Surrounding Cities and Towns of Roanoke (Cave Spring, Salem: neighborhoods, schools, college)

[adenlee]

I have done a lot of research on Roanoke and realized that there are smaller cities and towns near Roanoke, such as Salem, Rocky Mount, Vinton and Hollins. I wonder how about living in these cities? What are the pros and cons? I'd like to know more about these surrounding areas and hope you can share your experience. Thank you!

[Watchful]

Rocky Mount is truly a separate town, while the Roanoke/Holland/Vinton/Salem grouping is actually a continuous metro area these days. You will find urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods that may have a mailing address with any of these.

Areas in Botetourt County also fit the bill and the address may show as Roanoke, Cloverdale, Troutville, Daleville or other!

The postal address doesn’t always match the city or town you are actually in.

I know that is a little complicated but all that is to say keep all of these area in mind as you find a location that works for you!

Maybe someone else can fill you in on Rocky Mount!

[Rickcin]

Originally Posted by adenlee

I have done a lot of research on Roanoke and realized that there are smaller cities and towns near Roanoke, such as Salem, Rocky Mount, Vinton and Hollins. I wonder how about living in these cities? What are the pros and cons? I'd like to know more about these surrounding areas and hope you can share your experience. Thank you!

I’m guessing you need to be a little more specific as to what you are looking for and how close you’d like to be to downtown Roanoke.

We knew before moving to this area we wanted to be within 20 minutes of the downtown area due to the location of the hospital, major medical services, restaurants, museum, etc. It’s not that we would be going there on a weekly basis, however this radius was within our comfort zone. You can certainly find almost everything you need to live and be comfortable if your preference is to be more rural, however our criteria was to be within a 20 minute radius and we wanted a full 1/2 acre of property.

[Watchful]

Here's a little more info...

SALEM has its own downtown with Roanoke College right in the middle of downtown. It has its own feel to it and Salem-ites are known for being very very happy with life in Salem - good support of schools. It is right next to Roanoke City and Roanoke County and sometimes it is hard to tell which you are in (like VA Hospital and Lewis Gale Hospital are both in Salem but are both a stone's throw from Roanoke). Quite a variety of housing options. No rural areas right in Salem, but there are rural areas west of Salem that have a Salem mailing address.

VINTON has its own downtown as well - smaller than Salem - has always had a sort of middle class reputation - being a town rather than a city it is also a part of Roanoke County and is serviced by Roanoke County schools. There are more rural-ish areas east of Vinton (actually in Bedford County) that still have a Vinton mailing address!

HOLLINS is a little more vague than either Vinton or Salem and is just more like an area of North Roanoke County much like we refer to Cave Spring as an area of Southwest Roanoke County.

All of these are popular areas with great housing options as well as the areas of Botetourt County that may have a postal address of Roanoke, Cloverdale, Troutville, Daleville, etc.