Young Canadian Couple - Dallas or Houston (Sugar Land, Galveston: apartments, insurance)

[elan]

OP, it's 7:30 pm in Dallas and it's 100 degrees. Lifelong resident, I just feel people need to know what they are getting into.

[BobTex]

Originally Posted by elan

OP, it's 7:30 pm in Dallas and it's 100 degrees. Lifelong resident, I just feel people need to know what they are getting into.

But 10 degrees cooler in the Houston area. I'm 90 miles NE of H-town and it's 88 0n my back porch here in the woods. It is always hotter in summer in DFW and colder in winter. The caveat would be the higher humidity in Houston area.

There are plusses and minuses to both areas.

[doolish1]

I am never stuck inside because of the heat. Unlike the cold, I can go outside until about 10 am or after sundown on any day with a 100 degree high. Then the other seasons are pretty much glorious.

I am never dreading walking across a parking lot or driving anywhere when it is 100 degrees.

I do not ever go outside when it is a high of 30 degrees with wind chills and I def do not drive when there is snow and ice out. I never slipped and hurt myself on heat in a parking lot.

Houston vs Dallas is not really all that much different but if you want to ever see water, you would be in Houston.

[MapleSyrups]

Thanks again everyone! Your comments have been really helpful in our discovery of these two beautiful cities.

A few follow-up questions

1) How often do most families visit the Texas beaches each year?

2) How do most Texans maintain their fitness in the summer time? Gym membership or Home gym?

3) Is a swimming pool or hot tub a worthy investment in a home? How many months a year can one use their swimming pool (assuming without a pool heater)?

[BobTex]

Originally Posted by MapleSyrups

Thanks again everyone! Your comments have been really helpful in our discovery of these two beautiful cities.

A few follow-up questions

1) How often do most families visit the Texas beaches each year?

2) How do most Texans maintain their fitness in the summer time? Gym membership or Home gym?

3) Is a swimming pool or hot tub a worthy investment in a home? How many months a year can one use their swimming pool (assuming without a pool heater)?

We have a 1 hour drive to the nearest beaches then drive about 35 minutes along the coast to cross over from the Bolivar Peninsula via state operated ferry onto Galveston Island (If coming in from Houston we would take I-45 onto the island). The ferry ride is 15 minutes and at peak times the wait to board can be up to 45 minutes. During the summer there are 3-5 ferries running except late night there is only 1. https://www.txdot.gov/driver/travel/...schedules.html

We've only been once this year but usually 2-3 weekends a year. I have plenty of acquaintances that own second homes/condos on the beaches, both Bolivar and Galveston.


My personal opinion is that a pool is a necessity. We will use ours about 80 days a year, June thru Sept. If I would get off my butt and build my planned solar heater It could extend this from May to Oct. comfortably.
I use our pool practically to actually cool down when I've gotten really hot (I maintain 50 acres). My wife, in her absolute love of the radiation of Sol will say quickly that the pool is a necessity. Many weekends we will spend several hours in the pool together with our music and refreshing summer adult drinks. When Our kids were younger then absolutely the pool was in use almost every day for extended periods. I highly recommend a salt vs chlorine pool.

We have no outdoor hot tub. We've talked about it but don't think we'll go there. We have an outside firepit for cooler patio days (Wife likes to unwind when the weather is comfortable on our deck with a glass of wine).

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by MapleSyrups

Thanks again everyone! Your comments have been really helpful in our discovery of these two beautiful cities.

A few follow-up questions

1) How often do most families visit the Texas beaches each year?

2) How do most Texans maintain their fitness in the summer time? Gym membership or Home gym?

3) Is a swimming pool or hot tub a worthy investment in a home? How many months a year can one use their swimming pool (assuming without a pool heater)?

1) All of these are too specific and vary by person to person. I travel a lot so I enjoy other beaches elsewhere. The Texas beaches aren’t all that even South Padre Island. A couple of weeks ago, Galveston cleared up (a phenomenon that happens a few times a year) so when that happens I try to go.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/hous...ston-week.html

2) I have my own home gym so I go there the majority of the time bur still have a gym membership. Usually people have a gym membership.

3) idk

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by As Above So Below...

Im pro-choice and agnostic and I love it here. In the cities, most people are pro-choice. This isnt going to be an issue finding like minds.

While I agree that you can find like-minded individuals, at the end of the day it doesn't matter because Texas is not a pro-choice state. The GOP controls Texas, and the Texas Republican Party is controlled by overzealous "Christians" who'd love nothing more than to legislate their morality upon everyone in the state - regardless of faith. The irony is that many of the very same wackadoos who are pining for Christian Nationalism were running around with their hair on fire a few years ago worrying about Muslims in Irving implementing Sharia Law (it was a hoax).

[LocalPlanner]

In Houston, the "easy beaches" in terms of travel time are Galveston / Bolivar and Surfside. Neither is "pretty" but they are popular. Warm, murky water, but generally safe to wade in unless there's a lot of jellyfish. I don't think there's any more toxins danger here than in most popular beach areas of the U.S. Note that the sand can get painfully hot in the middle of summer days.

Houston folks who are really "beach people" and want "nicer" than Galveston or Surfside tend to make use of 3 options for short getaways: (1) drive to the greater Corpus Christi area like Port Aransas or North Padre Island, about 3 to 3.5 hours, (2) 6-hr drive or fly to S. Padre Island which has Texas' "nicest" beach, or (3) 10 to 11 hour drive or fly to Pensacola or Ft. Walton Beach for the famous white sand / clear water beaches stretching from Gulf Shores AL into the Florida Panhandle. United has relatively low cost, quick flights from IAH to both.

Not sure how this plays out from DFW.

[Redlionjr]

Originally Posted by MapleSyrups

Thanks again everyone! Your comments have been really helpful in our discovery of these two beautiful cities.

A few follow-up questions

1) How often do most families visit the Texas beaches each year?

2) How do most Texans maintain their fitness in the summer time? Gym membership or Home gym?

3) Is a swimming pool or hot tub a worthy investment in a home? How many months a year can one use their swimming pool (assuming without a pool heater)?

1) I think that depends on how big you are on beaches. I visit Galveston probably 3-4 times a year and I'm not a big beach person. My mother-in-law has time share there so she goes probably 5 to 8 times a year.

2) Gym memberships, home gyms, and apartment gyms.

3) Not sure


Honestly about Galveston. I'm more of a fan of the actual city than the beaches. Compared to other beaches you have to really lower your expectations when it comes to Galveston beaches. Funny when I visit beaches in Florida or California I always talk about how laughable the beaches are in Texas and specifically Galveston, but whenever I do visit Galveston I end up having a decent enough time anyway. I think it's still a plus to have a beach in your "backyard" to just relax and get away from the hustle and bustle of Houston every once and a while. Plus like I said before, the strand/ downtown Galveston area imo is an underrated gem in the entire state. Really nice urban bones even for a Texas city pre-WW2. Might not be on the scale of a New Orleans but I like to consider Galveston a very distant cousin to New Orleans. Not a sibling but distant cousin.

[Raider Scott]

I live in Houston and almost never go to Galveston or the beach.


The water is completely nasty, it is crowded and parking is not easy on the Island. Galveston is sort of a tourist trap and many parts of it are just gross.


Not to mention, the traffic getting to and from Galveston is terrible.