Boone, NC
Boone sits high in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina — a college town with the bones of a mountain town and the pulse of a place that never quite empties out. Appalachian State University anchors downtown, the Blue Ridge Parkway curves just south, and three ski resorts are inside a 30-minute drive. It's about two hours to Charlotte, one hour to Winston-Salem, and a world away from either.