The Safest Small Towns In The United States
The best thing about these towns is how much of life happens outside, most of it free. In Hanover, New Hampshire, the Hood Museum of Art is free to walk into, with some 65,000 works inside, and Lou’s has been serving cider donuts on South Main since 1947. Out past the shops, the 140 acres of Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island, Washington are laid out as 23 separate landscapes to walk through. The quiet is the point, and it leaves a lot of room to fill.
Bainbridge Island, Washington
An adult ticket on the Seattle ferry costs $11.35, and fares are collected only on the Seattle side, so the 35-minute ride back from Bainbridge Island is free. Violent crime on the island ran about 0.4 per 1,000 residents in SafeWise's 2026 report, roughly a tenth of the Washington average. The Bainbridge Island Museum of Art is a few steps from the ferry and open daily at no charge, and Eagle Harbor Book Co. is a few blocks west on Winslow Way. On Saturdays, April through November, farmers set up in Town Square at City Hall, rain or shine. The Grand Old 4th has been a chamber of commerce event since 1967, with a pancake breakfast at Waterfront Park in the morning and a hometown parade in the afternoon.
Bloedel Reserve, on the north end of the island, takes at least two hours to see properly. Its 140 acres are laid out as 23 distinct landscapes, in the reserve's own description, and the main loop through them is about 2 miles long, with a paved route of about two-thirds of a mile round trip for an easier walk. Adult tickets are $22 through April, and timed entry is worth booking ahead, since tickets for busy fall days can sell out.
Saratoga, California
Hakone Estate and Gardens is up Big Basin Way above Saratoga Village, on 18 acres in the hills. Koi food is sold at the pond in spring and summer, and adult admission is $15. Winter hours begin October 31, with the gates closing at 4 every day, and the picnic area is first-come. Down in the village, Big Basin Way has a Walk Score of 85 and a run of tasting rooms and restaurants, including Roudon Smith Winery and La Fondue. Saratoga's 2024 rate of under 0.9 violent crimes per 1,000 residents was about a fifth of California's. The Mountain Winery, a 2,500-capacity outdoor venue above Silicon Valley, had concerts May 7 through October 28 in 2026. The grounds at Montalvo Arts Center are open every day until sunset, with more than 100 acres of gardens and woodland trails to wander.
Los Alamos, New Mexico
Summer in Los Alamos is counted in Friday nights, when bands play Ashley Pond Park until 9:30, late May through August, and nobody needs a ticket. Twelve violent offenses were reported in all of Los Alamos County in 2025. The paved Canyon Rim Trail, about a mile and a half long and wide enough for wheelchairs, has views over Los Alamos Canyon toward the Jemez and Sangre de Cristo mountains and very little shade for a midday walk.
ScienceFest lasted nine days in September 2026, with Discovery Day downtown on the last day. The Bradbury Science Museum on Central Avenue is open six days a week at no charge. Bandelier National Monument is about 30 minutes away on NM 4, where a $25 vehicle fee covers the 1.2-mile Main Loop Trail. The climb to Alcove House, a niche 140 feet above the canyon floor, takes four ladders and a run of stone stairs.
The county ice rink is open mid-November through February. It is billed as the only refrigerated, NHL regulation outdoor rink in New Mexico, and public skating on Fridays goes until 9 at night.
Zionsville, Indiana
The Big-4 Rail Trail into Zionsville is a paved path 12 feet wide and 5.4 miles long, with tunnels at most road crossings. The One-hundred Foot Bridge is about 60 feet above Eagle Creek, and there is a boardwalk side trip into Starkey Nature Park, 80 acres of wooded bottomland along the same creek. The brick Main Street is a few residential blocks away by a short path near Starkey Avenue.
The downtown has about 180 businesses, and Black Dog Books and the Curious Squirrel are across the street from each other. The work at Art in Hand Gallery comes from 24 local artists who take turns running the shop, so the person at the register may well have made what you're buying. Rosie's Place is a scratch kitchen known for something called the Ooey Gooey Butter Cookie. Zionsville came in third on SafeWise's 2026 list of Indiana's safest cities. The Lions Club Fall Festival is held in Lions Park the weekend after Labor Day, with a Saturday parade at 10.
