Charleston ranked one of Outside Magazine’s best small adventure locations

The editors of Outside magazine have picked Charleston as one of its best small “Adventure Burgs” in its August 2009 edition.

The magazine, which caters to outdoor enthusiasts who love to buy outdoor gear, is somewhat different from the tourism and leisure publications that typically fawn over the Holy City in annual rankings.

Outside listed the Holy City along with Boone, N.C., Salida, Colo., and New London, Conn., among others. The story was a companion piece to the magazine’s picks for “America’s Best Cities,” which included Colorado Springs, Colo., Seattle and Atlanta, among others.

The editors said they wanted to apply the word “healthy” to any community and city they picked for the designation.

“That’s the word we kept coming back to,” the magazine said. “And we don’t mean a fit or skinny population; we’re talking about a city’s cultural vibrancy, economic well-being and overall quality of life.”

Here’s what Outside had to say about Charleston:

Chucktown is affordable (median home price, $235,000) and small (pop. 110,000) but comes with the vitality of a metropolis, thanks to its kaleidoscopic heritage and a happening downtown. And since it sits at the confluence of the Cooper and Ashley rivers and the Atlantic Ocean, it’s also prime watersport territory: There’s sailing in the harbor, sea-kayaking through the marshes of the Intracoastal Waterway, and surfing at Folly Beach.