Monday, May 4, 2015

America's Twenty Most Charming Cities

By Katrina Brown Hunt
May 4, 2015; 10:01 AM ET







No. 20 Baltimore

Credit: Philip Scalia/Alamy
The town that dubbed itself Charm City-granted, as a long-ago marketing strategy-clearly has planted its flag in the charming top 20. (That flag may be a freak flag, though: the locals also made the top 10 for being offbeat.) Baltimore also scored in the top 10 for historic appeal-like Fell's Point, the waterfront community that that was once the nation's second-largest immigration point, after Ellis Island. To experience the neighborhood to the fullest, stay at boutique hotel Admiral Fell Inn (once the home of the Seamen's YMCA) and enjoy one the city's highly ranked dive bars, The Horse You Came In On-which was likely a dive even when it first opened in 1775.
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No. 19 Pittsburgh

Credit: JP Diroll
Pittsburgh's most charming area does not ignore the Rust Belt's industrial roots-instead, it embraces it. Just north of downtown, the Strip District was once the home of Andrew Carnegie's first mills as well as the nerve center of the city's produce markets. Today, it's the home of the Pittsburgh Public Market, Pittsburgh Opera and the modern-dance Attack Theatre. The city also ranked at No. 6 for its pizza, like the classic Neapolitan at Il Pizzaiolo in Market Square and downtown's Proper Brick Oven and Tap Room. Charming or not, the locals won the survey for being the most enthusiastic sports fans.
No. 18 Seattle

Credit: Holgar Mette
Even if it's a first stop for many tourists, nothing exudes the charm of Seattle-and can make you feel like a flowers-and-fruit-buying local-quite like wandering the 9-acre Pike Place Market. But a block or so away from the market's salmon-tossing workers, the charm factor compounds on Post Alley; the brick-paved detour features spots like The Pink Door, which serves candlelit Italian cuisine and quirky live shows like Eastern European jazz and trapeze acts. Seattle also came in at No. 2 for its coffee: one of the most relaxing places to enjoy it is at the café in the Elliott Bay Book Store, where you can also see why the charmingly rainy city ranked at No. 3 for its bookstores.
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