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Santa Barbara encompasses all of the above, and takes them up a notch (or two). Of course, living here makes Malibu, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and most parts of Manhattan seem incredibly inexpensive by comparison.

Hey, cool! I'm originally from little McMinnville! What's known for it's food 25 years ago! Guess I'll have to make it back there.

Del Mar shouldn't really count as a small town, though, as its borders merge fairly seamlessly with surrounding towns/cities. It's really more part of the greater San Diego suburbs.

Tofino, BC!!
(you're not just sticking to US towns now are you?!)

Whoo hoo! Homer, AK made the list. It is pretty nice here!

Boulder is not really a small town. Very nice, but not small.

Ooo, I loove Astoria. I didn't even know that the Goonies was filmed there until I did a little research on the place. I'd like to move out there one day. Or really anywhere on the Oregon coast. Depot Bay is nice.

Sedona, AZ

I'm a city girl (born, raised and hustlin') but I have known for a long time that I wanted to settle in a smaller, quieter town. My only concern is that most small towns that are featured don't seem to have the cultural/racial/ethnic diversity that cities do, which is something that's very important to me. Can anyone recommend a nice small town that also has a good mix of people of various cultural and racial backgrounds?

Capitola?? Yeah, I guess so. I like Santa Cruz better :D

Bisbee, AZ... the best of everything!

Holy hell, don't move to Corvallis or McMinnville unless you want to be bored out of your skull.

Davis, CA. should be on the list! Its a super bicycle friendly, small college town. Close to Napa and with in a two hours of SF.

If Boulder qualifies as small then I am going to add Bend, OR : )

Corvallis, Oregon - gateway to the Oregon coast, wonderful pastoral beauty and the towns around their rival those around McMinville. As a college town, it's not all hick-ville either, and is fairly close to job centers of Salem and Eugene.

Arcata, California and Eureka. Stunning redwoods and beaches and far removed from the cluster*f of so many California towns down South near SF. The downtowns retain that small town feel but offer big city shopping and food. Arcata is also a college town.

Forest Grove, Oregon. Closer to Portland than McMinnville but still quite close to wine country.

Vashon, Island, Wa. Expensive, but close to Seattle yet remote. Like being on the San Juan islands.

LeGrande, Oregon or Joseph, Oregon. The high dessert country. Lots of wide open spaces, ranches, and gateway to the stunning Wallowa mountains and lakes. Remote, but close to Idaho. Portland is 6 hours from LeGrande. Not conservative, just libertarian, don't tread on me mentalities.

Yachats, Oregon - my favorite coastal town.

Hood River, Oregon. Not so small, but much, much smaller than Portland and less than an hour away. Very cute downtown. Located on the stunning Columbia River Gorge.

I have fond memories of Kalispell. Sweet little old fashioned ice cream parlor and its close to glaciers national park. Also, Ashland Oregon naturally.

Did you mean to say that a whopping 6 were in the Pacific Northwest? I certainly don't count 16.... :)

Anyway, Moab is wonderful. I love Boulder as well, but as sevenmotions points out, it is not a small town.

comox, bc!! surrounded by ocean and a ski hill and a glacier... ahhh it's paradise really.

For a minute, I thought the guy with the wine was Morrissey.

I'm from Santa Barbara. All of us Santa Barbarians (yes, that is what we're called) joke that we move away from SB to try and make more money so we can move back and raise our families there one day too. Haha. It can be a little pricey to afford a house in Montecito, but Carpinteria and Summerland are wonderful enclaves of avocado and strawberry festivals, delicious cafes opened by entire families of surfers (Esau's Breakfast...amazing), and antique shops. I'm in NYC right now and going home to my beloved Santa Barbara for spring break on Friday. If you want a small town where the people are the friendliest in America, the food is fresh/local and amazing, and the scenery is breathtaking...come home with me!

Del Mar is pretty and nice, but it is no way a small town. I wouldn't even say that it would be a fun place to visit unless you are extremely wealthy and are a cougar (or looking for a cougar). I live in San Diego and love to go to Del Mar for the beaches, but there are so many other great small towns out there- and towns that can truly be called small.

I love Bend, Oregon (even though it is fairly large). It has the most amazing people and it has a small town feel with all the perks of living in a city.

