13 Most Breathtaking Towns In The United States
Thomas Jefferson stood on a rock above Harpers Ferry in 1783, watched the Potomac and Shenandoah rip a notch clean through the mountain, and said the view was worth crossing an ocean for. He was right, and he barely scratched the surface. This country is full of small towns that got lucky with their address, places where a single windmill, a red rock canyon, or one 235-foot sea stack does the heavy lifting and the town just gets to live next to it. The thirteen below are the ones worth clearing a weekend for. Some you have probably driven past. All of them are the kind of place where you end up taking way too many photos and regretting none of them.
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
The scenery in Carmel-by-the-Sea starts with a white-sand beach and a stand of Monterey cypress leaning into the wind off the Pacific Ocean. The town itself is barely a square mile of cottages, and the best way to take it in is a walk down the Scenic Road Walkway, which runs right along the water with an unbroken view of the surf.
That path connects to Ocean Avenue, the main street, so a stroll can easily detour past the Hansel and Gretel cottages, whose steep gables and rounded doors look lifted from a children's book, or the Carmel Mission Basilica, a stone church founded in 1770. When hunger hits, Dametra Cafe on the avenue is the spot for Mediterranean plates. A few miles down the coast, the trails at Garrapata State Park drop through canyons and redwood groves to more headlands and beach.
Pella, Iowa
Dutch immigrants settled Pella in the 1840s, and their descendants have kept the look going: tidy brick storefronts, tulip beds, and a working windmill in the middle of the Iowa prairie. In spring, Central Park fills with flowering trees, a fountain, and beds of tulips, with more of the same over at Brinkhoff Park. The town's centerpiece sits at Pella Historical Village, where log cabins, a blacksmith shop, and a restored 1850s bakery line up alongside costumed guides. Rising over all of it is the Vermeer Windmill, an authentic 1850s-style grain mill that ranks among the tallest working windmills in North America and stays open for tours. Beyond downtown, the paved Volksweg Trail runs about twelve miles along the Des Moines River to Lake Red Rock, the largest lake in Iowa and a magnet for boaters.
Stowe, Vermont
Mount Mansfield, the tallest peak in Vermont, hangs over Stowe and changes the whole town's mood four times a year. Fall is the showstopper, when the sugar maples, red maples, and pines turn shades of orange, yellow, and crimson that few places on earth can match. Winter buries the village in snow, spring melts it into running water, and summer light picks out every fold of the surrounding green hills, right up to the rocky summit locals call the Chin.
The 5.3-mile Stowe Recreation Path threads through the woods and along the Little River, open to walkers, cyclists, and skiers, with spots to picnic or swim along the way. For a higher vantage, the 3.7-mile Stowe Pinnacle Trail climbs to an overlook of the whole range. Stowe Mountain Resort stays open year-round, and its Gondola SkyRide climbs toward Mansfield's peak for a long look at the valleys below.
Naples, Florida
Here the dominant feature is the Gulf: white sand, warm water, and palm-lined streets that mix Mediterranean, Spanish, and Colonial architecture. Naples sends most visitors first to Fifth Avenue South, the main drag for shopping and dining, home to Sails Restaurant and its fresh seafood. A block over, Third Street South keeps a quieter charm with fountains, gardens, and the original cottages of Old Naples, including the 1895 Palm Cottage, the oldest house in town.
Both streets sit within easy reach of Lowdermilk Beach, where the coastal scenery is the whole point. For a change of palette, the Naples Botanical Garden holds plants from tropical regions around the world across one walkable stretch.
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
In 1783, Thomas Jefferson climbed to a shale outcrop above Harpers Ferry, watched the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers rush together and split the mountain, and wrote that the scene was "worth a voyage across the Atlantic." That description ran in his 1785 book, Notes on the State of Virginia, in what became West Virginia.
The same view still holds up, best reached by the 4.5-mile Maryland Heights Trail, which climbs to an overlook of the whole town, all of it under half a square mile, wrapped in forest and rivers. Down in the historic center, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park takes in the 19th-century streets from the years the town ran as an armory. One of them leads to John Brown's Fort, where the 1859 raid that helped push the country toward civil war made its last stand. From The Point in the park, the two rivers meet right at your feet.
Moab, Utah
Red rock is the whole story in Moab, which sits on Utah's slice of the Colorado Plateau amid towering sandstone, deep canyons, natural arches, and the Colorado River. Just north of town, the 17-mile Potash Road follows the river past cliffs and arches, with pullouts for rock climbing, petroglyph hunting, and hiking, plus a boat ramp at the far end for a float downstream. That road ends at Canyonlands National Park, the largest national park in Utah and about as close as Earth gets to the surface of Mars: mesas, spires, and vast canyons carved by the same river, laced with over a hundred miles of trails and stretches of Class V rapids.
For a full loop of the scenery, the 60-mile La Sal Mountain Loop Road climbs from the desert into pine and aspen, with views back over Castle Valley and the red canyons below.
Cannon Beach, Oregon
Haystack Rock, a 235-foot basalt sea stack, stands just offshore at Cannon Beach, and the entire town seems to face it. Seabirds nest on its flanks, and simply sitting on the sand watching the waves break around it is the main event. Just up the coast, Ecola State Park holds more of the same on a grander scale: sea stacks, headland forest of Sitka spruce, the secluded Indian Beach, and a distant look at the lonely Tillamook Rock Lighthouse marooned on its own rock in the ocean.
