Florida- The Tropical Escape of the US

[jsm7302]

What parts have you been? Vacation? Have you lived there? Do you have family there? What parts do you want to visit? What parts to stay away from? Pros? Cons?

 

I hate the cold and have been asking my wife to move somewhere warmer for a while. She is now open to the idea. Caveat is my job will only allow us to work in states where they have an office- NY, NJ, CA, TX and FL. I refuse to live in Cali so that leaves Florida and Texas. Hopefully get some good advice and outlooks here. We plan to vacation somewhere with moving potential end of this year/early next year.

[josh]

I’m going Friday. You might see our family at the game in TB next Saturday or something. We are going all over but Tampa bay is my favorite. 
 

what are you looking for?

id initially refuse CA too - but most of the state isn’t what you expect m, that’s the coast and southern coast. 
 

Probably need the cities to get a better response. I live in NY but it’s completely different than Phil. 

[Pete]

10 hours ago, jsm7302 said:

What parts have you been? Vacation? Have you lived there? Do you have family there? What parts do you want to visit? What parts to stay away from? Pros? Cons?

 

I hate the cold and have been asking my wife to move somewhere warmer for a while. She is now open to the idea. Caveat is my job will only allow us to work in states where they have an office- NY, NJ, CA, TX and FL. I refuse to live in Cali so that leaves Florida and Texas. Hopefully get some good advice and outlooks here. We plan to vacation somewhere with moving potential end of this year/early next year.

My mother in law lives in Sarasota, we go every year and we love it....For a week LOL. We've been around in that area, Orlando, Hollywood, Miami...Plenty of time spent on both coasts to realize I don't want to live in Florida.

[jsm7302]

We are looking at Jacksonville and Tampa areas specifically. The goal would be to stay within a 30ish minute ride to the beaches. Jacksonville has the safest area regarding hurricanes and lots of jobs and Tampa is just booming with the job market. Being I would be keeping my job; my wife would need a hospital near since she is a nurse and wants to work in that setting. I've tossed around Hollywood and Destin areas too.

 

Pete, what keeps you from wanting to live there? Maybe some things I haven't thought of on the pro/con list. 

Edited March 8, 2022 by jsm7302

[Blue Heaven]

My brother lives in Miami Beach, if you want that NY style living then that would be the place.  

However its more laid back the further north you go, Hollywood, Hallandale, Ft. Lauderdale, Delray.....if you want really laid back and go to Florida to die, then Boca is your spot.  

 

West coast of florida is nice Sarasota, St. Pete, Tampa are nice.  

 

I was in Jacksonville for a football game 2 years ago, I thought it sucked.  

 

Texas/Florida has no state tax.  

 

I hate the cold too but my wife hates florida and doesnt want to leave her dad....I would have no qualms leaving my parents to move to Florida, and if I had to choose it would be the Ft. Lauderdale area or west coast of Florida.  

[siddious]

I’ve only ever been to Orlando/Kissimmee and it’s quite awful. I’m sure the beach towns are much nicer. 

 

[Pete]

8 hours ago, jsm7302 said:

We are looking at Jacksonville and Tampa areas specifically. The goal would be to stay within a 30ish minute ride to the beaches. Jacksonville has the safest area regarding hurricanes and lots of jobs and Tampa is just booming with the job market. Being I would be keeping my job; my wife would need a hospital near since she is a nurse and wants to work in that setting. I've tossed around Hollywood and Destin areas too.

 

Pete, what keeps you from wanting to live there? Maybe some things I haven't thought of on the pro/con list. 

Well, Sarasota really is transient. No sense of community or neighborhood. Kinda like NYC, few people really call it home all year round and the ones who do are weird.

 

So it's a lot of tourists and snowbirds and spring breakers and traffic and congestion. It's like a smaller, hotter, weirder, NYC outerbourough.

