Morgantown is West Virginia University's town, and the university shapes everything about it — the energy, the nightlife, the rhythm of the year. Visit during the academic year and you'll find a lively, quasi-bohemian atmosphere that belies the surrounding Appalachian hills. Visit in summer and the place goes quiet. Plan accordingly.
The university runs a unique automated transit system called the PRT (Personal Rapid Transit), a fleet of driverless electric pods that connect the main downtown campus to the upstream Evansdale campus. It's a genuine oddity — personal urban transport from the 1970s that still works — and worth a ride for anyone curious about experimental infrastructure.
Downtown Morgantown sits along the Monongahela River, with High Street at its core. The Old Stone House near the river is one of the oldest structures in West Virginia, a solid Georgian building dating to 1795 that survives as a reminder of the town's pre-university past.
Outside town, Coopers Rock State Forest lies a short drive east on I-68. The overlook above Cheat Canyon is genuinely dramatic — a long view across forested ridges and the river winding below. Cheat Lake, formed by the Cheat River dam, has become a popular spot for boating and recreation.
On fall Saturdays, WVU football takes over the city. Milan Puskar Stadium on the Evansdale campus seats over 60,000 — nearly twice the city's population — and game days are a full civic event from dawn.
Morgantown sits at the junction of Interstates 79 and 68, about 75 miles south of Pittsburgh.