The Coolest Small Towns In America

If you're planning a fall getaway, you might want to think small!

As in - small town, U.S.A.

Turns out, small towns across the country offer more than just peace and quiet - they've also got great food and nightlife, and just enough quirkiness to make them cool.

This month's =http://www.budgettravel.com/>Budget Travel magazine has a list of the ten "coolest small towns in the country" and, on The Saturday Early Show, Budget Travel Senior Editor Justin Bergman shared some of their picks.

The one main criterion, he says, was that the town have a population of less than 10,000. The magazine sought towns in close enough proximity to an airport that people could visit them as a day trip. They looked for places that had some kind of edge to them, as opposed to cutesy places. They wanted towns that had big-city culture in a small locale, with art galleries, good restaurants of big-city quality, boutiques, etc. They looked for big-city ambience transported to a small town - communities with residents who'd left big cities and brought those things with them. They also searched for up-and-coming places. They were looking for places that had that "cool" factor.

Among the selections:

MANITOU SPRINGS, COLO.

This was one of the more eclectic of the bunch, because it seemed to have this "anything goes" attitude. It has a new-age hippie community living beside artists and outdoorsy folks who've migrated to Colorado. It was demonstrated by the man who owns the Kinfolks art shop, which is also a bar. It's a strange mix, and it speaks to how cool this place is.

It also has a café run by a religious sect that sells Mate, a South American beverage. And it had a tie-dyed mayor who runs a dulcimer shop and looks like Jerry Garcia. Plus, it's right at the edge of Pikes Peak. It's a great complement to Colorado Springs, which is close by and is a more conservative town.

POINT REYES STATION, CALIF.

It's a former railroad hub, right beside the National Seashore, a national park on Tomales Bay, just north of San Francisco. It's also right on Highway 1, and is the archetypical California small town, with a gorgeous environmental aspect; everything has an organic feel to it. The coffee shop has organic coffee. There's a feed barn that still has hay for sale; it's also a shop, and the shop next door makes its own cheeses from its own organic milk. You can take tours of the bay and look at the wildlife.

CATSKILL, N.Y.

We really liked Catskill, because it came back from a steep decline. It was an old industrial town in the Hudson Valley. It's proximity to New York City has helped, as a lot of artists have come in and renovated old buildings. It has more of an international flavor, with an Argentine artist and her partner who make things out of driftwood from the Hudson. There's a woman from Israel who opened a café with her husband, where they make really good food. It's got all its 19th century architecture still intact.

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M.

The name says it all. The change came as a publicity stunt in the '50s, when they agreed to rename the town after a popular radio (and later TV) quiz show. They were trying to revive interest in this old resort town, which sits on hot springs. It boosted tourism for a short time, then it faded. In the last few years, there's been renewed interest in the place because of an influx of artists, and an interest in the natural surroundings and the hot springs, and the wide open spaces.

New Mexico has that quirkiness with outer space, and some of the believers drift over here. They have the "Truth or Fiction" film festival, and Richard Branson will launch his space travel station there soon. Some of the motels have mineral baths, and there are public ones, as well.

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VT.

This place has a few of the same elements as the other places. It was an old, run-down railway town that is reinventing itself as an artists' haven. There's an old bakery building that's been renovated as an artist colony. It has the artist community, but surprisingly, it has great nightlife. There is a local theatre company that performs at an old converted opera house, and an old freight warehouse where you can now listen to live jazz. It's still got a small-town, community feel. The town is growing, but people have the sensibility to know they're in a small place. One woman said the man across the street asked her what color he should paint his building, since she'd be looking at it all day!

To see Budget Travel's complete list, click here