Moving to Md - Columbia, Ellicott City, commute from Pa.? (Baltimore: home, school)

[te622993]

Hello.

I am relocating to College Park, Md. I have read a ton of threads and visited twice in search of a small, quaint town. Ellicott City is supposed to be the place to go, but after visiting the historic district, I left wondering if I'd missed something. I felt the same way about Columbia. Other threads have alluded to the charm of the villages within Columbia - are there any suggestions of which villages are nice? Additionally, I intend to commute from Media, Pa (10 miles south of Philly) to College Park for a few weeks. Yesterday's drive was about 2 hrs and 10 mins. Is this typical for a 5:30am to 7:45am commute? I think I will breeze through Baltimore at about 6:45 and hopefully avoid most of DCs traffic.

Any ideas about small towns, Ellicott City, villages within Columbia, or my commute would be greatly appreciated.

[macroy]

not sure about "charming"... I live in Ellicott City... and its just the 'burbs. I also lived in Columbia back in the mid 90's. Both are fine.... Columbia has more stuff to do I guess.. EC is quiter.

I'd suggest you find an agent and let him/her know what you're looking for. I actually have a great one I'd be more than happy to recommend (but dont' want to be pushy).

As for commute.... heading into the city will always be tough.. expecially in bad weather. I have colleagues who live right over the border (albeit they're not right off of 95 or 83), and it takes them up to 1:45 to get to work (around BWI).

[trickymost]

I'm sure you've already found the answer to your question - commuting times change radically for the worse after Labor Day when holidays end and kids go back to school.

I commute from Timonium MD to Arlington by car on some days. During the summer it took me approximately 1hr 10 minutes door to door in the morning, and approximately 1hr 35 minutes returning home in the afternoon.

So far this week the same commute in the morning is about 1hr 55 minutes and coming home in the afternoon it is about 2hrs 15 minutes.

Not knowing what your budget is, but if you're looking for small, quaint, and with a reasonable commute to College Park, you should definitely find a qualified agent because there is a huge difference in commute times to College Park between different parts of Maryland.

My. 02 - I'd check out Severna Park in Anne Arundel County, or in the Olney area.

[ksmoe]

Olney is really expensive area. Fulton may be nicer choice.