Travel + Leisure names New Hope one of the 10 best small towns in the country

Some small suburban Philadelphia towns are so undeniably and unbearably adorable they look like they came straight out of a Hallmark holiday movie.

There’s Media, where a trolley still runs down the middle of the main street; Ardmore, which boasts one of the region’s best concert venues on its main strip; and Phoenixville which has experienced such a rebirth downtown that it closes its main street every weekend from May to October to accommodate pedestrian traffic.

But rising above them all, reaching levels of adorableness typically only obtained by puppies frolicking in a field of flowers or a baby playing in a basket of clean laundry is New Hope.

This month, the town of about 2,600 people perfectly situated along the Delaware River was officially named one of Travel + Leisure’s top 10 best small towns in America on their annual list.

While other towns with populations of 25,000 or less were crowned with honors like “Best Small Lake Town” (Harbor Springs, Mich.) or “Best Small Food + Wine Town” (Elk, Calif.) New Hope walked away with the award for “Best Arts + Culture Town.”

Travel + Leisure noted that New Hope was the “birthplace of early-20th-century Pennsylvania Impressionism,” the home of George Nakashima, a founder of the American Studio Craft movement, and a place where stars like Liza Minnelli and Robert Redford performed early in their careers. Staffers praised the town for being one of the most LGBTQ+-friendly places in the country and a home for creatives who add their own flair to the borough’s “enduring natural beauty, long-established artistic culture, and quirky charm.”

“New Hope is packed end to end with idiosyncratic and intellectual allure, all crammed into just 1.4 utterly charming square miles,” Travel + Leisure said.

Along with quaint shops and unique bars and restaurants, the town has a host of traditional bed and breakfasts, a working scenic passenger train on the New Hope Railroad, and is home to the Bucks County Playhouse, where stars like Leslie Nielsen and Bea Arthur have performed.

New Hope is also about an hour away from Philly and New York City, just minutes away from Peddler’s Village, and just a walk across the bridge from Lambertville, N.J.

Earlier this year, some residents told the Inquirer they’re worried developers and gentrification are slowing pricing out the very people who give the borough its funk and flair.

May this recent honor from Travel + Leisure give new hope (and added pressure) to keep the town weird.