mainly for who (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Cape Coral: rental car, rental, condo)

[ketanco]

Hello,
I am considering moving to FL and will have a job interview soon with a firm in Punta Gorda. I am 40 year old single male, engineer. I sometimes like to go to cafes, cinema, night clubs etc too...
I checked out the photos a little on internet and seems like it is all made of single story homes near waterfront, and nothing else. I have the following questions:

1-Is this area mainly for old people or settled families?
2-Is there a means of public transport between Miami airport and here? I checked Google maps and it says it doesnt exist, even with Fort Myers. Well I live alone, nobody to drop me off to airport or pick me up, how will I get to airport, I can not park my car to airport when I am gone long time.
3-If I were to accept this job, do you recommend I move to Fort Myers or even south? If so where? I mean which areas to avoid at least, as far as nasty areas...
4-If you do not have a car in Punta Gorda or Fort Myers area, you are like dead in the water correct? No public transport? I ask because I will be returning to states after very long vacation and had sold my car before leaving.

[mr&mrssunshine]

1. yes
2. no...best bet is rent a car one way, why do you need Miami particularly ?
3. Fort Myers is a bigger city with (in my opinion) all the downsides, more crime etc . I would look slightly north maybe to North Port which is upcoming and younger. It will depend on your budget. Port Charlotte is the closest town...........not great.
4. yes a car is a must. or else get fit and ride a bicycle !!

[SeaRay35]

SWFL=no public transportation. Unless Uber would do this trip.

[Restrain]

1. Yes
2. Drive, no transit. This NOT the northeast with intensive mass transit.
3. If you are single, get a condo on the harbor. You are 30 minutes from Cape Coral which has plenty of clubs downtown.
4. Get a car. Billy Fucillo will be glad to make you a HUGE deal on a Kia.

[ketanco]

Originally Posted by mr&mrssunshine

1. yes
2. no...best bet is rent a car one way, why do you need Miami particularly ?
3. Fort Myers is a bigger city with (in my opinion) all the downsides, more crime etc . I would look slightly north maybe to North Port which is upcoming and younger. It will depend on your budget. Port Charlotte is the closest town...........not great.
4. yes a car is a must. or else get fit and ride a bicycle !!

thanks, i need miami because i travel overseas often and most international flights from miami

well i am willing to travel one way up to 100 miles, as i can sometimes work from home and may not go to office 5 days a week... which can bring me to tampa area too... so then the question is, between punta gorda and tampa, which other areas can you recommend, for a single professional and outgoing person like myself, such as the North Porth you just mentioned ?

[vacoder]

For night life Sarasota. Definitely not North Port. Punta Gorda will have more of that than NP.

[Messing About]

Punta Gorda is a great place with a wonderful small town feel and unmatched outdoor recreation.
There's just enough pubs and eateries for you to have a fulfilling social life.
There's very, very, very low crime.

I spent 9 years living and working in the area; regularly commuting the 100 miles to TPA for flights when I couldn't get them out of RSW. I was 42 when I got there and 51 when I left. (Family commitments took me back to AZ recently).

Hands down, in my opinion, PG beats FM, Sarasota and Miami. If you don't think you'd appreciate outdoor living, then not so much.

[sware2cod]

Fort Myers or Cape Coral or Punta Gorda are the best locations for you to live, IMO. They are all nice. North Port is too small town for what you are looking for and Sarasota is too darn far of a commute if you will be working in Punta Gorda.

Ditto about renting a car one way to to/from Miami airport. Enterprise rental car is located in most towns can can pick you up at home when you get the rental car. They take you to their enterprise office and you fill out the paperwork and get the car. Drop off/pickup of the rental car at the airport is easy.

On the return trip to your home, when you drop the car off at the Enterprise location, they will drive you off from the car rental office as a free courtesy. But you have to ensure you drop off the car when they are open. So you might have to keep the car until they are open.

Some other car rental companies might also offer this drop off/pickup service but I don't recall which.

There are some airport shuttle services that will take you to the Miami airport from SW FL but it could get pricey.

Here is a list of taxi/limo/bus/shuttle services that cover the Miami airport. You can contact some of them to check whether they can come out ot Fort Myers/Punta Gorda area and what it costs. This list is huge - I got it from the Miami Aiport web site

http://www.miami-airport.com/pdfdoc/Limodbv2.pdf

[kyjake39]

One might be able to get a connecting flight out of the Punta Gorda airport to many destinations.Nice airport for such a small town

[MartyGras]

I also travel outside of the country quite often and the only option is the drive to either Miami or Fort Lauderdale both about 2 1/2 hours.... The drive is not really that bad because there's no traffic and all high-speed.

I've looked at all the options to fly out of Punta Gorda or Fort Myers and in addition to being very expensive they really don't save any time and would more often than not having you flying in the wrong direction to make a connection.

It sure would be nice if American Airlines a her twice daily flight between Fort Myers and Miami

Gary