The city hosts an annual Pride celebration, and the relatively affordable cost of living (and no state income tax) is a major draw companies with an outdoor bent have found a receptive community. “You can run through a county park with sheep grazing, go backcountry skiing, or see a touring Broadway play.” “Reno has changed so much,” says resident Sara Holm, director of studies and diversity at the Lake Tahoe School. And the new Reno Public Market, once a run-down strip mall, was reimagined as a food court with 17 food vendors, Pilates classes, and live music. The Tahoe-Pyramid Trail is over 80 percent complete and will follow the Truckee River 114 miles between Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake. The Biggest Little City in the World’s ample public land and mountain vibe make it a fun town for a populace hankering for just those qualities.Ī former golf course became the Sierra Vista Mountain Bike Park, where a new trail suitable for adaptive cyclists opened this year. Once known for gambling and easy divorces, Reno is now a modern boomtown, with a whitewater park, multiple climbing gyms, a monthlong summer arts festival, a number of craft breweries, and urban art installations handed down from Burning Man, the late-summer gathering in the Black Rock Desert 140 miles north. Percentage of Residents Who Live Within a Ten-Minute Walk of a Park: 76ĭemographics: 60% white 23% Latino 7% Asian 3% Black 7% other Associate managing editor Tasha Zemke and deputy editor and travel director Mary Turner Let us know what you think of our choices.

What constitutes a happy town? It comes down to things like ample outdoor access for all, affordability, a safe environment, diversity, and freedom for residents to be who they are. (See more on our exact methodology below.) Once we had the list of places, we asked our writers-who are based around the country and have lived in most of these locales-for their expert reporting and intel. The project was an enormous undertaking, and we turned to Outside researchers Philip Kiefer and Delilah Friedler to sort through piles of facts and figures to land on these 15 towns. We’ve also long been inspired by the World Population Review’s annual Happiest Countries in the World list and decided that the U.S., and our readers, could benefit from some similar advice. Why did we choose this focus? Because the world is still rethinking how to work and live post-pandemic, and many people are searching for that perfect place to move to where they just feel better. This year for our annual Best Towns package, we decided to go in search of the happiest towns in America.

Dallas happiest hour