29 October 2009

Small towns worth a visit

Small towns are not typically travel destination but CNN found a few worth the trip.

"From Lexington, Va., with a population of less than 7,000 to Wallace, Idaho (population 1,000), several small towns across the US manage to have it all, albeit in small doses," said the site.

For example, Breaux Bridge, La., considers itself the crawfish capital of the world with days filled with Cajun food and music.

For mellow beach towns located about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Cayucos is "everything you want -- an anomaly on the increasingly built-up coast." It’s relaxed and laidback.

Another small city seen as worth visiting is Lexington, VA., described as a "19th-century hamlet between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains as right out of a Norman Rockwell painting."
Family-owned B&B’s like the 1868 Magnolia House are a highlight.

In Tubac, Arizona (population 1900), visitors are attracted to a high-desert town where artists roam the streets near the Mexican border.

"Not only is there no traffic, there's no traffic lights," says Dennis Rowden, who owns a house ware store in town.

Then, there’s a small town in Idaho.

"Preservation and industriousness are key in Wallace, a former mining town in northwest Idaho where every single building (including a brothel that closed its doors in 1988 (after pressure from the Feds) is on the National Register of Historic Places," says CNN.

By David Wilkening