America’s 15 Best Places to Be This Fall
By Amanda Machado
Though the busy summer season is over, October through November is one of the best times to travel in the United States. Autumn time means finally manageable weather in the desert, and crispy, cozy weather in the mountains. It’s the best time for apple-picking, for viewing the aurora borealis, and for finding slashed prices in luxurious getaway spots. And it’s the season for some of the country’s best Halloween and harvest festivals.
We picked our 15 favorites based on the following criteria:
Has a special energy specifically in autumn
Has something interesting and unique other than just nice foliage
Hosts at least one key autumn festival
Estes Park, Colo.
Photo (clockwise, from top left): Tobias, the chosen rebel, Rob Lee/Flickr
Key towns/areas: Fort Collins, Estes Park, Loveland, Rocky Mountain National Park, Medicine Box Mountains, Horsetooth Mountains, Roosevelt National Forest, Pourdre Canyon
Festival: Autumn Gold Festival of music, bratwurst, and beer
Fall in the Rockies is probably the best time of year for its most scenic drives: the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway, the 236-mile loop of the San Juan Skyway, the Grand Mesa Scenic and Historic Byway, or the train ride on the Georgetown Loop Railroad. And come Halloween time, visitors stop by the Stanley Hotel to have a midnight drink at the (said to be haunted) billiards room or music room. The hotel provided the eerie filming location for Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
More from Matador Network: 7 Reasons Why Cambodians are the Coolest People You’ll Meet Abroad
Sonoma County, Calif.
Photos all by: Sonoma County Tourism
Key towns/areas: Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Sebastopol, Bodega Bay, Petaluma
Festival: The Annual Kendall-Jackson Heirloom Tomato Festival
In the fall, Sonoma’s vineyards bloom red, the wine and produce harvest seasons are in full-force, and the summer drunken crowds are gone. This is the season when you can actually have a conversation with a vineyard owner during a tasting, and you can find a luxurious, cozy bed and breakfast for half-off. You can also drive through canopies of foliage along Arnold Drive, or take a scenic boat trip down Russian River.
Salem, Mass.
Photo (first two, clockwise from top left): Wolfrage/Flickr, Massachusetts Office of Tourism
Key towns/areas: Salem, Ipswich, Gloucester, Peabody
Festival: Festival of the Dead
With its eerie history of 17th century witchcraft, for all of October this town is home base for all things witch-y: haunted tours, witch circles, witch trial re-enactments, parades, daily Psychic Fair and Witchcraft Expos, and ending with the Salem Witches’ Halloween Ball. And if the Halloween vibe isn’t your scene, nearby towns like Ipswich offer some of New England’s best apple-picking orchards, cider tasting, and pumpkin farms.
Puget Sound Area, Wash.
Key towns/areas: Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Everett
Festival: Elliot’s Oyster New Year Bash features 30+ varieties of local oysters, as well as Alaskan Dungeness crab, a fresh seafood buffet, microbrews, and live music.
Though this season marks the beginning of the infamous Pacific Northwest rain, it’s also the best time to try Puget Sound oysters. Local chefs pride themselves in offering oysters specifically from this area during this time of year. Pair them with any drink you’d like – Washington is probably one of the only states where you can find a local and first-class cider, wine, or beer.
Pocahontas County, W.V.
Photo (clockwise from top left): Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Almost Heaven Wild Wonderful West Virginia, Jason Pratt/Flickr
Key towns/areas: Marlinton, Hillsboro, Durbin, George Washington and Jefferson National Park, Cranberry Glades Botanical Area, the Falls of Hills Creek and Beartown State Park, Watoga State Park
Festival: The Roadkill Cook-Off: some delicacies can include armadillo tacos, squirrel gravy over biscuits, and teriyaki-marinated bear.
This area in fall has farmers markets, great fall foliage hiking in nearby parks (Watoga State Park is the largest in the state and has over 10,000 acres of woodland to explore), and possibly even early snow at the popular ski resort on Snowshoe Mountain.
Related: When (and Where) To Catch This Fall’s Foliage in All 50 States
Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
Key towns/areas: Edgartown, Oaks Bluffs
Festival: Martha’s Vineyard Food and Wine Festival
This is another destination where “off-season” doesn’t mean dead. The area in the fall releases the summer crowds and leaves visitors with space and time to check out the island’s art galleries, bookshops, and harvest festivals.
Holmes County, Ohio
Photo (clockwise, from top left): m01229/Flickr, Visit Amish Country
Key towns/areas: Millersburg, Berlin, Walnut Creek
Festival: Apple Butter Stirrin’ Festival
This area is home to world’s largest Amish community (around 36,000 Amish live here, or around 40% of the county population), and autumn is a great season to let the scenery and culture take you back in time: visit local farms, try homemade foods from the harvest, or spend the day relaxing under a red and yellow tree, watching the horse-drawn buggies pass by.
