Anyone move to a place that you fell in love with while on vacation there? (job transfer, back east)
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.
(Originally asked this question on the General U.S. forums, but thought I'd post it here as well )
Was just pondering this because hubby and I just got back from yet another trip where we say, oooh, wouldn't it be nice to live there?
Of course hubby and I both know, and most people know, being on vacation and day to day living is very different.
However, I'm sure some people have fallen in love with a place while on a holiday and decided to move there.
If you are one of them, are you happy you did it? Is it vastly different from what you dreamed it would be? Worth the day to day frustrations because the pay off is worth it?
Any unexpected perils like sever allergies to the environment, natural disasters you didn't think about etc.?
In our case it's pretty remote we'd actually make a move with my hubby's job being secure and friends and some family near by... we've actually thought of looking into a job transfer to Boston or even Belgium! LOL! (pretty convenient to seeing the sights of Europe) but Southern California makes one lazy and thinking about shoveling snow... well...
18 months ago....Went through a divorce...gave myself a yr or so to think about it then: I searched for/bought a home in another state, my favorite vacation spot, moved; then sold my home.
NO regrets at all! Not any unforeseen issues...traffic and crime a bit worse than I had thought...but the weather is wonderful....this city is a high tourist destination with the beach, natural beauty, history, fabulous food/theater/concerts...
18 months ago....Went through a divorce...gave myself a yr or so to think about it then: I searched for/bought a home in another state, my favorite vacation spot, moved; then sold my home.
NO regrets at all! Not any unforeseen issues...traffic and crime a bit worse than I had thought...but the weather is wonderful....this city is a high tourist destination with the beach, natural beauty, history, fabulous food/theater/concerts...
Love it, so glad I followed my heart.
Ah! A positive experience! May I ask what cities you moved from and to? (I gather you're now near a coast, but which one? )
I grew up in New England. In my 20s I went to Wyoming on a vacation (visiting my now-ex-h's relatives). We went back to MA, pretty much packed up our stuff in the car and moved to WY. I lived there for 7 years, got divorced, then moved down to Colorado where I've been for the past 10 years. I could never live back east again.
(Originally asked this question on the General U.S. forums, but thought I'd post it here as well )
Was just pondering this because hubby and I just got back from yet another trip where we say, oooh, wouldn't it be nice to live there?
Of course hubby and I both know, and most people know, being on vacation and day to day living is very different.
However, I'm sure some people have fallen in love with a place while on a holiday and decided to move there.
If you are one of them, are you happy you did it? Is it vastly different from what you dreamed it would be? Worth the day to day frustrations because the pay off is worth it?
Any unexpected perils like sever allergies to the environment, natural disasters you didn't think about etc.?
In our case it's pretty remote we'd actually make a move with my hubby's job being secure and friends and some family near by... we've actually thought of looking into a job transfer to Boston or even Belgium! LOL! (pretty convenient to seeing the sights of Europe) but Southern California makes one lazy and thinking about shoveling snow... well...
Anyway, would love to hear your stories!
Cheers!
I've moved twice to places I've vacationed. The first place was in South Carolina and I had a few family members there. I was absolutely MISERABLE for the 2 1/2 years I lived there. It was hell on earth. Granted, I didn't vacation there a lot. Just a couple of times. Living there was nothing like vacationing there!
I recently moved to the Finger Lakes which I had vacationed in numerous times for several years. I love it here. Jobs weren't an issue since we work from home. Nothing unexpected with weather so far except for a rare hurricane. I grew up in a different part of NY so I'm very familiar with the weather and shoveling.
If I had to do it all over again, I still would have moved to SC and built a brand new house. Why? Because it made me appreciate what New York has to offer so much more. And I was never proud to be a New Yorker. I am VERY proud of being a New Yorker now!
I grew up in New England. In my 20s I went to Wyoming on a vacation (visiting my now-ex-h's relatives). We went back to MA, pretty much packed up our stuff in the car and moved to WY. I lived there for 7 years, got divorced, then moved down to Colorado where I've been for the past 10 years. I could never live back east again.
I would love to visit Wyoming and Montana!
May I ask why you wouldn't go back to the east coast? Both places are still cold, but I hear the humidity is tough in the east.... I think I'd love to live in Mass.for a while and explore the east coast cities and enjoy the fall seasons. Of course if you've lived there all your life, you might be over that!
