I’ve spent the last two decades exploring Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and have become utterly fascinated by itsĚýduality. On the one hand, GSMNP is the epitome of a “drive through” park, with a scenic road and bevy of easy nature trails. On the other, it’s a rugged expanse of wilderness packed with steep cliffs, remote hollers, and wild trout streams. Some of the park’s gateway towns are packed with waterslides and chain restaurants, while others have quaint main streets. Over the years, I’ve sat in traffic jams inside the park, but also crawled through dense backcountry forests. I’ve fished streams and hugged massive old growth trees and spotted elk at dusk and climbed some of the tallest peaks in the eastern U.S. all within the borders of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

What I’ve discovered is that you need time to fully appreciate this landscape. You need to spend days on end here, fishing and hiking and picnicking your way through these impressive mountains. That means you’ll need a place to lay your head and recover from the day’s adventure. While camping inside GSMNP is great, sometimes you need a few more amenities, like a hot tub or game room, to truly round out your vacation.

For this sort of trip, I usually turn to Airbnb, which has hundreds of cabin options you can rent for a night or more, within a stone’s throw of the park. Here are eight properties I’d recommend that hit the sweet spot of perks, location, and high reviews from other travelers. Any one of these would make the perfect basecamp for exploring Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Know Before You Go: Last September, Western North Carolina was devastated by Hurricane Helene. I wrote about my experience in the storm at the time, but I want readers to know that the region is healing, and many communities are open to tourism again. Great Smoky Mountains National Park did not receive the brunt of the storm, and most gateway towns saw minimal damage compared to other communities. But keep the storm and its lasting impacts in mind when you’re traveling to the region. Some roads might still be closed, and some areas will still look scarred.

Creekside Chalet

Why We Love It: The A-frame, ski-chalet vibes

Price: From $190 per night

Built into the side of a mountain in the sixties, this kitschy A-frame chalet has been completely remodeled into a modern gem that sits just outside the hustle and bustle of downtown Gatlinburg. The two-bedroom cabin has a large living room that makes the most of the A-frame design with towering vaulted ceilings and floor to ceiling windows, but I also love the front porch, which has its own hot tub. The cabin feels secluded, thanks to the surrounding forest of hardwoods, but it’s actually on the edge of Ober Gatlinburg, a family-friendly ski resort that’s the perfect place to take your first turns. You’re also just tenĚýminutes from the Gatlinburg entrance to the park, with quick access to the trails off of Newfound Gap Road, which cuts through the center of the park. Plus, it perfect for larger crews, as it sleeps up to six people with two bedrooms, a sleeper sofa, and has two baths.

Cabin in the Clouds

Why We Love It: The epic view from the hot tub

Price: From $250 per night

I like the quieter North Carolina side of the park and this new, two-bedroom mountain-top cabin near Bryson City makes the most of the area thanks to a wall of glass and expansive porch that takes in the surrounding mountains. The living room is the definition of “airy,” with vaulted ceilings and an exterior wall full of windows, which leads onto the expansive deck where a hot tub sits in the corner. Soaking in the tub while you enjoy mountain vistas by day, or starry skies by night, has to be the highlight here, although I also like the firepit complete with a built-in national park-style charcoal grill. From here, you’ll have quick access to Lake Fontana and the Deep Creek area of the park, which is packed with waterfalls and adventurous tubing. The home sleeps up to six people, with two bedrooms and two baths.

Riverfront Glass House

Why We Love It: The fire pit right next to a world-class trout stream

Price: From $299 a night, 2-night minimum

This large home sits on a peninsula at the confluence of a small creek and the Little River, with steps leading down to a grassy “beach” that’s perfect for lounging or casting for trout. There’s a shaded patio with a hot tub and a lounge area complete with an outdoor TV, not to mention an outdoor shower. Hardwoods throughout and big picture windows show off the surrounding forest and mountains from the inside of this updated home, but its location is the real draw. Not only will you have private access to the river, but the house, which sleeps up to six, is only two miles from the Foothills Parkway, a scenic two-lane road that wraps around the border of GSMNP, and the Airbnb is only 12 miles to the closest entrance to the park.

Clever Cubs Cabin

Why We Love It: The built-in game room and close proximity to family fun

Price: From $233 per night; 3-night minimum

You never know how your kids will respond to that five-mile hike you have planned, but I guarantee they’ll love the full-sized arcade games, pool table, and karaoke machine that occupy the bonus room in this three-story cabin. Older kids will appreciate the photogenic murals crafted inside and outside of this home, and as an extra perk, the cabin is located near Sevierville, which is packed with family adventures, from zip line courses to gem mines. The wraparound porch has a putting green, and there’s a lower deck with a fire pit and a tiki bar for the adults. As for the cabin’s proximity to the park, you’re about 30 minutes from Sugarlands Visitor Center, where you can pick up the scenic Newfound Gap Road, which cuts through the heart of the Smokies, or break off to Cades Cove, a former farming community with historic buildings scattered throughout the valley. This cabin sleeps up to eight people.

The Smoky Mountain Treehouse

Why We Love It: The 40-foot swinging bridge

Price: From $275 per night

This custom-built tree house has story-book weekend written all over it, from the 40-foot long swinging bridge you need to cross to enter the home, to the architectural details that make the cabin one-of-a-kind. The kitchen is compact, but a rolling ladder leads to a loft, live edge countertops grace the bathroom and kitchenette, and you get views of the surrounding mountain from your king bed. The outside living space is even better, with an outdoor shower, cedar hot tub, and a hammock built into the floor of the deck. The location is prime, as this treehouse sits just off the Foothills Parkway on the western border of the park, close to the Abrams Falls and Goldmine Trailhead. It can sleep up to four, but this perch is best for a romantic couple’s getaway.

Eagle’s Landing

Why We Love It: The view from the porch of the lake below

Price: From $225 per night

Is it crazy to rent a cabin just for the view? Depends on what you’re looking at. Eagles Landing is a two-bedroom cabin that sleeps up to six perched on a bluff overlooking a quiet corner of Lake Fontana, a finger-lake body of water that forms the southern border of GSMNP. The firepit and front porch have the best views of the vistas below, showing off green slopes that rise directly from the water. Head down the mountain to paddle Fontana in search of rope swings, jumping rocks, and waterfalls (all of which can be found nearby). If you’re looking for land-based activities, the Appalachian Trail crosses Fontana Dam and climbs to Shuckstack Tower, a decommissioned fire lookout with views of Lake Fontana.

Secluded Cabin

Why We Love It: The remote setting and quick access to the park.

Price: From $145 per night

Tucked into Pisgah National Forest, near the north-eastern border of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, this small, one-bedroom cabin is surrounded by Pisgah National Forest, with nothing but dense hardwoods for neighbors. There are no frills in this remote outpost, which has two beds and sleeps up to four, but the interior is nicely finished and has a wood stove to keep you warm at night, while a covered porch and fire pit give you the outdoor space you need for soaking in the surrounding wilderness. The location is prime for exploring the eastern side of the park, where the Mount Sterling fire tower looms tall and swimming holes like Midnight Hole beckon during the summer. It’s dog-friendly too, and is accessible by unmaintained forest roads, so if you visit during a winter snow storm, you’ll need a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Vista Heights Lodge

Why We Love It: The private pool and outdoor living space

Price: From $441 per night

Big groups need room to spread out, and not only does this large cabin near the western border of the park have plenty of space (it sleeps up to 12 with 5Ěýbedrooms and 5.5 baths), it has a gorgeous screened-in porch complete with a wood-burning fireplace, an indoor/outdoor heated pool, and a game room with a pool table. Enjoy expansive views of the Smokies from many of the bedrooms, or spend your time hopping between the hot tub and the pool. There’s even a Peloton bike if you feel the need to burn calories. The cabin sits on the edge of the park, near the Little River Gorge and Elkmont Campground, with a dozen trailheads under 30 minutes from the front door.

Graham Averill is şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř magazine’s national parks columnist. He’s been exploring Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the surrounding area since he was a kid. In those days, his family camped, which is great, but he definitely appreciates a cabin with a hot tub and pool table. He has recently written about the best national parks for spring break, and the ones that you can enter for free this year.

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Don’t get me wrong, I love a good campsite. But sometimes after a big day of adventure, I crave the comfort and ease of a great hotel with a friendly staff, farm-to-table meals, gear rentals, and maybe even a sauna and cold plunge. Both in the U.S. and abroad, a plethora of brands are catering to guests who love the outdoors, such as glamping masters Under Canvas and community-centric LOGE camps.

But we all have limited vacation time and need to pick our getaway stays thoughtfully. As someone who’s on the road half the year, I can assure you that these are worth traveling for.

The newest outposts that excite me most are popping up in perfect locations, from the doorsteps of popular national parksĚý to some urban gems bringing nature indoors with innovative biophilic design. Here’s my hotel hot list for 2025.

Snow Peak Campfield Long Beach

Long Beach, Washington

I’ve long been a fan of the Japanese gear company , not only for its design-minded outdoor equipment, but also the creative ways it brings its brand to life. For example, the company flagship in Portland, Oregon, features an excellent, wood-fire-focused Japanese restaurant, Tabiki.

Across Japan you can stay overnight at 13 Snow Peak campgrounds, but last summer the company debuted its on Washington’s rugged Long Beach Peninsula, 110 miles west of Portland near the mouth of the Columbia River. The 25-acre site—no surprise—feels like an outdoor concept store, showcasing Snow Peak products like folding chairs and fire pits. Book one of 48 campsites and bring your own gear (or rent theirs), or glamp it up in spacious tent suites or minimalist wooden Jyubako cabins (the latter for up to two adults and two kids) designed by Japanese starchitect Kengo Kuma.

The area is full of adventure options, like kayaking Willapa Bay and hiking in Cape Disappointment State Park. My plan is to visit this winter specifically to enjoy long soaking sessions in the camp’s onsen-inspired .

Price:ĚýCampsites from $77, tent suites from $119, and Jyubako cabins from $219

Populus

Denver

may be downtown, but the property’s biophilic design is meant to make guests feel as if they’ve entered a large grove of aspens (Populus tremuloides), with 365 eye-shaped windows that allow light to filter in. The nature immersion continues at every step: the front desk is crafted from fallen cottonwood trees, the soundtrack of birdsong recorded in nearby Estes Park plays in the elevators, and the lobby bar is adorned with hanging reishi mushroom skins.

The hotel opened in October as the nation’s first carbon-positive hotel. It boasts 100 percent renewable-energy, eco-friendly materials, like low-carbon concrete and leather made from reishi mushrooms, and a biodigester that composts all of its food waste, which is then returned to local farmers. Moreover, the property plants a spruce tree in Colorado for every night booked.

Its sustainable initiatives convinced me to stay, and the friendly service, stellar farm-focused food, outpost of Little Owl Coffee, and welcoming coworking space and gym have given me many reasons to return. The Populus also overlooks Civic Center Park, where the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Festival and Summit will take place from May 30 to June 1, and ticket holders get special deals on rooms booked here through .

Price:ĚýFrom $299

Under Canvas Yosemite

Near Groveland, California

Scoring camping reservations in Yosemite can feel like winning the lottery. Don’t want to gamble? Treat yourself to a cushy stay at the new , slated to debut May 15 with 71 tents just ten minutes from the park’s west entrance on Route 120.

The upscale glamping brand is known for hotel-worthy touches like West Elm furnishings in its spacious safari tents and daily programming that might include yoga classes or nightly s’mores sessions. This 85-acre site is no exception.

You don’t even have to deal with the stress of taking your car into the park itself—this Under Canvas location is across from a Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System (YARTS) stop with regular park service to three major destinations.

Return at day’s end to a menu of California cuisine served beneath soaring black oaks and live music by the campfire. Families will love the El Capitan Suite— two connecting tents, each with ensuite bathrooms; it can sleep up to six people.

Price: From $319

Firefall Ranch at Yosemite

Near Groveland, California

The Yosemite area has never had more choice for boutique accommodations, and this is another property on Route 120 I’m eager to recommend. The 300-acre opened last summer and is made for the active crowd. You can look forward to a spacious saltwater pool (complete with shave-ice service), forest disc golf, bouldering, and beach volleyball.

Pick up picnic supplies at the on-site general store or dine at the casual tavern or more ambitious restaurant, YOVA, which features dishes like salmon and caviar and boar chops, complimented by an impressive wine list.

For families, roomy accommodations include 55 standalone one- and two-bedroom cottages or three-bedroom villas with private decks and indoor-outdoor gas fireplaces.

Fun fact: this property was a stop on the original stagecoach route to Yosemite in the 1870s.

Price: From $650

Yellowstone Peaks Hotel

Island Park, Idaho

Wyoming and Montana are most often associated with America’s first national park. But 1 percent of Yellowstone’s 2.2 million acres lies within Idaho (an underrated state for adventure, in my humble opinion). The park’s west entrance is just 30 minutes away from the small town of Island Park, whichĚý recently welcomed the family-owned .

The property’s 19 Scandi-inspired accommodations are the epitome of cabin porn. Each A-frame cabin can accommodate up to six guests and has its own cedar-wood-fired soaking tub. There’s also a communal area with saunas and cold plunges.

While proximity to the park may lure you here, its location across the street from the fly-fishing mecca that is Henry’s Fork River will appeal to anglers. Nearby but off-the-radar attractions include the Caribbean-esque Wade Lake and the 114-foot-tall cascades of Mesa Falls.

Price: From $440 per night, two-night minimum

Cascada

Portland, Oregon

Portland is home to plenty of nature fixes, but the newest is the underground thermal-springs experience at the recently opened, 100-room (pronounced cascade) hotel in the Alberta Arts District. The Conservatory, the heart of the thermal-springs area, was designed by landscape experts, including members of the Portland Botanical Garden, and features a with a 25-foot-tall living wall and rare flora planted throughout the space.

Soak and socialize in the mineral-infused vitality pool, or complete a sauna, steam, and ice-bath hydrotherapy circuit in the silent sanctuary space. If you’re passing through the city en route to a wilderness adventure, you can still enjoy a soak, but you’ll need a reservation ($100 for two and a half hours). You can feel good about knowing that Cascada is committed to using ethically sourced spa products.ĚýRounding things out are an excellent restaurant, Terra Mae, that fuses the flavors of Portugal and Japan (think: tonkatsu and linguica croquettes), as well as zero-waste kitchen practices.

Guest rooms feature kitchenettes, balconies, and floor-to-ceiling windows.

Price: From $299

Edgecamp Pamlico Station

Outer Banks, North Carolina

One of my goals this year is to improve my kiteboarding skills, and I can’t imagine a better place to get back on the water than the Outer Banks. With steady winds, an abundance of sandy beaches, and calm, shallow sounds, it lives up to its nickname as the kiteboarding capital of the East Coast.

Professional kiteboarder Rita Arnaus takes off in Pamlico Sound. (Video: Courtesy Edgecamp Pamlico Station)

Thanks to the recent debut of , a 14-suite boutique hotel at Edgecamp Sporting Club on windswept Hatteras Island, travelers finally have a stylish base that offers everything from an on-site kiteboarding school with equipment rentals and lessons to a wellness deck boasting a sauna, cold plunge, and hot tub.

I love that the suites feel like residences, each with a full kitchen, washer and dryer, living room, wood-burning fireplace, and work desk. And after a day of kiting, you’ll appreciate having in-room amenities like a Therabody massage gun and foam roller at your disposal.

Price: From $189

Trailborn Grand Canyon

Williams, Arizona

I’m embarrassed to admit that, for as much traveling as I do, I still haven’t visited the Grand Canyon. I really have no excuse now that , a new outdoorsy-focused hotel brand, is opening its fourth location in the town of Williams. The 96-room hotel is just down the road from the Grand Canyon Railway, the train that deposits visitors at the South Rim entrance of the national park.

Trailborn has partnered with hiking outfitter to run guided excursions in the park, like a private day hike along the challenging, eight-mile round-tripĚý ($600) or a group excursion that takes in the South Rim’s greatest hits, like the ($340).

On property, a saloon-style Camp Hall hosts free concerts, movies, and bingo nights, and for $35 families can have their room transformed into a camping-inspired slumber party. This spring the property will open Miss Kitty’s steakhouse and bar.

Price: From $175

The Wildbirch Hotel

Anchorage, Alaska

For years I viewed Anchorage as nothing more than a gateway to epic wilderness adventures. When a cancelled flight stranded me in the city for 24 hours, I discovered that, actually, Anchorage was a destination in its own right, home to seriously great restaurants, a cool urban-arts scene, and a 500-plus-mile trail network that connects some 200 green spaces.

