Travel: Ashland, Ore.

While Hollywood seems to have rediscovered the Bard this year, folks in southern Oregon have been brushing up their Shakespeare for years. Nestled amid the timber-covered Siskiyou Mountains, the hamlet of Ashland is host each February till October to thousands of theatergoers at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. After coming for the theater, many return--permanently--to avail themselves of the diversity that can be found in the surrounding area.

For a town of little more than 18,500, Ashland has a dazzling combination of physical and cultural activities. "I'm like a kid in a candy store," says Larry Kellogg, 66, who relocated there...