Rural Areas/Small Towns within 40 minutes (driving) from Larger Cities? (farming, lake)

[thecarl]

Hi all,

What are the names of some towns or country areas that are within reasonable proximity of some larger cities (San Fran, NY, Boston, Chicago, Miami, etc)? My profession makes it difficult to find a job outside of the city, but I'd much rather live in the country.

Thanks so much.

[todd00]

Consider a large city like Chicago, 40 minutes even in the best of traffic isn't going to get you out of the bedroom communities and into a rural area. A town like Yorkville, Illinois is some 50 miles from the city but driving time that's another thing altogether. Of course it depends a great deal on your job location too, but that is an unknown at this point. I really don't think you will find anything much different among the largest metros. Look at the map of any of the cities you have mentioned and figure how far 40 minutes will get ya on a good day. What profession are you in?

[slamont61]

Well if you can consider Milwaukee a large city then you're in business. Don't have to go very far out to live in a small community.

And... from the Chicago area you can hit some smaller areas once you hit the WI boarder.

[penny1969]

Albuquerque has Belen and Los Lunas to the south, which have limited Rail Runner service into downtown Albuquerque and into Santa Fe. Of course Albuquerque isn't really a "large" city as it only has about 585,000 but it's the largest thing for about 400 miles in any given direction (El Paso, Phoenix and Denver each being about 6 hours' drive away in any direction)

[ckhthankgod]

Perhaps a community like Highland Falls or Cornwall north of NYC could work. Carmel or Brewster may be good options as well.

[RyanR]

I'd think that for "major" cities, most everything within a 40 minutes drive won't be country. More likely, suburbs.

If you go down a bit in the size of the city, many can get you into rural areas within 40 minutes. I'm thinking of cities like Orlando, Pittsburgh, Buffalo...

[Cattknap]

We live near Louisville, KY - we are on the cusp of country - horse farms, cattle and bison, lots of corn and soybean fields, farm stores, beautiful acreage and homes, hilly forests with gorgeous rock outcroppings - very scenic.....if we turn right out of our subdivision, we are 5 minutes from country settings, if we turn left we can be at high end shopping or WalMart/Costco/Lowes, etc. within 10 minutes.....25 minutes from Whole Foods, Trader Joes, 2 large shopping centers, etc......there are plenty of great historic towns with surrounding rural settings within 30 minutes to an hour from Louisville. Louisville is a foody town, very clean, and the arts are alive and well. Lots of great public events - we love Derby time, Thunder Over Louisville, Actor's Theatre, all the beautiful parks and bike trails. We are 6 or 7 minutes from the very scenic Ohio River - sailing, kayaking, jet-skiing.

Look at La Grange, Bardstown, Shelbyville, KY.

We retired 5 years ago from So. California, near the beach, to Prospect, KY - our standard of living took a huge step forward when we moved to Kentucky and we absolutely love our life here.

[Finger Laker]

yeah ... i'm having trouble of thinking of many places that a 40 minute drive would produce a true "country" atmosphere from major cities - mainly due to congestion getting into the city and the suburb tiering

if the cities become smaller it opens up a bit - a lot of really rural areas that would work for both Buffalo & Rochester in NY .... if you can find good work there then both of those cities could work out nicely as there is a lot real rural areas that aren't just sculptured suburbs nearby

Minneapolis/St. Paul has some options ..... some will depend if you need to work commuter hours or not - there are suburban smaller villages closer to the city - but if you go to the 40-45 minute non-commute drive you can be in places like Hastings or even a small town like Farmington or Jordan

For Philly you could look west of the city - although many of those towns are a good hour away or even south of the city into NJ .... there could even be places from about Trenton on south that could work for NJ which would be going North and East of Philly .... I had some buddies who lived in that area in some smaller cities with even smaller towns around .... again, the commute drive time vs the non-commute drive time are going to make a huge impact though

[VintageSunlight]

Originally Posted by Finger Laker

yeah ... i'm having trouble of thinking of many places that a 40 minute drive would produce a true "country" atmosphere from major cities - mainly due to congestion getting into the city and the suburb tiering

if the cities become smaller it opens up a bit - a lot of really rural areas that would work for both Buffalo & Rochester in NY .... if you can find good work there then both of those cities could work out nicely as there is a lot real rural areas that aren't just sculptured suburbs nearby

Minneapolis/St. Paul has some options ..... some will depend if you need to work commuter hours or not - there are suburban smaller villages closer to the city - but if you go to the 40-45 minute non-commute drive you can be in places like Hastings or even a small town like Farmington or Jordan

For Philly you could look west of the city - although many of those towns are a good hour away or even south of the city into NJ .... there could even be places from about Trenton on south that could work for NJ which would be going North and East of Philly .... I had some buddies who lived in that area in some smaller cities with even smaller towns around .... again, the commute drive time vs the non-commute drive time are going to make a huge impact though

^True. Philly is somewhat of an anomaly in that directly south of the city, in NJ, it just hasn't built up. The triangle of land in between Woodstown, Salem, and Bridgeton is pretty rural. There's even a rodeo held in Woodstown.

Cowtown Rodeo Home (856) 769 - 3200

Also, 45 mins east of Philly is the Pine Barrens, some of those towns only have 10 people per sq mile.

[ckhthankgod]

In the Detroit area, I believe that portions of Van Buren Township and Sumpter Township would work. Both are still in Wayne County, which is where Detroit is located.
Van Buren Township

Sumpter Township Michigan