InĚý April, the city will get its first true boutique hotel when the opens in the Mushing District. The 252-room property will showcase works by local craftspeople, such as carved topographic maps that double as headboards, and an art collection curated by the nearby Anchorage Museum. An on-site brewery, outdoor decks with fire pits, and sweeping views of Mount Susitna and Knik Arm are sure to attract just as many locals as visitors.

With the world-class salmon fishing of Ship Creek steps away and guest rooms that overlook the ceremonial starting line of the Iditarod sled-dog race, held each March, you can’t ask for a better address.

Price: From $199

LOGE

St. George, Utah

During the height of the pandemic, I rooted for a few fledgling brands. , which is pronounced “lodge” and stands for Live şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř, Go Explore, is one of them. The original LOGE Camp launched in 2017 in coastal Westport, Washington, and I loved its adult-summer-camp vibes and affordability.

There are camp or RV sites, or choose from a variety of room configurations. All the gear and amenities you could wish for are available to rent, from Traeger grills to Wave Bandit and Lib Tech surfboards. The brand launched similar concepts in mountain towns in the Pacific Northwest, and I’m stoked to see it expanding into the Southwest in 2025. I’ve marked my calendar for early February, when LOGE St. George starts taking bookings for its April opening.

The hotel will be a sweet base camp less than two miles southwest from the heart of the city. Perks include a hot tub, pool, and mountain-bike rentals, and the trails of nearby Zion National Park and Snow Canyon State Park are a short drive away.

Later this year, LOGE will open a handful of East Coast properties. Host towns include Asheville, North Carolina; the Catskills of New York; Mount Snow, Vermont; and Southport, Maine.

Price: From $137

Foreign Properties I Have My Eye On

The Caribbean and Mexico

Salterra Resort and Spa

On February 15, American Airlines will introduce direct flights twice a week from Miami to South Caicos in the Turks and Caicos. Around the same time, this up-and-coming island will welcome , a sustainably minded hotel that will offer adventures like kiteboarding, bonefishing, kayaking, and diving. But it doesn’t come cheap.

Price: From $1,300

Hotel Humano

I’ve been plotting a surf mission to Puerto Escondido and am hoping to base myself at the new , located steps from famous Zicatela Beach (a.k.a. the Mexican Pipeline).

Price: From $190

Amet

On a recent trip to Cabo San Lucas, a guide clued me in to , an intimate new nature retreat in the town of Santiago on Baja’s Central Cape. You can choose between suites or glamping tents, and excursions range from hikes to nearby hot springs to ATV drives to waterfalls.

Price: From $315

Argentina

Glamping Los Palmares

El Impenetrable National Park in northern Argentina is a wilderness mecca, home to giant anteaters and jaguars, as well as a swath of Gran Chaco, one of the world’s fastest disappearing forests.Ěý recently opened on the park’s northern border with just four tents overlooking the Bermejo River.

Price: From $359, all-inclusive

Finland

Kotona Manor

If you’ve jumped on the cool-cation travel trend, you should have Finland on your travel list and in particular. The family-owned, 11-suite waterfront property willĚý debut in the Lakeland region this summer. Seasonal activities range from bear watching to snowmobiling and sailing.

Price: From $1,530

Madagascar

Voaara

One of my favorite far-flung places is Madagascar, and not just for the mind-boggling amount of biodiversity but also for the amazing, crowd-free adventures, like kiteboarding, freediving, snorkeling, and hiking. I visited last December and got a sneak peek at the newly opened , a barefoot luxe hotel on idyllic Isle St. Marie, just off the country’s northeast coast. Guests can snorkel the vibrant house reefs, whale-watch with the resident marine biologist from June to September, and learn to wing foil with pro surfer Willow Hardy.

Price: $1,230

Jen Murphy is an şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř magazine correspondent and frequent contributor to şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online. (Most recently, she wrote a guide to maximizing winter fun in Colorado’s mountain towns and reviewed the best compression socks for long-haul flights.) Murphy has been lucky enough to stay in some of the world’s best hotels, both rustic and luxe, and believes that warm service truly makes a stay.

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If you’re asking yourself where you should go on vacation this year, you’re not alone. And there’s no shortage of “where to go” lists this time of year—competing compendiums of new hotels and resorts, trendy neighborhoods, and cultural hotspots to check out in the year ahead.

This is not that list. Not exactly, anyways.

As adventure addicts, we wanted to craft a roster of amazing destinations where you can get outdoors, camp, paddle, surf, hike, and crush some dynamic singletrack. Our overriding parameters determining what made the cut was simple: what’s cool and fresh in the world outside?

The answer? Plenty.

Here’s Where to Go on Vacation in 2025, If You’re Into These Outdoor Pursuits

Every one of these destinations promises an amazing adventure, whether that’s carving down a fresh-cut ski run, tackling a section of a new thru-hiking terrain, or releasing turtles on the beaches of Mexico. These trips all come with good food, great vistas, and unforgettable cultural experiences. And yes, a few even have luxe places to crash at night, too.

Many of these destinations are in the beginning phases of executing ambitious goals, and we included them to offer a glimpse of what’s to come. Others are perennial favorites that have simply been overlooked by online-influencer culture and thus remain indelibly cool in real life. In other words, we’re offering up some new options and some classic standbys. We also included both domestic and international destinations for each type of adventure, in case you’re feeling particularly wanderlusty (or a staycation).

Together, they prove, once again, that there’s no shortage of fun to have outside. Here’s where to travel in 2025 if you’re up for it.

1. Long Walks (or Runs)

Stay Domestic: Cross Texas Trail, Texas

Beginning this year, Texas will get its own thru-hiking epic, the new Cross Texas Trail, a proposed 1,500-mile-long haul that stretches from the Louisiana border in the east, near the town of Orange, to El Paso in the west. Among the many highlights of the planned xTx, as it is known: panoramic views of Hill Country, the rugged peaks of Big Bend Ranch State Park, East Texas barbecue joints, the crystal-clear Devil’s River, and the highest point in Texas, Guadalupe Peak, at 8,751 feet.

The trail, designed for hikers, bikers, and equestrians, is a work in progress, but the route features a mix of singletrack and paved and gravel backcountry public roads. You can ride much of the route now, but the nonprofit behind the xTx—led by bike advocate, former community design consultant, and state representative Charlie Gandy—is currently working on access to some private ranch land so that riders can more easily enter some sections of state and national parks. In the future, there could even be trailheads equipped with picnic areas, water stations, and campsites, but for now, it’s all a self-supported, DIY affair. The trail has a long way to go to match the history of the Appalachian Trail or the sheer beauty of the Pacific Crest Trail, but it could be one of the best, if longest, ways to experience the hardscrabble charm of the Lone Star State.

Go Abroad: Palmilhar Portugal, Portugal

Portugal is about to get its own version of Spain’s Camino de Santiago, a new 3,000-kilometer (1,850 miles) loop trail that is being billed as the world’s longest circular hiking route. The trail, called (or “Walking Portugal”, in English), will eventually pass through over 100 off-the-beaten-path attractions around the country, from windmills and vineyards outside Lisbon to mountain peaks in the north. Most of the trail is still under construction, but initial sections opened last summer, and new routes are being added regularly throughout 2025. While mostly a hiking trail, Palmilhar Portugal will have some sections open to cyclists, too. The team behind Palmihar Portugal plans to launch an app later this year, , that will help visitors look up information about the route and the services along the way, including places to stay, restaurants, and points of interest.

2. Fat-Tire and Mountain-Biking Fun

Stay Domestic: Killington Bike Park, Vermont

In the fall of 2024, , in Vermont’s Green Mountains, was purchased by a passionate group of local investors who promised big changes to New England’s iconic ski area, including a in capital improvements over the next two seasons. Those upgrades include an expansion to its already impressive bike park, with 30 miles of lift-accessed mountain-biking trails.

Beginning in 2025, the park will get a new trail, accessed by the Ramshead Express Quad, and other improvements are in the works. The new trail (dubbed Ramshead, construction on which starts this spring) will start at the top of the lift and snake down the mountain for more than two miles. Even without the new upgrades, the bike park is one of the best in the East, with features like berms, tabletops, and bridges that cater to intermediate and advanced riders alike. Its signature trail, “,” is a steep, technical descent with rock gardens and big jumps, but there are plenty of smoother trails for beginner downhillers, too. (One-day passes begin at $65.) Off the trails, Killington’s base area is buzzing with its new enhancements on the horizon, and everything points to this year being the start of upgraded riding to come for Killington.

Go Abroad: Mogo Trails Project, Australia

Like many areas rich in adventure bona fides—British Columbia, South Africa, New Zealand—Australia is investing heavily in new trails for mountain bike aficionados, and one the largest ongoing projects is , in New South Wales.

The expansive trail network, roughly four hours south of Sydney, is being developed near the town of Mogo, a tiny outpost adjacent to the area’s temperate rainforests.Ěý Mogo Trails is being designed for various skill levels, from beginners to advanced riders, with a mix of park-style gravity trails with jumps and cross-country trails.

Currently, there are about 70km of singletrack ready for riders, with a total of 130km planned to be completed in 2025 and beyond. Finished trails are listed on, along with descriptions of each one. If you’re coming from Sydney, you’ll need to book lodging nearby. Batemans Bay, a version of an Oregon beach town Down Under, has excellent options, including , an upscale motel that also offers easy access to surf breaks just down the beach. (From $140 per night.) The much larger town of Canberra, the capital of Australia, is two hours away. Other nearby mountain bike trails, like the new Narooma Trails, which opened in 2023, are making the area a legitimate international destination for MTB enthusiasts.

3. Fresh Piste

Stay Domestic: Deer Valley Resort, Utah

Over the next few years, Park City’s Deer Valley Resort is undergoing a , with a new base village, 100 new trails on 2,600 acres of fresh terrain, and more than 10 new lifts to access it all, including a 10-passenger gondola. When it’s all said and done, the resort will double in size to over 5,700 acres, making it one of the ten largest ski resorts in the United States.

The transformation is already under way. Debuting for the 2024–2025 season are three new chairlifts, 300 acres of terrain, and freshly cut trails leading to the new East Village. When it’s complete, the East Village will offer the same level of premium service that Deer Valley has become known for, with restaurants, retail shops, and an ice-skating facility, among other facilities. Of course, for day skiers, perhaps the biggest draw of the new East Village is that it’s located on U.S. Route 40, which allows you to avoid driving through the heart of Park City itself, often crowded with traffic.

For now, the brand-new , with 381 guest rooms and suites, anchors the East Village, and it’s the only place to stay on that side of the resort. (From $270 per night.) But the hotel has more than enough amenities to keep you comfortable, including a restaurant and bar, a downstairs speakeasy-style lounge, a coffeeshop, a heated outdoor pool, three hot tubs, and a partnership with Ski Butlers to offer white-glove ski valet service when suiting up for the day. There’s even a , a High Tea service but instead of tea and hand sandwiches, you get hot chocolate paired with s’mores cookies, chocolate snowballs, and other baked goods.

Go Abroad: Andermatt Ski Area, Switzerland

Unknown to most Americans, the combined ski resorts of , an hour and a half south of Zurich, is poised to become one of Europe’s premier ski destinations. Over the last handful of years, more than $2 billion has been invested in upgrades, with ten new lifts that allowed you to ski all three by accessing any one of them. Combined, the resorts have more than 100 miles of trails.

The historic village of Andermatt, with cobblestone streets and a very Swiss vibe, has also been undergoing a series of renovations to accommodate the influx of skiers. This winter, for example, it unveiled a brand-new shopping and dining district featuring 35 stores and 10 restaurants. The resort is also on track to become carbon neutral by 2030, a hugely ambitious goal for such a large operation.

For American skiers, it’s also become easier to shred: In 2022, Vail acquired majority ownership in the resort, which means that it’s now . With over 12 feet of average annual snowfall, a range of terrain—from blue and yellow runs to steep couloirs and powder-filled bowls—Andermatt is one of the best resorts in all of Europe. And with a master plan mapped out for the next 30 years, now is the time to go, before the hordes descend.

4. Beach Vibes

Stay Domestic: Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

As part of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Cape Hatteras is known for its expansive East-Coast beaches, world-class kiteboarding, and laid-back charm. It’s also now home to one of the more exciting Atlantic Coast lodging conversions in years: , a 14-room wellness-oriented hotel that faces Pamlico Sound, a vast expanse of shallow water good for both paddling and kiting. The hotel opened last year after owners bought a failed, two-story strip mall and transformed it into a chic hotel with suites designed by world-famous interior designer Jonathan Adler.

If that turns you off, don’t let it. The result is a quirky mashup of coastal kitsch and beach sophistication with a focus on outdoor recreation. There’s even an outdoor deck featuring cold plunges, a sauna, and a hot tub for relaxing in after a long day on the saltwater. (From $179 per night.) And its location, adjacent to the entire length of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore—where windswept dunes and unspoiled stretches of sand offer endless opportunities for surfing, fishing, and paddleboarding—leads to a perfect blend adventure and tranquility in one of the most celebrated beach destinations in the U.S.

Go Abroad: Nicaragua’s Pacific Coast

Ěý Nicaragua’s Pacific Coastline has long been considered one of the best stretches of remote coastline in Central America, with excellent surf breaks framed by undeveloped sand beaches and tropical forest. Now, thanks to an ongoing , it’s about to get much easier to access much of the coastline.

The country’s new Carratera Costanera Highway, or Emerald Coast Highway, will stretch more than 350 kilometers (217 miles) from the Gulf of Fonseca in the north to Playa El Naranjo in the south, making it smoother and safer to travel along the coastline. Construction has already , near San Juan del Sur, which is known as the country’s surf capital, because of its proximity to some of Nicaragua’s . Up and down the coastline, you’ll find a variety of waves, from mellow beach breaks to beefy points, with consistent year-round swell (although the summer months remain the best).

The promise of easy access is already drawing development interest to the coastline and new tourist offerings, like the newly refreshed and reopened , which was the country’s first true luxury eco-resort when it opened in 2013. (From $776 per night.) The resort has direct walking access to a world-class surf break just off of its private beach. While funding is secured for the road construction, the pace of progress is nearly impossible to predict, so don’t expect to be driving down a long stretch of empty, freshly paved highway this year. (Also, the U.S. State Department has a for the country, in part because of the government’s arbitrary enforcement of laws, although like Costa Rica or Panama, Nicaragua is generally safe for tourists if you exercise caution). But if you want to experience the surf breaks before the rush on the rapidly developing coastline, now is the time to go.

5. Paddling Pristine Backcountry

Stay Domestic: Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota

In January 2023, the Biden administration helped ban mining and geothermal exploration on over 225,000 acres of land in the Superior National Forest, preserving the integrity of the Rainy River watershed and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in the process.

With President Trump in power again, however, advocates are once again worried that the BWCAW, one of the most pristine landscapes in the Lower 48, could return to becoming a political football. If so, it could be tossed back into the hands of the Chilean-owned mining conglomerate that has been seeking to open a copper-sulfide mine in the area for years. All of which is a good reason to explore the area now, to see firsthand just how special this landscape is.

Spanning over a million acres of North Woods forest dotted with thousands of lakes, this is a paddler’s paradise, with more than 1,200 miles of canoe routes and 2,000 campsites, most of which are paddle-in only. If you want a break from modern life and all its real-time annoyances and aggravations, the BWCAW has always been one of the best places to do it, and now you can show your tacit political support for the area simply by enjoying a weekend paddle through it.

Go Abroad: Pacuare River, Costa Rica

The Pacuare River, roughly 60 miles east of San José, is not only one of the best tropical rafting trips on the planet—and by extension one of the best ways to experience Costa Rica’s wild side—it’s also “home” to the perennial favorite . With 20 suites, a restaurant, and a spa set along the riverbank, the lodge has set an impossibly high standard for eco-luxury in the heart of the rainforest. (From $949 per night.)

The best part, however, is that arriving at Picuare requires getting on the water first. With no road into the property, guests float down the Pacuare’s class II–V rapids, through canyons and untouched jungle, and arrive via boat on the lodge’s front steps. Despite its remoteness, it’s full of amenities. Each suite has a range of luxuries like outdoor showers, spring-fed fountains, and plunge pools. The restaurant serves exceptionally high-quality, fresh ingredients and the spa has wellness programs that include open-air yoga sessions and treatments inspired by indigenous traditions. The surrounding forest is home to toucans, sloths, and howler monkeys, and non-river activities include guided rainforest hikes to see the wildlife, zip-lining, and visiting local CabĂ©car communities. The lodge itself is worthy of a visit alone, but combined with its entrance theatrics—a float down the whitewater of Pacuare River—the experience may just offer the perfect balance of adventure and indulgences for a weekend jungle-induced rejuvenation. Pura vida indeed.

