It has football, a party scene, great roads for cycling and world-class food.

Those are just some of the reasons Athens was voted the sixth "Best Place to Live in America," according to Outside magazine's online competition.

Only about an hour from Atlanta, Athens is home to the University of Georgia.

But there is much more to this town than just college students and football. Athens has a vibrant music, food and arts scene.

This isn't the first time Athens has been featured in an Outside contest.

In May, Athens was eliminated from the "Best Town Ever" competition, losing to Boone, N.C., in the third round of voting.

The "Best Place to Live in America" contest began with a bracket of 64 cities and ended with 16.

The top five are:

  1. Chattanooga, Tennessee
  2. Port Angeles, Washington
  3. Iowa City, Iowa
  4. Eau Claire, Wisconsin
  5. Glenwood Springs, Colorado

For the rest of the list and more on why these towns won, check out the story on outsideonline.com.

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Members of the conversion crew take a break as the main scoreboard is lowered to the floor to be worked on as the arena gets ready for the next concert at State Farm Arena, Thursday, October 2, 2025, in Atlanta. The crew was working on creating a stage for the Friday, Oct. 3 Maxwell concert. (Jason Getz/AJC)

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