Online - October 30, 2004

Too Cool for School

DailyCandy Goes to College

The country’s best college towns have more to offer than reading rooms and gravity bongs. So go visit the younger sister, step-godson, embarrassing summer fling. We’ve found treats for everyone’s budget. (Just, please, behave at the frat house.)

A2
Mixed values rule Ann Arbor, where Midwestern (Wolverine-football Saturdays) meets liberal arts (the smokin’ spring Hash Bash).
Pennies: Lose hours browsing 50,000 rare and used books at David’s Books (734-665-8017).
Twennies: Sunday brunch at Aut Bar (734-994-3677) and matinees at the bygone-era ornate Michigan Theater.
Bennies: The slow-cooking trend is king at Eve (734-222-0711), as is the great East Coast innovation, the $14 cocktail.

The Research Triangle
Raleigh-Durham. Home to UNC, Duke, NC State, and a whole lotta Southern charm.
Pennies: Defunct cigarette factories get a new lease (literally) on life in Durham’s American Tobacco Historic District. Have a smoke (no, don’t) under the Lucky Strike water tower.
Twennies: Avoid Raleigh’s rowdy nightlife. Have cozy cocktails in the library lounge on the fourth floor at Ringside in Durham (919-680-2100).
Bennies: Knockout French cuisine (the menu changes every six weeks) and elegant surroundings at the Bloomsbury Bistro (919-834-9011). Yes, you really are in Raleigh.

Beantown, with a Side of Cambridge
Boston! More schools than you can shake a freshman at.
Pennies: Old-school apothecary Colonial Drug (617-864-2222) stocks rare, limited-distribution fragrances. Two dabs on the wrist make perfect scents.
Twennies: Catch a double feature you can’t or won’t see anywhere else at Harvard Square’s famous Brattle Theater.
Bennies: Cinderblock dorm shelves? Not at the swank-but-unstuffy XV Beacon Hotel. Be sure to hit the rooftop garden.

Rocky Mountain High
What is it about Boulder? A blissed-out mix of hippies, hikers, and happy students.
Pennies: The Mesa Trail from Chautauqua Park, a six-mile hike in the foothills.
Twennies: Four words: Boulder College of Massage Therapy. Get professional treatments at affordable prices in the student clinic.
Bennies: French Laundry alums are redefining delicious at Frasca Food & Wine (303-442-6966). Score a corner room at the Hotel Boulderado (800-433-4344). Those Rockies sure are mighty.