Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My girlfriend and I are looking for the "best" place to live in either the Pacific NW or Mountain States. We are in our late 20's / early 30's and are looking for a place to live life to the fullest and enjoy great outdoor recreation. We both need to work; however, I am self employed and my girlfriend has a pretty solid resume which should make the job search a bit easier. After doing an extensive road trip, we have narrowed our relocation down to the following cities:
Bend, OR
Salida, CO
Missoula, MT
Boise, ID
and maybe Bellingham, WA
We do basically all outdoors activities (skiing, fishing, rafting/kayaking, hiking, etc. etc.) and want to live somewhere that has pretty decent 4 season weather. We've heard that places like Missoula and Bellingham can be pretty grey during the winter so this might be a deal breaker, although the great fly fishing in Missoula might make it worth the winter grey...
It would be great to hear everyones' thoughts on where we should go based on personal experience so please share any thoughts/opinions! Thanks.
i have two cousins who live in Boise and they love it. they originally moved to Denver but the cost of living is so high so they moved on to Boise.
out of the cities you listed, I would probably go with Boise b/c it should have a better airport with more connections and it is a bigger city but just as convenient to outdoor stuff. Boise also has a large university Boise State and there is probably more people in their 20's and 30's than in the other cities.
Last edited by ClemVegas; 08-28-2016 at 03:19 PM..
It's hard to compare Salida (population 5,400) with Bend (population over 81,000) and Boise (population nearly 320,000). The only similarity I see between Salida and Bend is that they are in the mountains but within reasonable distance to larger cities. I live near Salida and know that there is a wealth of outdoor activities close by, but it is also very summer tourist oriented. Bend probably has more to offer year-round.
Salida's only a couple hours from Denver, but finding career-oriented jobs there will be hard to come by.
Boise's probably your best bet.
On that note, BSU isn't really as much of a selling point as you'd think. Sure, they have a renowned football team, but the school ranks pretty low academically.
BSU is a young university, and was a private college until 1979 when it became a University. It is a growing University achieving more clout as the years go by.
The Boise Metro also has the College of Idaho, which is a nationally ranked liberal arts college and there is also the Northwest Nazarene University and the fairly new College of Western Idaho.
But, the OP didn't ask about the university, so we've gone of track in the thread.
Last edited by Syringaloid; 08-29-2016 at 01:57 PM..
Any one of them will offer you all the outdoorsiness you could want. Base your choice on what you like to do when you're not doing that.
Salida for small town granola where you want to know who every last person in the city is sleeping with.
Bend for larger town granola where you want to find your own little granola niche, and only know who they're sleeping with.
Bellingham for that Pacific Northwest liberal vibe and whale watching.
Missoula for the intellectual stimulation of the "Berkeley of the Rockies," and all the perks a legit world-class college town brings. It's especially world class if you're into literary stuff.
Boise if...I guess if you like voting for Bushes, watching Fox News, nodding along in agreement with Rush Limbaugh, and shooting guns.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
