ANN ARBOR – Tree Town has done it again.
It recently landed a spot on National Geographic's 30 best small cities in the U.S.
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The description reads:
"Nicknamed 'Tree Town,' Ann Arbor lives up to its name with a recently funded plan to plant more than 1,000 trees every year and train volunteers to help maintain them. Central to the town is the University of Michigan, which hosts a botanical garden and arboretum and is a leader in sustainability research. Two of Ann Arbor’s 159 parks rent canoes for paddling the Huron River as it flows through town."
The bridge at Gallup Park (Photo: Meredith Bruckner)
To make the list, Ann Arbor had to rank high on unique metrics that the Nat Geo Travel team, along with global destination branding leader Resonance Consultancy, feel correlate with happiness, including Instagrammable moments, coffee shops, galleries, green spaces, music venues and breweries, among other things.
Read: Ann Arbor ranked No. 1 place to live in 2018
Next, cities were sorted into three categories based on their population: small cities ranged from 40,000 to 100,000 people; medium cities ranged from 100,000 to 200,000 people; and larger cities ranged from 200,000 to 600,000 people.
Sledders enjoy the first snow day of the year at Vets Park (Photo: Meredith Bruckner)
Wolverine fans grab a sandwich at Zingerman's on a rainy fall game day (Photo: Meredith Bruckner)
Trick or treaters out and about at Main Street's Halloween Parade, Oct. 2017 (Photo: Meredith Bruckner)
Other cities that made the cut are Anchorage, Alaska; Annapolis, Maryland; and Madison, Wisconsin.
See the entire list here.
Late last year, Ann Arbor also earned a spot on Nat Geo's list of America's happiest cities.
Do you agree with the ranking? What are your favorite places and things to do in Ann Arbor? Tell us in the comments below.