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.