I've moved twice to places I've vacationed. The first place was in South Carolina and I had a few family members there. I was absolutely MISERABLE for the 2 1/2 years I lived there. It was hell on earth. Granted, I didn't vacation there a lot. Just a couple of times. Living there was nothing like vacationing there!
Yet, Greatblueheron loves it there. Do you think it was the area? Greatblue lives in Charleston.
I recently moved to the Finger Lakes which I had vacationed in numerous times for several years. I love it here. Jobs weren't an issue since we work from home. Nothing unexpected with weather so far except for a rare hurricane. I grew up in a different part of NY so I'm very familiar with the weather and shoveling.
I hear that's a beautiful area! Sigh much to see, so little time.That's it I'm telling hubby to get a remote job and we'll buy an RV and just roam until we find "the place"
Oh I wasn't in Charleston. Charleston is gorgeous. It is a tourist city which very different than the rest of the state. It's also very expensive to live in Charleston.
I lived in a completely different part of the state. Our a/c would go on in mid-March and stay on until Thanksgiving. It would be over 100 degrees for several weeks at a time. Never saw humidity like they have there....100% and 105 degrees is HOT! I'd rather have snow for 3 months of the year.
Holidays were weird. Holidays are huge up here. Halloween was 80 degrees the last 2 years I was in SC. Don't know about yesterday. Zero chance of a white Christmas is beyond weird. But if you grow up with things like that, the it's normal to you. it wasn't normal to us and we hated it.
Oh I wasn't in Charleston. Charleston is gorgeous. It is a tourist city which very different than the rest of the state. It's also very expensive to live in Charleston.
I lived in a completely different part of the state. Our a/c would go on in mid-March and stay on until Thanksgiving. It would be over 100 degrees for several weeks at a time. Never saw humidity like they have there....100% and 105 degrees is HOT! I'd rather have snow for 3 months of the year.
Holidays were weird. Holidays are huge up here. Halloween was 80 degrees the last 2 years I was in SC. Don't know about yesterday. Zero chance of a white Christmas is beyond weird. But if you grow up with things like that, the it's normal to you. it wasn't normal to us and we hated it.
If you substituted South Texas for South Carolina, that post could have been one of mine.
A year after we married, my spouse and I moved from Michigan where we had both grown up to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. I absolutely hated it. We had parents in poor health who had settled there and needed our assistance, so we wound up staying there for 18 years, and I never, ever got to the point where I was used to the intense heat, humidity, hurricanes, lack of seasons, or the culture. Don't get me wrong, the culture there is a vibrant and lovely one - it just wasn't one that I had anything in common with, and I felt just as much an alien and an outsider there after 18 years as I did on the first day.
During the final few years we lived in the RG Valley, we came back to the Midwest on vacation several times, visiting my sister who was working on her PhD at the University of Wisconsin. Both my spouse and I felt a near-instant sense of home-coming on every visit, and the more time we spent here, the more we became convinced that this was where we needed to live. The year after we lost the last parent living in south Texas, we started actively working on a move back to the Midwest, and it finally came to pass in 1999. We've lived in Madison, Wisconsin ever since.
And it was the single best decision I think we've ever made in our lives.
Oh, sure, as permanent residents here, we see drawbacks that vacationers are probably oblivious to. No place is perfect, after all. But because we were returning to the same general region that we grew up in, we had a pretty good idea ahead of time what to expect, both good and bad, and there have been very few surprises.
We also spent well over a year researching our destination, including three extended visits at different times of the year, so that we could make as well-informed a decision as possible. We knew, for example, even before leaving Texas which high school we wanted our kids to attend, what general part of the city we wanted to live in, and what kind of difference to expect in cost-of-living. Taking the time to do that level of research really reduces the number of unpleasant surprises one can encounter with a move like that.
As a post script, I would also echo ss20ts in saying that as much as I hated living in Texas, I am very glad now that we had that experience. It broadened my horizons in a way that never, ever could have happened had I spent my whole life in the Midwest, and it opened my eyes to realities that I could never have imagined had I not seen them first-hand. I find myself astonished sometimes at how insular and narrow-minded some of my colleagues and neighbors can be, until I remind myself that they've just never had the opportunity that I have to see parts of the country where "the norm" is so vastly different from what it is here.
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.
) 
That's it I'm telling hubby to get a remote job and we'll buy an RV and just roam until we find "the place" 