Salt Lake City, UT as a small town???? Um, have the Sunset editors been to SLC? We have 200,000 people in the city limits, but that's like saying NYC only includes Manhattan. There are fully 1 Million people in the SLC metropolitan area.

And Eco Friendly??? Salt Lake City's air quality is comparable to Los Angeles. We regularly have "red" and "yellow" alert days broadcast on the TV and radio to warn those with Asthma to stay indoors, or at least not engage in any strenuous activity outside.

As for Moab.... it's a tourist destination for people who like to go white water rafting on the Colorado or ride ATVs around in the desert. There are many more small towns that are much better suited to outfitting an amazing outdoor experience. Escalante is a great example.

Thank you, kimg924! SLC is lovely and certainly has great public transportation and bike promotion programs, yet one can hardly find a recycle bin at the U of Utah or anywhere about town... but we still have a long way to go.

SLC is definitely not a small town though! I'd be hard pressed to find another "small town" that has a pro-basketball team, large international airport, three college campuses and has played host to the Olympics. Get the net, Sunset.

Hmm. I'm from a small town near Truckie & Downieville, and neither of those would be my top choice. They might be quaint, but they are both strongly culturally conservative.

I'm surprised that no Colorado towns are on the "Best places to get outdoors" list. Doesn't Colorado have something like over 300 sunny days a year and is known for incredibly active inhabitants?

On a side note, Walla Walla, WA always makes me laugh. Reminds me of Looney Toons for some reason.

Which town is pictured in the lower right hand corner?

Jede, according to Sunset's website, it's Capitola, CA.

It's Capitola! Just south of Santa Cruz. And I live in that apartment building on the cliffs overlooking the beach---right under the moon (that was so incredibly beautiful last night).

You should come visit in late September or October. The weather is perfect (it can be cold during the summer) and the tourists are gone....

I can't believe that some of these are considered small towns. I mean, granted, I now live in a town with 5,000 people, and the last town I lived in had a population of 253, but still.

I live in Bend, and have for a bit over 10 years. It's an interesting time here, to say the least. I know the entire country is not doing well, but Bend seems to be doing especially poor. Quite a few of our high-end restaurants have closed in the last 3 months, we are losing furniture stores like mayflies, unemployment in the county is an unadjusted 14.6%, more homes are going to foreclosure than are selling, rumor is that population is shrinking, and the city is in severe debt. Downtown is losing businesses quickly and replacement ones are only coming in at half the speed. There was rampant poorly planned development and many of the new houses are absolute crap and won't last 20 years.

On the positive side, home prices are collapsing. Median home prices were $360k in 2006. Last month they were $215k, and with the number of foreclosures, months inventory and unemployment rates we should see median prices below $150k by next winter, and possibly $120k by the summer after. People will be able to afford to live here again.

We still have the outdoor activities, which is why I moved here. There are still lots of great people in town. I think a lot of the festivals are no longer going to exist. One of the week long music festivals that has been running for 20 years called it quits. I can't see BendFILM lasting.

So wait a year, then come visit and see how we are doing. It won't be the Bend that you have seen if you came 2003-2007. If you like it, you may be able to afford to live here by then.

LizzyC - stop telling people where our little Oregon gems are hidden. :-)

CassieLynn - it's Depoe Bay, and isn't it the cutest? Great crabbing there, too.

Too bad about five restaurants just closed in Walla Walla.

Hmm - they have a very different definition of small town than I do!

this is definitely an interesting version of the "small" towns list! :)
anyone looking for a hopping little town full of art and culture with a lot of diversity and youth, try Salida, Colorado. You can't miss it with all of the color and art everywhere!

Metropolis, I found Sedona to be very touristy when I was there. (Granted, it was only a day trip.) Some very nice stuff, but so expensive and so obviously aimed at the whole, 'well-off faux-spiritual semi-artistic tourist' demographic my mother fits in to so well ;) Tlaquepaque was gorgeous, for instance, but I'd never be able to afford the stuff there in a million years.

The surrounds were BEAUTIFUL, but the town itself... pretty, but expensive and touristy. (I did like the teal arches above their McDonalds, though!)

Probably a bit too big to be a small town, but I adored Flagstaff when I was there. Great character and beautiful surrounds! (I saw a bald eagle there :D)