Top Adventure Towns

Blue Ridge hot spots with easy access to the outdoors and vibrant local culture

Cover Image: Photo courtesy of ExploreAsheville.com

The Blue Ridge region is home to lush forests, vast mountain ranges, and scenic waterways, located right near culture-rich, outdoors-loving towns and cities. And once again, we asked our readers to pick their favorites. In our annual Top Adventure Towns contest, thousands of votes were cast for a group of 100 editor-selected nominees to ultimately name winners in four categories: tiny, small, medium, and large towns. Readers considered factors like arts and cultural amenities, surrounding scenery, food and drink scenes and proximity to amazing outdoor recreation opportunities. And a after careful tally, they’ve chosen some of best places to live, visit, and play in the region. 

LARGE TOWN

Asheville, North Carolina

Two-time Appalachian Trail speed record holder and National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, Jennifer Pharr Davis settled with her family in Asheville because, “It’s one of the most amazing basecamps in the country for adventures in every direction.”

The city on the banks of the French Broad River is surrounded by wild lands in Pisgah National Forest, and the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway serves as a scenic gateway to bucket list hikes in Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the west, the 12,000-acre Linville Gorge Wilderness to the north, and the visually spectacular Blue Ridge Escarpment to the south. 

And there’s plenty more. A gorgeous, nine-mile greenway cuts through hundreds of acres of municipal parks to connect neighborhoods and provide bikeable access to downtown, while mountain bikers enjoy nine miles of feature-packed routes at city-owned Kolo Bike Park and Richmond Hill Park. Also, the newly overhauled Hatley Pointe Mountain Resort lets residents enjoy skiing and snowboarding just 40 minutes north of town.

Then there’s the food, music and beer scene, which Pharr Davis calls, “pretty dang hard to beat—and I’m talking anywhere.”

Swarms of local, regional and national-level talent converge on nights and weekends to fill a range of venues with live music. The city’s famed concentration of restaurants, bakeries and cafes is staffed by world-class star chefs like John Fleer and William Dissen. They dish up an array of cuisine that runs the cultural gamut from New Appalachian to ingredients-driven takes on traditional Filipino street food at Neng Jr’s, which is helmed by 2025 James Beard Foundation Best Chef semifinalist, Silver Iocovozzi. And craft spirits aficionados will most appreciate Asheville’s collection of 22 breweries and cideries, four craft distilleries, and a dozen-plus area wineries. 

While the city was hit hard by Hurricane Helene in September of last year—with the vibrant Biltmore Village neighborhood and River Arts District suffering major damage—Pharr Davis says a year of healing and hard recovery efforts across many communities have yielded astounding results. 

“Spring was hopeful, but summer felt like the first time all year things were really vibrant and alive,” she says. Heading into the winter, “there’s the recognition of all we lost and that we still have a long way to go, but a lot of pride in our resiliency for making it this far, this quick.”

Runners Up

Roanoke, Virginia

Adventure is plentiful in this southwest Virginia city and the surrounding Roanoke Valley, as locals mountain bike at Carvins Cove, hike the Appalachian Trail, and ride road bikes on the Blue Ridge Parkway. After a ride or a run, great beers are on tap at Twisted Track Brewpub.

Lynchburg, Virginia 

With a scenic location just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and right along the James River, Lynchburg has many accessible adventures. Locals have access to 40 miles of urban trails, including the RiverWalk trail, which runs right through downtown. Another hot spot is Rise Up Climbing, a large gym with top-rope and bouldering routes.

MIDSIZE TOWN

Charlottesville, Virginia

Home to the University of Virginia, Charlottesville is much more than your average college town, offering a mix of metropolitan amenities and an extremely active outdoors scene. 

The scenic and floatable Rivanna River runs on the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge foothills town, which also sits about 20 miles from more paddling and tubing opportunities on the scenic James. To the west, hikers have hundreds of miles of trails—including a long stretch of the Appalachian Trail—in Shenandoah National Park. And during the winter months, Wintergreen Resort, about an hour from downtown, features 129 skiable acres spread across 27 runs. 

A super-engaged mountain biking club has worked to establish miles of purpose-built trails in numerous municipal parks, with well-maintained networks in Walnut Creek and Preddy Creek. And road cyclists are often found pedaling on the scenic rural roads of surrounding Albemarle County. 

“I’ve ridden my bike all around the world and I truly believe this place is as beautiful as anywhere I’ve ever been,” says two-time USA Cycling national road champion and longtime C’ville resident, Ben King. 

In the food and drink department, oenophiles can indulge après adventure sips at 33 wineries in the surrounding Monticello American Viticultural Area, which Wine Enthusiast crowned its 2023 international Wine Region of the Year. And Charlottesville’s eight-block, pedestrians-only Downtown Mall offers an amazing concentration of restaurants, including longtime favorites like the Alley Light and Bizou, and a variety of music venues including the Jefferson Theater and the outdoor Ting Pavillion. 

