Pullman is the main city of Washington's Palouse and the home of Washington State University. It is a college town first: steep streets, red-brick campus buildings, game-day traffic, student bars, and a population that rises and falls with the academic calendar.
The landscape is the other reason to come. Pullman sits among the rounded wheat and lentil hills that make the Palouse so distinctive, with soft light, big skies, and good viewpoints just outside town. Nearby Moscow, Idaho, is close enough to feel like part of the same small metro area, but Pullman has its own university rhythm.
Visit for WSU, for a stop on a Palouse road trip, or for the National Lentil Festival in August. Bring a car if you want to explore beyond campus; the surrounding country is beautiful, but the distances and hills add up quickly.