6. Camping (with Creature Comforts)

Stay Domestic: Yosemite, California

Outdoor-oriented hospitality group is expanding once again, this time to an 80-acre camp near Yosemite National Park. Ever since it started with a single glamping resort in West Yellowstone in 2012, the company has grown year over year to offer overnight access to some of America’s most iconic destinations, including Great Smoky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, and Moab (thanks to its luxury offshoot ULUM Moab).

is the company’s first foray into California, and it will feature the same safari-inspired tents—with king-size beds, a private deck, and ensuite bathrooms—that have made its 13 other locations so popular. There will also be regular activities in the camp, such as live music, morning yoga, and nightly fires with s’mores. (The seasonal camp runs from May 15 to October 27 in 2025, and rates start at $349 per night, meals not included.)

But perhaps the best reason to book a stay here while visiting Yosemite National Park is the easy access it affords. The camp is located just ten minutes from the west entrance to the park and, more importantly, across from a bus stop for the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System (YARTS). Without a reservation in summer, you are no longer allowed to enter the park by car. So staying at Under Canvas Yosemite means you not only get all the amenities, but you also get easy, car-free access to the park.

Go Abroad: Playa Viva, Mexico

On a remote beach 35 miles south of Zihuatanejo lies one of the most ecologically sensitive, off-grid, wellness-focused resorts on the planet: . This is far from camping, but the 19 open-air treehouses and casitas, designed with bamboo and other sustainable woods, will make it feel as if you’re poaching a nap on the last stretch of perfect sand in all of Mexico.

Each room has unobstructed views of the beach, with nothing to be seen either direction besides palm trees, Pacific waves, and the occasional breaching whale. Set on 200 coastal acres, Playa Viva is home to a vibrant turtle sanctuary, a regenerative farm, and mangrove forest. The resort supports local communities through various initiatives and actively works to help restore surrounding ecosystems. Guests can even participate in activities like helping release baby sea turtles (during the fall hatching season).

The on-site restaurant even serves farm-to-table dishes that celebrate the region’s culinary heritage. Think fresh-caught seafood, handmade tortillas, and tropical fruits picked just steps from your casita. Daily beachside yoga classes and a variety of massage services round out the offerings. Again, you’re not exactly roughing it, but the resort is a world away in a wild, pristine corner of Mexico. (Summer low-season rates begin at $240 per night.)

7. Wildlife Encounters

Stay Domestic: American Prairie Reserve, Montana

When it was established in 2004, —a private, nonprofit effort to create the largest wildlife reserve in the continental U.S. at three million acres—seemed like nothing more than a pipe dream. But the group has steadily managed to acquire an impressive amount of land on Montana’s Northern Great Plains in their effort to reestablish a functioning ecosystem that supports free-roaming wildlife.

In December, APR , which brings their total to over half a million acres of deeded land and leased public property. Thanks to all the efforts over the years, the reserve is now home to a wealth of iconic wildlife, including herds of bison, elk, and pronghorn. It also contains some of the most remote areas of the lower-48 states, with a diverse landscape—from sagebrush plains to riparian areas to the steep hills of the Missouri Breaks—that offers visitors the chance to see wildlife in their natural habitat.

The APR’s National Discovery Center has excellent exhibits about the prairie ecosystem, and is the best place to learn about the reserve’s hiking, biking, and camping opportunities, especially considering that it continues to expand its offerings, which includes interpretive programs. But as a quick-start option, one of the best ways to experience the wildlife is by camping at , located four miles north of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge on the rolling shortgrass prairie. (RV sites are $19 per night and tent sites are $13.) Here, you’re almost certain to see plains bison and pronghorn roaming past prairie dog towns and get a much deeper connection to one of the most overlooked landscapes in the U.S. The American Prairie Reserve isn’t just a trip, it’s a chance to witness (and participate in) conservation history in the making.

Go Abroad: Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge, British Columbia

Tucked into a Pacific Ocean inlet on Vancouver Island’s wild west coast, is perhaps the most luxurious gateway to British Columbia’s wildlife-rich temperate rainforest. It may also be the best way to see the area’s charismatic, iconic species, from black bears and eagles to whales and otters.

The lodge’s 25 canvas tents, which are lavishly appointed with specially made furnishings, king-sized beds, and wood-burning stoves, offer guests the perfect blend of off-grid seclusion and high-end comfort. (From $3,300 per night.)

Meals focus on hyper-local, foraged ingredients crafted into exquisite dishes. Committed to sustainability, the seasonal lodge operates with an extremely light footprint, relying on renewable energy to power the camp. It also supports local First Nations communities through cultural exchange programs and eco-tourism partnerships. All of which makes staying here feeling as if you’re part of a very lucky family.

But the real reason to come are the wildlife excursions, which includes hiking or horseback rides in the forest to see and sea kayaking outings on the inlet, where it’s common to spot whales, porpoises, seals, and sea lions. And this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to the lodge’s eco-adventure program. For those seeking a communion with nature that has more than a dash of indulgence, Clayoquot offers an unforgettable escape into the wild heart of British Columbia.

Ryan Krogh is a writer and editor who lives in Austin, Texas. Among the dozens of destinations that he traveled to in 2024, including Iceland, England, and a road trip through Mexico’s highlands, his favorite was a weekend fly-fishing trip to the Texas Coast. In 2025, he’s hoping to see Nicaragua and Portugal for the first time, which is why they’re included here, but he also has plans to explore the new “Gulf of America” coast, whatever that is. He has recently written about the world’s best airports with cool outdoor spaces, the beginner’s guide to carry-on luggage, and the most dog-friendly beaches in the U.S.

The post The 14 Best Vacation Spots in the U.S. and Abroad for 2025 appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

Traveling itself is believed to help boost longevity, but what if your next getaway had even more long-term benefits?

Picture a reboot that’s good for you. We’re not talking about rigid health camps—we all deserve to enjoy our hard-earned vacations, after all—but rather, trips to beautiful places where mindfulness, wellness, community, and longevity are top priorities.

Wellness travel is booming. Between 2020 and 2022, wellness trips grew by 30 percent annually, according to research by the Global Wellness Institute, which also reported that in 2022, 819.4 billion wellness trips were taken in the U.S. and internationally, making up about 7.8 percent of all tourism.

Clearly, these types of vacations are resonating, with good reason. These are my 10 favorite wellness trips in North America.

1. Soak in Natural Hot Springs

Ojo Caliente in New Mexico

Soaking in natural hot springs makes for easy relaxation and rejuvenation. Mineral baths have been shown to reduce stress, lessen joint pain, improve circulation, and naturally detoxify. At , a spa resort in northern New Mexico, you can soak in any of nine communal pools (with minerals like lithia and iron), which include a mud bath and a silent pool, or book a private tub. Access to the steam room and sauna come with your stay, and you can add on yoga classes or spa treatments like sound healing or anti-inflammatory massage.

Dating back to 1868 and located amid desert cliffs near the banks of the cottonwood-lined Rio Ojo Caliente, the place is one of the country’s oldest health resorts, and open for both overnight and day use. Lodging options include adobe suites with hammocks on the patios or restored vintage trailers. (Day passes for the pools start at $45; rooms from $239 a night.)

Ěý2. Check Into a Wellness Resort

YO1 in Monticello, New York

You’ll get personalized treatments and a custom therapeutic plan when you book at , an Ayurvedic longevity resort that opened in the Catskills in 2018 with a focus on Eastern medicine and holistic therapies. This place is for dedicated self-care travelers looking for a total reboot, a concentrated wellness plan, or programs designed to treat specific issues like stress, depression, diabetes, infertility, or insomnia. Visit for the day or stay for a week.

Not sure where to start? Try the three-night wellness program, which includes individual consultations, mud baths, and acupuncture. You’ll stay at a 131-room lodge overlooking Baileys Lake on a 1,300-acre property in pine forests and surrounded by hiking and biking trails—all just two hours from New York City. Access to an infrared sauna, hot tub, group meditation, a reflexology walkway, fitness room, and Olympic-sized swimming pool are included. (Day pass, which includes meals and all-day programming, for $500; overnight accommodations start at $185.)

3. Stay In a Communal şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Lodge

Campfire Ranch Little Sugar in Bella Vista, Arkansas

If community is what you’re after, consider , a new adventure lodge opening in or around May 2025 with out-the-door access to 40 miles of world-class mountain-bike trails surrounding Bentonville, Arkansas, with singletrack loops over rolling hills and through stands of redbud, dogwood, and mulberry trees. The eight-room lodge comes with access to a communal fire pit, outdoor cooking space, gear storage, bike-wash stations, and breakfast service. Campfire Ranch’s adventure concierge can help plan your outings and connect you with local bike rentals and guides. Rent a single room or, if you’re with a group, book out the whole place. (Rates from $250.)

4. Run In Another Country

Aire Libre in Mexico City

, cofounded by Mauricio Díaz, a world-class ultrarunner from Mexico, specializes in transformational running and hiking retreats all over the world, from Costa Rica to Japan. These retreats focus on the intersection of movement, mindfulness, culture, and sustainability, enabling participants to connect with themselves and the landscapes and cultures they’re exploring.

The company’s ($1,800, including meals, lodging, and guiding) is a four-day running adventure where you’ll jog through Mexico City along the gravel trails of Viveros de Coyoacán park and the plazas of the National Autonomous University of Mexico campus. You’ll also leave the city to run trails across the volcanic landscape of the Continental Divide, then experience a guided indigenous temazcal ceremony in a sweat lodge. By night, enjoy communal meals and lodging in boutique hotels.

Ěý5. Spend Four Days Doing Yoga

Esalen in Big Sur, California

Even if you’re not a dedicated yogi or a holistic-retreat kind of person, you’ll love being on the jagged cliffs of Big Sur at , a nonprofit retreat center and educational institute with a heavy yoga focus. You can do a self-guided exploration (read: stay on your own with limited formal instruction) or sign up for the center’s two- or four-night workshops on topics like hypnotherapy, storytelling, or astrology. This is the kind of place where your cell phone doesn’t work, so you might as well stash it away and focus on movement, nature, and real-life connection.

When you’re not learning about your conscious intentions, you can hike the trails within Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park amid 300-foot redwood trees, oak, and chaparral, and see an 80-foot waterfall plummet into the sea. You can also wander the beaches of Big Sur, or bathe in Esalen’s famously clothing-optional hot springs above the roiling Pacific Ocean. Accommodations range from bunks in communal rooms to private yurts overlooking the Pacific. (Rates from around $950 for multi-day workshops, including lodging, meals, and programming. Scholarships available.)

6. Sit in a Sweat Lodge Under a Full Moon

The Horse Shoe Farm in Hendersonville, North Carolina

You could come to the to stay in a well-appointed cottage and eat farm-to-table meals with ingredients sourced on site. Or you could make a trip here into a more broad-based wellness excursion. Just under 40 minutes from Asheville and situated between the verdant Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smoky Mountains with a view of Mount Pisgah, this health sanctuary has five energy vortexes (places believed to be centers of energy currents with spiritual effects), holistic spa treatments, an outdoor labyrinth for walking meditation, and a meditation tower.

The resort recently partnered with, a Cherokee wisdom keeper and ceremonialist from the Qualla Indian Boundary in the Great Smoky Mountains, to build a sweat lodge on the 85-acre property, where he hosts ceremonies on each full and new moon. Overnight accommodations include one-room lofts or three-bedroom homes, depending on your group size. (Rates from $399.)

Ěý7. Go Forest Bathing

Southall Farm and Inn in Franklin, Tennessee

Not all spas are created equal. ’s spa goes above and beyond, incorporating botanical ingredients and mindfulness in sessions like energy healing and detoxifying treatments to develop a deeper connection to self and nature. This working farm on a 425-acre plot in Tennessee has a 62-room lodge plus 16 private cottages that opened for guests in 2022. You can add treatments like sound-bath meditation, forest bathing, or a wellness consultation, depending on what you’re looking for. More than seven miles of hiking and biking trails surround the farm, and there’s canoeing and fishing on the private Lake at Southall. Or take guided tours of the orchard and apiaries that are home to some 8 million bees. (Rates from $695.)

8. Build Something With Your Hands

Yestermorrow in Waitsfield, Vermont

This place isn’t a spa resort in the standard sense, but for people who find learning new skills and using their hands to build things are perfect ways to unlock a deep sense of fulfillment. is a green design-and-build school in Vermont’s Mad River Valley, with a small campus offering day classes and overnight lodging in the Green Mountain National Forest with its lakes and mountain hikes. You can take courses on building a coffee table, sustainable treehouse design, harvesting your own lumber, or basic carpentry. Classes last from two days to two weeks (with certification programs that go longer). Healthy-meal plans plus lodging—dorms, cabins, or camping—can be added to your tuition. (Lodging from $10 to $55 a night; courses from $260, scholarships and sliding-scale tuition available.)

9. Surround Yourself with the Ocean

Pebble Cove Farm in Orcas Island, Washington

Getting to is the first step: You’ll need to take a ferry to reach Orcas Island, part of the dreamy San Juan Islands in upper Puget Sound, 100 miles north of Seattle. Once you’re here, you’ll settle into a cozy cottage overlooking a quiet bay at this farm and animal sanctuary that hosts guests and offers wellness retreats. The inn rents out kayaks and paddleboards and has a garden and apple orchard you’re welcome to wander through. Rescued farm animals like horses, chickens, pigs, and goats, adopted from elsewhere, reside here. The garden and farm animals are closed off from November through April, but the cottages are open year-round. (Rates from $300.)

10. Ski With New Friends

The Ski Retreat in Palisades Tahoe, California; Sun Valley, Idaho; Breckenridge, Colorado

You want to spend a weekend playing outside in snow-covered mountains, but not to deal with figuring out logistics or finding a group of friends to go with. We get that. Enter , a women’s getaway in places like Lake Tahoe, Sun Valley, or Breckenridge for groups of six to 12. These trips, numbering five this winter, are about connection, friendship, relaxation, and play—without having to plan a thing. Your three-night retreat includes lodging at a slopeside cabin, morning yoga, gear demos, chef-prepared group dinners, fireside chats, art classes, and ski and snowboard adventures for a wide range of abilities. (Rates from $550 for local residents not including lodging; from $1,190, including lodging.)

Megan Michelson, an şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř contributing editor, lives in northern California. She’s hoping her occasional habits of drinking tea, practicing yoga, and sleeping 10 hours a night will lead to a long and healthy life. She recently wrote for us about buying a 1 Euro (yes, as in one dollar) home in Italy; how to travel to ski, hike, and bike in Jackson, Wyoming, on the cheap (hard to believe, but she knows of great deals); and why she and her family traded traditional Thanksgiving options for Campsgiving. Her list of great outdoor festivals extends into May 2025.

The post You Deserve Your Vacation. What if It Also Made You Live Longer? appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

If there’s one travel thing I splurge on each year, it’s amazing hotel stays. I’ve no regrets, because they so often make for a next-level vacation.

This year şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř sent me and some of our other travel writers and editors to check out new, recently revamped, or iconic properties that have been on our radar. Talk about unique adventuring in gorgeous locations—one is in a deep red-rock canyon, another in a secluded dark-sky area, and still another has its own private entrance to a national park.

These are the places that blew us away. We’d return to any of them again.

Enchantment Resort

Sedona, Arizona

Price: From $400

Set amid the stupefying red-rock wonder that is Boynton Canyon, one of four major vortex sites in Sedona, my fall stay at Enchantment was emotional but also grounding. I hiked with one of the resort’s vortex experts, whose sage ceremony at a viewpoint overlooking the high-desert landscape made me feel lighter than I had in months. And my chakra-balancing treatment and sound bath at the guests-only Mii Amo spa were as fantastically spiritual and woo-woo as I hoped they’d be.

You could easily spend four days hiking or mountain-biking around Sedona. The property’s on-site Trail House is home to equipment and guides for both, and staff can organize far-flung excursions to the Grand Canyon in a helicopter and Prescott for climbing adventures, if your time and budget allow.

The resort’s Southwestern adobe architecture is designed to blend into the surrounding scenery, the indoor-outdoor restaurants are upscale but not stuffy, and the range of outdoor activities and classes is impressive: pop between its four pools, play tennis or pickleball, or sign up for yoga or . Staff are incredibly friendly, which is to be expected at destination resorts, but one thing that really stood out for me.

