Thriving tourist towns (Charlottesville, Staunton, Culpeper: living in, shop, move to)

[kyle19125]

I posted this in the general Virginia forum but it doesn't appear to have much traffic.

I'm considering a move to Virginia and was hoping to hear about some more affordable smaller towns (outside of NoVA) with thriving walkable downtown shopping areas. I'm somewhat familiar with many of the towns in the state having explored through day trips while living in DC (in the 90s) but I'm not up to date on what's happening nearly 20 years later. I seem to recall Culpeper being a nice town with a downtown area that was growing a bit and would somewhat model my choices around it. I should also mention I plan to open a small specialty shop and want that much desired walkable, shopping destination-type downtown. Thanks!

[pantin23]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

I posted this in the general Virginia forum but it doesn't appear to have much traffic.

I'm considering a move to Virginia and was hoping to hear about some more affordable smaller towns (outside of NoVA) with thriving walkable downtown shopping areas. I'm somewhat familiar with many of the towns in the state having explored through day trips while living in DC (in the 90s) but I'm not up to date on what's happening nearly 20 years later. I seem to recall Culpeper being a nice town with a downtown area that was growing a bit and would somewhat model my choices around it. I should also mention I plan to open a small specialty shop and want that much desired walkable, shopping destination-type downtown. Thanks!

Staunton or Charlottesville should fit perfectly