As the region's main left-wing bastion, the easy-going university town of Boulder seems to subsist on healthy outdoorsy activities and cosmopolitan culture and nightlife in equal measure. This gives it plenty of visitor appeal, that's made even more attractive by the town's manageable size and location only an hour's bus ride from Denver.

Accordingly, activity in town tends to center around the pedestrianized downtown mall or in the string of rewarding mountain parks that overlook it. And if the world-class climbing, hiking and mountain biking on your doorstep isn't enough, the town is also well-placed for day-trips to Rocky Mountain National Park and the adjacent Indian Peaks Wilderness, where the Rockies Mountains really soar and are at their finest.