Of all the trips I took in 2024, my memories of this property have stayed with me most. And since my review came out, I’ve received feedback from other guests who shared similarly moving experiences at Enchantment. It’s that powerful a place.

What I’d do differently if I returned: I wanted to head to one of the pools late at night and float around staring up at the stars, since Sedona is a Dark Sky Community. But the hiking and spa treatments had me fairly worn out by day’s end—and sleeping soundly through the night.

Clear Sky Resorts Bryce Canyon

Cannonville, Utah

Price: From $525

When Alison Osius visited this new Clear Sky Resort in August, she was ready to spend hours admiring the starry skies—the main draw for guests who look forward to gazing up at the firmament from their own geodesic dome. Unfortunately, it rained during her short stay.

But Osius didn’t let bad weather dampen her exploration of Bryce Canyon National Park, just a 20-minute drive from the property. She motored around the park with a fourth-generation guide, hitting highlights like Natural Arch and the Bryce Amphitheater, both beautifully shrouded in mist, and got a hoot out of hearing about local escapades of legendary outlaw Butch Cassidy. Eventually, the clouds did clear and she was able to hike the 1.8-mile .

Clear Sky has some unique amenities, including a robot concierge who offers outdoor-recreation beta, a café with a gleaming boomerang-shaped bar, fire pits and cornhole, and stargazing tours. The domes themselves are fun, futuristic, and encourage group visits. Osius was surprised to learn that one has a dance floor, disco ball, and flashing lights.

Off-site, she was won over by the barbecue in a joint called in the town of Tropic, and loved the live cowboy music at in Bryce Canyon City. Her vacation gave her different viewpoints of the West and an appreciation of this area’s otherworldly landcapes, which include the greatest concentration of hoodoos in the world.

What Osius would do differently if she returned: A second visit would ideally happen when the stars were out and shining, said Osius, though she did think it was cool to watch rivulets of rain run down her dome. And the next time, she’d stay longer and hike way more in Bryce Canyon.

Lodge at Marconi

Marshall, California

Price: From $299

I’ve visited several outdoor-adjacent properties in the Bay Area over the years, but none within a state park. The experience felt like a sophisticated, laid-back,Ěý improved version of summer camp. Lodge at Marconi is a newly remodeled, 45-acre property that spans from the water’s edge of eastern Tomales Bay—an hour’s drive north of San Francisco on Highway 1—to bluffs with incredible views westward to Point Reyes National Seashore and north to the Pacific Ocean.

The weekend I was in town, the property was hosting an indoor-outdoor wedding as well as young couples there with their toddlers and dogs, day-trippers picnicking beneath shady oaks, and friends using it as a base camp for a local foodie tour. Come dusk, everyone gathered around the massive communal fire pit and hung out for hours, occasionally popping into the on-site store for a bottle of regional wine.

This is a fantastic place to do some wildlife- and bird-watching. Wild turkeys were running around while I was there, and I spent 15 minutes one morning looking down at a huge school of fish feasting on bugs in the bay. Tule elk wander Point Reyes and elephant seals laze on its beaches. Bring your best binoculars.

One of the best things about Marconi, though, is its quick access to fantastic eating in these parts. The waterfront Marshall Store is just a mile away, the must-visit Hog Island Oyster Company a mile farther (take the tour and then have lunch), and, after that, Nick’s Cove, where I love to have a casual seafood dinner and drink. This trip I also wandered around the town of Point Reyes Station, eight miles south, where I discovered buffalo-milk soft serve and a sandwich shop with 18 gooey melts. Delicious, both.

What I’d do differently if I returned: The next time, I’m bringing my girlfriends, renting out Marconi’s spacious A-frame cabin, and enjoying an evening at its cute new little cocktail bar and restaurant, Mable’s, which I missed because it opened two weeks after my visit.

Phantom Ranch

The Grand Canyon, Arizona

Price: From $213.50 for two people

It’s really hard to get a reservation to Phantom Ranch, a group of historic cabins and dorms at the floor of the Grand Canyon, and you have to try for one 15 months in advance. But Stephanie Vermillion lucked out and snagged a last-minute winter opening. Her review of the property offers tips to scoring a stay there, too.

If you are able to book Phantom Ranch, you also have to be prepared to get there. Vermillion chose the easier route down, from the South Rim: a seven-mile (one-way) zigzagging descent via the South Kaibab Trail that you have to then ascend after check-out. Pack light—no need to bring food, because you can pay for hot meals at the ranch—and take your trekking poles. It’s about a vertical mile of elevation gain each way.

Worth it, said Vermillion, to stay in the stone cabins designed by renowned architect Mary Jane Colter. And to amble along the mightly Colorado River; if you have more than one night at the property, Vermillion suggests hiking the to Phantom Overlook. It’s nine miles round-trip but you’ll see parts of the canyon seldom explored by visitors.

What Vermillion would do differently if she returned: I’d go lighter on the camera gear I brought—the weight of two cameras and a bulky tripod made the tough uphill return trip even more challenging.

Dunton Hot Springs

Dolores, Colorado

Price: From $1,165 for two people

We’re recommending this ghost-town hot-springs resort, because it’s a secluded slice of the Wild West where you can not only soak to your heart’s content but also fish for trout, hike and bike the Rockies, and dine at a saloon. Writer Emily Pennington said it was the best wellness retreat she’d ever been to.

Dunton is located in southwestern Colorado, about 30 miles from beautiful Telluride. In the late 1800s it was a mining settlement, and Butch Cassidy actually scratched his name into the bar, which you can pony up to while you’re visiting. The 15 log cabins are cozy and encircle the wooden bathhouse home to a pool with rich mineral waters and decorated with a hammock and a small fireplace. When Pennington visited in March, the snow was coming down and the hot springs were just the respite she was looking for.

As anyone who lives in Colorado can tell you, March does not mark the end of winter. Pennington took a cat-ski ride up to Dunton Meadows and spent a few hours snowshoeing (the resort loans out gear). The next morning she took a yoga class. She made use of her room’s clawfoot tub. And she and the other five guests there at the time ate incredible meals, including blue-corn johnnycakes and house-cured bacon for breakfast, a hearty Mexican posole and tostadas for lunch, and a multi-course dinner that featured bison one evening. The whole experience was something she’d looked forward to for months—and it did not disappoint.

What Pennington would do differently if she returned: As an avid hiker, Pennington loves the idea of exploring the stunning San Juan Mountains in the summer months. And that steamy, historic hot-spring building would look even more tantalizing after a thigh-busting trek, she said.

The Nami Project

Ucluelet, British Columbia

Price: From $343

Western Vancouver Island is a known storm-watching destination, and şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř travel columnist Jen Murphy had to experience it firsthand herself. So we sent her to Nami Project, a collection of suites that overlook the ocean, to watch the winter swells roll in from her room’s floor-to-ceiling windows.

But the views were too stunning for staying holed up inside. Murphy donned rain gear and set out to explore neighboring , hiking amid the tall Sitka spruce on a trail that hugs the coast. During the wildest storms, you can watch 20-foot-high waves crash into the coast. After braving the elements, Nami Project’s cedar hot tubs, sauna, and heated floors felt pretty great.

Tide-pooling, surfing, and hiking through the rainforest are popular activities year-round, and in the warmer months, you can rent a bike and pedal the 15 miles up to Tofino. Murphy, who is a foodie, also raved about the area fare, especially the hyperlocal tasting menu at the restaurant .

What Murphy would do differently if she returned: Witness the world’s largest gray-whale migration while soaking from her room’s hot tub. As many as 20,000 whales can be spotted swimming offshore beginning in February.

The Swag

Waynesville, North Carolina

Price: From $875, all-inclusive

Graham Averill and his wife spent a few glorious days holing up at The Swag and hiking from its 250-acre premises directly into Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a perk that offers your own private entrance to a lesser visited corner of America’s most visited national park.

The couple, who visited in late summer, spent an afternoon trekking through rhododendron tunnels and past a waterfall, topping out at a knob with valley views. Averill also did some trail running along a 5,500-foot ridge with spectacular panoramas to the distant Black Mountains. There were lawn games and a pool, and Averill’s room had a fireplace and an outdoor shower. Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton were in regular rotation on the house playlist.

Needless to say, you can work up an appetite here, and the reward is getting to indulge in home cooking. Averill couldn’t get enough of the grilled pigeon. And the iced tea. And the smoked Old Fashioneds. And the chocolate-chip pie served with ice cream. “Every course set in front of me was the best thing I’d ever had, until the next course came out and it became the best thing I’d ever had,” he wrote.

The experience—the scenery, the proximity to the park, the opening drive from parking to the property in an electric Volvo XC90—was top-notch from start to finish. “Imagine if your grandmother had generational wealth, exceptional taste, and lived to spoil you—that’s what a stay at The Swag feels like,” he said.

What Averill would do differently if he returned: The Swag’s super complex wooden jigsaw puzzle baffled Averill on his last visit, and he’d like to spend more time sipping cocktails in front of the fireplace while trying to put it together.

TashaĚýZemke is şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř magazine’s managing editor and a member of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online travel team. She still has yet to satiate her wanderlust, and next year she’s most looking forward to attending Mountainfilm, in what her colleague called Colorado’s most beautiful town; hiking with friends in Ireland; and kayaking off Baja Sur, Mexico.

The post 7 Amazing Resorts in the U.S. and Canada That We’d Love to Return To appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

The Storm Hits Ěý

I wake up at dawn on Friday, September 27, because the wind is howling around my house and trees are snapping at their trunks and being pulled out of the ground by their roots. From the window I watch the treetops sway and listen for the crack of wood. I hope I can echo-locate the snap so I know where the giant timber is going to fall. At every sound, I worry something will land on my house.

Two large white oaks, one of which is at least a hundred years old (I count the rings later) are pushed over by a massive gust and careen towards my neighbor’s house, where three little girls under the age of 10 live. As one barely misses the walls and crushes a trampoline outside, I slump in relief.

Rain is coming down in a steady stream. The power goes off a few minutes after I wake up. Water is the next to vanish, an hour later. Cell service disappears in the early afternoon. Asheville has wind gusts of 46 miles per hour.

Nobody expected a storm like this in western North Carolina. Hurricanes usually hit the state’s coastal regions, not the mountains. We knew there would be rain and flooding, but nothing at all as catastrophic as what came. My wife and I lived through Asheville’s last hurricane flood, in 2004, when the French Broad River surged into low-lying parts of town. Meteorologists called that event a one-in-100-year flood. They’re saying this storm is a one-in-1,000 year event. I don’t know a single person who evacuated, nor did I ever hear any calls from officials to do so.

When the worst of the storm abates, around noon, I walk into the street and gather with neighbors to make sure everyone is O.K. Kids are crying. People have huddled in their basements. A neighbor who’s a doctor walks up saying a woman at the bottom of our hill has a gash in her neck that won’t stop bleeding because the roof of her house fell on her in bed. Trees are down all over and there’s no clear path to get the woman to a hospital, so I run around looking for a way that a vehicle could get through the carnage. So many power lines are down, so many cars are smashed, so many trees are leaning on homes, and stunned people are standing in their yards. My neighborhood of 19 years feels foreign.

I find the safest way to walk the woman with the neck wound to a point where I think a car could meet us, and I reach a friend who’s headed into my neighborhood with a chainsaw, already out trying to cut through the madness, and have just enough service to tell him where to go before my phone dies. I walk the woman up a hill, with the doctor who’s telling her not to remove the bandage from her neck because you don’t mess with neck wounds, and the woman is crying. She’s afraid of the wind and the trees—after the roof of her house just fell on her.

My friend with the truck and the chainsaw is there, exactly where I told him to meet us, and the woman enters the vehicle and they head towards the hospital. I don’t hear how she is for another three days because there’s no cell service, and nobody hears from anyone unless in a face-to-face conversation.

I go back to my own house to assess the damage and hug my wife and children.

By the end of the day, a crew of men in a truck I’ve never seen before have chainsawed their way through half of the downed trees in the neighborhood. These aren’t city crews or electric-company employees. These are dudes in trucks doing what they can to help.

This is just day one.

The Aftermath of the Storm

Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, turning the city of Asheville, the South’s greatest outdoor-adventure town where I have lived for 20 years, and the surrounding mountain communities into a federal disaster zone. The French Broad River crested at more than 24 feet, wiping out the entire River Arts District, a collection of restaurants, breweries, hotels, and art studios a mile west of downtown. Biltmore Village, a hub of higher-end hotels and restaurants and shops, is similarly trashed, whole buildings gutted by the force of the river. Entire neighborhoods have been washed away, with houses and trailers floating downstream and piles of broken lumber everywhere.

I’m incredibly fortunate. Our basement flooded, but no trees hit our house. Nobody in my family was hurt. We live in higher terrain and not along the river corridor, where the worst flooding occurred. So many people are in far worse shape. As I write, 71 people have been confirmed dead across the county. Search and rescue helicopters and ATVs are still looking for missing people every day.

The first few days after the storm were isolating. Navigating the roads was tough because of the downed trees. Nobody had cell or internet service, so we couldn’t check the news or message anyone. I didn’t know the extent of the destruction beyond my own neighborhood. Eventually, we learned to get in the car and listen to the city’s press conferences at 10 A.M. and 4 P.M. every day to grasp the context of the storm. I worked on cleaning up my neighbors’ yards and some trees in the road.

I was lucky in another way, too. We have an old hot tub in our backyard that became our sole source of gray water, and remains so. I used five-gallon buckets to move water from it to our bathtub so we could flush toilets. I cooked meals on our propane grill, pulling food from the fridge before it went bad.

At some point, I learned that the Chamber of Commerce a mile up the street had power and their WiFi was radiating into the parking lot, so twice a day I walked up there to send messages and check the news. I started a fire in the wood stove in our basement to try to dry the water out. Of all the damage Hurricane Helene caused, this is as minor as it gets.

In talking with neighbors, we heard there was no gas for cars because the stations had no power, and that none of the interstates or highways were letting vehicles in or out. We heard other towns—Chimney Rock, Burnsville, Spruce Pine, more—deeper in the mountains fared even worse than Asheville. We learned that the city had organized points of distribution for water and food.

Besides the destruction, mostly what I saw is people taking care of each other. The guy who owns the trendy cafe on the corner a few blocks from my house cranked up his giant pizza oven and served free burgers and chicken sandwiches, feeding 1,500 people. Other neighbors chipped in, setting up stands with free stew and hot dogs.

We were all walking all over the neighborhood and town, asking people we didn’t know if they needed anything.

Almost two weeks after the storm, we still have no power, internet, or running water. I’m still moving water to flush toilets, getting drinking water from distribution points, trying to keep a fire in the basement stove. Cell service came back about six days after the storm.

Every state and federal agency is on the ground. Cops, firefighters, and search-and-rescue teams have come from Indiana, New York, Ohio. There are well-organized official disaster-relief stations and smaller stations set up by civilians. There’s a hard 7:30 P.M. curfew. I’ve heard isolated events of attempted muggings, but mostly it’s peaceful.

Unable to work as a writer without internet or power, I spend my days volunteering. One day I’m cooking burgers at a community center, the next, knocking on doors around Buncombe County doing wellness checks. If you can’t reach a cousin or aunt or spouse in Asheville, you call and ask for someone to check on the person. Volunteers go out to people’s last known addresses and see if they’re OK.

Most of the people I check on are OK. I work on developing the friendliest of door knocks,Ěý something that says, “I’m here to help.” Only one person answered the door with a gun in a holster.

I’m having a hard time putting this into words, but in the midst of all of the destruction and despair that I’ve seen, I’ve also been overwhelmed by a sense of hope and gratitude. Is it cheesy to say this disaster has renewed my faith in humankind? Probably. But that’s fine.

Without water and power, schools are closed, so my kids spend their days volunteering or helping friends clean up their yards. They have sleepovers and walk a mile into town together, just for some semblance of normalcy.

Grocery stores opened on a limited basis a day or so after the storm. One person in, one person out, long lines. Cash only because there was no internet. Now the stores are taking cards again, and you can get much of what you need or want. Most gas stations are open again. The two coolers on my back porch are full of food, and I am still cooking all meals on the propane grill. I’ll need to find more propane soon.

Downtown is a ghost town. Asheville is a tourist draw and obviously there are no tourists right now. A lot of people have left town temporarily as well. Some businesses have boarded up, and only a few shops are open.

My hot tub is almost empty, which means I’ll have to figure out another source soon for non-potable water. I saw the destruction to the reservoir system. It’s extensive; the transmission lines, which carry the water out of the reservoir, were washed out after more than 30 inches of rain fell. The bypass line, which was built as a redundancy measure, also washed out. That particular line was buried 25 feet deep, but the land eroded so much that the pipe was carried away. Crews are working on rebuilding that pipe right now.

