The famous city is the tourist version. The state is the real experience.
Every state has a famous city that absorbs nearly all the tourist attention while the rest of the state — often more beautiful, more interesting, and more authentically itself than the famous city — goes almost entirely unvisited. Here is a tour of ten states where the real experience is somewhere other than the place everyone goes.
Tennessee
Sends most tourists to Nashville or Memphis — both genuinely worth visiting. But the Tennessee that Tennesseans love is the hills and hollows of East Tennessee, the small towns of the Cumberland Plateau, the extraordinary beauty of the Obed River, and the quiet authenticity of communities that have been there since the Revolutionary War. Dollywood, nestled in the mountains near Pigeon Forge, is also genuinely more fun than its reputation suggests.
Louisiana
Beyond New Orleans has already been mentioned but cannot be mentioned enough. The Acadiana region centered on Lafayette is a living Cajun culture with food, music, and community traditions that are more intact and more genuinely practiced than anything in the tourist corridor of New Orleans. Drive west from New Orleans for two hours and find a Louisiana that most visitors never know exists.
Colorado
Sends everyone to Denver, Aspen, Vail, and the national parks. The Colorado that Coloradans love includes the San Luis Valley — the largest high desert valley in the world — the extraordinary small towns of the Western Slope, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison which is dramatically undervisited relative to its magnificence, and the towns along the Million Dollar Highway between Ouray and Silverton.
Georgia
Gets Atlanta and Savannah. The Georgia that deserves more attention includes the north Georgia mountains around Ellijay and Blue Ridge, the extraordinary rural food culture of the coastal plains, the wild coastline of Cumberland Island — one of the most beautiful and least visited national seashores in America — and the small towns of the Black Belt that carry extraordinary African American cultural history.
Florida
Gets Miami and Orlando and the beach corridors. The Florida that most visitors never see includes the wild rivers of the panhandle, the extraordinary spring systems of the central state, Apalachicola and the forgotten coast, the Everglades beyond the tourist infrastructure, and the small fishing towns of the Nature Coast that look like Florida did fifty years ago.
North Carolina
Gets the Outer Banks and Charlotte and Asheville. The North Carolina that deserves more attention includes the waterfalls of the Nantahala National Forest, the small towns of the Piedmont with genuine craft brewery and food scenes, the extraordinary geology of Chimney Rock and the Linville Gorge, and the entire southeastern coastal plain that most tourists drive through without stopping.
Texas
Gets San Antonio, Austin, and Houston with day trips to Big Bend. The Texas that Texans love is the Piney Woods of East Texas, the Hill Country in wildflower season, the extraordinary Gulf Coast birding during migration, the food culture of the Rio Grande Valley, and the towns along the El Camino Real that carry four centuries of history.
Virginia
Gets Colonial Williamsburg and the Shenandoah Valley and the DC suburbs. The Virginia that deserves more attention includes the New River Valley with its extraordinary outdoor recreation, the coalfields of Southwest Virginia with their surprising music heritage, the barrier islands of the Eastern Shore, and the small towns of the Northern Neck that represent some of the oldest continuously settled English landscape in America.
Michigan
Gets Mackinac Island and the Upper Peninsula and maybe Traverse City. The Michigan that Michiganders love includes the entire western Lake Michigan shoreline with its extraordinary dunes, the Keweenaw Peninsula in the UP with its copper mining history and spectacular wilderness, the Thumb, and the remarkable small city cultural scenes of Kalamazoo, Marquette, and Traverse City.
Washington State
Gets Seattle and Mount Rainier and the Olympic Peninsula. The Washington that deserves more attention includes the Palouse — the extraordinary rolling wheat country of eastern Washington that looks like a landscape painting — the Columbia River Gorge in all seasons, the Methow Valley, and the extraordinary small towns of the Okanagan Highlands near the Canadian border.
The state is always bigger and more interesting than the famous city. Rent a car. Drive.
