North America
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Luckily for you, these involve no slot machines—only glassy waters for paddling and natural playgrounds for climbing
Fit in a last-minute camping trip at one of these iconic parks before summer ends
How does a city turn itself from a backwater to one of Outside's Best Towns? Libby, Montana, is trying to figure it out.
Looking for a road-trip excuse? the Atlantic and Gulf coasts have some of the best oysters in the country.
Dixie is bursting with adventures, hip breweries, and a new river to raft (we’ll explain). And it hasn’t lost any of its down-home charm.
We talked to climbers, Olympic mountain bikers, musicians, and award-winning chefs about what exactly makes their hometowns so special and fun
Admirality Island has more brown bears than the entire lower 48 combined
From scenic singletrack to family-friendly hiking trails, the Mountain State is home to hundreds of homegrown adventures
The city has taken a turn toward smart development, livable neighborhoods, and high-energy amenities.
For close to the price of a TRD Off Road, you can get the best Taco ever
It's Canada’s take on California—hip coastal cities, rugged alpine terrain, and huge ocean swells—but without the tech bros and traffic jams
They know their coffee, beer, yoga, and outdoor boutiques. We've picked the highlights.
Nobody knows the state's 600-plus streams and rivers as well as backcountry fishing and Lahontan cutthroat trout expert Steve MacMillan
Everything you need to know to get there
10 reasons more than a dozen elite athletes call this high-altitude adventure playground home
The best way to see a Yellowstone few people ever do
At Death Valley’s Furnace Creek Inn, it looks like you’re on the moon but feels like you’re in heaven
Here are a few of our favorite things about all it has to offer
The 100-mile stretch along the Gulf Coast is full of adventure
For long-distance trail runners looking to play like antelope, it is heaven with a hydration vest
Grab a wetsuit and a paddleboard, and hit the little-visited lakes on the park's western edge
A three-day, 33-mile canoe float through Boquillas Canyon, the farthest-flung and mellowest route in the park
Will Jackson, Wyoming, or Billings, Montana, be chosen as the Best Town in America? It's time to vote.
Visiting Catalina Island is cheap, easy, and epic
We put together a bracket of our 64 favorite towns in the country. See how your pick stacked up.
Three days, sixty rides, and as much beer as you can (safely) drink
The 10 best spots in Mammoth Lakes to capture epic photographs
With its high peaks and pristine forests, there are few places more beautiful for cycling than Rocky Mountain National Park
Think you live in the best town in America? Prove it by entering your town in our Best Towns tournament. All you need is an Instagram account.
The city gets a bad rap: flat, boring, concrete. The flat part? That’s true. But the rest couldn’t be more wrong.
The 60 towns that will go head-to-head in a winner-takes-all contest to find the best place to live in 2016
Best Towns 2016: Prize Details and Official Rules
Baja: The ultimate weekend escape. And it’s way easier than you think to get here.
Whether you’re refueling after a dawn patrol or heading out for a day of on the snow, here’s where to dig into some of the best breakfasts in the mountains
Want to find the crowd-free surf of yesteryear? Drive from Los Angeles to Baja, load five days of gear onto a SUP, and haul ass through thick fog, screaming seagulls, and open ocean to the rocky, big-wave coast of Todos Santos.
Unlimited access for big-tired bikes
Park ranger Kelly Carroll turned the Great Basin into Nevada’s biggest show of stars
In burgs recognized for an abundance of adventure, these are the winning places that will set you up for everything
Two days in the city should be enough to convince you to make the move
Off-the-charts home values are turning countless adventure hubs into fiefdoms of the wealthy—but they aren’t going down without a fight
A river- and mountain-loving town took home the top prize (again) in our 2015 contest.
Two towns bonded over their Best Towns rivalry
Bushwhacking, pack rafts, and a historic float down one of the world's most beautiful wildernesses.
These places may not have won our Best Towns competition, but they're still pretty rad
Staring in April, we asked you to use a certain hashtag to nominate towns for the wild-card segment of our Best Towns 2015 contest. You did, and kept going—as of right now, there are over 7000 images with the hashtag #BestTowns2015. In no particular order, these are 50 of our favorites.
Use this interactive map to create a road trip through every burg from this year's contest
Even if these 12 towns didn’t make it to the Best Towns 2015 contest, they still stood out above the dozens of other wild-card entries.
You don't have to live in a mountain town to pursue a life of adventure. Presenting the life-changing strategies urban dwellers can adopt to play harder.
The untouched sections of forest, orca whales, salmon runs, and curling waves inspired Jeremy Koreski's latest project, This is Nowhere, a collection of photographs in which he reminds us that beauty exists in places we can’t easily see or access, and that it’s worth saving.
The province has it all, from wildlife and rainforests to bike parks and wild rivers
Photographer Jimmy Chin and Outside's Grayson Schaffer on what will surely become a rite of passage for future generations: the Instagram road trip.
British Columbia's natural beauty knows no boundaries. It's a place where ancient rainforests and massive mountain ranges force you to slow down and marvel at your own existence. Where wildlife thrives, rivers run free and exhilaration is all around you. …
The silver is gone, but the town is experiencing an adventure-fueled boom
After decades of decline, Leadville is experiencing a renaissance. The iconic Leadville 100 mountain bike race and ultramarathon have put the high-country town back on the map. Think fishing and mountaineering, but also plenty of bike shops and saloons.
Think you live in the best town in America? Prove it by entering your town in our Best Towns tournament. All you need is an Instagram account.
From mountain biking and climbing to swimming and kiteboarding, there’s a lifetime of adventure in the Lone Star State
Lift tickets for $20, hot dogs for $1.50, and no snow-making machines. Quebec’s Mont Chilly is one you don't want to miss.
And it definitely has the coolest heli-skiing setup.
Take in as many mountains (and drinks) as you can in a breakneck, hardcore-skier's perfect weekend in Park City and Deer Valley.
Plan a perfect weekend to the legendary British Columbia ski area
Who needs nightlife when your days are spent tackling terrain like this?
From surfing powder to high-altitude hot tubs, California boasts an array of splashy wintertime activities for the whole family.
Saddle up for brisk days and cozy fireside nights at some of the plushest digs in the West.
If lingering holiday malaise and winter's cold, short days are knocking you off your game, look no further. One of these trips is sure to recharge you.
Photographer Ben Moon takes us on his journey to the desert to climb some splitters in Indian Creek, using the all-new Lytro ILLUM camera—designed to capture fuller, deeper, and more stunning images than ever before.
Ever since Swiss photographer Bruno Augsburger discovered the Canadian Yukon Territory in 2000, he's made it his goal to spend as much time there as possible. Augsburger will spend weeks alone in the wilderness, relying on bushcraft skills to survive.
Want to skin the frontcountry? Try these six spots.
No two ski resorts are alike. But which one is right for you? We break down more than 30 of North America's best to find the perfect fit.
From cliff jumping in the Northeast to watching an orchestra of lightning strikes in the desert. Outside Magazine and The North Face have put together a list of the 50 places that you have to #SeeForYourself.
Five mountain towns where the skiing and riding are matched by equally entertaining off-the-slopes escapades.