3. Weaverville, Calif.: Pop. 3,600 You expect certain trappings in any Gold Rush town. A saloon, a m

What's your idea of cool? How about a place where the local dump doubles as an art gallery. Or a town that's helped spawn a major foodie movement. A Gold Rush outpost with an unsung history of ethnic tolerance would certainly qualify, right? So, too, would a New York village where they make wine served at the White House — yet tastings at the winery are still free.
How about two towns that wanted to win Budget Travel's seventh annual Coolest Small Towns contest so badly, they launched a last-minute voting frenzy that crashed its website. That wasn't so cool at the time, but now Budget Travel loves it — so much so that it declared those two towns co-coolest. You know what else we love? All those places out there that are already clamoring to  enter next year's contest .
1. (tie) Beaufort, cheap hotels blackpool N.C.: Pop. 4,039 Captain Horatio Sinbad is what you might call a friendly pirate. He's got six cannons on his 54-foot brigantine, the  Meka II , but he's also got Wi-Fi. He's got a gold tooth and a gold hoop in his left ear, but his mate lovingly wears the matching earring on a chain around cheap hotels blackpool her neck (and brings him coffee on deck). He makes his living cheap hotels blackpool as a pirate, sailing the East Coast to lead mock invasions cheap hotels blackpool — "historical entertainments," as he calls them — then dutifully returns to Beaufort, N.C., every chance he gets. "The water is clean, the fishing is great, and the people are friendly," he says. "This is home port for me."
If you'd just dropped into Beaufort, you might be surprised to find that a pirate has weighed anchor there. Perched on an especially serene stretch of the North Carolina coast, the town has an air of Southern gentility about it, from the restored 17th- and 18th-century buildings that flank the local historical society to the Confederate jasmine and animal topiaries that frame the Langdon House B B (135 Craven St.,  langdonhouse.com , doubles from $108). Feeling a shiver in your timbers? A cup of rich gumbo and a slice of salty, pillow-soft French bread at the Beaufort Grocery restaurant and bakery will warm you up nicely (117 Queen St.,  beaufortgrocery.com , cup of gumbo $4.25). There's even a thriving health-food store, the Coastal Community Market (606 Broad St.,  coastalcommunitymarket.com , locally made hummus $4).
And yet Beaufort's got a wild side, starting with the undomesticated horses you'll see roaming cheap hotels blackpool just across Taylors Creek. cheap hotels blackpool Blackbeard himself sailed those waters, and his spirit pops up at the North Carolina Maritime Museum (315 Front St.,  ncmaritimemuseums.com , admission free), the Queen Anne's Revenge restaurant (510 Front St., qarbeaufort.com, crab-stuffed shrimp $15), and beyond. If he were alive, you'd almost certainly find him on a stool at the Backstreet Pub, a dive-bar-like joint that also serves as a live-music venue and a lending library for sailors. Owner Liz Kopf likes to call her place the funkiest bar from Maine to Venezuela: "I always cheap hotels blackpool say there are more characters per capita in here than anywhere in the state" (124 Middle Lane,  historicbeaufort.com , beer $2 on Mondays and Tuesdays).
1. (tie) Hammondsport, N.Y.: Pop. 661 Hammondsport, N.Y., may well be the recycling cheap hotels blackpool capital of America. Not garbage recycling (though they do that, too). We're talking about the vintage seaplanes restored and flown by the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum (8419 State Rte. 54,  glennhcurtissmuseum.org , admission $8.50). cheap hotels blackpool The birdhouses made of scrap wood in front of the Aroma Coffee Art Gallery (60 Shethar St., 607/569-3047, birdhouses from $40). The spiral staircase, crown moldings and bits of vintage wallpaper in the octagonal 1859 home that has been converted into the Black Sheep Inn (8329 Pleasant Valley Rd.,  stayblacksheepinn.com cheap hotels blackpool , doubles cheap hotels blackpool from $149). Even the cypress paneling in the Bully Hill Vineyard's lower dining room came from old wine barrels (8843 Greyton H. Taylor Memorial Dr.,  bullyhill.com , smoked pulled cheap hotels blackpool pork sandwich $13). "When my husband and I came back to live here the first thing he did was start restoring old boats," says Nancy Wightman, whose husband, Ed, grew up in the Finger Lakes region. "It's not just about loving history. You get the sense that's who the people here are."
It's tempting to say that there's something in the water, but Hammondsport's passion for the past really comes via the wine. The Pleasant Valley Wine Company, opened in 1860, was the first in the Finger Lakes region cheap hotels blackpool (8260 Pleasant Valley Road,  pleasantvalleywine.com , bottles from $6). In 1962, a Ukrainian viticulturist further transformed the local wine industry at his Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars cheap hotels blackpool by successfully planting European grapes cheap hotels blackpool in the colder New York climate (9749 Middle Rd.,  drfrankwines.com , bottles from $9). Today, both those wineries — and several more — are mainstays cheap hotels blackpool of the landscape. That's literally true of Dr. Frank's, cheap hotels blackpool which sits on an impossibly green piece of land overlooking cheap hotels blackpool its vineyards cheap hotels blackpool and sparkling, Y-shaped Keuka Lake. The vineyard is run by Fred Frank, Konstantin's grandson. "I enjoy hearing stories about children sitting on my grandfather's knee 40 years ago," says Fred. "That's very rewarding."