Trails thread the park, among them eight miles of the Oregon Coast Trail and the 2.8-mile Clatsop Loop through the woods to open views of the shoreline. To the south, Hug Point State Recreation Site hides a quieter beach with sea caves, waterfalls, and tide pools that appear at low tide.
Bar Harbor, Maine
On Mount Desert Island, Bar Harbor pairs coastline with mountains and sits right at the edge of one of the country's great parks. In town, Agamont Park looks out over green lawns, the pier, and the boats of Frenchman Bay, a fine spot for a picnic. Steps away, Acadia National Park spreads across rugged shoreline, forest, lakes, and peaks, crowned by Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the U.S.
Atlantic coast. The 27-mile Park Loop Road ties the whole thing together, with stops at the Frenchman Bay Overlook and a spur down to Sand Beach, the park's most popular strand, framed by cliffs and dunes. That beach starts the 2.2-mile Ocean Path along the rocky coast. At low tide, the 1.9-mile Bar Island Trail opens across the seabed for the best angle back on Bar Harbor and the bay.
Sedona, Arizona
The red rocks around Sedona shift color through the day, glowing deepest crimson and orange at sunrise and sunset. The color shows from anywhere in town, but two trails deliver the closest look: the one-mile Cathedral Rock Trail, short and steep, and the two-mile Devil's Bridge Trail. Cathedral Rock is also one of the four sites where believers say the earth gives off a kind of energy, a Sedona vortex.
For a slower pass, the seven-mile Red Rock Scenic Byway winds through the formations and reaches the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a Roman Catholic chapel set straight into a red rock butte. Higher still, the Sedona Airport Scenic Lookout takes in the western half of town and the surrounding rock in one wide sweep.
Hilo, Hawaii
Rain keeps Hilo greener than almost anywhere else in Hawaii, a tropical stretch of rugged coast, turquoise water, gardens, and dense forest on the Big Island's wet side. The four-mile Onomea Scenic Drive winds through that jungle with the ocean flashing between the trees, and a short detour onto the one-mile Onomea Bay Trail runs past a botanical garden to a rocky shore.
Two miles from downtown, the 80-foot Rainbow Falls drops into a pool, and eleven miles out, the 442-foot Akaka Falls drops through the rainforest of Akaka Falls State Park. For those short on time, helicopters from Blue Hawaiian Helicopter Tours leave Hilo for aerial views of the island's waterfalls, volcanoes, and black-sand beaches.
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
The Great Smoky Mountains rise straight out of the horizon at Pigeon Forge, and the Little Pigeon River runs right through the middle of it. Patriot Park lays out shade trees, open lawns, picnic tables, and a riverside path, and just next door, the kitchen at the Old Mill Restaurant plates Southern comfort food beside a 200-year-old gristmill still turning on the water.
That park anchors one end of the four-mile Riverwalk Greenway, which follows the river past the shops of The Island and the community center. On The Island, a 200-foot Ferris wheel lifts riders over town for a panorama of the Smokies, and the Island Show Fountain runs water jets, colored light, and music through the evening. Life-sized animatronic dinosaurs round out the rest.
Meredith, New Hampshire
Lake Winnipesaukee is the feature here, and Meredith sits right on its shore, a New England town of Victorian and Classical Revival buildings under tall trees. The Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad runs a two-hour trip along the lake's western edge through the changing scenery of the Lakes Region.
Back in town, Hesky Park opens onto the water for a stroll or a picnic, and the nearby Sculpture Walk pairs waterfront views with a run of outdoor artworks. At the edge of town, the family at Moulton Farm sells fresh produce in a setting worth the stop on its own.
Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Where Pigeon Forge looks toward the Smokies, Gatlinburg sits right up against them, and nearly every attraction is built to put the mountains in front of you. At Gatlinburg SkyLift Park, the SkyBridge, one of the longest pedestrian cable bridges in North America, hangs over a wooded valley, joined by a 1.5-mile SkyTrail, the SkyDeck amphitheater, and a yellow chairlift. The 2.1-mile Gatlinburg Aerial Tramway carries riders from downtown up to Ober Mountain and its scenic chairlifts and ziplines. Anakeesta packs more of the same onto a different ridge: an observation tower, a tree-based skywalk of suspended bridges, and the Clifftop Restaurant with its view over the range. Its AnaVista tower, one of the highest vantage points in Gatlinburg, turns a full 360 degrees over the Smokies. And the town sits at a main gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in the country, with more than 800 miles of trails.
The Landscape Does The Talking
What connects these thirteen towns is not a shared look but a shared relationship: in each one, the scenery is bigger than the town, and the town knows it. Carmel and Cannon Beach turn toward the water, Stowe and Gatlinburg toward the mountains, Moab and Sedona toward the red rock, and Pella toward a windmill raised against the flat Iowa sky. That is why a camera earns its place on any of these trips, and why the view is worth slowing down for, the way Jefferson did on his rock above Harpers Ferry more than two centuries ago. The scenery was here first, and in towns this size, it still sets the terms.
