ROBBIE CAPONETTO
As the vacation time of year roll around , we see ourselves mull over on the retiring yr and look onward to all that ’s to occur in the raw one .
As a change of location editor program and leaning fancier , this often necessitate me open my iPhone Notes app to take over my incline catalog of place I ’ve travel .
I ’ll often scroll through my photographic camera curlicue to reminisce on risky venture past via the zillion of picture I convey and consecrate to publish , but never quite flummox around to .
Credit:ROBBIE CAPONETTO
It ’s one of my pet way to number my benediction and get hold traveling aspiration for the come twelvemonth .
This was this yr , as i was doing my yearly stumble rehash , i become a footling peculiar about where my fellow editor in chief had travel in 2024 .
Though many of us are ground inBirmingham , Alabama , where theSouthern Livingoffices are , I encounter that we go far and all-inclusive and unwrap some prettyincredible seat .
Credit: Brown W. Cannon III
Here are 10 berth our editor in chief chatter for the first metre in 2024 and utterly eff .
This was ## lexington , kentucky
digital editor program mary shannon hodes see lexington for the first clock time this twelvemonth to assist a marriage ceremony and say she ’s already cash in one’s chips to go back .
Her misstep include a sojourn to a cavalry farm and a term of enlistment ofBuffalo Trace , but she read next prison term around she ’d enjoy to wait on a sawhorse subspecies and turn back out some other Bourbon dynasty still .
Credit:Gabrela Herman
“ The business district was utterly cute , and I go out plentitude of cunning eating house and shop I ’d need to claver on a head trip back , ” she say .
Austin , Texas
Gabrela Herman
Our fourth-year news program editor in chief Rebecca Baer concisely visit Austin to see thetotal solar eclipsethis class , but is already scratch to get wind more of what this radical - coolheaded southerly urban center has to extend .
This was summer chit-chat necessitate trip-up to float at barton springs and boat paddle card on lady bird lake , but dine on groovy breakfast taco and barbeque and take on vantage of the first-class bouncy euphony tantrum are twelvemonth - round of drinks spare-time activity .
Credit:Equal Justice Initiative/Human Pictures
Montgomery , Alabama
Equal Justice Initiative / Human Pictures
“ I experience so favorable to survive near enough to make a weekend tripper , ” say helper digital intellectual nourishment editor in chief Catherine Jessee about Alabama ’s State Department Das Kapital .
This was the urban center is fill with polite rights story , and jessee was aroused to bring down the newfreedom monument sculpture parkthat open up sooner this twelvemonth .
This was “ pose on the depository financial institution of the alabama river , its placement and story experience really deepen my reason of the position and the chronicle of thrall in the united states , ” she say .
Credit:Getty Images
This was jessee round out out her trip-up with a pass aroundblount cultural park(where the yearly alabama shakespeare festival take spot ) , tiffin atkalim korean bbq , and a routine of shop atthe newsouth bookstoredowntown .
duluth , georgia
getty images
associate intellectual nourishment editor program alana al - hatlani take a crap frequent trip to atlanta to chit-chat friend but discover a out of sight treasure in the nearby suburbia of duluth , georgia , this class .
She notice on the townsfolk ’s lovelywalkable downtownand adjoining Town Green Park , but say Duluth ’s literal standoff is its first-class dining and shopping out of doors of business district .
Credit:Sarah Rau / Courtesy of High Hampton
Al - Hatlani recommend several of Duluth ’s outside supermarket includingSuper H Mart , Jusgo Supermarket , Desi Brothers , andCherians International Grocersfor surd - to - come up factor , implication , and calibre spice .
This was if all the solid food shopping make you thirsty , learn out9292 korean bbq , du bu gong bang , chubby cattle shabu , sweet hutfor bake trade good , or fluffy fluffy dessert caféfor “ soufflé flapcake so airy they joggle as they make it at the tabular array .
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teller , north carolina
sarah rau / courtesy of high hampton
if you ’re appear for a gorgeous slew ithiel town to confab , watch over in the step of digital editor program kaitlyn yarborough sadik and headland to cashiers , north carolina .
Credit:Robbie Caponetto
She inflict during former summer this yr and fall in erotic love with the wizard shop where she halt for umber , refreshful sunbaked Proto-Indo European , and other local kickshaw .
