The process of choosing the places I’m most excited about this coming year, narrowing down the field was easier said than done.
I considered scenic landscapes, historic significance, outdoor activities, food scenes, and my bucket list.
In this pursuit I kept coming back to cities that made surprisingly compelling cases for a visit in an RV. A handful of cities have been flying under the radar, quietly upping their games, making 2019 a great year to visit.
While food scenes will flourish and breweries will boom, it’s all the more impressive when a city manages to stick to its roots and do whatever it does best—be it natural resources or bourbon or cattle or history and culture.
So by all means, head to a mountain retreat or your favorite theme park if the spirit moves you. If not, here are three underappreciated cities that offer the RV traveler just as many unique opportunities as well known and crowded locations with a more relaxed atmosphere.
Greenville, South Carolina
Great weather, a business-friendly environment, and exciting events are putting Greenville on the map.
It doesn’t have the hipster buzz of towns like Asheville and Charleston, but Greenville, South Carolina is on the up-and-up. To make it “the most livable and beautiful city in America,” Greenville’s multi-term mayor has pushed through incredible civic initiatives, creating low-rent artist studios along the Reedy River and trading a highway in favor of a pedestrian bridge overlooking Falls Park.
Miles and miles of hiking and biking trails call for exploration and 300 days of great weather invite exciting food and music festivals to take over the city. Signature fests include Euphoria, a four-day food-and-wine fest in September (19-20, in 2019), and Artisphere, a mid-May (May 10-12, in 2019) blowout when dozens of art and food vendors descend on the main drag.
Bardstown, Kentucky
This “Bourbon Capital of the World” is home to six notable distilleries. Kentucky’s “Official Outdoor Drama,” one of the country’s most highly regarded Civil War museums, and one of the most recognized structures in America at Federal Hill, better known as My Old Kentucky Home.
You can visit the distilleries of your choice for tours and tastings, including Barton 1792 and Willett. Begin or end your Kentucky Bourbon Trail journey here.
After sampling America’s native spirit, you’ll be wowed by professional outdoor theater at “The Stephen Foster Story”. And you’ll be wooed by the romance of rail travel with an elegant four-course meal aboard the vintage My Old Kentucky Dinner Train as it rolls through Bourbon Country.
You’ll be charmed by themed railroad excursions, including train robberies and Thomas the Tank Engine, at Kentucky Railway Museum. And at the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History you’ll be amused by such curiosities as a whiskey container shaped like King Tut, a whiskey bottle with combination lock to keep servants from swigging on the sly, and whiskey advertisements like one noting it “blots out all your troubles.”
La Grange, Texas
We discovered a fanciful cache of history and culture in the Central Texas community of La Grange, a town steeped in German and Czech culture. Much of the town history is encased in rich foundations and dignified old architecture laid in the late 1800s. The three-story Fayette County Courthouse is masonry and stone Romanesque Revival structure with a clock tower over the main entrance.
Though many of the original buildings in La Grange are more than a century old, a number of them have been renovated and serve as creative outlets, blending history and modern-day function. The Texas Quilt Museum opened November 2011 in a two historic 1890s buildings, which provide a stunning showcase for both antique and contemporary quilt art with their high ceilings, brick walls, and original hardwood floors.
Worth Pondering…
“My favorite thing is to go where I have never been,” wrote photographer Diane Arbus, and so it is with us.