The cottagecore destinations we’re visiting, from Hill Country to Santa Ynez Valley.
Spring brings wildflowers to cottagecore towns. Stems so tall they sway in the breeze. Petals gather on cut grass and falling slopes and fruit farms skirting small town streets where small town shops sell small town goods (bars of goat milk soap, linen tea towels, and chocolate bark spiked with espresso).
I order a coffee from a corner cafe and catch up on my spring reading list while I wait. Cottagecore towns are the perfect micro-cations (mini-trips that allow you to slow down through travel without using up PTO).
Here are eight cottagecore towns to visit this weekend, complete with what to do and where to eat.
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Hill Country
Hill Country, a plateau eroded into gentle uplands, is loved for its landscape. Here, you’ll find patches of Ashe Juniper (though everyone calls them cedar) and marshes where tiny frogs croak like crickets. In April, Texas bluebonnets burst from the grass and hug the roadside. You’ll see them as you drive to Dripping Springs or Fredericksburg or Wimberley from Austin. Come May, you can swim for a half-day in Blue Hole Regional Park, an area known for its cool, spring-fed, Cypress-Tree-ringed waters (reservations needed), and catch a late sunset at The Shady Llama. And if it’s quiet you’re chasing, Blair House Inn is the place to stay.
Carmel-By-The-Sea
Carmel-By-The-Sea’s cottages (a one and a half hour drive from San Jose, California) look straight out of Hansel & Gretel, with roofs as thick as rye bread and windows clear as sugar glass. Hugh Comstock designed the first Carmel cottage (a showroom for his toymaker wife’s, Mayotta Browne’s, Otsy-Totsy dolls) with storybook illustrations in mind [source]. Comstock’s cottages are still part of Carmel-By-The-Sea’s charm. Although most of the homes are private residences (here’s how to take a self-guided tour), The Tuck Box is a cafe (cash only). Order coffee and a plate of Scottish-style scones. Then, amble along Dolores Street until you see the Secret Garden, a leafy passageway that leads to a local bookstore and plant shop.
Litchfield County
Litchfield County lies two hours away from New York City. Welcome to the Connecticut countryside, where cows dip their heads into clipped grass and quilt patterns stamp apple-red barns. The cottagecore towns to visit are Bantam (stop by Arethusa Farm Dairy for ice cream that’s rich and creamy from farm-fresh milk), Goshen (chocolate from Thorncrest Farm & Milk House is non-negotiable), New Milford, and Warren (for a wine tasting flight at Hopkins Vineyard). The drives are scenic, and if you’re looking for a charming, romantic cottagecore stay, Winvian Farm and Lost Fox Inn are my recs.
Eureka Springs
Few places are as green as Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where trees are more prominent than year-round residents. But the town brings visitors (lots on any summer weekend) who wander through downtown (where old, Victorian-style buildings stagger up slopes). They climb up a painted staircase brightened into a waterfall and rainbow tree-trunk and find places to eat near woodland views. My picks? An early morning coffee from Java Dudes Coffee Co. and an early evening dinner at The Yellow Bucket Fried Tacos (a food truck within Gotahold Brewing. Here, fairylights are strung from trees, and lawn chairs face a sound stage). For a night’s stay, Arsenic And Old Lace is the bed and breakfast to relax in. Every room has the soft, homey comfort of cottagecore design.
Friday Harbor
In the first few weeks of spring, Friday Harbor hosts a Daffodil Frolic. The town’s daffodils cluster around art in San Juan Islands Sculpture Park. The yellow blooms seek the sun (and given that Friday Harbor falls within the Olympic Rain Shadow, sunlight is an easy find compared to much of coastal Washington). Elsewhere on San Juan Island (three hours away from Seattle, two by car and one by ferry), you’ll find a seaport cafe with harbor views (Salty Fox Coffee), a community theater, and an alpaca farm (The Farm at Krystal Acres). Enjoy a longer farm stay at Saturn’s Return Inn, where breakfast is always locally-sourced and organic.
Perkins Cove
If you’ve ever watched Murder, She Wrote, Perkins Cove will wash you in nostalgia. This cottagecore town brushes against the coast of Maine and charms as much as Cabot Cove at its best (cue the Murder, She Wrote theme song). The show itself was filmed in California, but Perkins Cove’s homes slide into familiar silhouettes. The wooden drawbridge (and footpath) connects the clapboard houses to a stretch of shops that open late in May. Wander around the fishing village, then stroll along the two(ish) mile out-and-back Marginal Way trail (here, waves lap rocks as the sun glints on the horizon). Rest your legs at one of the cliffside benches – there are plenty to choose from.
Santa Ynez Valley
Late March and early April, poppies pepper tracts of Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden. The garden is small, a place to stop and stretch as you move between the towns of Buellton, Ballard, Los Olivos, Los Alamos, and Solvang. Sideways popularized Santa Ynez Valley’s endless vineyards and backroads. But there are more casual places to sip wine; Bodega is one such spot, a little wine bar with an outdoor garden shaded by oaks. Other cottagecore places to pause: Olive And Lavender Farms (stylized Olive + Lavender Farms), Forage Florals, and The Book Loft (all two hours away from LA).
Asheville
Though a city, Asheville, North Carolina, holds onto its small-town feel. For a cottagecore getaway, check into The Windsor Boutique Hotel (or Blind Tiger), sample honey at Asheville Bee Charmer, order an iced matcha from Pollen Cafe And Flower Shop, and browse the galleries in the River Arts District. Or switch up the landscape in May and drive out to Pisgah National Forest’s Looking Glass Falls, Hickory Nut Gap’s market outpost on a regenerative farm (in Fairview), and Black Mountain’s indoor-outdoor restaurant with South African roots (Bush Farmhouse, where plates are piled with garden-fresh ingredients).
Did you enjoy our guide to cottagecore towns? What are your favorite cottagecore towns to visit? Let me know in the comments below what you’d like to add to this list!