[SaveByRichter35]

If I was ever to move to FL it would definitely be the west coast.  Gulf > Atlantic.  I've been to Fort Myers a few times and I absolutely love it there.  St Pete/Tampa area are also beautiful.  You're also a little bit safer on the gulf coast from hurricanes as most come from the Atlantic/Caribbean.  Most gulf storms end up hooking towards New Orleans and Texas.  Though, the west coast did get slammed either last year or the year prior.  I forget which storm it was.

[josh]

I love the Tampa area. We’ll be there in a week. Not sure if I could completely commit to relocating to Florida, though.

 

[Pete]

Wind chill was 25 in Sarasota yesterday lol. 

[jsm7302]

56 minutes ago, Pete said:

Wind chill was 25 in Sarasota yesterday lol. 

How is that possible?!?

 

Still take it over the 6" of snow and the feels like temp of 10 degrees.

 

I get why the initial immigrants landed here;  I just don't get why they stayed in an area so damn cold!

[josh]

it was also in the 80s and sunny in the AM before tornado watches. That might have been further south, though 

[The Dude]

Ive been to different parts.

 

I loved the Pensacola area. But I was staying at an awesome beach condo, when nobody was around. Nothing like having a whole stretch of beach to yourself. 

 

On the other side,my exes grandmother had a nice place in Melbourne.  Pretty laid back area. Seemed pretty normal.  

 

I was also in Winter Haven, which is a bit south of Orlando and smack dab in the center.  So that doesn't fit your need to.easy access to the beach. I liked the area. Had a bit of a Jersey vibe to it,  lots of shopping and all that. 

[Dunny]

I spent over a week in Leesburg. That's real ass Florida. 

 

I prefer Myrtle. It's within striking distance of some actual culture, the golf is better, and I prefer the slightly more moderate weather. I will retire in Myrtle, or die trying.

[LindG1000]

Resident of Americas most consistently confusing state here!

 

I'll go on and do some of that early work for you : if you're choosing between Texas and Florida, for the love of god, choose Florida. 

 

If your criteria are "has hospital, is within 30 minutes of a coast", you're basically at Tampa, Miami, Jax. And I'll be blunt, I don't particularly love Tampa or Jax. Tampa is cool in spots (downtown, Ybor, on the bay itself), but is otherwise very suburban-sprawly, and Jax is just...not a really good city. It's a shittier, beachside Dallas. Miami, on the other hand, is fucking awesome, but Miami is going to cost you enough that the move down here will feel net-neutral against NYC. Blue Heaven laid it out a bit earlier; you can run up the coast there and it'll get more laid back and significantly older as you get further from Miami.

 

Fuck Destin and fuck Pensacola. Destin is a straight-up spring-break town, and the entire panhandle blows. We call it Floribama for a reason.

 

The wildcard here is that there's almost nowhere in Florida you can live where you're more than 75 minutes from a shoreline, so let me offer you a few other options:

 

Orlando has the biggest hospital system in Florida, has a booming biotech industry, and bluntly, is a cool as fuck town. You almost never need to think about hurricanes (it's too far inland to ever get hit terribly hard), and you're an hour and 10 minutes from the Atlantic coast (and around 1:30 to the Gulf, assuming you dodge I-4). Added bonus, you can see rocket launches - Canaveral's only an hour out. If you do decide to consider Orlando, hit me up; happy to talk you through the landscape.

 

It may surprise you to know that Gainesville houses another of the biggest - and most rapidly growing - hospitals in Florida. Aside from being a college town, it's a quirky as fuck city. It's far from the coasts (probably 75 minutes to either one, if not slightly more to the Atlantic coast), but it's an up-and-coming city with a very "Austin 20 years ago" vibe to it. 

 

I haven't done southwest Florida, but some people absolutely love Naples/Ft Myers.

[-ERIK-]

West Palm more specifically the Jupiter area has become the new go to spot.

Much less crowded than Miami or Lauderdale and beaches just as nice

Starting to become not so much a secret spot anymore.