Fredericksburg (Washington: environment, job, university)

[BES]

I am considering a opportunity in Fredericksburg. I am use to living in an area were you can walk to some type of night life. Does that exist there and if not where is the closest city that it might?

[EricD]

It depends. Obviously if you live in the downtown area, you can do that. There is a college in town (University of Mary Washington), so that fuels some of the night life.

It's not going to be like a big city... but there is definately night life out there if you want it. A lot of it is in like, hole-in-the-wall spots, or old buildings poorly marked... so you'd have to do some searching and asking around. It's not like you'll be driving down the historic downtown and see signs for 'Club _____'

Just because your job is in 'Fredericksburg' though, doesn't mean that it will be in downtown Fredericksburg... Parts of Stafford and Spotsylvania county have Fredericksburg mailing addresses, and sometimes even say they are in Fredericksburg, even though they can be a couple miles outside of the city. And about 2/3 of the city of Fredericksburg isn't very city-like anyways (more sub-urban) If you use google maps or something, you should be able to tell where the read downtown is.

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by BES

I am considering a opportunity in Fredericksburg. I am use to living in an area were you can walk to some type of night life. Does that exist there and if not where is the closest city that it might?

I was transferred to Fredericksburg from the midwest a year or so ago. Fortunately, I had several months of looking around to decide where to live. Downtown Fredericksburg is the best place, at least for dining/drinking. Central Park (just west of I-95) has tons of restaurants, some with bars, but the whole strip mall thing doesn't appeal to me too much so I chose the city instead. Plus, I try to avoid chain restaurants because I like the individuality afforded by smaller, more unique establishments. As another contributor stated, the University of Mary Washington drives the downtown nightlife to some extent.

In my opinion, if you wanted to work and live in Fredericksburg, and wanted the amenities of walking to eat and drink, downtown would be the place. I'm not sure exactly what kind of nightlife you're looking for. I favor the more urbane wine-and-dinner environment, and found many opportunities for that downtown. I'm not sure about other things. Some of my co-workers enjoyed going to places like Hard Times at Four Mile Fork, but that just wasn't my scene, so to speak. There are other places too--that appeal to all types.

I kind of miss it there. It is NOT anything like a big city, but it does have some absoutely great restaurants downtown, and many of the bars/restaurants are busy on just about every night. I enjoyed it quite a bit living there, despite it being far smaller than I was used to. My favorite restaurant--and favorite restaurant bar--La Petite Auberge, is sorely missed in my new state of Arizona, where just about everything is a chain restaurant. I ate there countless times, and it was the restaurant of choice for business dinners as well. There are many others also.

I guess that although I dreaded moving there, I miss it badly, for the history, the countryside, and most definitely, the wonderful restaurant choices.