Walkable, touristy, downtown areas

[kiddo76]

Amherst, MA
Northampton, MA
Portsmouth, NH
Keene, NH
Newport, RI
Mystic, CT
Kennebunkport, ME
Ogunquit, ME
Camden, ME

 

[foodiddiedoo]

Keystone, SD (will kind of remind you of Estes Park) and has Mount Rushmore.

 

[wvjules]

Oh, one more. Bentonville, AK. Such a cute little town square.

 

[NotUrsula]

Lodi, California. Cheese, ice cream, wine tasting, hard cider tasting, beer tasting, pastries, great restaurants and FREE PARKING

And a Creedence Clearwater Revival song.

My vote goes to St. Petersburg, FL. St Pete isn't really a small town (about 300K), but downtown St. Pete itself is not large. It has not one, but two walkable areas; the Harborfront, and the Central Avenue Arts corridor.

 

[nkereina]

the Knox-Albright Museum (or is it Albright-Knox?).

Albright-Knox! That and SUNY Buffalo are both in the Elmwood district I mentioned above, which is a quaint village with lots of shopping and dining. Sounds like you got to experience some nice things here!

I visited your town for the first time back in the '90's when a friend was teaching at SUNY Buffalo. and took me to a buffalo wing bar joint. I remember the roof had a definite dip in the middle but I was just drunk enough not to care (oops); hope that's one of the places that's getting fixed, LOL.

LOL! Was it the Anchor Bar by chance? That's the "home" of the Buffalo wing, where it was invented, and is a very old building in rougher part of Main Street near downtown. If it wasn't Anchor Bar, chances are it was just a dive bar - those ones always have the best wings! LOL!

 

[ncc1701]

Annapolis MD
Cape May NJ
Alexandria VA
Coronado CA

 

[tzolkin]

Thanks for starting this thread.

We enjoy renting a house somewhere in a downtown area and walking everywhere so I'm taking note of these suggestions.

What types of things do you like to do?
We enjoy historical/museums, art, ghost tours, and breweries so those influence our choices. We also like being outdoors/hiking so some type of park with hiking trails nearby (short drive) is also a plus for us.

Yay! I’m going to be there next month! Can’t wait!

St. Augustine was going to be my top suggestion. There are lots of things to do there. You will have a wonderful time.

Haven't seen any mentioned for NC:
Wilmington
Asheville
Brevard

 

[Shellsbutt]

Pacific Grove, CA
Placerville, CA (Hangtown)
Nevada City, CA

 

[Gary M]

Nashville (Brown County), Indiana. https://www.browncounty.com

 

[gillep]

My brother just spent some time in Leavenworth Washington and it looked amazing, I want to take my husband for a long weekend!

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

If you’re ever near Orlando, check out the nearby towns of Mount Dora, Winter Park and Winter Garden.

 

[ahutton]

Sedona AZ and Breckenridge CO are both beautiful upscale places. Lots of shopping and restaurants, tourist areas. Very few locals and the locals seem to not frequent the town areas.

I loved Durango, CO. We've been back once and are planning another trip soon. I travel AR for work, lots of cool little towns all over the state!

Pacific Beach CA is one of our favorite vacation spots. Very walkable area with lots of fun restaurants.

 

[disny_luvr]

Ogunquit, ME
Bar Harbor, ME
Cooperstown, NY
Cape May, NJ
Savannah, GA
Eureka Springs, AR

 

[klacey1]

Mt Dora, Fl

 

[nicolita3]

I second Sedona, AZ
Also if you go to Arizona:
Jerome, AZ
Prescott, Az

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Nashville (Brown County), Indiana. https://www.browncounty.com

I was going to say that.

 

[ramee]

My brother just spent some time in Leavenworth Washington and it looked amazing, I want to take my husband for a long weekend!

Oooh. I looked up pictures. Looks like a quaint European village. German. Wikipedia confirms Bavarian style. Cute.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

So, this may be cheesy, but my family loves little walkable touristy downtowns. I’m not talking about big cities, but little downtowns with fudge, ice cream, t-shirt shops, etc. Examples would be Wisconsin Dells, Gatlinburg TN, Jackson WY, Estes Park CO, etc. Does anyone know of other good ones?

St Augustine, FL.

 

[ramee]

If you’re ever near Orlando, check out the nearby towns of Mount Dora, Winter Park and Winter Garden.

Mt Dora showed up on a couple “best downtown” lists I looked up earlier today. Looks open and clean. I like the look of the streets in winter park with the mature trees.

 

[DisneyOma]

Marblehead, MA - used in Hocus Pocus, Grown Ups and many other movies for its small town/hometown look. Adam Sandler is filming another movie there right now (walked around the outdoor sets today) Has shops, Air BnBs, a fort, a castle, mansions on the Neck, a sandy public beach, yachts in the harbor. Right next to Salem, which has Salem Willows.

Gulfport, FL - quirky cottages, beach, pier, kayak rentals, shops, restaurants, bars. Right across the harbor from St. Pete's, quick drive to St Pete's beach.