Not every American downtown shuts down at 5pm. A new roundup from The Independent Travel singles out seven city centres where the streets themselves are the attraction — all compact enough to explore on foot, and each with a hotel and restaurant suggestion attached.
Charleston, South Carolina leads the pack with more than 2,500 historic 18th- and 19th-century buildings packed into its downtown, plus cobblestones, wrought-iron balconies and the famous candy-coloured Georgian row houses on East Bay Street. Walk the pedestrian path on the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge for skyline-and-harbour views, then eat at Husk in a restored Victorian house. Boutique stay: The Ryder Hotel, rooms from $300.
Savannah, Georgia might be even easier on foot. Its 1733 grid plan survives with all 22 park-like squares intact, shaded by oaks draped in Spanish moss, and the architecture spans Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic and Italianate styles. Look north from the Forsyth Park fountain down Bull Street toward the river. The Grey restaurant occupies a restored 1930s Greyhound bus terminal, and The Marshall House — a landmark from 1851 with rooms from $250 — puts you in the historic-district thick of it.
Santa Fe's uniform adobe look is no accident: the oldest state capital in the US enforces an architectural code of flat roofs and earthy tan, cream and yellow tones. There are over 250 art galleries, the 17th-century Palace of the Governors (the country's oldest public building) and a mountain backdrop best appreciated from the Cross of the Martyrs in Fort Marcy Park. The Shed does classic blue-corn enchiladas; Inn of the Governors starts around $250.
Madison, Wisconsin owes its drama to geography — an isthmus between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona — and to the white granite dome of the Wisconsin State Capitol. State Street, a mile-long pedestrian mall, links the university campus to Capitol Square. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Monona Terrace is the photo spot, Graze the bistro, and the Madison Concourse Hotel starts at $220.
Providence, Rhode Island reads distinctly European, with Beaux-Arts, Greek Revival and Art Deco civic buildings, the so-called "Superman Building" and the Westminster Arcade of 1828 — America's first enclosed shopping mall. Al Forno is the wood-grilled pizza institution; Graduate by Hilton Providence has rooms from $200.
Boise, Idaho — the name means "the wooded place" — trades glass towers for trees, the Boise River Greenbelt and a neoclassical State Capitol best seen from Camel's Back Park. Fork serves the comfort food; The Grove Hotel starts at $220.
Finally, Alexandria, Virginia's Old Town, established in 1749, is a colonial district of gas lanterns and cobbled streets along the Potomac. King Street runs a mile down to a waterfront promenade with views of the D.C. skyline; Gadsby's Tavern Museum once hosted George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Stay at Hotel Indigo Old Town from $250.
The appeal for travellers is obvious: these are cities where parking the car for the whole trip is genuinely feasible, with the sights, food and hotels all within a short walk of each other.
