Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there's been a migration from larger cities and an interest in the safer, simpler pleasures of smaller towns. We've got a lot of interesting small towns and villages all over New York State, but only one can be "the coolest," according to FarAndWide.com.

The website researched a number of key sources, such as U.S. News & World Report, Reader's Digest, Architectural Digest, The Travel Channel and House Beautiful magazine, in order to arrive at its definitive list of America's Coolest Towns State by State. These are charming smaller towns, many of which have been instrumental in forming, Far & Wide says, "the backbone of the nation."

CloseUp of Shops in Cooperstown
Naomi Lynn/TSM
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small town
Ezra Shaw, Getty Images
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And the Empire State's coolest town is...Cooperstown. FarAndWide.com says the "cheerful village is lined with quaint shops, restaurants, art galleries and museums, farming and, of course, baseball."

The home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame sits in the southern portion of the Mohawk Valley (located at home plate if the Mohawk Valley were a baseball diamond), and is situated at the southern tip of picturesque Otsego Lake.

The Baseball Hall of Fame Building
Naomi Lynn/TSM
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Photo Credit - Al Messerschmidt, Getty Images
Photo Credit - Al Messerschmidt, Getty Images
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Ezra O. Shaw /Allsport
Ezra O. Shaw /Allsport
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Cooperstown's in good company. A few of the other "cool" U.S. towns, according to Far & Wide, include:

  • Mystic, Connecticut
  • Bar Harbor, Maine
  • Ocean City, Maryland
  • Taos, New Mexico
  • Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
  • Stowe, Vermont
  • Williamsburg, Virginia
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