Why the Best: Home of the Chautauqua Institution and Arts Festival, a year round community of music, dance, arts and intellectual celebration. The Chautauqua summer program is its chief miracle -- drawing visitors from all over the world; featuring 24/7 some of the best theater, opera, ballet, classical and modern music (from Beethoven to Emmylou Harris) anywhere. All at ridiculously cheap prices and available to everyone.

Vistors to Chautauqua enter a thrilling "bizaarro" world. Mornings filled with Mozart or Bartok, lunch with seminars on current Mideast politics or ancient Chinese philosophy, and afternoons filled with a Mamet play balanced later by yoga or meditation.

Bordering Lake Chautauqua and surrounded by green hills in western NY, Chautauqua also offers tons of outdoor rec-activities -- great golf, tennis, bicycling, hiking, swimming, boating, pretty much anything you'd want to do.

To top if off, if you've got kids, the community offers children's programs for every age group -- aimed at not just amusing but immersing the kids in a fun and stimulating world of arts and cultural discovery.

Chautauqua is another one of those unique places you simply can't make up. It's a gem. It's unequivocally a Burbia Best Town....read about other towns