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Hello! I’m looking for an ideas for where to live with the following characteristics. For reference, I’ve lived in Anchorage AK and loved the hiking but it’s hard to travel to and from there to visit family (Midwest) or just go on vacation. I’ve lived in rural-ish Michigan and Detroit but the hiking is not super accessible there and we like to hike on a very regular basis. I do love lakes but haven’t found a liberal lake town in MI. Rural Michigan is way too republican for us. We’ve also lived in Missouri/Kansas but way too red for us and again not great hiking.
1. Hiking accessible for daily options. Doesn’t have to be giant mountains but we do like mountains.
2. Not super busy when you go to do outdoor activities. That’s what we loved about Anchorage-not huge crowds of people taking pictures of themselves “hiking” for insta everywhere you look like the trails I’ve been to in California for example.
3. Liberal. We want a very liberal town to raise our kids. Plus if it’s diverse in terms of culture, socioeconomic status but must be liberal.
4. Access to international airport for affordable/easy travel. We could drive a few hours for airport but huge plus if we don’t have to.
5. Access to at least some high quality food/restaurants.
6. Bonus points for not having crazy natural disasters…
Not looking to live in South or Southwest (we prefer green places and I have a phobia of roaches, scorpions).
Any ideas? Does such a place exist?
Last edited by Movinaround12; 01-29-2023 at 08:24 AM..
Northern Virginia near Dulles could work. If you don't mind driving an hour or so to the airport then you could also live in the MD suburbs of DC. Either area has a lot of nice hiking nearby. In DC there are a number of paths and parks, like Rock Creek Park. For mountains there's the Shenandoah in VA, Harpers Ferry and the Appalachian Trail, and the mountains in MD near Camp David, all easily under 2 hours away, with most an hour or less. There are also many battlefields to hike. The area is liberal and getting more so each year. Virginia state politics are purple of late, but MD is solid blue. As long as you live in the outer suburbs of DC, it can be somewhat affordable. Airport options all nearby would be Dulles, Baltimore/Washington, and Washington National.
The Portland Oregon area would be a great fit for you. Tons of hiking, very outdoorsy. Decently connected international airport. Very liberal.
If you want less crowds and don't mind driving < 2hrs to the airport, anywhere in the Willamette Valley is a wonderful option. E.g. check out Eugene, OR: small university city, very liberal, good eats, lots of hiking, beautiful river, about 1 hr to skiing or the coast.
Northern California would be good, just need to be far enough away from the Bay Area to avoid the day trippers.
I'm not sure, but for NorCal I suspect being within 2 hours of an international airport but not within day trip range of the Bay Area's ~8M people may be difficult.
I would also consider Bellingham, WA. About 1.5 hrs from Sea-Tac. Very liberal. Lots of hiking. Near Mt Baker (great skiing if you're into that, but also summer hiking, etc.)
For "easy / affordable" international travel, you may want one from the first / short list and maybe only a subsection of it, but it depends where you want to go (more Europe, Asia or elsewhere?) and your definitions of easy and affordable.
Wanting multiple desirable trailhead within 20 minutes will be less common than mostly 30-45 or 45-90 minutes out. If hiking is far more common than international travel, I'd emphasize this criteria over the other.
Upstate New York (what about Ithaca?), maybe spots in New Hampshire (Haverhill?), Portland (Hillsboro?) and Seattle (Issaquah?) areas would be leading options. Sacramento area might work (Davis)
You didn't say what size town, city or metro you prefer. That would be important to get right sized recommendations.
"Very liberal" is less common than liberal. Are you talking must be 70%plus vote Democratic for President in that town / city or whole region or state? Almost total one party rule at state level all the time? That is rarer than just specific 60% Dem. places. The specific places I mentioned above generally meet that very liberal criteria, but not Haverhill (just liberal).
Great questions. It’s hard to say what size town we want because we’d be open to almost anything if it met our criteria. We like smaller towns but want a liberal place that isn’t super far from an airport and has some dining options. We like bigger city food but don’t want trails to be overrun with people so… tough to say! We were looking at Asheville NC but idk if it’s too buggy
The PNW or Vermont are probably your best bet. Maybe Minnesota but I'm not sure how liberal the towns there are.
What about Colorado? Most of the mountain towns here are pretty liberal and green year round if not snow covered. Many are within 2 hours of Denver. They tend not to be that affordable though.
Hello! I’m looking for an ideas for where to live with the following characteristics. For reference, I’ve lived in Anchorage AK and loved the hiking but it’s hard to travel to and from there to visit family (Midwest) or just go on vacation. I’ve lived in rural-ish Michigan and Detroit but the hiking is not super accessible there and we like to hike on a very regular basis. I do love lakes but haven’t found a liberal lake town in MI. Rural Michigan is way too republican for us. We’ve also lived in Missouri/Kansas but way too red for us and again not great hiking.
1. Hiking accessible for daily options. Doesn’t have to be giant mountains but we do like mountains.
2. Not super busy when you go to do outdoor activities. That’s what we loved about Anchorage-not huge crowds of people taking pictures of themselves “hiking” for insta everywhere you look like the trails I’ve been to in California for example.
3. Liberal. We want a very liberal town to raise our kids. Plus if it’s diverse in terms of culture, socioeconomic status but must be liberal.
4. Access to international airport for affordable/easy travel. We could drive a few hours for airport but huge plus if we don’t have to.
5. Access to at least some high quality food/restaurants.
6. Bonus points for not having crazy natural disasters…
Not looking to live in South or Southwest (we prefer green places and I have a phobia of roaches, scorpions).
Any ideas? Does such a place exist?
As someone with similar criteria I have some suggestions I feel would work well for you. If you can get past the two-hour drive to a major airport Asheville NC is a great option. It's pretty much disaster-free and has a national caliber food scene.
While a bit more pricey, Boulder CO is another possibility.
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