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If you could live anywhere, where would you live?


Janeway
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If you could live anywhere, where would you live? And give details if you can!!

 

Husband might not have to move with the next transfer either. He is currently remote and he says great chance it will stay that way. We are both feeling a little itchy about where we are. Like an outfit that has been worn too long. Maybe its a midlife crisis. We like a lot about where we are and would highly recommend it to anyone. We just want to try something different. 

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Wyoming.  I've lived in Atlanta for 21 years, and the traffic has gotten progressively worse every single year, but it's just fallen off of a cliff in the last year.  And the heat.  I'm OVER this, and the thought of a state with only 500,000 people in the whole darned thing--ahhhhh.  There are over 700,000 people just in my not-very-big county in metro Atlanta.

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Thirty to forty five minutes south of where I live now in East Central Florida. That would put us closer to family and friends. I always like to live near family (especially now with grandkids and a grand-niece and nephew), and at my age I don't want to start over making friends. 

 

Not much help I'm sure. But if I suddenly got a windfall of money and could live absolutely anywhere in the world, I wouldn't go far from where I am now.

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I'm not sure if I would want to live there forever, but I would love to live in Singapore for a few years.  I worked there for a couple months and absolutely loved it.  Great mass transit, tons of culture, great people.  Would love an opportunity to explore it in more depth.  

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We loved the Big Island of Hawaii but it's probably not for everyone.  I loved the slower pace, family centeredness, the blend of cultures, the weather, the island itself and all there is there.  I could see us in a small house with chickens running around the yard doing our normal stuff.  The only problem is employment opportunities.

 

But a tropical island would be the place for me.  Although I would really like to try out Singapore and Thailand.

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It's so hard - it depends a bit on where I am in life.

 

My husband was talking last night about moving back to the country.  The difficulty is that even apart from commuting to work, the kids are at an age whre they are often doing different things - i would be driving them a lot.  Even when they got to be able to drive themselves it would mean more vehicles.  And I've become sensitive in the last few years of the advanatges of staying on a good bus route for the children's post-secondary years, whatever they chose to do.

 

So - long term, I would likely stay in the province I am in - my extended family is here, I mostly like the climate - winter and early Spring are a drag but we have few natural disaster type issue, no poisonous animals, and few diseases from pets.  There are lots of forests and rural communities plus a very nice city and small towns.

 

ETA - mostly its a culture thing though - there is a who-cares-about-the-Jonses, weirdly radical-but-traditionalist vibe, and people are laid back. 

 

In the shorter term I can see trying living in a few places.  I might like to try a big city like London or Glasgow or maybe in a Nordic country for a few years, though my dh would probably hate it.  But I can see a town or village in England or Scotland - I could spend some time in the city but I like small town life too, so that is appealing and my dh would like it better.

 

I can picture myself giving up the last part of winter and going someplace warmer - many here go to Florida but I would prefer not to live in the US.  Malta seems like it might be fun, or Morrocco, or some other little place like that, but I'd need to win a lottery or something. 

 

Edited by Bluegoat
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I love our area of PA (South Central, though a little more east than truly central - halfway between York and Gettysburg on a map).

 

Hubby and I picked it out of all the places we could have moved to.

 

Why?

 

Four seasons - all moderate

Lower COL

More rural nature, but still has smaller towns (like Hanover) around with options for shopping and food

Close to more rural areas and mountains

Proximity to DC or Philly if we wanted a city for a day trip

Great landscape (in areas - others are a little too hilly for us)

Decent family values from most - great place to raise boys - not too conservative or too liberal for us centrists

Close enough to our families to visit (in NY and VA)

 

The only place we've been that has tempted us to move has been Hawaii.  The problem with HI is the high COL (major problem) and distance from everyone/everywhere (semi-major problem).

 

Still... it continues to tempt us at times.

 

No other place has even come close, though we've lived in NY/NC (prior to marriage), VA, RI, & FL after marriage and have traveled to 49/50 states (missed Alaska) and the eastern half of Canada + a couple of other countries.

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Dreaming?  London!

 

Realistically?  Fort Collins, CO.

 

Quite a difference, I realize.  London's never going to happen for me, so about Colorado....

 

I love the western US for the sunshine.  I love the mountains, because mountains.  My husband is super outdoorsy and would be like a kid in a candy store there.  Fort Collins is a fun little town with a good amount of culture and fun things to do for its size.  Plus it's very close to Denver.  I would love to live in a bigger city, but my husband would prefer a smaller town (kind of funny because it's the opposite of how we grew up.  He grew up in a major city, I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma).  But Fort Collins seems to kind of offer the best of both worlds, so I think it would be a great fit for us both.  And it was the board members here who pointed us to it when I was asking for places where we could possibly relocate!  We had visited it briefly many years ago, but we went back this time last year and stayed longer and got to know it, and fell in love with it.