Grand County, Utah
Photo (clockwise from top left): John Fowler/Flickr, Photo: Ryan Smith/Flickr, Photo: Protographer/Flickr
Key towns/areas: Castle Valley, crescent Junction, Moab, Thompson Springs, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park
Festival: Moab Music Festival brings musicians from around the world to perform in red rock venues around Moab. Bailando With A View is the area’s annual salsa and bachata festival.
In fall, the weather in the desert finally becomes manageable. This area has a wide variety of areas to hike, mountain bike, and rock-climb. Even setting up your tent in one of the campsites off the main roads still provides a surprising sense of isolation. And the generally clear weather also means there’s spectacular sky-gazing at night.
Leelanau, Mich.
Photo (clockwise from top left): Pure Michigan, Photo: Michael Patterson/Flickr, Photo: Pure Michigan
Key towns/areas: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Leelanau State Park, Grand Traverse Bay, Traverse City, the Manitou Islands, Lake Leelanau
Festival: “The Hunt for the Reds of October” has wineries offering free tastings of the region’s best red wine. Part of the proceeds go to the American Red Cross.
Michigan’s largest and oldest wine trail has made this region popular internationally, and in fall harvest time, the area’s 25 wineries come alive (in addition to its apple and tart cherry farms). And after days of drinking, the fall climate is still great for outdoor activities like kayaking, biking, and day hiking.
Washington County, Tenn.
Photo (clockwise, from top left): Visit Northeast Tennessee, Storytelling Center, Patrick/Flickr
Key towns/areas: Jonesborough, Johnson City, Kingsport, Watauga Bristol, Cherokee National Forest
Festival: The National Storytelling Festival hosts the best storytellers in the country
Autumn in this part of the Southern Appalachian Mountains offers great cycling, fishing, hiking, and rock-climbing before the weather dips down. As Tennessee’s oldest town, Jonesborough has also done a great job of preserving its history. It’s also home to the International Storytelling Center which hosts its biggest event in fall.
Montpelier Area, Vt.
Photo (clockwise, from top left): White Mountains New Hampshire, Vermont Vacation, White Mountains New Hampshire
Key towns/areas: Montpelier, Littleton, Jefferson, Plymouth
Festival: Vermont Arts 2015
Vermont’s tourism bureau offers a printable list of more than 20 drives around the state that take you through scenic forests, apple orchards, and historical attractions along the way. The nearby White Mountains are also commonly named one of the best places in the world to see autumn colors at their finest. And the Montpelier arts community has earned the town recognition as being one of the best 100 small arts towns in the United States.
Leavenworth Area, Wash.
Photo: Visit Leavenworth
Key towns/areas: Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, Wenatchee National Forest, Leavenworth
Festival: Oktoberfest
Leavenworth is famous for its superb rock-climbing on good weather days. For the rest of autumn, you can find BBQ places, farmers markets, outdoor dining, and local tastings (A scenic 45-mile driving loop from Leavenworth takes you through the area’s best food and wine). The town’s bavarian-esque architecture also makes it a great place to spend Oktoberfest when you can’t make it all the way to Munich.
The Catskills Area, N.Y.
Photo (clockwise, from top left): mtneer_man, marcianneliese , the turducken/Flickr
Key towns/area: Kingston, Woodstock, Claryville, Hancock
Festival: Woodstock Film Festival or the Catskill Chill Music Festival
This area has six major river systems and 35 mountain peaks over 3,500 feet, in addition to several historic villages that host craft fairs and orchard openings for fruit picking. The foliage gets best from the last weeks in September through mid-October.
Fairbanks Area, Alaska
Key towns/areas: Fort Wainwright, North Pole, Chena Hot Springs
Festival: Tanana Valley Potato Extravaganza
Fall is one of the best times to try your luck at seeing the Northern Lights. Fairbanks is often considered one of the best places in the U.S for a viewing since visitors don’t have to venture too far away from the city to catch a sighting. Check the Geophysical Institute’s website for updates, because they vary widely day by day. And if you return to the city with no luck, the area still has stunning foliage and nearby hot water spring pools to ease the disappointment.
Kent County, Del.
Photo (clockwise, from left): Tory, Jim Lukach, Five Furlongs/Flickr
Key towns/areas: Dover, Harrington, Milford
Festival: Punkin Chunkin World Championship has participants build their own trebuchets, catapults, and air cannons to see who can chuck a pumpkin the farthest distance (world records are above 2,000 feet).
Any of this area’s local fall festivals are worth a visit: the Sea Witch Halloween & Fiddler’s Festival, the Delaware Saengerbund Oktoberfest, the Bridgeville Apple Scrapple Festival, the Bayside Arts & Jazz Festival, There’s also the Wings & Wheels Fall Festival showcasing vintage planes and classic cars, and the Delaware Wine and Beer Festival featuring local wineries and breweries.
More from Matador Network:
9 Reasons I Will Always Love Japan
14 Things French People Say When They’re Pissed
Baby Don’t Buy Me Roses – Take Me Somewhere New
WATCH: I Want to Suck Your Blood (Cocktail) in Whitby, England
Let Yahoo Travel inspire you every day. Hang out with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Check out our original adventure travel series A Broad Abroad.
