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Single female; late 20's and having opportunities to move for work. Between San Antonio and Tampa, what's your thoughts? I do enjoy the beach, looking for good place to one day raise a family. Hopefully met someone first lol. Any advise is appreciated.
As an active duty Air Force person that's lived in both cities, I'd give the slight edge to San Antonio, if you are choosing solely based on city limit. San Antonio offers more of a laid back lifestyle, lesser traffic, and you would enjoy the riverwalk. However, if you are choosing based on the metro area, go with Tampa. The Tampa Bay Area offers a bit more and its location serves as an advantage. It's also near the beach as other have stated. I enjoyed living in both cities and believe that San Antonio have better authentic food spots. San Antonio is also the cheaper city between the two.
Bear in mind Tampa involves neighboring St Petersburg which gives you a two-for-one of amenities plus being 90 minutes from Orlando. If you like the beach focus on Tampa's west end closer to Tampa Bay, or look in St Pete of Clearwater's northern suburbs which are commutable to most of Tampa.
Never been to San Antonio. Seems like it would be a good fit if you have an affinity for the southwest but otherwise Tampa seems like a better choice. As others have mentioned, COL will probably be higher in Tampa.
Tampa is hot year round, minus a couple of cool fronts in the "winter". It also has the threat of hurricanes.
San Antonio is brutally hot from May/June-October. November-April is great, with several cool/cold/freezing snaps. So it is more seasonal.
If that matters a great deal to you, bear that in mind.
Overall, I have lived in San Antonio for a year, grew up not far from it my entire life. I also spent 2 and a half months in Tampa this last fall from September-December. I like the city of Tampa and its metro area more than I like San Antonio. It is a larger metro area, with more big city amenities, professional sports, an awesome international airport, amazing variety of food, good local nightlife, very culturally diverse, and has a uniquely Tampa vibe to it. Tampa shares its metro area with St. Petersburg, which is also a great city. It is also only an hour and some change from Orlando, and less than an hour from Sarasota. It is a four hour drive from Miami. I really enjoyed my time in Tampa and love the city itself.
Some of the cons include, the heat, COL, hurricane threat, large toll network, and what I found odd was there are no waves at its area beaches.
San Antonio has a uniquely San Antonio vibe within its core, and has a heavy Mexican culture. SA prides itself in its history and Mexican heritage. Although it has a foreign culture, it is not very diverse. The city is Hispanic and Hispanic only. You won't really find any cultural influences from other parts of the world there. San Antonio's airport is small, but I have found it fairly convenient. The COL is still great compared to most other big cities across the country, and is better than any large city in TX. San Antonio is only an hour from Austin, two hours from the beach in Corpus Christi, three hours from Houston, and four hours from Dallas and Galveston. There isn't much else to say about SA. It is a conventional big city, with typical big city amenities.
Some of the cons are, the summers are long and oppressively hot. The lack of international influence. The good local food is mainly limited to Mexican food and mostly everything else is chain restaurants. The city is VERY spread out and sprawling. Although entertainment areas downtown are getting better, the nightlife is spread out throughout the city. The Riverwalk is for tourists and the people that work there.
Tampa is definitely the better city. However the heat is a big factor to me and I like seasons, so I would personally pick San Antonio.
Tampa is hot year round, minus a couple of cool fronts in the "winter". It also has the threat of hurricanes.
San Antonio is brutally hot from May/June-October. November-April is great, with several cool/cold/freezing snaps. So it is more seasonal.
If that matters a great deal to you, bear that in mind.
Overall, I have lived in San Antonio for a year, grew up not far from it my entire life. I also spent 2 and a half months in Tampa this last fall from September-December. I like the city of Tampa and its metro area more than I like San Antonio. It is a larger metro area, with more big city amenities, professional sports, an awesome international airport, amazing variety of food, good local nightlife, very culturally diverse, and has a uniquely Tampa vibe to it. Tampa shares its metro area with St. Petersburg, which is also a great city. It is also only an hour and some change from Orlando, and less than an hour from Sarasota. It is a four hour drive from Miami. I really enjoyed my time in Tampa and love the city itself.
Some of the cons include, the heat, COL, hurricane threat, large toll network, and what I found odd was there are no waves at its area beaches.
San Antonio has a uniquely San Antonio vibe within its core, and has a heavy Mexican culture. SA prides itself in its history and Mexican heritage. Although it has a foreign culture, it is not very diverse. The city is Hispanic and Hispanic only. You won't really find any cultural influences from other parts of the world there. San Antonio's airport is small, but I have found it fairly convenient. The COL is still great compared to most other big cities across the country, and is better than any large city in TX. San Antonio is only an hour from Austin, two hours from the beach in Corpus Christi, three hours from Houston, and four hours from Dallas and Galveston. There isn't much else to say about SA. It is a conventional big city, with typical big city amenities.
Some of the cons are, the summers are long and oppressively hot. The lack of international influence. The good local food is mainly limited to Mexican food and mostly everything else is chain restaurants. The city is VERY spread out and sprawling. Although entertainment areas downtown are getting better, the nightlife is spread out throughout the city. The Riverwalk is for tourists and the people that work there.
Tampa is definitely the better city. However the heat is a big factor to me and I like seasons, so I would personally pick San Antonio.
Honestly it really depends where you're at in SA. In the inner core minus Alamo Heights/Terrell Hills/Olmos Park and maybe some of the areas around Downtown now, it's definitely Hispanic dominated by a big margin. 1604-land is pretty diverse though, maybe not on the level of Houston but it's there for sure. Just the other night at an HEB in Stone Oak I heard an Asian family speaking Vietnamese if I had to guess, an Indian family speaking their native tongue, Mexican nationals speaking Spanish and then of course you'll see white/black/hispanic etc. Even at my old high school there was a few kids from Australia, sisters from Slovenia, Chinese kids, a few Nigerians, a Russian girl and a slew of people from Monterrey/Guadalajara, MX city.
The Medical Center has a pretty sizable Indian/Persian community. A lot of the East Asians are around Stone Oak/UTSA. Most of the diversity in general is spread out around the North Side though. North East suburbs have a large black community.
Lots of good food here besides chains too. Tons of new local stuff down by the Pearl/Southtown. There's an Ethiopian restaurant over by Elm Creek, a Caribbean spot over by Walzem and 410, lots of good Vietnamese places, a Russian market over by 410 and Callaghan, Ukranian and Afghan restaurants in Castle Hills, lots of middle eastern/indian places in the Med Center, Korean places by 410/Rittiman, lots of Chinese/Japanese, etc. Just gotta seek it out.
Overall though, it is really spread out which could be a con, but there's stuff here if you're willing to seek it out. If OP wants the beach though, Tampa is the obvious pick.
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