Hudson, Ohio
Hudson's Saturday farmers market is held on the Clocktower and Gazebo greens in the middle of town, June into mid-October, and in 2023 there were as many as 45 vendors a week. The Gazebo Green is lit for the holidays on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and 2024 was the 76th year of the lighting. Hudson's total for 2025 was 11 violent offenses. The Learned Owl Book Shop on North Main has books on three floors, and Kepner's Tavern, a short walk down the same street, has live music some nights.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park is nearby and has no entrance fee, and the last stretch of its 1.5-mile Brandywine Gorge Loop is the boardwalk at Brandywine Falls. Closer to home, Hudson Springs Park is 260 acres around a fishing lake, with a disc golf course. Its Lake Trail is a wide 1.9-mile loop along the shore and into the woods, with side paths out to overlooks of the water.
Brentwood, Tennessee
Brentwood, a city of about 45,000, had 28 violent offenses in 2025. On summer evenings, bands play the Eddy Arnold Amphitheater stage in Crockett Park at 6 for the city's free concert series, now in its 37th year, and the food trucks pull in an hour before the music. BrentFest in late June has dueling pianos and a beer garden, and there are fireworks at the end of the Fourth of July show. By day, Crockett Park has an 18-hole disc golf course and a playground with a dragon-art castle and a puppet stage. Radnor Lake State Park, just north in Nashville, has an 85-acre lake and 7.75 miles of trails, and a day pass at Owl's Hill Nature Sanctuary in Brentwood is $5, with no pets allowed.
Ridgefield, Connecticut
Visitors to Weir Farm National Historical Park can borrow art supplies at the visitor center, May through October, and sit down in the fields to paint. The park, which spans Ridgefield and neighboring Wilton, is one of only two national park sites devoted to the visual arts, and there is no entrance fee. Rangers lead tours of the house and studio in season, in groups of 12, and the grounds are open every day of the year in daylight.
Ridgefield was first on SafeWise's 2026 list of Connecticut's safest cities for the fourth straight year, and its FBI count for 2025 was one violent offense. On a walk along Main Street, the first stop is the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum at 258 Main, where there is a two-acre sculpture garden and adult admission is $20, with children under 13 free. Farther along is the Ridgefield Library at 472 Main, where horse-drawn carriage rides leave during the Holiday Stroll in early December, and next door is the Prospector Theater, a four-screen nonprofit cinema where most of the staff are adults with disabilities and every employee is called a Prospect. Ballard Park is at 485 Main, with CHIRP concerts on the lawn at 7 on Tuesday and Thursday nights all summer.
Hanover, New Hampshire
During hiking season, thru-hikers walk right down Hanover's Main Street, because that stretch of it is part of the Appalachian Trail. Hanover is one of only 10 towns where the trail and the main street coincide, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Volunteers with the Hanover Area Friends of the A.T. set up showers and laundry for hikers at the town's community center, and at the Howe Library on South Street there is a 13-foot map of the trail and a logbook for hikers to sign.
Cider donuts are the specialty at Lou's Restaurant and Bakery, on South Main since 1947. Admission to the Hood Museum of Art, with about 65,000 works in its collection, is free, and canoes and kayaks can be rented at the Ledyard Canoe Club on the Connecticut River. Hanover, a town of about 12,000, had no violent crimes at all in 2024 and two in 2025.
After Dark
Look at these towns' calendars and much of the good stuff happens after supper. The food trucks pull into Crockett Park in Brentwood an hour before the 6 o'clock concert, and in Los Alamos the Friday public skate at the county rink goes until 9 all winter. If one town has to come first, make it Ridgefield, where the best day fits on a single stretch of Main Street. After a morning sketching at Weir Farm, there is the Aldrich sculpture garden at 258 Main for the afternoon and a film at the Prospector Theater beside the library at 472. On a summer Thursday, the day ends on the lawn at Ballard Park with the 7 o'clock CHIRP concert.
