Loveland

Loveland trades on its name every February, when couples mail valentines through the post office for the heart-stamp cachet. Cute gimmick, real economy: the Sweetheart City brand props up a downtown that has done the hard work of not dying. Benson Sculpture Garden, the Foundry plaza, breweries that take themselves seriously. Housing is cheaper than Fort Collins and noticeably less student-coded, which reads as either grown-up calm or suburban quiet depending on your appetite for nightlife. The dating pool skews older, partnered, settled. Newcomers tend to be priced-out Front Range refugees, not transplants chasing scenes. Honest read: pleasant, photogenic, slightly sleepy.