 

Did you have any particular region or other criteria that you would be looking for?

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Right where we are, honestly (coastal Maine). I love everything about it for this season of our lives.

 

If internationally, perhaps The Hague. Or Copenhagen for a totally different lifestyle, although language would be a huge barrier. If somewhere else in the States, I'd probably want to stay in New England, ideally. Portsmouth NH would be close to the top of the list.

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I already get to move to a new place every couple of years, but if I were in complete control of where we went, I'd choose to live in Jerusalem, Samarqand, Toronto, Prague, Sydney, Cairo, Istanbul, Mexico City, New York City, Kashgar, Harare, Montevideo, and Kuala Lumpur.

 

Then we'd retire and live near Yellowstone in the fall, near the grandchildren in the winter, travel in the spring, and near the ocean in Alaska in the summer.

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I love where we live!

 

Four season climate with mild, short winters and occasional snow.

Very reasonable COL.

Medium sized city with nice fine and performing arts, historical sites, good economy etc.

Excellent homeschooling resources and easy regulation state.

Family here.

Community here.

 

When I was in college, VA, NC or TN were my top three choices and that hasn't changed. If all my family lived out west or I had gone to college out there, I might well have chosen differently. I have lived in the midwest, New England, the Deep South and NYC and would not choose any of those. 

 

I might like to live at the beach for a year or two after my kids are grown and before Dh and I are too old or unwell to travel easily. 

 

 

 

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I'm not sure my perfect place exists, but I would love it to be 80 during the day and 60 at night, year-round. Lots of sunshine and trees and lakes and some mountains.

 

Actually, I really like where I live now, north-east Texas, most of the year. And I grew up in Alaska, I miss the summers up there like crazy (at least the ones when it doesn't rain the whole time). If I could afford it, I would probably spend the summer in AK and the rest of the year in TX.

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Here.  Southern Scotland: an hour by train from Edinburgh, fifteen minutes from the sea and less than two hours from the Highlands, temperate climate with lower rainfall than the west of Scotland, rural house outside of a college town.

Edited by Laura Corin
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A deserted island with all modern conveniences and free delivery. 

 

Exactly what I was thinking! Except maybe on a mountain instead. Deserted islands have too many bugs.

 

Actually, I don't care so much about the locale, so long as there are no PEOPLE. I'm over living with people!

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We're pretty happy right here (NC).  If I could move anywhere I'd maybe move a little northwest into our mountains.  Or maybe the mountains of southwest Virginia.  Just far enough to get away from the worst of the summer heat and humidity but still stay in the general area.  Places I wouldn't live -- in any really big city, in a very remote area or somewhere that didn't have seasonal weather changes.

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I love our area of PA (South Central, though a little more east than truly central - halfway between York and Gettysburg on a map).

 

Hubby and I picked it out of all the places we could have moved to.

 

Why?

 

Four seasons - all moderate

Lower COL

More rural nature, but still has smaller towns (like Hanover) around with options for shopping and food

Close to more rural areas and mountains

Proximity to DC or Philly if we wanted a city for a day trip

Great landscape (in areas - others are a little too hilly for us)

Decent family values from most - great place to raise boys - not too conservative or too liberal for us centrists

Close enough to our families to visit (in NY and VA)

 

The only place we've been that has tempted us to move has been Hawaii. The problem with HI is the high COL (major problem) and distance from everyone/everywhere (semi-major problem).

 

Still... it continues to tempt us at times.

 

No other place has even come close, though we've lived in NY/NC (prior to marriage), VA, RI, & FL after marriage and have traveled to 49/50 states (missed Alaska) and the eastern half of Canada + a couple of other countries.

That sounds like an area I could live in. I long to move back to the east coast to be closer to family but do not want to live in the sprawling place we came from. We just want to be able to see people more often. Edited by MistyMountain
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Are you determined to stay in the US?  Do you need to consider cost of living or state income taxes?

 

We were able to choose where we want to live because we have a small online business; for us COL was a consideration because we don't make more money living in an expensive area :)

 

We chose Colorado Springs.  We're conservative, and it's one of the largest conservative cities (most cities are much more liberal); even the downtown is safe enough to live in (we came from KC where you can't really go some places in the city after dark if you're white), the homeschool options are a lot more robust, the COL is decent, the mountains are beautiful and *right* *there* (so mountain vacations are a short drive), the water is relatively clean, and the size is good for us.