The Outdoor Community Steps Up

The day before the storm, I went to to drop off a couple of things for resale. Second Gear is a consignment outdoor-gear shop that gives gently loved items like camp stoves and fleece and tents a second life, an effort in sustainability and in making things affordable to people who want to go outdoors and may lack good gear and equipment. It has a great location in the River Arts District, about 100 yards from the French Broad River.

The next time I saw Second Gear, it was in a video on social media, being swept away by the river. The entire building.

A number of guide services, like paddle-board rental shops and shuttle operators like French Broad Outfitters and Zen Tubing, that were located on the river suffered similar fates. Wrong Way Campground saw massive damage, the river breaching several of their cabins.

The local climbing gym, Cultivate Climbing, closed their flood doors, which would typically keep water out of the building. The river level was so high the waters crested the flood doors, poured in, and turned the building into a swimming pool.

Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are closed. There’s no telling what sort of damage those mountains have suffered, because all resources right now are still dedicated to helping people in need. I’ve heard of groups of mountain bikers from the local bike club, called SORBA (for the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association), hiking into small, isolated communities and chainsawing a path for those residents to get out to the nearest fire station.

I’ve heard of fly-fishing guides leading search-and-rescue efforts in the steep mountain hollers where they typically head up fishing adventures.

Several small towns, such as Barnardsville and Spruce Pine, in western North Carolina are isolated, the roads covered in mud and a tangle of pines and hardwoods. Nonprofits and small-town fire departments have been organizing groups of hikers to take supplies into people deep in the mountains who are cut off from the outside world. Volunteers with ATVs are incredibly sought after because they can get into remote places that normal vehicles can’t access.

The French Broad River Keeper, Hartwell Carson, who spearheads stewardship when he’s not assessing storm damage and reports of toxic sludge, mobilizes a crew of volunteers to cook burgers and hot dogs for various communities throughout the region. He’s lobbying for millions of dollars to be allocated to the area specifically to put out-of-work river guides on the job of cleaning up the French Broad.

Astral, an Asheville-based shoe brand that makes popular water shoes and hiking boots, is focusing on supporting remote mountain communities that saw severe hurricane damage. This week, Astral will take a van load of six generators to the tiny town of Buladean, which sits below Roan Mountain in North Carolina’s High Country.

The director of North Carolina Outdoor Economy, Amy Allison, is trying to coordinate coat donations from gear companies outside of the region. It’s warm today, but the temperatures are dropping next week. Many families here don’t have adequate winter gear, and will need coats, hats, and gloves as they navigate the new reality of going to distribution points for drinking water and moving flush water into their homes.

What’s Next for Western North CarolinaĚý

Almost two weeks later, I still try to turn the light on when I walk into a room. According to local press conferences, we’ll probably get power back some time this week, which is great. I’ve heard that the city is sending trucks to take out household trash. There’s no timetable as to when water will be restored. It could be weeks.

Living without running water for a couple of months is hard to fathom, largely because our kids can’t go back to school without it. Schools must have working sprinkler systems in case of fire.

Several families we know have already moved temporarily to other cities and enrolled their kids in schools. My wife is looking into home-school scenarios.

For a couple of days right after the storm there was a constant stream of sirens and chainsaws, but that stopped. Now it’s silent at night. It’s the kind of quiet you get camping in the middle of the woods, but I live on the edge of downtown Asheville. With no lights in my neighborhood, I can see the stars at night. I don’t think any of us will begin to understand the impact of what’s happened for months, when it’s safer and the destruction and loss of lives isn’t so palpable.

In the meantime, we carry on. I have a wood stove. I’ve hooked up a solar shower. I’m trying to work again. Tomorrow I’m cooking burgers for the small town of Barnardsville, 45 minutes north of Asheville. After that I’ll help a friend salvage the fence on his farm, then later in the week help another friend repair his campground. I think I’ve come up with a solution for water to flush my toilets, too. There’s a creek at the bottom of my neighborhood. I’ll put my cold plunge tub in the back of the truck and fill it from the creek with five-gallon buckets, then drive back up to my house and put the water in the hot tub.

It feels good to have a plan.

Graham Averill is şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř magazine’s national-parks columnist. He’s lived in Asheville for more than 20 years. If you want to help locals, lost its warehouse in the flood, and is still distributing food to those in need.

For more by this author, see:

9 Beautiful Mountain Towns in the Southeast

9 Most Underrated National Parks for Incredible Fall Foliage

The post This Is What It’s Like to Live in Asheville After Hurricane Helene appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

Don’t worry about the sharks. They’re large, yes, but they’re sand-tigers, which are relatively docile compared to other species in the water. It’s the barracudas you might consider. From where I’m standing, on the edge of a light tower in the middle of the ocean, I can see dozens of them floating around the structure, waiting for a snack.

“They have a mouthful of K-9-like incisors. Creepy fish,” says Dave Wood, one of the owners of the off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina. “They typically leave people alone, but don’t wear anything shiny into the water. It gets them going.”

Not that I’m planning on falling in, but when you’re 32 miles out in the middle of the ocean, perched on top of a 60-year-old light tower, watching a bunch of predators swimming below, you wonder.

This is definitely the most adventurous and remote place I’ve ever stayed.

What Is the Frying Pan Tower?

The Frying Pan Tower is a decommissioned Coast Guard light station built on the tip of Frying Pan Shoals, an unusually shallow stretch of water running for 30 miles from the tower west to the Barrier Islands along the coast. Between the 1600s to the mid 1900s, hundreds of ships wrecked on the shoals—known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic—and the lighthouse was built in 1964 by the U.S. government to help keep mariners safe.

The building was decommissioned in the early 1990s when sailors started using GPS to navigate around dangerous obstacles. Frying Pan sat empty until 2010, when Richard Neal, fresh off a corporate job and looking for a project, purchased it in a government auction for $85,000. Since then, Neal has been working tirelessly to restore the structure, passing ownership on to 10 investors and taking over as the caretaker and head of a non-profit, FPTower Inc., tasked with keeping the tower from falling into the ocean.

“Frying Pan can still help keep mariners safe. It’s the only structure out here,” Neal says. Various things can go wrong for ships out at sea, from systems failures to people getting injured. “And it’s a resource for scientific research. We’ve had marine biologists out here, NASA, NOAA, people from MIT. Frying Pan can be a point to collect wave data, hurricane data, shark data…It still has value.”

The şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍřs Are Endless at the Frying Pan

It’s also one hell of a basecamp for adventure. Imagine all the benefits of ocean-front property, but put that property in the middle of the sea without any neighbors (or, granted, amenities like grocery stores). Frying Pan sits in only 55 feet of water. On a clear day, you can see the coral on the sandy floor from the catwalk that wraps around the living quarters.

These are ideal conditions for scuba, snorkeling, and free diving. Anglers can drop a line off the edge of the tower and pull up grouper and cobia for dinner. Several times during my two-day visit, I stood mesmerized on the edge of the catwalk watching sharks rise to inspect the bait we cast into the water.

If you get bored with your immediate surroundings, you can explore the Greg Mickey, a fishing vessel about 1,000 yards north that was sunk in 2007 to become an artificial reef in honor of a fallen diver. Or take a 20-minute boat ride to the Gulf Stream for deep-sea fishing for wahoo and tuna.

“I would pass by this tower when I was a kid on small boats, and it was always a comfort to see, because you’re so far away from land,” says Jason Guyot, an owner of Frying Pan who grew up fishing the area with his dad. “It’s nice to know there’s something out here if things go bad.”

And the view? Climb to the very top of the structure, 135 feet above the surface of the water where the actual Coast Guard light stands, and you see ocean. Flat and blue and all around you without a spec of land in sight. As far as vacation real estate goes, it’s one of a kind.

Staying on the Frying Pan

Originally intended to house a crew of 17 Coast Guard personnel, Frying Pan looks like an oil platform. The 5,000-square-foot living space boasts eight bedrooms, a commercial-grade kitchen, two bathrooms, and even an entertainment room with a pool table. A stainless-steel catwalk hangs outside the main floor of the tower, while a helicopter pad occupies the top deck. The actual lighthouse stretches out from that pad, standing 135 feet above the water.

While most lighthouses are located on land, the Coast Guard built seven of these offshore towers, modeled after oil platforms, in the 1960s for added safety. Three of those original towers have been dismantled because of their deteriorating structures; another was destroyed in a storm. The three remaining towers were all scheduled for dismantling until private owners stepped in to purchase them.

According to Neal, Frying Pan is in the best shape of the existing structures, but it still needs constant maintenance. There’s a small movement of private citizens working to preserve lighthouses in this country, and Neal is in the thick of it.

When Neal took over Frying Pan nearly 15 years ago, it had been abandoned for decades. The windows were broken, bullets were embedded in the walls from vandals, it had no power, there were holes in the floors, and rust was eating away at much of the exterior structure.

Restoring the Frying Pan

Neal spends every other week on the tower, working through various projects, while others pop out as often as they can. The renovation project has attracted an interesting mix of investors, all of whom are DIY advocates. They come out together to weld, re-wire, re-build, and generally figure out how to maintain the building. They each bring something different to the situation. One is a helicopter pilot, another a retired contractor. Others are divers and anglers and carpenters, providing fish for the kitchen and practical skills for the restoration.

Technically, Frying Pan is in international waters, so the owners could turn the tower into anything they want–a casino, a bordello, even its own sovereign nation. But they just want to make sure Frying Pan continues to be a resource to the maritime and scientific communities.

The biggest single room is the workshop, loaded with metal cutting-band saws, welding torches, cranes, chains, power cords, two wave runners on racks, massive diesel generators, canisters of oil and soy bean oil. Neal and his cohorts have replaced the windows, installed air conditioning, reconfigured the bedrooms to handle paying guests, and renovated the bathrooms. Neal estimates he’s put $300,000 of his own money into the tower, and it likely needs another $1 to $2 million more to be fully restored.

The largest hurdle in that restoration work is also Frying Pan’s greatest appeal: its location. It’s remote. For my trip, I take a 2.5-hour ride on a 27-foot fishing boat in rough seas and spend the majority of the time trying not to vomit. Supplies need to be either shipped in by boat or flown in by helicopter, neither of which is cheap. This means that Neal and his cohorts end up improvising a lot on site.

“I can’t just run to Home Depot. If I need something, I’m probably going to make it,” Neal says. “If I can’t make it myself, I try to find smart people who can.”

When I reach the tower, Neal and the owners are fabricating braces to hang on the side of the tower to support a row of solar panels, welding together custom-fit stainless-steel tubes. Neal stands on top of a six-foot-tall ladder, set on the edge of the catwalk, roughly 100 feet above the ocean, with a welding torch in his hand to burn a hole into the top of the exterior wall to fit a bracket that will eventually hold the brace for the solar panels.

“I love this stuff,” Neal says, hanging precariously above the ocean with a lit torch in his hand.

While I’m on site, he works from sunup to sundown, tackling one task after another, the half-dozen other owners on the tower at the time working right alongside him. Most of the owners started out as working volunteers, spending a few days on Frying Pan scraping rust or putting down carpet, and fell in love with the property and the challenge of figuring out the solution to the next problem.

Later in the day, Neal and a volunteer will scuba dive below the tower to replace the that stream a live feed of the bottom of the ocean to . After the solar panels are in place, the team will replace some of the exterior doors that are rotting through. Eventually, they’ll have to address some of the structural supports beneath the living quarters that are reaching the end of their shelf life. It all costs money, which is where guests play a part.

How to Visit the Frying Pan

Frying Pan Tower hosts visitors every other week throughout the year, with the proceeds going straight back into restoration. Guests can sign up for a ($900), where they’ll spend most of their time working alongside Neal, welding or cleaning or rewiring. Or they can sign up for an ($1,950) and spend their time diving or fishing or just soaking up the view. When I was there, a volunteer was cooking and the owners brought food, but on most trips you would bring food and cook it yourself.

Most people who find themselves on Frying Pan are infatuated with the open sea. They’re divers and snorkelers, anglers casting off the sides of the tower or taking quick trips to the Gulf Stream. The tower has also seen cliff jumpers and free divers, scientists and Boy Scout troops.

The potential for adventure is only limited by your imagination. Jason Guyot dreams about bringing a kitesurfing rig to the tower and exploring the surrounding seascape. I want to come back with a paddleboard and snorkeling gear. I’d also love to bring my wife and kids; they’d have a blast snorkeling at the base of the tower and watching the sharks from above.

The Stargazing Is Incredible

The night sky is the darkest I’ve ever seen. Not a single light competes for the attention of the stars in any direction on the horizon. Our group of owners and volunteers gravitates to the helicopter pad after the sun sets, and settles in to watch the sky above for shooting stars. The Milky Way is a broad white paint stroke across the darkness.

I don’t go in the water during my brief stay at Frying Pan, but I do help with restorations when I can, hit biodegradable golf balls filled with fish food into the sea below, cast for fish, and generally try to grasp the nuances of life in the middle of the ocean. This is the most isolated I’ve ever been in my entire life. The nearest Starbucks is more than 40 miles due west. If something goes wrong, it would be hours before help arrives.

That sort of isolation makes a lot of people anxious. But for others, it’s relaxing. All of the distractions of life on the mainland are gone. Your priorities shrink. There is only the task at hand, whether it’s fishing or hanging a solar panel, food, and rest.

For dinner, we fire up a grill on the helicopter pad. Jason Guyot, who owns car dealerships and runs a real-estate business on land, is constantly in motion, cooking steaks brought in from a farm in eastern Carolina. He turns the meat slowly, looks around and says, “I wonder what the rest of the world is doing right now?”

Graham Averill is şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř magazine’s national parks columnist. His time on Frying Pan was brief, but he’ll always remember the brightness of the Milky Way above and the sight of sharks feeding below.

For more by this author, see:

9 Beautiful Mountain Towns in the Southeast

The 10 Best Bike Towns in America, Ranked

8 Surf Towns Where You Can Learn the Sport and the Culture

The post I Stayed at This Coast Guard Station in the Middle of the Ocean. So Can You. appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

Mountain towns in the Western U.S. get a lot of love. I’ve written plenty of articles that highlight places like Jackson, Boulder, and Crested Butte, but these high-profile burgs aren’t the only badass adventure basecamps.

I’ve lived in North Carolina in the Southern Appalachians for the last 20 years, and while the Southeast is often overlooked for adventure and mountain culture, we have a bevy of cities with quick access to the diversions we all crave. Not to mention downtowns so charming you’d think you were on a movie set.

These are my nine favorite mountain towns in the Southeast, ranked according to my experience and personal preferences, with special points given for bike rides that end at breweries.

1. Asheville, North Carolina

Population: 93,775

Best Known For: Breweries and Bike Rides

Am I biased because Asheville is my home? Yes, but there are reasons why I chose to settle here 20 years ago, and many more why I stay. Life here is too damn good for me to consider moving anywhere else.

Asheville is the cultural center of the Southern Appalachians, with one of the best food-and-beer scenes on the East Coast. The street art and local music rival that in bigger cities, too. The town itself is so fun you could easily forget that all this activity sits in a valley surrounded by 5,000- and 6,000-foot mountains that are perfect playgrounds for adventure athletes.

World-class road cycling begins and ends in town, while epic hiking and mountain biking options start within 20 miles in every direction. The French Broad River provides mellow daytime paddling options on the west side of downtown as well as multi-night adventures, thanks to developed campsites along the , while hardcore paddlers have flocked to Asheville for the prevalence of class IV and V creeks deeper in the mountains.

Best şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍřs in Asheville, North Carolina

• There are hundreds of miles of singletrack in the surrounding Pisgah National Forest, but for a quick post-work ride, I head 15 minutes west of downtown (12 miles) to , which has more than 20 miles of trails. is my favorite piece of singletrack, partly because of the long gravel climb to reach it, but mostly for the two miles of flowy, mildly technical downhill.
• Roadies should head straight for the Blue Ridge Parkway, which forms a half-circle around Asheville. I like the climb up Town Mountain Road, which leaves directly from downtown and heads north on the parkway until I either get tired or hit 6,684-foot Mount Mitchell 33 miles later. has both mountain- and road-bike rentals (from $85 a day).
• For an epic hike or trail run, drive south on the Blue Ridge Parkway for 30 miles to the 6,214-foot Black Balsam, a high-elevation bald with 360-degree views of the surrounding peaks. It’s my wife’s favorite spot for a scenic photo shoot. You can reach the summit in a .5-mile hike along the Art Loeb Trail, or you could knock out a bigger loop that takes in Black Balsam and neighboring Tennent Mountain, another 6,000-footer with its own tree-free summit views. A five- and 10-mile option each uses the same
  

  

Where to Eat and Drink in Asheville, North Carolina

• Everyone is going to have an opinion, but I like the vibe at Burial Brewing, where you can drink the potent Surf Wax IPA in a beer garden next to a mural of Tom Selleck and Sloth from Goonies.
• Asheville has its fair share of James Beard-nominated chefs, but I get excited about eating a Bibim Bap from El Kimchi, a food truck with shifting locations throughout town each night. Try to catch El Kimchi at New Belgium Brewery, which has a massive lawn above the French Broad River.

