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Most of the vibrant walkable small cities and towns I know of are tourist/resort towns or college towns.
Port Townsend, WA
La Conner, WA
Leavenworth, WA
Pullman, WA
Walla Walla, WA
Moscow, ID
Sandpoint, ID
Whitefish, MT
Cannon Beach, OR
Ashland, OR
Fredericksburg, TX
Telluride, CO
Aspen, CO
Cooperstown, NY
I would definitely vouch for Charleston, SC here. Wonderfully walkable you can literally just park your car and walk around all day to everything you need. Market street (North and South) and king street alone have everything you need lol then you can go walking down the other streets just looking at all the old mansions and such. I miss that city...good times.
Wellsboro, PA has a great little downtown, surrounded by beautiful old neighborhoods. Everything is all very accessible by foot: shops, banks, hospital, schools.
We traveled the US by RV for two years (Looking for Mayberry) and one of the criteria was walkable streets.
I liked walking Fond du Lac, WI. It just felt good. For the most part, the neigborhoods were neat and clean, and people were actually out and about with their families.
I didn't take many photos, and most of the photos I took were not in town, but it was worth visiting again.
I also liked Duluth, particularly West Duluth. Chatanooga, TN and Indianapolis, IN were also very walkable -- at least in their downtown areas.
Lots of good suggestions on here. In general, I find towns with large universities to generally be walkable and vibrant (downtown and near campus). I particularly recommend:
Charlottesville, VA
Chapel Hill, NC
Athens, GA
Auburn, AL
Fayetteville, Ark
I have also heard great things about Madison, Wisconsin, but I have not been there personally.
Santa Fe, NM
Boulder, CO
Northampton, MA
Newport, RI
Newburyport, MA
Salem, MA
Great choices.
I'd add Portsmouth, NH to this mix.
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