Traverse City, Michigan

Home of Northwestern Michigan College and the Great Lakes Culinary Institute, this small town has an easily accessible lakefront and beach area. Traverse City is the self-proclaimed Cherry Capital of the World, holding an annual week-long Cherry Festival the first full week in July to celebrate. It is estimated that the Grand Traverse region produces up to 360,000,000 pounds of cherries annually. Besides cherries, the surrounding Tuscany-like countryside produces grapes, and is one of the centers of wine production in the Midwest.
The Traverse City Film Festival, founded by filmmaker and activist Michael Moore, takes place every summer. The six-day event presents independent films and documentaries, as well as discussion boards with directors, actors and others involved with the film industry.
Indian hunters and French traders gave Traverse City its name due to the long canoe crossing they had to make across the bay to reach it. The town is the county seat of Grand Traverse County and, in 2009, TripAdvisor named it the number two small town destination in the United States.