 

For us, we needed to stay in the US because our customer base is largely here and shipping things from say NZ would have made the business untenable (not to mention that we didn't have $750,000 in the bank to make immigration to NZ legal, among other considerations).

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I like where we live - Central California. Except that we're in a drought right now and that's very bad, and our governor and state legislators are wacko and everything is over-regulated and we have high taxes. But the weather is great, we're a couple hours from the mountains and the ocean, it's pretty here.

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Dreaming?  London!

 

Realistically?  Fort Collins, CO.

 

Quite a difference, I realize.  London's never going to happen for me, so about Colorado....

 

I love the western US for the sunshine.  I love the mountains, because mountains.  My husband is super outdoorsy and would be like a kid in a candy store there.  Fort Collins is a fun little town with a good amount of culture and fun things to do for its size.  Plus it's very close to Denver.  I would love to live in a bigger city, but my husband would prefer a smaller town (kind of funny because it's the opposite of how we grew up.  He grew up in a major city, I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma).  But Fort Collins seems to kind of offer the best of both worlds, so I think it would be a great fit for us both.  And it was the board members here who pointed us to it when I was asking for places where we could possibly relocate!  We had visited it briefly many years ago, but we went back this time last year and stayed longer and got to know it, and fell in love with it.

 

Did you have any particular region or other criteria that you would be looking for?

I definitely need my city. But I also love National Parks. But city is a need, National Park is just something I like. I can vacation to the National Parks. I need culture and interesting/good restaurants. I prefer conservative to liberal, but would like a nice middle ground. I do not like football, but accept that it might be a part of the culture. And want a good university to go to in the area. The weather should be on the mild side. I am so over the scorching sun, but do not want a long winter. No more Minnesota!!!! LOL. If it were not for the long winter, Minneapolis would have been perfect.

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Here.  Southern Scotland: an hour by train from Edinburgh, fifteen minutes from the sea and less than two hours from the Highlands, temperate climate with lower rainfall than the west of Scotland, rural house outside of a college town.

 

This sounds really nice, I'm in!

 

Or Victoria Canada. It looks amazing there.

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I'm ambivalent. Sometimes my answer would be Walden Island- a tiny island in the San Juan Islands off the coast of northern WA and BC with no services that is only accessible by boat and has a school house straight out of Anne of Green Gables. Other times my answer would be Manhattan or London.

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Or Victoria Canada. It looks amazing there.

I'm in Vancouver & I'm very happy here but if I were to move anywhere, I'd be looking at Victoria or a couple other communities on the island. I think I'd miss the north shore mountains but I'd give that up faster than I would give up being near the ocean... 

 

Edited by hornblower
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I don't even know anymore.

 

Not too long ago, we had the chance to move to Hawaii for a year (or more). Everyone in the family except me voted no. Sigh.

 

There's a strong possibility the same opportunity will arise for us to go to London for a year and that I'm insisting we take.

 

Of all the places I've traveled, Namibia had a lot of appeal. Sooooo pretty and empty. But I think I like living in cities too much.

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Well in my fantasy land I'd move to Siem Reap, Cambodia, but probably not permanently. In reality, healthcare is very lacking and I have young kids.

 

So outside of the US I think I'd move to Bangkok.

 

Inside the US, I love the PNW, Portland probably. Oddly I've always want to love in Portland, Maine too. I love moving and thinking about new places. :D

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Back in SE Asia where most of our relatives are. Or Australia where some of our relatives are.

 

Here. Southern Scotland: an hour by train from Edinburgh, fifteen minutes from the sea and less than two hours from the Highlands, temperate climate with lower rainfall than the west of Scotland, rural house outside of a college town.

The Eilean Donan Castle featured in piano guys flight song is lovely.

 

I need a low maintenance house though with great public transport.

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I need a low maintenance house though with great public transport.

 

Our house isn't low maintenance, but we have a bus service that is essentially a taxi that you book and it just costs a bus fare.  It's cheaper for the local government than running lots of wee buses.  My 91 year old mother uses it all the time - it's free for her because she's old.

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Inside the US, I love the PNW, Portland probably. Oddly I've always want to love in Portland, Maine too. I love moving and thinking about new places. :D

Why oddly? Maine is a lot like the PNW, except with snow on the coast. :). Culturally it's not so different at all; any local food and microbrew loving outdoorsy type will be right at home here. :) â¤ï¸ Plus you're automatically admitted if you already drive a Subaru. ðŸ‘

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