Considering move within US - where would be a good fit for us?

[whichlower48]

We live in a suburb in one of the huge sprawling metroplexes and are considering a move. Our area has grown hugely since we moved here and it's just so busy, takes forever to get anywhere and it's starting to feel over expanded and more than we can handle. We've got every store and chain restaurant know to man within a 10 mile radius but we're craving something smaller, quieter and the holy grail of US living....walkability. We've been to a few places across the country and liked them but some feel too touristy to live there year round or the weather's too harsh in the winter or they have nice downtowns but they’re hours from an international airport! Ideally we’d live in the downtown proper, be able to walk out to bars and restaurants (but happy to get in the car for groceries, malls, chain restaurants, medical etc.) and be within an hour of an international airport for flights to UK.

If you’ve visited or live somewhere great, tell me about about the lesser known walkable towns and small cities where you can live day to day without having to be out of the house for 2 hours to run an errand but still be within easy reach of a bigger city / amenities. We’re open to most of the country,

Annapolis MD feels oldy-wordly with a high street without being too touristy. Also Savannah is pretty walkable for the US, but maybe too touristy.

@flowerchild2000 I'm with you on everything you said. I left the States 20 years ago and rarely go back. It's scary how scary it's become. I hope you manage to move abroad. Can you get any other passports through your ancestry?

I grew up on the east coat and I'm sure places have changed but some of the towns along the long Island sound in CT were really nice and walkable once; Princeton, Montclair, Maplewood NJ; New Hope, PA; Boston, Western MA. Good luck, OP.

Late to this but if you have the budget for it, Mill Valley, CA and other towns in Marin County could fit the bill. Mill Valley has various trails and staircases built into hillsides that makes it very walkable, with the very charming town center in the sunny flatlands. Your access to nature is extraordinary, but SF is just a 20 min drive (or ferry ride) away.

Asheville is wonderful, but perhaps not supremely walkable.

A lot of good college towns in this thread as well - I can vouch for Princeton and Charlottesville.

I agree with Snork that your best bet might be a suburb of a major city.

Older suburbs in particular tend to be densely populated and are often walkable. The likes of Evanston and Oak Park outside Chicago have nice downtowns and also have transit links to the city, with big box retail available if you have a car. There are also some very liveable city neighborhoods - Hyde Park, Lakeview, Andersonville, Ukrainian Village are all nice, though parking can be an issue, and you might feel concerned about personal safety that wouldn't crop up in the burbs.

If you like Madison, Wisconsin, you might also like Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Winters can be cold and dreary in NE Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan though.

Bit late to this thread but I was also going to suggest Portsmouth NH or somewhere in New England. We lived in Portsmouth for a couple of years (right downtown) and loved it. Pretty touristy in summer but loads of fab restaurants on the door step. We cycled to the beach in Summer. I did used to walk the mile to the supermarket quite regularly though and my coworkers thought it was strange!

I've had many conversations with friends over the years on this sort of topic. Personally, I couldn't commit to living in the NE again - the winters are just too cold and too long for me - although there are some lovely towns in NJ, NY, VT, MA. The traffic is so bad in the tri-state area too that if you want to be within an hour of an international airport for flights to UK you've got to live pretty damn close to the airport.

Actually though, given your criteria, I think you could narrow things down quite easily. You want east coast and you want no more than an hour from an airport with direct flights to the UK, so I think I'd buy a map and then take a compass and pencil and draw an hour radius circle from the airports with direct flights to the UK and see what you come up with. You'll rule out certain states because of taxes and others because of climate or whether they're aligned with your politics and I suspect you'll come up with a manageable short list.

I was going to suggest Bellingham too! The Fairhaven district in particular. Lovely downtown area with the most amazing bookshop. 1hr30 to Vancouver airport (depending on the border crossing) or just under 2 hours to Seattle Tacoma airport.

Chapel Hill, NC, has restaurants and shops, winters are not as cold as northern winters, and it's a blue part of the state. It's another college town.

As an American this thread is incredibly interesting. I don’t think many people in the US would consider the country walkable, at least not in general, but there are some areas. I grew up in NC though, and would recommend, not sure if I’d say it’s walkable though… but it’s a nice place to live, variety of towns, mild climate. Cities tend to be the most walkable in the US, although I’m not sure that’s what you want. I’ve found the rural or suburban towns in the US to be quite different to small villages in the UK. There’s good recommendations on here, and some curious ones…

A friend moved from a southern state to Leavenworth WA. They LOVE it! 2hrs to Seattle. Snow in winter and I believe there is a ski field there so get some tourism. Bought some land to build and will eventually build a small house on it too for air b&b. It’s like a little German village, they’ve been warmly welcomed and have become part of the community already (less than a year)

Norman Oklahoma
small town but has most things including OU the university
near to bigger towns so quite accessible.

I lived there for a time as a student .
Its not one of your well known places so there aren’t any tourists. Great stomp dancing venues, restaurants, bars. All the usual shops but very quiet.

