Beckley is a workaday southern West Virginia city with one excellent reason to stop: coal country is not an abstraction here. At the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine, visitors ride underground with guides who know the industry from the inside, then walk through coal-camp buildings that put a human scale on the story.
The city is also the practical base for the Grandview end of New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. Grandview is close enough to treat as part of a Beckley day: go for the gorge overlooks and short rim walks, then come back through town for Tamarack's West Virginia crafts, food, and artist demonstrations.
Beckley itself is more useful than lovely. It has strip malls, highway exits, and the commercial sprawl of a regional service centre. But if you use it honestly, as a coal-and-gorge base rather than a quaint mountain town, it clears the bar: a spare day here can teach you something about Appalachia and still end with one of the best views in the state.