Rock Hall vs Tilghman Island (Baltimore, Dundalk: to rent, new home, college)

[BmoretoAsheville]

My wife and I are still young (upper 30s) but want to plant roots in a water oriented community on the Eastern Shore. We’ll be semi-retired in a few years so jobs aren’t an issue, but we’d love opportunities to volunteer and become a helpful part of wherever we plant roots.

Which community would you want to be your home and why?

Things like the sense of community, opportunities for outdoor recreation, festivals, the county government and ease to build your own home, taxes, crime, noise, places to eat- really anything you can think of. Make your case for one over the other.

Thank you for your input! My wife and I each have some pros and cons but would love to hear what others think.

[MidValleyDad]

I have good friends that have moved to Rock Hall and love it. RH has the advantage of being close to Chestertown which being a college town does bring some variety to the area. Just remember that you are at the end of 'civilization' and it can take a while to get to shopping, medical facilities, etc. By the way when you are in Rock Hall your GPS will tell you that there is a Walmart 9 miles away and it will take you 2 hours and 45 minutes to get there! (it is across the bay in Dundalk)

[DaveinMtAiry]

I was going to echo the same post about Rock Hall. I too have friends who moved to Rock Hall and absolutely love it. It is way too remote for me for full time life but it's a fantastic place to have a friend for weekend visits. She describes it as like being on vacation full time. Access to Chestertown as mentioned was the key, it's certainly closer than Tilghman is to Easton and offers a lot more dining options. Let's face it remote waterfront towns tend to offer seafood restaurants, a diner, and then more seafood restaurants. OP mentioned eating options and I would think Tilghman would be very limiting where Rock Hall has Chestertown 15 minutes away.

Don't forget to consider medical care. Anything serious and you are a quick chopper ride to Baltimore Shock Trauma.

[North Beach Person]

All I really have to add is that if you're used to, and thrive on, city "dynamics" (whatever that means to you) then neither place is really going to match that.

Both are still small towns (although Tilghman's technically isn't a town) where this generation of the same families living in the same houses their great grandparents did.

For someone who is semi-retired in their 40s that may not be what you want.

[BmoretoAsheville]

We’ve had our fair share of the city life. We plan on using our new home as a place to recharge. We plan on traveling 1-3 months out of the year, so a quiet place that doesn’t have too much is perfectly fine. A bonus would being able to rent our house on Airbnb and VRBO while we are gone.

[MidValleyDad]

Are you really into water activities? Would you want to have a boat or kayaks, spend time on the water, go goose and duck hunting, fishing, crabbing? Enjoy talking about these things? If you don't enjoy these things on at least a casual, regular basis you may want to expand your search to non 'end of the peninsula' towns. If you plan on traveling and will be flying out, remember that it will take you 2+ hours to get to a major airport. I'm not a 'water person' I prefer being in the hill country of Frederick County. We have quaint shops, plenty of history and 'culture' but are more centrally located for the mundane parts of 'real life' that we all have to worry about.

[island_maryland]

Originally Posted by BmoretoAsheville

My wife and I are still young (upper 30s) but want to plant roots in a water oriented community on the Eastern Shore. We’ll be semi-retired in a few years so jobs aren’t an issue, but we’d love opportunities to volunteer and become a helpful part of wherever we plant roots.

Which community would you want to be your home and why?

Things like the sense of community, opportunities for outdoor recreation, festivals, the county government and ease to build your own home, taxes, crime, noise, places to eat- really anything you can think of. Make your case for one over the other.

Thank you for your input! My wife and I each have some pros and cons but would love to hear what others think.

I would not move to either place. We love to visit Rock Hall by boat, but I would not want to live there, it is a very small town WAY down a peninsula with one way out. When the boaters are not there in season there is not much going on at all.
Tilghman Island is not even really a town. Outside of watermen that have lived there for generations and a few restaurants, not much going on there either.
I would be looking at:
Easton
Saint Michaels
Oxford*
Cambridge
Chestertown


* if you are under 80 years old you will feel like the youngest person there LOL