Also rewarding: After all these years, tastings at Dr. Frank's are still free. In fact, many of the best things in Hammondsport are. Sunbathing on condo-less Keuka Lake, kicking back on the town square for outdoor summer concerts on Thursday nights, jam sessions in the basement of the Union Block Italian Bistro-though do spring for one of the plus-size meals, such as linguini and clam sauce (31 Shethar St.,  unionblockitalian.com , linguini with clam sauce $19). "We're pretty darn proud of what we've built here," says Mayor Emery Cummings, who has lived in Hammondsport for every one of his 54 years, cheap hotels blackpool "and we're hoping to keep it the way it's always been."
3. Weaverville, Calif.: Pop. 3,600 You expect certain cheap hotels blackpool trappings in any Gold Rush town. A saloon, a main street, maybe a hitching post. Also a 138-year-old working Chinese temple. No? You'll find one in Weaverville, where the Joss House State Historic cheap hotels blackpool Park is a testament to the town's cheap hotels blackpool unsung history of tolerance (630 Main St.,  parks.ca.gov , admission $4). Chinese immigrants, cheap hotels blackpool facing discrimination in ports such as San Francisco, were welcomed here and ultimately accounted for up to 25 percent of the Rush-era population. "Some of our staff looks at this place as a museum piece you just have to keep clean and take care of," says guide Jack Frost. "But Chinese people who work in the parks system say it's a national treasure."
Maybe it's the mining cheap hotels blackpool connection, but Weaverville is a place where you often strike it rich in unexpected places. The 1854 drugstore and bank are now home to the La Grange Cafe, which features a wildly creative cheap hotels blackpool menu of boar, rabbit and buffalo -- as well as an impressive cheap hotels blackpool wine cellar cheap hotels blackpool in the old bank vault (520 Main St., 530/623-5325, buffalo burger $11). Mamma Llama Eatery Cafe hosts a surprisingly funky roster cheap hotels blackpool of live music: Gypsy jazz, junkyard percussion, even didgeridoo (490 Main St., mammallama.com , hoagie $5.75). One place that hews to a more period Old West experience is the 132-year-old Weaverville Hotel, which features four-poster beds, clawfoot tubs and a Victorian library (481 Main St.,  weavervillehotel.com , doubles from $99).
4. Damascus, Va.: Pop. 814 If you decide to drive to Damascus, you'll likely be in the minority. This is hiking and cycling heaven, where seven major trails intersect, including cheap hotels blackpool the undulating Virginia Creeper and the granddaddy of them all: the 2,180-mile cheap hotels blackpool Appalachian Trail.
In a nifty bit of irony, six of the seven trails converge in a parking lot, at Mojoes Trailside Coffee House (331 Douglas Dr.,  mojoestrailsidecoffee.com , lattes from $3.50), where most mornings you'll find a clutch of locals and through-hikers chatting about travel plans. cheap hotels blackpool Breakfast is the big meal in town, and the more energy-boosting cheap hotels blackpool calories the better. That's one reason why the Lazy Fox Inn is famous less for its trailside location than for its legendary country breakfast that includes cheap hotels blackpool cheese cheap hotels blackpool grits, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, biscuits and gravy, and sausage (133 Imboden St.,  lazyfoxinn.com , doubles cheap hotels blackpool with private bath from $85).
Yet the carbo-loading, hard-core trekkers you'll find in Damascus don't always look as you'd expect. "Mamaw B." (her adopted trail name) was in town beginning her usual 15- to 18-mile hike. She's 71 and has been backpacking for 31 years. "The secret to good health is to remain active and to always have something to look forward to," she says, as she sets off from Mojoes toward — where, exactly? She just smiles and points north.
5. Nashville, Ind.: Pop. 803 Nashville didn't start out as a music town -- not this Nashville, anyway. For 100 years, this southern Indiana village did just fine as a turn-of-the-century Midwest artists' colony. Galleries and crafts studios still line the streets, the legacy of landscape painters such as T.C. Steele, who moved here in the early 1900s for the "purple haze" over the Brown County hills. The 23-room Artists Colony Inn even has palette-shaped key rings and works from the town's creative founders on its walls (105 S. Van Buren St.,  artistscolonyinn.com , doubles from $92).
The first artists were also drawn to Nashville's remoteness from urban distractions -- which is just what lured singer-songwriter Cari Ray in 2011. Ray was looking for a quiet place to work on her second record, but she ultimately found more stimulation than solitude. "There's so much energy and hidden talent here," she says. "And such a collaborative spirit. Everybody just wants to jam together." True to form, Ray can often be found performing cheap hotels blackpool with other area musicians at the once-abandoned Brown County Playhouse (70 S. Van Buren St.,  browncountyplayhouse.org , tickets from $15).
Supply and demand for homegrown performances has spiked ever since the town's Little Nashville Opry, the only venue big enough to host touring acts, burned down in 2009. Just li