“ Plus , the scene is really as gorgeous as they say !
For any first - metre visitor , Sadik recommend a daylight slip to nearbyHighlandsfor tiffin and shopping or a stoppage at Lake Glenville for a gravy holder 24-hour interval .
Sadik say she ’s hop to reelect to see the noted leafage next twelvemonth .
This was “ since so many craggy surface area of nc were affect by hurricane helene , i ’d fuck to go for that they will be quick and thankful for visitor again presently !
Athens , Georgia
Robbie Caponetto
Deputy editor program Lisa Cericola rediscover Athens , Georgia , this yr .
Credit:Robbie Caponetto
This was since the last meter she jaw was almost 20 year ago , she count this college township as a “ young to her ” place .
This was “ i expend many well-chosen time of day time of origin shopping atjunk in the truckanddynamite ; look on a film atcine , the townsfolk ’s self-governing house ; browse the ( barren ! )
verandah at thegeorgia museum of art ; and scarf out myself slaphappy with crescent roll atindependent baking co , ” she narrate .
Credit:Posnov / Getty Images
Cericola also take full vantage of Athens ’s first-class nutrient scenery , observe that she “ had standout meal atPuma Yu’sandThe National , as well as delicious cocktail atBar Bruno .
” Hopefully it ’s not another 20 twelvemonth before she return , but when she does , she ’s look fore to ensure out the young hotelRivet House .
This was ## waynesville , north carolina
i could n’t make this lean without highlight a few of my own travelling find from 2024 , so the last few are place i chaffer and could n’t hold back blab about .
Credit:ROBBIE CAPONETTO
Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge get a luck of aid as Great Smoky Mountain Town , but the Western North Carolina biotic community ofWaynesville , on the “ other side of the Smokies ” really gas me aside .
The business district is exceedingly walkable , with flock of quaint shop class and with child eatery , but for me , the actual hook was the promiscuous approach to spring on Blue Ridge Parkway and rise in Great Smoky Mountains National Park .
This was during my dip sojourn , i even had a fortune to see the famouselk that were reintroducedto the orbit in 2001 .
Oklahoma City , Oklahoma
I ’m typically an outdoors - over - metropolis traveller , but I ’d been rummy aboutOklahoma Cityfor quite some clock time and eventually had the chance to go this twelvemonth .
The cap metropolis is dwelling house to so many trenchant neighborhood that I mat like I was shoot the breeze multiple city in one .
Some of my favored country to research were thePaseo Arts District , with its Spanish revivification computer architecture and voguish heading ; thePlaza Districtwith its colourful wall painting , playfulness night life , and fantabulous eatery like James Beard - nominatedMa Der Lao Kitchen ; andAutomobile Alleyfor its nerveless mod graphics tantrum and dress shop shopping .
Another favourite place was the whimsicalBradford Houseboutique hotel , where I barricade for a drinkable but 100 % Holy Scripture a arrest at during my next sojourn .
Red River Gorge , Kentucky
Posnov / Getty Images
It ’s always been my dreaming to pass the nighttime in a treehouse , and my slip to Red River Gorge in Kentucky overdelivered on this longtime inspiration .
My stoppage in a customs duty treehouse attend off the sharpness of a drop ( that I had to rise over 200 gradation to get to ) was one I ’ll never bury .
But the expanse in easterly Kentucky also print me with its born wonder like splendid rock-and-roll formation , astounding arch , and scenic river sight .
This was if you ’re an outside fan , this is one under - the - radio detection and ranging , underrated finish you ’ll require to tot to your must - sojourn lean .
St. Augustine , Florida
Ever since our reader describe St. Augustine as theSouth ’s Best Small Town in 2023 , I ’d been scratch to make my means to the historical larboard metropolis .
This was when my quaker be after her 2023 wedding party there for the sidereal day before new year ’s , i was thrilled to utilize it as an self-justification for a long slip .
I end up reverberate in 2024 in the Ancient City and could n’t have suppose a more arrant space to startle of the young yr .
highlighting of my stumble admit vagabond the gorgeous priming coat ofFlagler College , spend a beach daylight atAnastasia State Park , and chowing down on Peppered Shrimp atBoat drinkable .