Runners Up

Boone, North Carolina

This college town in the North Carolina High Country has long been revered for an abundance of outdoor treasures. Favorites include hiking the Daniel Boone Scout Trail to Calloway Peak, riding at Rocky Knob Mountain Bike Park, and skiing at nearby resorts, including Sugar Mountain and Beech Mountain Resorts.

Greenville, South Carolina

The bustling little city in the Upstate of South Carolina is big on biking, with riders enjoying the varied terrain of the Blue Ridge Escarpment. Road cyclists brave the steep climbs up Caesars Head or Sassafras Mountain, while mountain bikers dig the singletrack at Paris Mountain State Park. For more of a leasurely cruise, there’s the 28-mile Swamp Rabbit Trail, which connects multiple local parks and has trailside food and drink spots like Southernside Brewing Co.

SMALL TOWN

Brevard, North Carolina

When the time came for three-peat national champion downhiller, Neko Mulally, to find a headquarters for his Frameworks bike company and its UCI World Cup racing team, Brevard instantly came to mind. 

“We have some of the most diverse, interesting and challenging riding in the country,” he says. Town-abutting Pisgah National Forest is home to more than 300 miles of purpose-built trails and a designated International Mountain Biking Association Epic route. A pair of up-and-coming shuttle-served bike parks, meanwhile, are within a 30-minute drive of town.

And with all that adventure comes the kinds of amenities that “you’d expect to find in a much larger city,” Mulally continues. “Yet, there’s this laidback small-town attitude where nothing feels super rushed and everybody is really neighborly.”

Brevard boasts a handful of craft breweries, three bike shop tap rooms, and chef-driven downtown restaurants like Vescovo Neighborhood Eatery, where you’ll find excellent craft cocktails and inspired farm-to-table takes on Italian staples in an intimate room. Multiple music venues provide ample entertainment, and the Brevard Music Center’s outdoor pavilion is a main standout, featuring summer performances from stars like local favorites Steep Canyon Rangers.

Beyond biking, key Brevard-area adventures include climbing iconic Looking Glass Rock, kayaking the French Broad Paddle Trail, and fly-casting for trout in the Davidson River.

Runners Up

Abingdon, Virginia

This southwest Virginia small town holds the southern terminus of the Virginia Creeper Trail, a popular 34-mile rails-to-trails path for bikers and hikers. Locals can also be found fishing and paddling at Hidden Valley Lake before grabbing beers at Sweetbay Brewing Co. or catching a show at the renowned Barter Theatre.

Bedford, Virginia

This relaxed town in the central Virginia Blue Ridge is located near some of region’s best natural treasures, including the Appalachian Trail, Peaks of Otter, and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Bedford is also becoming a disc golf hot spot with five well-reputed public courses.

TINY TOWN

Floyd, Virginia

This hip and funky southwest Virginia community features a vibrant, artisan-driven downtown nestled atop a 2,500-foot plateau just five miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway. The bustling historic district brims with a colorful array of boutique shops, breweries, eateries, inns, and cafes.  

A standout is the iconic Floyd Country Store. The iconic establishment occupies a traditional, Appalachian-style stick building that dates to 1910 and boasts a working 50s-style soda fountain, old-time general store, in-house restaurant and intimate indoor and outdoor stage areas. The latter are routinely graced by top-level bluegrass and old-time musicians, both regional and national. Locals celebrate the business as the beating heart of town and have gathered there on Friday nights for famed acoustic jam sessions for going on 41 years.

“On the one hand, we’re an extremely creative, progressive and tightknit community,” says Dylan Locke, who owns the Floyd Country Store and relocated to the town around 2005. “But we’re also deeply passionate about preserving the traditional mountain culture that made this place so amazing in the first place.” 

The robust roots music scene is bolstered by an enthusiastic community ethos of sustainability and love of the outdoors. Floyd is ringed by organic farms like the internationally renowned Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary—where visitors can tour gorgeously landscaped fruit orchards and gardens and learn about cutting-edge biodynamic beekeeping methods. Proximity to Fairy Stone State Park and protected lands around the Parkway offer a wealth of hiking routes and scenic eye candy.

Runners Up

Blowing Rock, North Carolina

Blowing Rock is a quaint village with vibrant local businesses located in the North Carolina High Country, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Hiking trails are plentiful at nearby Moses Cone and Julian Price Parks, with more options a little farther afield at Grandfather Mountain and the Linville Gorge Wilderness. In the winter months, locals and visitors carve turns at Appalachian Ski Mountain. 

Cherokee, North Carolina

The home of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation is a welcoming, culturally rich destination in western North Carolina set at the entrance of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mountain bikers need to ride the 10.5 miles of sweet singletrack at the town’s Fire Mountain Trails. 

Top 100 Adventure Towns