Where to Stay in Asheville, North Carolina

• Wrong Way River Lodge and Cabins has one-bedroom A-frame cabins, each complete with a record player and selection of vinyl, next to the French Broad River within walking distance of a climbing gym, greenway system, and the bars and restaurants within the River Arts District (from $198 a night).

2. Chattanooga, Tennessee

Population: 185,000

Best known for: Rock climbing and singletrack

Chattanooga is easily the largest city on this list, but don’t let the size dissuade you. The location is perfect, as Chattanooga sits in the foothills of the Southern Appalachians with the steep slopes of Lookout Mountain and the Cumberland Plateau rising from the edge of town. I’m always amazed by how close the adventure is to downtown Chattanooga.

The lush hardwood forests of the surrounding mountains hold expansive sandstone cliffs and boulders, making Chattanooga a hotbed of rock climbing, while recent years have brought an explosion of mountain-bike trail development. Meanwhile, the Tennessee River wraps around downtown, giving paddlers immediate access to endless miles of flat-water boating. I’ve spent a lot of time paddling a SUP on the Tennessee River, in awe of the buildings and bridges that comprise downtown.

And the city has whole-heartedly embraced the outdoors, with leaders actively working to make it one of the first designated in the world, trying to apply a national park ethos to the entire city.

Best şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍřs in Chattanooga, Tennessee

• There are more than 100 miles of singletrack within 20 miles of downtown Chattanooga, and most have been purpose-built in the last decade for mountain bikers. , a city park with six miles of bike trails in town, offers a great quick spin, but I’ve spent entire days geeking out on , eight miles from downtown, where roughly 30 miles of fast, technical single track unfold.
  

• Rock climbers might have more to choose from than mountain bikers around Chattanooga. The city opens up the , a 50-foot-tall limestone pier holding up a city bridge, to climbing occasionally, via toprope and on bolted-on holds. But the , a sandstone cliff hanging over the Tennessee River in Prentice Cooper State Forest, 15 miles from downtown, has to be the crown jewel. The T-Wall has more than 600 established routes, most of which require trad skills and gear. The routes range in difficulty from 5.5 to 5.13, with something for everyone.
  

  

• There are whitewater runs in the mountains surrounding town, and the runs for 45 miles through the Tennessee River Gorge, offering multi-day flatwater canoe trips. But I’m always drawn to the eight-mile-long Tennessee Riverpark, which has multiple access points for boaters downtown. Rent paddleboards at ($30), in Coolidge Park, and see town from the water.
• What you can see above ground is just the beginning; there are more than 7,000 caves within an hour’s drive of Chattanooga. Most are wild caves on private property that are closed to the public, but offers guided adventures through a network of chambers and tunnels that have streams and waterfalls (from $60).
  

Where to Eat and Drink in Chattanooga, Tennessee

• For years, my one complaint about Chattanooga was the prevalence of chain restaurants over local options, but recently the food scene has exploded with great one-of-a-kind options, especially in the Southside neighborhood, which is tucked into a revitalized industrial district. Check out , which serves well-crafted Chinese-inspired dishes with fun tiki drinks. I’m a sucker for tiki drinks.

Where to Stay in Chattanooga, Tennessee

• There are plenty of hotels throughout Chattanooga, but I have a soft spot for , an upscale hostel with private rooms (starting at $70) that caters to the adventurous, with a lobby stocked with local guidebooks and free crash-pads for guests who want to boulder.

3. Boone, North Carolina

Population: 19,756

Best known for: Appalachian State (go Mountaineers!) and 5,000-foot peaks

Nestled inside North Carolina’s High Country and surrounded by 5,000-foot peaks, Boone is the perfect blend of college town and adventure hub. Downtown blends with Appalachian State University’s sprawling campus, which absolutely bustles with life when school is in session, especially during football season in the fall.

But Boone would make it on this list even without all that youthful vibrancy, because the mountains that envelope the community are stacked with adventure, from cycling the winding blacktop of the Blue Ridge Parkway to climbing in the Linville Gorge. Boone has skiing in the winter, rock climbing from fall through spring, and plenty of hiking and road and mountain biking year round.

As for the town itself, it’s a mix of college-friendly dive bars, boutique shops, and high-end restaurants with elevated southern fare. I like Boone more and more every time I visit, and I’m secretly hoping my kids decide to go to college at App State so I can go more.

Best şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍřs in Boone, North Carolina

• Mountain bikers should head straight to , which boasts10 miles of purpose-built trails with features designed to help rippers progress through technical challenges as well as jumps and drops. A paved pump track has fast lines and great views of the surrounding mountains. To be honest, I’m jealous of this park.
  

• If you prefer your adventures on two feet, take the opportunity to explore the Linville Gorge Wilderness, which protects 12 miles of the 2,000-foot-deep canyon of the same name. The terrain is steep, loaded with granite cliffs and boulders and shrouded in a dense hardwood forest. At the bottom of the gorge is the tumultuous Linville River. I’ve scrambled around the gorge many times and am always blown away by the views and the solitude it offers. Most people just hike the short distance to Linville Falls, but check out the 2.4-mile , which requires a scramble to the top of a rocky outcropping, but delivers a view into the heart of the gorge, as well as of neighboring Shortoff Mountain and Hawksbill Mountain. You can extend your hike down to the river via the Linville Gorge Trail.
• When winter sets in, choose from among three downhill ski resorts: Appalachian Mountain, Sugar Mountain, and Beech Mountain. I like for the mountaintop bar and view from its 5,506-foot summit.

Where to Eat and Drink in Boone, North Carolina

• A lot of students survive on the massive burritos at Black Cat, and I’ve certainly enjoyed my share of their All Nighter (eggs, sausage and potatoes smothered in melted cheese). But I’m also in love with the fried chicken and biscuits served at the slightly more refined Proper. Appalachian Mountain Brewing makes some of my favorite beer in the South, especially their Spoaty Oaty Pale Ale.

Where to Stay in Boone, North Carolina

• Grab a room in , a boutique hotel in a renovated 1960s-era roadside motel. The lobby bar makes great cocktails, and the lodge has recently partnered with the locally owned to offer guided fishing and hiking packages (from $130 a night).

4. Damascus, Virginia

Population: under 800

Best Known For: The Appalachian Trail

There’s small, and then there’s Damascus. Damascus has fewer people than my graduating high school class in the suburbs of Atlanta (go Harrison High Hoyas!). And yet this tiny hamlet in the mountains of southwest Virginia has become known as Trail Town USA.

Damascus is the crossroads for a handful of high-profile paths, most notably the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has its headquarters here, and one weekend every May, more than 25,000 people descend on the town for , a celebration of the world’s most famous footpath (I’ve attended several times and can tell you that through-hikers like to party).

And the A.T. is just one option here. The 34-mile is one of the greatest rail-trail bike rides in the South because of its length and mountain scenery, and the is a rocky hike and bike trail with ridgeline views that was part of the Appalachian Trail until a reroute in the 1970s. But I like Damascus mostly for its proximity to Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, which protects 200,000 acres of Virginia’s tallest mountains, boasting more than 400 miles of trail for hiking and biking.

Best şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍřs in Damascus, Virginia

• If your idea of a good time is riding a bike for 17 miles downhill without ever having to pedal (and really, who wouldn’t like that?), you should definitely do the Virginia Creeper Trail, part of which passes through the Mount Rogers rec area. I took my kids to ride the Creeper when they were in elementary school, and it was probably the only time they didn’t complain about the pedaling. Start at Whitetop Station and cruise the crushed-stone path back into town. There’s at least one ice-cream stop along the way. has bike rentals (from $15) and shuttles (from $24).
• To see the best of the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, hike this on the A.T. that starts in Grayson Highlands State Park and crosses Wilburn Ridge, where a herd of wild ponies roam, and ends on top of the 5,729-foot Mount Rogers. I go for the above-treeline views, and I could spend an entire afternoon scrambling on the trail’s boulders, but it’s the feral ponies that make this hike so unusual and photogenic.

Where to Stay in Damascus, Virginia

• has 13 suites in the heart of downtown. The place partners with Speckled Trout Outfitters for stay-and-play packages that include guided hiking and fly fishing (from $157 a night).

Where to Eat and Drink in Damascus, Virginia

• The Wicked Chicken focuses on hot wings (dry rub and sauced) and burgers, served on a large outdoor patio. Appalachian Heritage Distillery and Brewery is located directly on the A.T. in downtown Damascus. It makes vodka, gin, and a variety of whiskies out of a pot still, and the bar serves classic cocktails and hosts live music and karaoke on weekends.

5. Davis, West Virginia

Population: 660

Best Known For: Skiing. Seriously. The skiing is great.

I mentioned Davis in my guide to West Virginia, but this tiny town deserves its own spotlight. Thanks to a duo of downhill resorts and a cross-country touring center, Davis is a ski town first and foremost, which is a rarity in the Southern Appalachians, but it has just as much to offer bikers and hikers.

The chain of mountains running along the border of West Virginia and Virginia make Davis hard to reach if you’re driving from the east, and the 100 miles that separate it from Harrisonburg can take more than two hours, but this journey of a thousand curves (a challenge to my motion-sick-prone stomach) is worth the effort.

Davis is small, but has just enough conveniences (a few restaurants, a brewery, cabins, and a couple of hotels) to make it comfortable, and it certainly has more than its share of outdoor adventures, from waterfalls to single track to the ski runs.

Best şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍřs in Davis, West Virginia

• There are almost 20 ski resorts scattered across the Southern Appalachians, but Davis might be the region’s only true ski town. Canaan Valley Resort and offer a combined 200 acres of lift-served terrain. Canaan Valley is great for beginners and intermediates, with long, usually uncrowded groomers, but I love Timberline’s steeper terrain and gladed runs, which will entertain even the best skiers. has rentals (from $35) and a full array of winter gear, such as the gloves you forgot at home. is the cultural hub of the town, not just for its 18 miles of groomed track and copious backcountry XC options, but for its lively apres vibe. I’ve never had a bad time at Whitegrass. Never.

• The warm months are full of hiking and biking. protects 2,358 acres a mile south of downtown, including a chunk of the 1,000-foot-deep Blackwater Canyon. The hike to Lindy Point is only .3 of a mile, but you should do it, as a prominent rock outcropping gives you a bird’s-eye view into the chasm.Blackwater Falls State Park, in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, feature the 62-foot cascade of Blackwater Falls, and 20 miles of trails.
• Mountain bikers can pedal the 18-mile , a gravel and dirt forest road that traverses the valley, crossing streams, running through meadows and leading to a variety of singletrack options, like the , which connects with Canaan Loop Road, dropping 600 feet in under three miles of rocky, rooty fun. Check out for rentals (from $50 a day) and more local trail beta than you could ever possibly need.

Where to Eat and Drink in Davis, West Virginia

• brews a variety of beers in town, but is at its best when crafting an IPA. Try their Holy Citra double IPA if you don’t have to wake up early in the morning. has always had what I need to fix that double IPA fog, and is a town staple.

Where to Stay in Davis, West Virginia

• has lodge rooms and cabins, all renovated in the last few years (from $178.50), and you’ll be able to pick up the trail system right out your door.

6. Harrisonburg, Virginia

Population: 51,000

Best Known For: Mountain biking and Shenandoah National Park

Harrisonburg sits in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley, sandwiched between Shenandoah National Park to the east and the Allegheny Mountains to the west. It’s one of the larger towns on this list with a busy downtown full of breweries and eclectic restaurants, all with a progressive vibe thanks in part to the presence of James Madison University and its college-student demographic.

Venture past downtown and you hit bucolic pastures quickly, as Shenandoah Valley is known for its patchwork of small farms. Outdoor adventure is also imminently accessible.

Harrisonburg is probably a bike town first, hosting a number of events, from the Shenandoah Mountain Bike Festival to the Alpine Loop Grand Fondo, and the town has earned Bronze Level Ride Center status from the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) for its quality of trails and events and prevalence of good bike shops. But there’s also downhill skiing 15 miles east of town at Massanutten Resort and hiking and fly fishing 25 miles east in Shenandoah National Park.

Best şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍřs in Harrisonburg, Virginia

• OK, I made a big deal out of the mountain biking around Harrisonburg, but if I have to pick a single ride to do in the area, it’s a road ride of , the 105-mile two-lane blacktop that runs through the center of Shenandoah National Park. This is bucket-list road-ride territory with dozens of overlooks, more than 10,000 feet of climbing if you do the whole thing, and national-park lodging, like , along the route so you can break it up into multiple days. I haven’t done it yet, but friends have told me it’s amazing.
• For a quick hike, head to the Hone Quarry Recreation Area, in George Washington National Forest, 20 miles west of town, and climb the steep but short one-mile out-and-back to a rocky outcropping with long-range views of the Allegheny Mountains. Several trails begin in the recreation area, so you can pick up others if you want to go longer, or hit the 5.5-acre Hone Quarry lake to fish for stocked trout.
• Mountain bikers will love , a stacked-loop system built by the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition in the 75-acre Hillandale Park, with short cross-country loops, jump lines, and a pump track. Stop into for tuneups or in-depth info about the local trails. The place also has beer on tap.

Where to Eat and Drink in Harrisonburg, Virginia

• Harrisonburg is home to half a dozen breweries, but is my favorite. Their downtown Collab House always has a small batch beer on tap that rotates weekly. has an upscale college-bar vibe with a great whiskey selection and southern fare, like the Wafflewich, which places fried chicken between two thin waffles.

Stay: Most of the lodging in Harrisonburg trends towards big chain options, but if you want something more historic, book a room at , a bed and breakfast in a restored Civil War-era home (from $159 a night).

7. Ellijay, Georgia

Population: 1,927

Best Known For: Mountain biking

Ellijay is the unofficial mountain-bike capital of Georgia, with some of the prettiest and most technical singletrack I’ve ridden east of the Mississippi within 10 miles of the town. The mountains aren’t particularly tall (most peaks tap out below 3,000 feet), but the forest is dense and the trails are decidedly old school, with plenty of fall-line descents and climbs. Or go whitewater paddling or check out the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail close to town.

The town is just 75 miles north of downtown Atlanta, and has become a popular weekend getaway for adventure-minded city dwellers there. Ellijay is a little sleepier than many other mountain towns this close to the South’s biggest city, so you come here for the adventure, not the nightlife.

Best şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍřs in Ellijay, Georgia

• There’s plenty to do around Ellijay, but mountain biking is the main attraction. In general, the singletrack is technical with lots of roots and plenty of steep climbs, and you’re riding through a thick hardwood forest loaded with creeks to cross and waterfalls to see. The 22-mile loop is my favorite ride, because it combines choice pieces of the best downhills in the area on Bear Creek Trail and Pinhoti Trail with plenty of gravel road climbs.
• You can paddle or tube a three-mile section of the Cartecay River upstream from downtown Ellijay with class II-III whitewater. I grew up an hour from Ellijay, and this was the first whitewater I ever paddled. The rents out kayaks (starting at $30) and runs shuttles (starting at $7 per person).

Where to Eat and Drink in Ellijay, Georgia

• Climb up to the covered third-floor patio of The Roof Ellijay, which has southern comfort food, from boiled peanuts to shrimp and grits, with a view of downtown and the green slopes rising beyond. Cartecay River Brewing, a small operation on the outskirts of town, has a beer garden overlooking the river.

Where to Stay in Ellijay, Georgia

• is a mountain-bike camp with cabins and campsites on a property that has its own pump track, bike shop, hot tubs, and restaurant (rustic cabins start at $60 per person). It’s a very cool scene that attracts mountain bikers from all over the southeast; I try to hit Mulberry Gap at least once a year. The facility is 12 miles west of downtown, but you can ride straight from the property and hit some of North Georgia’s most storied trails.

