackholes have
Another wonderful small town is Kelley’s Island, OH. It’s the best of the Lake Erie islands, imo. Obviously, it’s got a ton of tourists at any given time, to a very small population of only about 250 full time residents. Despite that, off the main street, it’s a super chill place that (obviously) has great access to water. There’s a dope area on the Eastern edge of the island, beyond the single-strip airport, with an amazing outdoor/indoor art gallery/studio. There’s interesting geography - old quarries abandoned 100 years ago with strange microclimates, huge glacial grooves, caves. It is at substantial ecological risk from overtourism, so if you do go, please be chill, don’t bring your car (bikes are an easier way to get around anyhow), and if you litter I’ll hunt you down and kill you.
I was able to spend all day shopping in Galena, Iowa as a very clockable trans woman without getting harassed. In fact everyone was nothing but polite, “ladies, ma’am, miss”, one of the better days of my life.
Beautiful brickwork town, with a stretch of a main street that puts Disneyland to shame for idealized Americana.
They have a hat store.
A hat store.
In the year 2023, a street with multiple fudge shops and a hat store.
It’s a wonder to behold.
