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The Charlotte area is booming with growth in population, and in the jobs sector.
Asheville is attracting monied retirees from the North East, and it's very touristy. Outside of The Biltmore, the downtown Asheville area and the college scene, there's not much going on.
Well, except for some of the best hiking, mountain biking and whitewater rafting in the southeast, if not the entire eastern US. Plus some decent, although certainly great, snow skiing. All mentioned as important to the OP.
Yes, outdoor activities are very important to us and during the winter I would like to have the hour or so drive up to Blowing Rock/Sugar Mountain to ski. We really want to be in a small town around 30min outside of the city(Charlotte). Does anyone have recommendations of other areas within an hour drive of skiing and 30-45min drive of airport? I appreciate all the feedback so far. We will be flying up to Charlotte in 3 weeks to look around the Lake Norman area and any other areas we find we may like before we go up.
Yes, outdoor activities are very important to us and during the winter I would like to have the hour or so drive up to Blowing Rock/Sugar Mountain to ski. We really want to be in a small town around 30min outside of the city(Charlotte). Does anyone have recommendations of other areas within an hour drive of skiing and 30-45min drive of airport? I appreciate all the feedback so far. We will be flying up to Charlotte in 3 weeks to look around the Lake Norman area and any other areas we find we may like before we go up.
Hickory is about equidistant from Blowing Rock and CLT (45 minutes or so from each), but I don't think its what your looking for. Davidson is probably what you're looking for...its about an hour and a half from Blowing Rock and 30 minutes from CLT. Charming, small college town. Safe and upscale, half hour to Uptown Charlotte (non rush hour).
It’s about 2 hrs from Asheville to Beech or Sugar but Cataloochee is not too far from Asheville. More like 45-1hr depending on where you’re starting from.
There’s no place that is 30 min from Charlotte and an hour from skiing. Charlotte is two hours from the mountains. Closest ski area to Charlotte is Appalachian Ski Mountain at Blowing Rock. It’s about 2 hrs from Charlotte so the best you could do is maybe an hour from each. You’d be looking at Hickory for that.
Charlotte to Beech and Sugar is around 2:30 hrs. To cataloochee is 2:45-3 hrs.
I agree other than the somewhat antiquated use of the words hippie, for which many is defined as the 60s and 70s version of unwashed counter-culture types which is not an accurate description.
I think a lot of people would think the “unwashed counter-culture type” to be an accurate description of many folks in Asheville — as an example the drum circle. Like I said though it’s shorthand. Plenty of all types of people in Asheville. However, I can’t think of too many places in North Carolina more different than Asheville and Lake Norman, general vibe wise.
A google image search always helps me. Try “people in Asheville NC” and “people in Lake Norman NC” as image searches.
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Originally Posted by Acolachi
Yes, outdoor activities are very important to us and during the winter I would like to have the hour or so drive up to Blowing Rock/Sugar Mountain to ski. We really want to be in a small town around 30min outside of the city(Charlotte). Does anyone have recommendations of other areas within an hour drive of skiing and 30-45min drive of airport? I appreciate all the feedback so far. We will be flying up to Charlotte in 3 weeks to look around the Lake Norman area and any other areas we find we may like before we go up.
Traffic in the Charlotte area is worst on the north/south axis. In my opinion, your drive times are not realistic.
Check out Crowders Mountain State Park. No skiing there. Don't be fooled by "Mountain".
There are towns west of Charlotte that give you 30 minutes to the airport. They won't give you a one hour drive to Blowing Rock. They will give you 30 minutes or much less to trails.
I agree that Hickory is the sweet spot for your skiing desires. I like Hickory, but it's not very likely to provide a marketing job. And it's probably out of your timeline for the airport.
I suggest that you plug in marketing into Indeed. For location, start with Charlotte, then Asheville. Pull up a map while you do that. I'd also suggest that you repeat the search using Hendersonville, Gastonia, and Hickory, which should extend the search, somewhat, to the in-between area. I'm not at all suggesting that you look at rural areas to live in.
I understand there is not the perfect place. My gf has actually now found a remote job for the time being so will be able to work from home. The only area that we would live in Charlotte is around Lake Norman. We definitely will not live in the city but would like access to big city events. I really would like to know more about the types of people/vibe of the Asheville VS Lake Norman area.
Asheville is a granola tourist town. It has great access to hiking, camping, etc, some access to fly fishing. Very liberal, very live and let live, alternative, whatever you call it. Lots of craft breweries, good restaurants. Wonderful fall colors, moderate temperatures in the summer, etc...
Now the bad: It historically has been little more than a tourist town, originally a vacation spot for wealthy southerners to escape the oppressive heat. There isn't much in the town in the way of job markets that doesn't cater to the tourist crowd aside from the health system, which caters to the retiree crowd. You see what I term "the voluntary homeless," teenagers and 20-somethings that busk or beg living a transient lifestyle voluntarily.
I know a few folks that live in Asheville. One works at a brewery, is married to an organic farmer, and is smart enough to have a trust fund from his investment-banker father. The other is an attorney that does remote doc review work and is married to a photographer who had the good sense to marry an attorney that would allow him to be a photographer rather than work in a laboratory (which he did in Raleigh.)
You mentioned fishing, and skiing. Fishing around there is good if you like fly fishing, but otherwise you're limited to a couple lakes which while fine, aren't exactly known for being excellent fishing spots.
The Skiing? It's there, but I'd check it out before you move here to make sure you don't need to go somewhere further north.
No, just someone who knows the difference between a body opening and a hole in the ground. Charlotte has more of everything in terms of a food scene but the quality/depth is no where near Asheville's which has been written up in the NY Times, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, National Geographic and The Travel Channel just to name a few. I doubt the proliferation of chain restaurants in Charlotte incites as much enthusiasm somehow.
Because its notable for how small Asheville is. It's a tourist town, and not that big. Charlotte isn't a tourist town. It's a big city, not big enough to be a tourist destination, and without attractions that make it a tourist destination (unless you count people driving in from extant NC for big city amenities like sports, nightlife, shopping) but a big city all the same.
By that metric, I suppose Asheville's is deeper but I don't think I'd say its bigger or better. It's notable because Asheville is a nice place to visit but a small town relatively speaking.
Yes, outdoor activities are very important to us and during the winter I would like to have the hour or so drive up to Blowing Rock/Sugar Mountain to ski. We really want to be in a small town around 30min outside of the city(Charlotte). Does anyone have recommendations of other areas within an hour drive of skiing and 30-45min drive of airport? I appreciate all the feedback so far. We will be flying up to Charlotte in 3 weeks to look around the Lake Norman area and any other areas we find we may like before we go up.
Will be interesting to see what you think of the Lake Norman area. Like I said in an earlier post, it didn't do anything for us. The lake is quite congested, and compared to the terrain arround Asheville, it is quite 'vanilla'. If you live on the south side of Asheville, you're within an hour's drive of three of the most beautiful lakes in the nation (Lure, Jocassee, Keowee). Davidson is a cute little town, but again, it just doesn't compare to the small mountain towns near Asheville, but it depends on what you're looking for.
Southeast Catawba county areas like Newton,Sherill's Ford etc would be a a good location also. You have access to 321 & NC 16 which will be a freeway from Newton to the 485 interchange in Charlotte. The airport should be doable in the 40 minute range & the mountains in a hour & some change
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