Leavenworth the Best Place to Retire in All of Washington State

A nationally conducted survey found Leavenworth to be Washington's "most coveted retirement destination."

The website MarketBeat surveyed a smattering of retirees and those nearing their golden years. (Once you've clicked on the link above, scroll down for a detailed explanation of MarketBeat's methodology.) Among the 3,000 surveyed, Leavenworth was cited recurrently as an ideal place to retire.

In a preferential ranking of America's primest retirement destinations, Leavenworth clocked in at #24. No other municipality in Washington came close. The next highest-ranking was Whidbey Island (#73), a leafy coastal oasis near Seattle.

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#1 overall was Wailea, located on the southern coast of Maui, Hawaii. (A word of caution: home prices in Wailea are positively staggering.)

What makes Leavenworth so special? This village (pop. 2,400), tucked cozily in the Cascade Mountains, is renowned for its rustic Bavarian charm. Downtown Leavenworth is studded with medieval half-timbered buildings.

Beer tourism has come to be a major source of revenue for the village. People travel prodigious distances to enjoy a "pub crawl" in Leavenworth, which is home to wúnderbar drinking establishments like München Haus Bavarian Grill & Beer Garden.

Last Christmas the village was recognized by Forbes magazine for its outsized holiday spirit. Per the Forbes list, Leavenworth is even more chipper and pristinely decorated than Santa Claus, Indiana, which self-identifies as "America's Christmas town."

On a more somber note, Americans are largely too poor to retire comfortably. This CBS News analysis is devastating. It finds that "only 10% of Americans between the ages of 62 and 70 are both retired and financially stable."