Do we really want the U.S. to feel like Europe? It's a different place, with a different history and a different aesthetic. All those cobblestone places in Europe are often full of people who have gutted the insides of those 500yo houses and made them minimalist/modern. They don't fetishize "old" because it's all around them.

What strikes me when I go to the Europe (except for Scandanavia) is how bad they are at modern architecture and aesthetics.

Rural North Dakota, minus the history but hey you can still go to the bathroom in a hole, I'm 30 and can still remember my grandma's home having to plumbing or her whole town. I was 15 when the town got a lagoon and plumbing.

Cooperstown, New York. Small and charming. Not European actually, but having lived in Germany for three years and travel all over Europe, I found Cooperstown has that little village feel where you can get out and walk.

Solvang, California (in Santa Barbara County)
It is a cute little Danish town. Although I have never been to Europe, this town is what I picture when I think about Europe!

There is a town in Michigan called Frankenmuth that is similar to Solvang, except it's German.
http://www.frankenmuth.org/

St. Augustine is the oldest permanent European city in on the North American continent. The Spanish came ashore in 1565. The city was built shortly thereafter.
It was established 42 years before Jamestown, and 55 years before the landing at Plymoth rock.

Savannah or Charlestown are relatively small and livable

St Augustine is beautiful

If you can stand the northeastern winters there are a lot of old very small towns in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine that would qualify.

Salem, Mass
Nantucket
Martha's Vineyard

Check out New Castle, Delaware for a charming, historic small town. William Penn landed here in the 1600s.
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/p.../60111009/1182

Chestertown, MD is also a charming historic town - http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/p.../60111009/1182 ,

If you want a small city, check out Annapolis, MD http://www.ci.annapolis.md.us/

There is a town near Madison, WI called New Glarus that has a lot of Swiss heritage and some interesting Swiss-style buildings. There is a good German restaurant in the New Glarus hotel.

However, as I mentioned above, I still don't think that anywhere in the U.S. has a true European feel.

Tracy

I love New Glarus! Great brewery and bike trail - and those count as European!

amaclise, I too loved New Glarus! We didn't make it to the brewery, but we did check out the New Glarus winery which had a pretty good array of wines!

I've been up to the stone houses in Kingston, Pagne.

The area did not have a European feel. It simply had a few old stone houses. It's a small upstate NY town.

If you want something smaller, how about a rural college town? Oxford, Ohio has cobblestone streets lined w/shops & restaurants, plus a beautiful campus with old trees & red brick buildings. It's also just about an hour outside of Cincinnati if you want the more urban options a city offers (theatre, etc).

Charleston, SC

Victoria, BC (NOT in the US, but in North America)

The rest of these, I just don't see - except perhaps New Orleans...but not really.

I would have to agree with New Orleans French Quarter. That European feel is magical.
Quebec City as well.
Santa Fe is not European-like but is so unlike any other city in the US.

Again like others...not in the US but close......absolutely Quebec City, and second Montreal.

If the French Quarter was like Europe...I wouldn't go to Europe!

They need to clean up the run down buildings, uneven sidewalks, general disrepair of the area, and spend a few dollars on paint before it can even become simialar to Europe. The FQ was at least smelling better, but now the genius Mayor overruled the city council and is discontinuing the FQ washdown.

If anyone has traveled to old San Juan, they are a good example of what can be done if there is a concerted effort to restore a historic area. They have a long way to go to, but they have done a fairly good job the past few years.

As a European, these are the American cities which feel like hometowns:

- Denver (absolutely number one position)
- Austin
- San Antonio

Definitely not New Orleans (which is for us the epitome of an American city) and certainly not Santa Fe (I have been there last week - I love Santa Fe, but it is totally artificial).

Why?

These three cities are full of pedestrians. Denver even has a pedestrian zone which has been modelled after European cities. The people on the streets behave and even look like Europeans.

I haven't been to Denver recently, but I have been to both Austin and San Antonio -- NOTHING about either one of them strikes me as <i>remotely</i> European in &quot;feel&quot;.

(FWIW, I live in the SF Bay Area and work in the city, and San Francisco doesn't qualify in my opinion either).

Sorry, SF7307, this is just a European's view.