San Anselmo Makes Outside Magazine 'Best Towns 2013' List

San Anselmo is “paradise” with a “hefty price tag.”

At least, that’s what the editors of Outside Magazine think.

The town, featured on the Outside Magazine’s Best Towns 2013 list, offers the “ideal combination of access and culture” because it’s 35 minutes from both Point Reyes and downtown San Francisco and boasts more than two dozen restaurants, according to the Outside Magazine write-up, which includes a quote from the founder of The Bicycle Works.

The only downside to San Anselmo, according to the editors?  High cost of living:  “The 2011 medium home price was $851,000.”

The spotlight on San Anselmo also includes plenty of Marin County acclaim:

“Cross the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco and something amazing happens: the people disappear. Nearly 50 percent of 520-square-mile Marin County is protected open space, from redwood groves to beaches to preserves like Point Reyes National Seashore and Muir Woods.

Adventure sports are a way of life—the country’s oldest trail-running race, the Dipsea, was first held in Marin in 1905, and practically every high school now fields a mountain-bike team.”

To create the list of best towns, the magazine editors looked for towns with “ample trailheads, nearby adventure, great farmers’ markets” as well as a “competitive gear-shop scene.” Then, readers voted for the top picks.

Towns on the list include Greenville, South Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; Spokane, Washington; and Honolulu, Hawaii. One town — Park City, Utah, — was named the Outside Magazine Best Town Ever 2013.

This wasn’t the first time Outside Magazine has shown some love to Marin and Ross Valley.

This summer the magazine included Mill Valley’s Above Category in a list of the 10 Best Bike Shops in America.

In April 2012, the magazine included Fairfax’s Gestalt Haus in its list of the “Top 10 Bars for Cyclists,” calling it the best for “hippy, crunch, aggressively progressive mountain bikers.”

The Gestalt Haus magazine write up also included a shout out to Fairfax’s Iron Springs Pub and Brewery.

What do y’all think? Is San Anselmo one of the best towns in the U.S.? Tell us in the Comments!