Home/Feels Like Europe/The best small towns to visit in the US, and how they were chosen
Find Me a Trip
Last updated: 21 September 2026 · 4 min read
Most lists of the best small towns in America are assembled from other lists. This one is not. Find Me a Trip tested 80 towns against five fixed points and published the standard alongside the list, so you can disagree with the method rather than guess at it.
Last updated 21 September 2026. Free to cite with a link.
a car to get to dinner.
1. It feels like Europe, without a passport. 2. You can walk everywhere. 3. Rooms with charm instead of chains. 4. Dinners worth dressing up for. 5. A plan somebody already made, morning to night.
A town has to pass all five. That is the whole method, and it is why the list is 80 towns rather than several hundred.
These are the twelve on the list that the most people are already searching for, which makes them the easiest to get a group to agree on.
| Town | Why it is on the list | Season |
|---|---|---|
| New Orleans, Louisiana | Century-old culinary traditions in European-style walkable neighborhoods like | Extended |
| Charleston, South Carolina | Romantic cobblestone streets and salt-air breezes where unique history meets m | Extended |
| Savannah, Georgia | Mossy squares and romantic slow afternoons along historic cobblestone riverfro | Extended |
| Sedona, Arizona | Red rock drama and high desert wellness with a siesta-style schedule similar t | Summer |
| Gatlinburg, Tennessee | A bustling Alpine village deep in a mist-covered valley with Swiss-style chale | Summer |
| Santa Fe, New Mexico | A historic Spanish village where golden aspens glow against adobe architecture | Fall |
| Santa Barbara, California | Coastal elegance with red-tiled roofs and Mediterranean luxury that rivals the | Summer |
| Newport, Rhode Island | Grandeur of the French Riviera on the New England coast, where Gilded Age mans | Spring |
| Williamsburg, Virginia | An English country village where 18th-century architecture meets modern luxury | Winter |
| Helen, Georgia | An immersive Bavarian village tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains with cobble | Spring |
| Estes Park, Colorado | An American answer to a Swiss mountain hamlet featuring wildflower meadows and | Summer |
| Fredericksburg, Texas | A wildflower-filled Hill Country gem that blends 19th-century German heritage | Spring |
The other 68 are on the Feels Like Europe Index, with each town's budget and season.
Where to stay, where to eat, what to do, and a ready made 48 hour plan for every town. Pick one, send it to the group, go.
See the handbookOne time payment. Love it or full refund.The useful question is not which town is best. It is which town is best for your group, in the month you can all get away, within the drive you are willing to make. A town that is perfect in October can be shut in February. A town that suits four friends who want wine is the wrong pick for six who want a sauna and a dog sled.
That is why the list is sorted by season and region rather than ranked one to eighty.
The full weekend plan for each town is in The Girls' Trip Handbook.
Every town on the list comes with a full weekend plan, hour by hour, in The Girls' Trip Handbook.
See the handbookOne time payment. Love it or full refund.