I live smack in the middle of the US. It's a place where we usually have four seasons, but only had 3 weeks of winter this year. It was 68° f today. We have a walkable city center. We do not have an international airport however connections are close.
Red politics throughout the state but within my city it's purple. Don't think about the election just yet. It's February and the polls are biased, Trump hasn't been elected.
I think the type of area you want is one that would be a nice place to live but you wouldn't want to visit here. As opposed to the saying New York City is a great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.

I'm aBrit living in Ann Arbor, Mi. Madison WI is tiny and very provincial by comparison. We're only 40 minutes from direct flights to the UK, although prices are steep. Detroit has a lot of big city lifestyle if you think you'll miss any of that. Ann Arbor is not just washable. There's also a fair number of buses, a train service and a lot of parks with trails being built across the entire country from town to town.
Winters are brutal, though.

Concord, Massachusetts is expensive but just gorgeous. Close to ski trails, Walden Pond, hiking, beautiful New England town with lots of shops, restaurants, cafes, sleepy hollow graveyard, Lousia May Alcott's house - and 40 minutes to Logan International Airport. Also on a commuter rail line.

Some other towns near Boston are also lovely and have lovely walkable downtowns while being close to Boston with good public transportation - Winchester, Brookline, Lexington off the top of my head. If I didn't have to think about schools, I'd live right in Boston or in Cambridge.

Portland, Maine is a great city - walkable, fab restaurant and art scene, near the water.

Winters in New England are hard but, sadly, getting a lot better. I'm in Boston and we've had about 6 inches of snow total this year and the temperatures have been pretty good.

Boston fits all that, but is very expensive.

I love Kansas City; Lenexa and Overland Park are great places to live.

For more off grid/beat, East TN for Appalachian Mts is wonderful.

Asheville - would also so be on my list.

Please ensure you have good health cover, I can’t stress that enough and also you probably know that annual leave is minimal compared to Europe.

Have you come closer to any decision yet OP?

Agree with the recommendations for Portland ME and Asheville -- I've spent time in both and they could be reasonably walkable if you chose your neighborhood carefully, but they're more than an hour away from direct flights to the UK.

Airport access is going to be the trickiest of your requirements, I think. Someone above suggested starting with a list of direct-flight airports and working out from there. That's a good idea. You could use an online driving-time radius mapper to help.

Though I'd come back and update. Have spent endless hours researching. Contenders at the moment (and I fully acknowledge they are all vastly different in terms of climate, location etc. but this process has shown us that the amenities and general feel of the place are much more important to us than where it actually is in the country). Winter Park FL, Tampa FL, Naperville IL, Carmel IN, Huntersville NC or maybe Charlotte NC proper, Greenville SC, Bethesda MD, Alexandria VA. We've pretty much ruled out west coast / PNW due to high COL and flight length back to UK. If anyone knows any of these places, please share thoughts. Bethesda and Alexandria may be too expensive and Greenville SC might be too far from a major city for us.

We're now trying to work out if we can handle apartment living which is more in keeping with a walkable downtown lifestyle (we probably can't) so finding a single family home or a townhome right in a downtown could be the decider. They do exist. We're mid 50s and like a vibrant buzzy scene but we don't want to be living in an apartment building with too young a vibe but we're not ready for the 55+ communities yet either!

Please ensure you have good health cover, I can’t stress that enough and also you probably know that annual leave is minimal compared to Europe.

Yeah we're all good on those fronts thanks. Been here for many years, DH employer pays 100% of monthly insurance costs and gives him annual leave equivalent to UK.

Also I learned about STROADS. That's what we hate about where we live and what we're trying to escape! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroad

I know Naperville is a very solid place to live. Not sure how costly being in the downtown would be, but probably not close to East or west coast costs. Very close to O’Hare, a short train ride to downtown Chicago, an hour to Wisconsin for green space, although I’d say it has nice parks/forest preserves close by. Has all the big box stuff you could want for shopping and I believe it has a nice downtown with restaurants etc. Low crime also.

I live in a Chicago suburb where Naperville is a byword for everything you're trying to avoid.

If the Chicago area is an option, try a close-in, older suburb, like Evanston or Oak Park, where you'd have restaurants, art, theater, music, great public amenities, walkability, public transport to downtown Chicago, easy access to airports, and also decent supermarkets with international foods. Evanston in particular has all the benefits of a tremendous university within its borders.

Other than that, I'd go to Chapel Hill. University town, old/ has character, restaurants, culture scene, access to airport. Climate is warmer than the frozen north (though we've had a strangely warm February), and you could get away to the mountains or the coast for nice weekends.

Born and raised in the US. I don't know where you and the other person are getting the idea that Trump is going to win. That's not true, no need to say that it is. And also, Trump's people are the majority? Please. That is not true either. I wonder where you live and what news you watch/people you associate with. OP, please know that the majority of the US does not like Trump and there is nothing to say that he is definitely getting elected again.

Well that's Brighton, UK for you!

Athens, Georgia maybe? University town with all that offers. Quaint downtown, lovely countryside and close to Atlanta.

@mathanxiety Please educate me as to why Naperville is everything I'm looking to avoid. The downtown hub has an abundance of bars, restaurants, shops, a riverwalk, a public library right in town, bike trails, parks, green space. Close to Chicago for big city, direct flights back to UK. What am I missing?

This sounds really great IMO!