8. Helen, Georgia

Population: 578

Best Known For: Its Bavarian-themed downtown

OK, let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way: Helen has a faux Bavarian vibe. Last time I was there, they were pumping polka music through outdoor speakers hidden in the bushes. Towns with themes aren’t for everyone. I’m not even sure they’re for me. But I still love Helen because the cheese factor is harmless and the location of the town is prime.

I’ve used the Bavarian burg as a basecamp for road-cycling adventures, hiking excursions, and fly-fishing escapades for years. You can even (or fish) the Chattahoochee River right through downtown. Helen is surrounded by Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, within striking distance of North Georgia’s best hiking and rock climbing, while Unicoi State Park’s 1,029 acres sit just two miles north of downtown.

Best şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍřs in Helen, Georgia

• Hikers should head six miles south of Helen to ascend Yonah Mountain, a 3,166-foot-tall knob with a granite face (located on one side, with the main area southwest-facing) that’s been attracting Atlanta-based climbers for decades. But the views from the top are just as sweet if you hike the 4.4-mile out and back , which rises 1,500 feet over a mix of dirt road and single track trail before delivering you to a grassy meadow at the granite-edged summit. On a clear day, you can make out the skyline of Atlanta 80-ish miles south.
  

• The mountains of North Georgia are loaded with high-quality fly fishing, from wide, floatable rivers to tight backcountry creeks. The Chatahoochee is the obvious draw for anglers visiting Helen, although the tubers do a good job of scaring away the fish in the section through town. For quieter water, I head to Smith Creek, within Unicoi State Park, where a mile-long section of the stream below Unicoi Lake is known for producing foot-long rainbow and brown trout. Ěýeven offers an intro to fly fishing class if you’re new to the game.
• A number of classic road-cycling rides begin and end in Helen, including the classic , which takes in six iconic mountain climbs surrounding the town. I’m not always game for a century ride, so I typically choose the the , which is part of the annual Gran Fondo, a large group ride that focuses on camaraderie over racing, on a smaller loop through Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, but still climbing more than 1,700 feet.

Where to Stay in Helen, Georgia

• Unicoi State Park has a variety of lodging options, from lodge rooms to barrel cabins. Check out the , which are fully-furnished safari tents within walking distance of Smith Creek (from $149 a night).

Where to Eat and Drink in Helen, Georgia

• You’re in a cute facsimile of Germany, so you should probably get a bratwurst and pretzel at Hobfrauhaus, and then wander down the street to King Ludwig’s Beer Garden and have a German lager outside.

9. Travelers Rest, South Carolina

Population: 8,486

Best Known For: Greenway pedaling and the Great Blue Wall

The western border of South Carolina is defined by a string of mountains that rise steeply from the Piedmont in a dramatic fashion known as the Great Blue Wall. Travelers Rest sits at the base of that wall of peaks, making it the perfect basecamp for exploring the area’s lakes, waterfalls, and thick, jungle-like forests.

It would be easy to label Travelers Rest as just a bedroom community for the larger city of Greenville, South Carolina (you can ride your bike the ten miles between the two towns, after all). But Travelers Rest has its own small-town charm as well as access to the Upstate’s copious outdoor gems, from steep cycling routes to steeper rock climbing routes and everything in between.

I’ve watched downtown Travelers Rest grow with new restaurants and breweries over the last several years, thanks largely to the development of the Swamp Rabbit Trail, a 17-mile paved rail trail, popular with cyclists and runners, that begins on the edge of town and finishes in Greenville. There’s also downhill mountain biking, rock climbing, and plenty of hiking.

Best şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍřs in Travelers Rest, South Carolina

• Travelers Rest offers quick access to a trio of public lands. Let’s start with Paris Mountain State Park, eight miles east of downtown, which has almost 20 miles of mountain-bike trails. The park is known for its technical climbs and fast, flowing downhill. A 10-mile lollipop loop, the , takes in the best trails, including Sulphur Springs Trail, which is loaded with sweeping, banked turns and drops.
• Higher up on that great blue wall, Jones Gap State Park and Caesars Head State Park combine to form the 17,000-acre Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area, with more than 60 miles of hiking trails. The Middle Saluda River offers quintessential backcountry trout fishing, thanks to the tight corridor and steep nature of the stream, which drops 1,000 feet in four miles. Or hike the easy to Jones Gap Falls on Jones Gap Trail.
  

  

• A 2,684-tall granite dome, the Cherokee landmark Table Rock, is the centerpiece of Table Rock State Park, 20 miles west of town. It’s a beacon for climbers looking for a multi-pitch adventure with a long approach hike and mega exposure. Access is limited to certain sections of the monolith because of peregrine-falcon nesting, but the of the rock are open. has all the gear you could need, as well as bike and boat rentals (from $20 for a half day).

Where to Stay in Travelers Rest, South Carolina

• Splurge for a room at , a high-end lodge owned by the retired pro cyclist George Hincapie that draws inspiration from European chateaus in its architecture and cuisine. The inn also has an onsite sauna and cold plunge, as well as a fleet of rental bikes that come pre-loaded with Hincapie’s favorite training routes that begin from the property (rooms start at $378 a night).

Where to Eat and Drink in Travelers Rest, South Carolina

• The food scene in Travelers Rest has come a long way in recent years, so you can get everything from Caribbean fusion to street tacos. Check out Monkey Wrench Smoke House for BBQ staples like pulled pork and brisket, served on an expansive back lawn. Swamp Rabbit Brewery, which is known for its award-winning stout, sits in downtown.

Graham Averill is şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř magazine’s national-parks columnist. He’s lived in multiple mountain ranges and on both coasts, but settled down in the Southern Appalachians 20 years ago and has yet to regret it.

For more by this author, see:

The 10 Best Bike Towns in America, Ranked

8 Surf Towns Where You Can Learn the Sport and the Culture

The Best Ways to Get şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř in West Virginia

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We get it—not everyone wants to pitch a tent and forego showers when visiting our public lands. And honestly, because of a recent boom in new national-park lodging, you don’t have to. In 2020, I moved into my minivan and traveled to nearly every park in the U.S., penning dispatches about them for şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř. When I wasn’t catnapping in the back of my vehicle, I occasionally splurged on fun motels and lodges in gateway towns.

Whether you’re headed to the rust red maw of the Grand Canyon or the wooded summits of Great Smoky Mountains, loads of new hotels and glamping retreats are popping up to meet the demands of park visitors, whose numbers have exploded since the pandemic. From retro-futuristic roadside motels to Dolly Parton-themed resorts and remodeled national-park lodges, there’s a little something for everyone on this list.

1. Ofland Escalante

Closest national park: Bryce Canyon, Utah

Best for: Chic glamping, tiny homes, post-hike hot tubs

With its modernist cabins, spa-inspired bathhouses, and food truck that serves up Americana fare (like meatloaf patty melts and cornbread French toast), this newer outpost on Southern Utah’s stunning Highway 12 just rebranded and added deluxe cabins in 2024 and is a true outdoor-lover’s paradise. Situated a mere ten minutes from Hole in the Rock Road, the washboard byway leading to many of Grand Staircase Escalante’s top slot canyons, is the ultimate, pet-friendly base camp for exploring the Beehive State’s red-rock country.

An hour’s drive delivers you to the colorful hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, while a 90-minute car ride gets you up to my personal Utah fave, Capitol Reef. In the evening, enjoy a steamy outdoor shower, followed by a drive-in movie with free popcorn at Ofland’s own big-screen theater, or plop into the property’s pool and hot tub before enjoying the snap, crackle, and pop of your personal fire pit. If it’s not too hot, spend an afternoon clambering around in Peek-a-Boo and Spooky Slot Canyons.

2. Populus Hotel

Closest national park: Rocky Mountain, Colorado

Best for: Eco-friendly amenities, luxe dining, nearby art museums

Set in downtown Denver, a stone’s throw from the State Capitol, the Denver Art Museum, and Civic Center Park, is making history in 2024 as the nation’s first carbon-positive hotel. It has been designed from the ground up to utilize solar and wind power, highlight locally sourced ingredients from Colorado in each of its dining concepts, and closely monitor all emissions so that remaining carbon is balanced out by supporting projects that capture carbon elsewhere. The hotel has already planted over 70,000 trees (and counting).

A stay at Populus is ideal for the Denver-bound traveler who wants to experience the best of two worlds: city-focused creature comforts with the option to hike amidst the Rocky Mountain National Park tundra or scramble up . With the Wild Basin entrance roughly 66 miles away, it’s an easy day trip to the park. Rooms here are jaw-droppingly gorgeous and themed after the state’s famous aspen trees, with ultra-soft earth-toned bedding, natural forest sounds in the elevators, and eyelet-shaped windows overlooking the Denver skyline.

Chow down on post-hike grub with dreamy sunset views at the on-site rooftop restaurant Stellar Jay or enjoy fresh, seasonal Colorado fare at the downstairs restaurant Pasque, both helmed by executive chef Ian Wortham.

3. The Pathmaker Hotel

Closest national park: Acadia, Maine

Best for: Exploring downtown Bar Harbor, ocean strolls, simple elegance

With a primo location in downtown Bar Harbor, two blocks from the Bar Island Trail, whale-watching tours and the delicious, creamy rolls at Stewman’s Lobster Pound, opens in late 2024. Featuring suites, double queen, and classic king-sized rooms decorated in elegant neutral tones, this hotel also offers kitchenettes with mini-fridges and microwaves. What’s even better is that breakfast is included, making it easy to start your morning hike up neighboring or a stroll around Sieur de Monts’ historic gardens with a full belly.

It’s also worth noting that Acadia is home to 45 miles of crushed-stone carriage roads, which are all bike- and dog-friendly. Rent a bicycle at Bar Harbor Bicycle Shop, a five-minute walk from the hotel’s front door, and spend a day zipping around the park without your car before relaxing with a pot of tea and freshly made popovers at Jordan Pond House–it was one of my favorite things I did on my giant parks road trip.

4. The Rusty Parrot Lodge and Spa

Closest national park: Grand Teton, Wyoming

Best for: Spa getaways, Jackson ski and hiking trips, luxury mountain vibes

Just remodeled and reopened in early July, following a devastating 2019 fire, this Jackson Hole favorite is back and better than ever. rooms and suites boast a bit of a chic hunting-lodge feel, complete with stone fireplaces, tufted headboards, and the occasional pop of cowboy-themed art.

Fly fish in the Snake River, feel the leg burn on a hike up , or pop on over to the nearby National Elk Refuge for a . When you’re done exploring the toothy Teton Range, fill up on Idaho Trout Saltimbocca at the lodge’s Wild Sage Restaurant, or indulge in a CBD-infused herbal sugar scrub at its Body Sage Spa. Either way, you’ll leave feeling full and rejuvenated.

5. Wildhaven Yosemite

Closest national park: Yosemite, California

Best for: Affordable glamping, Yosemite Valley exploration, communal hangs

is making waves this year as the newest glamping resort outside the Free Solo-famous Yosemite National Park. Situated 34 miles from the Arch Rock Entrance Station on 36 rugged acres of rolling Sierra Nevada foothills, the property offers 30 safari tents and 12 tiny cabins, well-appointed with amenities like fire pits and private decks.

A communal BBQ area boasts grills and shaded picnic tables, while glamping sites share communal bathrooms and showers. After a day of hiking and snapping photos of from Cook’s Meadow, recharge your electronics with electricity access in every tent.

Complimentary coffee and tea help start your day off, and every stay at Wildhaven includes access to on-site classes and events, like Yogasemite yoga classes and Sierra Cider tastings, for when you’re not huffing and puffing up Upper Yosemite Falls for those epic views. Looking for even more regional glamping news? A top national-park lodging purveyor, , has announced that it’s also opening a brand-new Yosemite location near Big Oak Flat in 2025.

6. Field Station Joshua Tree

Closest national park: Joshua Tree, California

Best for: Mountain bikers, large groups, pool hangouts

are designed with the intrepid outdoorsperson in mind. Bike racks for your hardtail are in every room, hooks for hanging packs are in ample supply, and an on-site gear shop makes it easy to grab any of the Ten Essentials you might have forgotten before speeding off and into the park, which is just 13 miles (a 20- to 25-minute drive) away by car. If you’re a diehard coffee drinker, you’ll be thrilled that the lodge has a small espresso bar, Little Station Coffee & Kitchen, which serves everything from cold brew to toasted bagels to start your morning out right.

Choose between standard king-bed rooms and double-queen bunk rooms (which sleep up to 10) and have plenty of space for your whole crew to spread out and save cash, then head on over to the North Entrance (it’s the closest one) of Joshua Tree and enjoy epic trails like the or bouldering along the formation-filled .

When you’re not adventuring in the park, don’t miss the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Museum in town, which exhibits loads of large-scale found-object art, like TVs and rubber tires.

7. Dollywood’s HeartSong Lodge & Resort

Closest national park: Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee and North Carolina

Best for: Families, pool time, East Coast hikers

Opened in November 2023, seems tailor-made for families traveling with young kids. Even the hotel’s standard-issue rooms offer fun extras, like murphy beds, sleeper sofas, clothing-storage space, and mini fridges. Lovely mid-century modern furnishings combine with a massive stone fireplace in the four-story, atrium-style lobby, where guests can chill out when they’re not splashing about in the large pool complex or dining at one of the lodge’s four restaurant options.

Though the resort is clearly geared towards travelers heading into the Dollywood theme park (there’s complimentary trolley service from the hotel), it’s also a brief 15-mile (20-minute) drive to Great Smoky Mountains’ Sugarlands Visitor Center. From there, visitors can easily drive to the exceedingly popular , or gaze out at verdant, forested hills at Newfound Gap, which marks the border between Tennessee and North Carolina. Best of all, adjoining rooms and roomy family suites with cozy bunk beds make it easy for you and your loved ones to spend loads of time together, whether that’s in the lodge or trekking to the park’s many rushing waterfalls.

8. Flamingo Lodge

Closest national park: Everglades, Florida

Best for: Birders, paddlers, Tropical Florida ambiance

Initially opened in the 1960s as part of the National Park Service’s retro-futuristic Mission 66 Project, Flamingo Lodge was forced to shut its doors in 2005, after suffering extensive damage from Hurricane Wilma, when storm surges swelled up to nine feet. Thankfully, , which is named after the distinctive pink birds that once migrated to the area in droves, before plume-hunters nearly poached them out of existence, has been fully rebuilt and reopened in October 2023.

It’s the only non-camping, non-houseboat option for accommodations inside the parklodging available inside Everglades National Park, and given the park’s enormous acreage (at 1.5 million acres, it is roughly twice the size of Yosemite), creates a welcome bastion for beachgoers exploring the state’s coastal prairie and boaters enjoying the sunshine and warm, tropical air of the Florida Bay.

Inside the lodge’s four eco-friendly container buildings are 24 spacious guest rooms, ranging from studios to two-bedroom suites, in clean neutral hues with the occasional pop of tropical jewel tones. Also onsite are a restaurant serving organic, locally sourced cuisine (think breakfast burritos and pineapple pulled-pork sandwiches) and a marina, where visitors can rent anything from bicycles to double kayaks and pontoon boats. Spend a day cycling the and keep your eyes peeled for huge herons.

9. Americana Motor Hotel

Closest national park: Grand Canyon, Arizona

Best for: Travelers with dogs, EV road trips, hipster pool scene

There’s so much to love about the Jetsons’-style that it’s hard to fit it all into a single paragraph, but we’ll do our darndest. Set in the northern Arizona city of Flagstaff, one hour from the Grand Canyon and 90 minutes from Petrified Forest, this vintage-style motor lodge should check every box on your Route 66 daydream list. First of all, there are EV chargers aplenty, free morning coffee, and communal fire pits with outdoor hang space.

But this site truly goes above and beyond the standard-issue motel amenities by offering loaner telescopes for optimized night-sky viewing, year-round heated pool, and a fenced-in “barkyard” with a dedicated dog-wash station to rinse off your muddy trail pooch. They’ve even got free hotel bicycles for those wishing to take a spin around Flagstaff.

The interiors of the rooms are just as fabulous as the resort’s exterior, with space-age décor (think astronaut sculptures and galaxy wall art), walk-in showers, and disco balls. Hungry? After a trek down to or a stroll along the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, fill up at the Americana’s Pacific Mexican seafood truck, Baja Mar, which dishes out badass shrimp ceviche and battered fish tacos to hungry hikers.

Emily Pennington is a freelance journalist specializing in outdoor adventure and national parks. She’s traveled to public lands on all seven continents and visited all 63 U.S. national parks. Her book, , was released in 2023. This year, she’s getting more acquainted with her new backyard, Rocky Mountain National Park.

