Travel Souths Best These Are The South's Best Cities to Live in 2018 By Betsy Cribb Betsy Cribb Betsy is the features editor at Southern Living. She writes about a veritable potpourri of topics for print and digital, from profiling Southern movers-and-shakers and celebrating family traditions to highlighting newsy restaurant openings and curating the annual holiday gift guide. Prior to joining the Southern Living team in 2017 as the style editor, she worked at Coastal Living as an assistant editor covering pets and homes. Southern Living's editorial guidelines Published on August 26, 2018 Share Tweet Pin Email Trending Videos Photo: Rudy Ximenez / Visit Georgetown There's no place quite like a Southern city, where vibrant food scenes, ample entertainment options, and dreamy downtowns are made even better because they happily cohabitate with old-school Southern signatures, like friendly neighbors and gracious charm. With so many beautiful cities across our region, ranging from spirited college hubs to storied music meccas, we couldn't possibly play favorites, so we left the hard work of crafting the "Best Cities to Live" shortlist to all of you. And you delivered, pointing us to the best cities to live in across the South—those pretty, pleasant places that y'all call home, or at least dream of one day calling home. From lively foodie favorites to quieter gems with plenty of outdoor activities, these 17 Southern cities are the kinds of places you'll want to put down roots, build that house with the white picket fence, and stay for a lifetime. Who's ready to move? 01 of 16 See The Winners 02 of 16 1. Georgetown, Texas Rudy Ximenez / Visit Georgetown 03 of 16 2. Charleston, South Carolina Christopher Shane 04 of 16 3. Greenville, South Carolina Denis Jr. Tangeny/Getty Images 05 of 16 4. Alpharetta, Georgia experienceavalon.com 06 of 16 5. Fayetteville, Arkansas Getty Images 07 of 16 6. Asheville, North Carolina Lissa Gotwals 08 of 16 7. Sarasota, Florida Don Klumpp/Getty Images 09 of 16 8. Chapel Hill, North Carolina Danita Delimont/Getty Images 10 of 16 9. Roswell, Georgia Getty Images 11 of 16 10. Lexington, Kentucky Henryk Sadura/Getty Images 12 of 16 11. Austin, Texas dszc/Getty Images 13 of 16 12. Wilmington, North Carolina Walter Bibikow/Getty Images 14 of 16 13. Frisco, Texas Roger Robinson/visitfrisco.com 15 of 16 14. Nashville, Tennessee Robbie Caponetto 16 of 16 15. Summerville, South Carolina Facebook/Visit Summerville Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit