Relocate to Lake Delton / Dells Area? (Madison, Baraboo: condos, townhouse, purchasing)

[resa818]

New to this site, and welcome any advise / comments out there.
Looking for relocating to Lake Delton / Dells area, interested
in purchasing a condo or townhouse, with garage.
Looking for local info from locals on getting around the area,
advoiding the 'bridge' and traffic of downtown.
What food stores are in the area, and any health food stores near by?
Which hospital(s) has better consumer sevice reputation? Any near by
towns, having better medical / doctors and dentists?
I have been checking into a P.O. box service rather than the post
office, but nothing locally? Search proved Baraboo, Reedsburg or
WI Rapids as closest? What about storage units size 10 X 25?
Planning to travel to the area in the next weeks, depending when I
can get off work and would like to get some bearings to whats available,
before the drive up. I may have to get tempory housing before I can
close on poperty, so I will need to find something that allows cats.

[berries]

Right behind the kfc. As for the area...Baraboo and reedsburg will be your towns. Baraboo has a nice medical facility their. We had our 4th son there and it was the best. I moved away from their because of the BUSY BUSY BUSY Summers. The traffic accidents are awful in the area with all the topurist in a hurry. There is a wal mart and home depot in lake delton but most of the shopping you do will be in reedsburg or baraboo. The grocerty store in lake delton closed down so for broceries you would have to go to Zinkes in downtown dells which on a summer day will take you longer than goin to baraboo...plus in baraboo the grocery store is nicer...or viking villiage in reedsburg. Just one world of caution. Living in the dells/lake delton area is great the first few months..by the second year you might want to sell. We did, as soon as the two year tax deal on a house was done....we were gone and have never looked back. Nice place to visit but I wouldnt want to live there applies to this place overwhelmingly. Plus the condo prices are still WAY too high

Good luck

[budnota]

Dells traffic can be a nightmare, particularly in the area around Pirate's Cove golf. A lot of accidents up that stretch of road.

It should be extremely easy to find temporary housing in the area if you are looking for the off-season. Summer is another story.
be warned though - this town is a study in rich vs. poor. Most of the population is either quite affluent - or not at all. There seems to be very little middle ground. There is very little work outside of the tourism industry and other service positions.

I disagree with a previous poster about Baraboo medical care. Clinic might be OK for minor issues, but if you are faced with something serious, you are better off going to Madison or something. baraboo hospital has a very bad reputation.
Getting around is pretty easy - there are only about 3 roads that will get you just about anywhere you want to go (although it has fanned out some with the addition of some stores- used to be no department stores or anything there - just tourist junk). The interstate can be helpful to hop on and get around traffic depending on where you are going. When it comes to finding your way, I'd say the dells is very user friendly

[berries]

if a baby is popping out you drive 8 miles, not 50. Baraboo has fine medical care, they hooked me up right and my sonis now 3 and wonderful. If you are retiring and old and need fancy medical care, sure, drive to madison, if you need heart surgery or cancer care take the trip. But if you are in need of normal, or emergent care you will do fine in barabooo. People go to the doctor too much and feel they need them WAY too much

[i4tas]

Originally Posted by budnota

Dells traffic can be a nightmare, particularly in the area around Pirate's Cove golf. A lot of accidents up that stretch of road.

Pirate's Cove = the Bridge


Definitly go to Madison for real Hosipital needs, Baraboo is second best... If your current doctors are in Madison, its completely reasonable not to switch.

If you decide to live North of the bridge the nearest town would be Adams-Frendship (more rural, small up-north town, rather than Baraboo which has Madison influences), Baraboo or Portage would be second closest, Mauston has stuff too.

Condos are overpriced and probably going to go down in value, more reasonable condos might be found in certain parts of Lake Delton. I would suggest living on the edge of the town (out in the country).

Traffic isn't that bad at all. Fall/Winter/Spring you will never have a problem. Summer is only bad weekends and evenings. And when I am talking about traffic its only on Broadway-Bridge-hwy12.