The post The Best New Hotels with Easy Access to U.S. National Parks appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

In my mid-20s, I moved to Ocean Beach, Southern California, specifically to learn how to surf. I spent the first six months of my tenure unemployed, so I was in the water every day, launching myself into the whitewash at Dog Beach, the most beginner-friendly break within a few miles of my apartment. I was enthralled with the surf, but I loved the town of Ocean Beach, San Diego, even more.

Back then, the small enclave was still grungy, with a downtown full of cheap breakfast joints and bars that only took cash. The bartenders looked at you funny if you wore closed-toe shoes. It was a surf town.

More than two decades later, I’m still enamored with surf towns. My home is in the mountains, four hours and 22 minutes from the closest surf break (but who’s counting?). Yet I still take surf trips regularly, as much to explore the towns by the beaches as the surf itself. I’ve been fortunate enough to paddle into waves in Costa Rica, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Hawaii, and areas up and down So Cal and the Southeastern United States. I’m not a great surfer, but I bar hop and scout out the best fish tacos at a very high level.

A great surf town has quick access to waves and adventure, but also good food, good vibes, and a dedication to quality of life. Read on for what I believe to be the eight best surf towns in the U.S.

1. Hale’iwa, Hawaii

Hawaii is loaded with bucket-list surf destinations, but it’s hard to beat the North Shore of Oahu, home of the world-famous beaches of Waimea Bay and Banzai Pipeline. The town of Hale’iwa is the cultural hub of the North Shore, with a small downtown full of shops, food trucks, and surf instructors ready to teach tourists.

Halei’wa is only an hour from the bustling cities of Honolulu and Waikiki, but it has the slower pace of a farming community. The town sits within a 20-minute drive of Waimea Bay, Banzai, and Sunset Beach, and has plenty of adjacent surf as well. Winter brings heavy conditions, with massive, glassy waves that only pros should paddle into, but the swells mellow during summer, allowing us mortals a go in this storied destination.

Patches of reef scattered throughout the area on the sandy bottom catch the swell. Start with the beginner-friendly waves at Pua’ena Point, which is popular with surf instructors. The beach is small, but has plenty of shade. A double reef break offers bigger rides on the outer reef and a smaller, longboard-friendly wave closer to shore. Then try Ali’i Beach, the closest surf to town. Much like Pua’ena Point, Ali’i Beach has a beginner-friendly wave close to shore and a larger, more advanced wave in deeper water.

Hale’iwa proper has fewer than 5,000 permanent residents and a downtown full of sugar-plantation-era architecture framed by Oahu’s green mountains beyond. It’s a picture-perfect island town where you’ll find waterfalls in the surrounding hills, and a fun and bustling live-music and food-truck scene in town. Paddleboarding the Anahulu River, beneath Hale’iwa’s Rainbow Bridge, is a great way to spend some time away from the surf.

Surf Shop: , right across the street from Ali’i Beach, has rentals from soft tops to performance short boards (from $30 a day).

Surf Instruction: , a female-owned company with a full staff of women instructors, teaches lessons at Pua’ena Point for the whole family (from $66).

Eat and Drink: If there’s one thing you have to eat when you’re in Hale’iwa, it’s shaved ice from , a family-run business established in 1951 that still uses homemade syrup recipes. The North Shore has become a magnet for food trucks, which serve traditional Hawaiian dishes al fresco. Online reviews say the garlic butter shrimp at is the best in town. I’m dying to go check out the reports.

2. Solana Beach, California

Here’s the problem with an article about the best surf towns in the country: I could write about 20 deserving towns in California alone. Carlsbad, San Clemente, Santa Cruz…all awesome. I could choose Huntington Beach, which is literally known as “Surf City U.S.A.” thanks to the legends that pioneered the sport there, but the town won the rights to that title via a court battle, which doesn’t seem very surfer chill to me. (Also, the breaks are notorious for their localism.)

So I’m picking the much smaller and more easygoing Solana Beach, in San Diego County. Is there a bit of nostalgia involved because I took my first surf lesson here, 30 minutes north of my old apartment in Ocean Beach? Perhaps. But this small town has a gorgeous, cliff-lined coast and relatively friendly locals, which makes for a powerful combo in Southern California.

“It’s super laid back, almost what you imagine when listening to a Beach Boys song,” says John Cavan, a 48-year-old lawyer and surfer who’s been exploring the beaches up and down the coast from Manhattan Beach outside of L.A. for more than 20 years.

The beach is flanked by tall cliffs topped by private residences, both of which help keep the crowds at bay compared to those in other popular breaks in Southern California, making Solana a top choice for surf instructors. The town offers quick access to a handful of breaks; the most obvious option is Fletcher Cove, Solana’s main beach, with plenty of parking and a sidewalk.

A beach break that picks up size during the summer makes Fletcher a popular spot for all surfers, but it’s still a great option for beginners. Another good nearby choice, Seascape, has a long sandy beach and a reef break deeper offshore that is good for intermediate to advanced surfers. Want something more aggressive? Swami’s, a legendary right-hand point break, is just four miles up the street in Encinitas.

In town, the Cedros Design District is full of boutiques and restaurants, and just outside of it is a weekend farmers’ market based in 1940s-era Quonset huts. The legendary live-music venue has hosted a wide variety of talent, from B.B. King to Ludacris to Hayes Carl.

Surf Shop: , located just south of Swami’s on PCH 101, has been a SoCal institution since the 1960s. You can rent soft tops (from $20 a day) and performance boards (from $45 a day) along with wetsuits, snorkels, and SUPs.

Surf Instruction: For lessons, try , which offers two-hour instruction sessions ($120 per person).

Eat and Drink: has been a pillar of good pizza and craft beer since the early 1990s. The place helped establish the West Coast style of IPA and is still a master of it today.

3. Ocracoke, Outer Banks, North Carolina

The Outer Banks is a chain of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina that is absolutely full of great surf, and a dozen towns up and down the islands could qualify for this list. OB is the epicenter of surf culture on the East Coast, and the towns that line the northern section, like Kitty Hawk and Nags Head, have some of the finest breaks on the Atlantic.

But they’re also pretty crowded, which is why I’m choosing Ocracoke, a sleepy fishing village on its own island on the southern end of the Outer Banks, as my favorite surf town. I’ve surfed and camped dune-side there several times over the years.

Ocracoke has under a thousand year-round residents, and you can only reach the island by boat. A can take you from Cedar Island ($15 with car) to , crossing the Pamlico Sound in just over two hours. The remoteness means crowds are minimal compared to other towns on the barrier islands, and the vibe is pretty tranquil. A small fishing village wraps around the harbor, and most of the 17-mile-long island is protected as part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which means there are miles of undeveloped beach and dunes covered in sea oats to explore, not to mention inexpensive just inland of the breaks.

All of the surf on Ocracoke is beach break, and the sandbars are constantly shifting, so it’s hard to point you to one specific spot. Ocracoke Lifeguarded Beach, two miles south of the village, has a guard on duty and, thanks to that added safety net, is the best place to get in the water as someone who is new to the sport. But if you’re an experienced surfer and have 4WD you can cruise the beach looking for your own personal break. The surf is best in the fall and winter, but you can find good conditions year round. You’ll need a (which is free) to drive the beach, and while you’re at it, snag a permit for a , too.

Surf Shop: has rentals (from $25 a day) and lessons (from $95 per hour).

Eat and Drink: is an institution, with a shaded back porch perfect for drinking beer. has the southern staples of barbecue and fried fish along with its bivalves.

4. New Smyrna Beach, Florida

The Sunshine State has no shortage of beach towns, but New Smyrna Beach, in North Florida directly northeast of Orlando, gets the nod on this list because of the consistent quality of waves and the variety of options. Sandwiched between Daytona Beach and Cocoa Beach (childhood home of pro surfer Kelly Slater), New Smyrna Beach is blessed with long beach breaks and a river inlet with stone jetties that create what may be the most bankable surf in all of Florida. The conditions are so good, the beach is a stop in the USA Surfing’s Prime Series of competitions for rippers under 18.

As you might expect, the breaks are incredibly popular, so weekends can feel like a zoo, especially at the best wave, Ponce Inlet, where two rivers meet the Atlantic between stone jetties, adding shape and size to the swell. Ponce is a great option for advanced surfers who know how to maneuver through a lineup, but New Smyrna also has 17 miles of other beaches and waves.

“You can drive onto the beach at Flagler Avenue and drive north on the sand until you see a spot you like,” says Joshua Stallworth, a 24-year-old law student who spent his college years surfing the various breaks around New Smyrna Beach. You need a to drive on the beach ($20 per vehicle, per day).

The town is sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. Flagler Avenue is the main strip, stacked with fish shacks and surf shops, while Canal Street Historic District is a little more upscale, lined with palm trees and boutiques. New Smyrna Beach also makes for a great basecamp for exploring other beaches in the area.

Head south to , a 58,000-acre wildlife refuge with 26 miles of undeveloped sand. Playalinda Beach, inside the National Seashore, has a beginner-friendly beach break without many crowds. Canaveral is the longest stretch of undeveloped coast on the Atlantic coast of Florida, protecting wildlife such as manatee and sea turtles, as well as ancient shell mounds left by the native Temicua.

Surf Shop: is the area’s oldest, with board rentals (from $35) delivered to you at the beach, and two-hour lessons (from $109).

Eat and Drink: You can’t beat the location of , a burger bar with local Half Wall Brewing beers on tap overlooking the Atlantic. Head to for a lobster roll and wood-fired pizzas.

5. Westport, Washington

Washington’s coast might offer the most dramatic surf backdrop in the U.S., with beach and reef breaks tucked between dense green redwood forests and craggy sea stacks rising offshore from deep water. The state offers adventure surfing at its finest, with many of the best options requiring multi-mile approach hikes where you carry your board. Westport, a town of 28,000 two hours west of Seattle, is the happy exception, with two steady breaks on its outskirts. The surfing is so good, locals refer to Westport as the “Surf City of the Pacific Northwest.”

The two main breaks start with the Groins, a big left-hander on the north side of Westport’s marina. This one is best for advanced surfers, not just because of the sizable wave but the powerful currents and shifting tides, which can change as much as 20 feet. The Jetty, however, in Westhaven State Park, is less daunting and has something for both beginners and advanced surfers. It’s known as the most reliable wave in Washington, thanks to the rock jetty that helps shape the swell and deliver point breaks, while the sandy bottom and frothy whitewash (that’s the foam after a wave breaks close to shore) offer a less intimidating option for learning.

“There’s always a wave in Westport,” says Brian Calder, owner of Bigfoot Surf School. “Even if the surf is too big for beginners, we can push them into the whitewater on a sandy beach so they can practice standing up in it. And we teach new surfers to respect the locals, who are usually surfing bigger waves on the outside.”

The Jetty can get crowded on weekends, but it’s an expansive break with long waves, so you should be able to find a spot in the lineup. Just be aware of rip currents, which locals may use as an expressway back out to the lineup after surfing a long wave in—not a move new surfers should ever try.

Surf Shop: was the first in Washington, opening in 1986. LOGE has a basecamp in Westport that not only has rooms, but performance boards and soft tops to rent.

Surf Instruction: has semi-private lessons (from $175 per person including the board) and will get you paddling out into the whitewash at Westhaven State Park.

Eat and Drink: Westport is a hub of commercial fishing, and you can find fisherfolk selling their catches, from albacore tuna to Dungeness crabs, right on the docks. Or you can hop over to , which has a variety of local catch as well as a fish ’n’ chips restaurant.

6. Newport, Rhode Island

Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the country, but it’s also dubbed “the Ocean State,” with more than 400 miles of coastline to brag about. Located on the edge of the state’s Aquidneck Island, Newport is positioned to make the most of that coast. Traditionally known as a hub for sailing (the harbor is full of yachts, and America’s Cup is staged here every year), the swanky town is also the epicenter of surf in New England, with very big swell showing up offshore during hurricane season in the fall.

Locals surf the town’s handful of beach breaks year round, getting the thickest wetsuits on the market for the bitter winter temps. Newport was long home to Water Brothers Surf and Skate, a cornerstone of surf culture for more than 50 years until the owner, Sid Abruzzi, closed the shop to focus on making apparel two years ago.

The northeastern edge of Aquidneck Island offers a handful of breaks, with something for all levels of surfers. Ruggles, with a rocky bottom and big, powerful storm waves, is the most famous of those breaks, attracting the biggest names in surf during hurricane season. Easton’s Beach, near downtown Newport, has beginner-friendly waves.

The town of Newport is well-known for its Gilded Age mansions, once built by America’s wealthiest families as their summer retreats, some of which you can now tour as museums. Enjoy Newport’s historic 3.5-mile Cliff Walk, showing you many of those homes.

Surf Shop: has boards and anything else you might need for the water.

Surf instruction: offers private lessons ($75 per person for one hour, includes a board).

Eat and Drink: Seafood is the name of the game in Newport, and much of it is upscale. , though, is a casual burger-and-beer bar downtown. , in neighboring Middletown, has house-made clam chowder and massive warm lobster rolls.

7. Pacific City, Oregon

Pacific City is a former fishing village of just over 1,000 full-time residents that in recent years has turned into the surf mecca of Oregon. Surfing here is as much about the scenery as the waves. The break is framed by , a sandstone headland that reaches out into the water, protecting the beach from the wind, while huge sea stacks rise just offshore. As for the wave, it’s not huge, but the shield effect results in a glassy structure over a sandy bottom that’s ideal for beginner and intermediate surfers. A popular is held at the beach every September, and it all happens steps from downtown at Pacific City Beach.

Pacific City is hella charming, even without the surfing. Fisherfolk launch dories straight from the beach and paddle beyond the break to haul in cod and salmon off the point of Cape Kiwanda. The hiking in travels through Sitka spruce forest to the top of the 246-foot tall “Great Dune,” with dramatic views of the Pacific below. In town, breweries and restaurants embrace the scenery, with outdoor beer gardens and expansive windows.

Surf Shop: , two blocks from the beach, has everything you need for cold-water surfing, with full rental packages that include wetsuits (from $75). The place also offers daily two-hour lessons (from $165 per person).

Eat and Drink: might have the best view in town, with a beer garden that unfolds directly onto the beach and a full view of Haystack Rock, the most notable sea stack in the region. Kiwanda Ale is the place’s signature easy-drinking beer, named after the home cape.

8. Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Yes, there’s surfing on the Great Lakes, whose 4,500 miles of shores are often dubbed “America’s Third Coast.” Hardy surfers track down waves all over these inland seas, and Sheboygan, a small town on the western shore of Lake Michigan, is arguably the most surf-centric town in the Great Lakes area. Locals call it the “Malibu of the Midwest” because of the laid-back vibe and access to good surf, which can be found year round, but is best in the fall and winter.

“Summer is pretty flat, but come fall and winter you can get out a couple of times a week at least,” says Nathan Anderson, who grew up in the area and now works at EOS Surf Shop downtown.

The surf is dependent on the wind and gets the biggest when heavy gusts come in from the northeast or southwest. Since the best waves form in fall and winter, a thick wetsuit is necessary. The lakes are fresh water, less buoyant than salt, which means long boards are a must for most surfers.

North Beach of Deland Park is the best break in town, thanks to the jetty that helps shape the wave. The shore has a sandy bottom and can be suited to beginners on mellow days, or hard chargers when the wind and surf are up.

Beyond surfing, Sheboygan is a town of 49,000 situated between Green Bay and Milwaukee and known for its bratwurst. There’s a vibrant downtown with a good and even better food. Also cool, the city of Sheboygan places a handful of large fire rings, each about twice the size of a Solo Stove backyard pit, out for lakeside bonfires from Memorial Day through August, north of Deland Beach near North Point Park. Kohler-Andrae State Park, next door to downtown Sheboygan, has two miles of sandy beach and dunes.

Surf Shop: is the only game in town, and they’ve got you covered with local knowledge, rentals (from $40 a day), and two-hour lessons ($120).

Eat and Drink: You’ll find bratwurst all over town, but has been an institution since the 1950s, serving a brat burger that does the town’s reputation proud. To drink something local, check out , which has a 10,000-square-foot taproom and a Fresh Coast juicy pale ale.

Graham Averill is şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř magazine’s national-parks columnist. He’s always been torn between the mountains and the beach, but currently lives in the Southern Appalachians. Construction has begun on a surf wave in the French Broad River close to his home of Asheville, North Carolina, so that could solve all of his problems.

For more by this author, see:

The Best Ways to Get şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř in West Virginia

The 10 Best National Parks in Canada

The Ultimate Guide to Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway

Boating Turns Me Green. But I Couldn’t Miss a Chance to See the Channel Islands.

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