Looking for Family Friendly Neighborhood in Sarasota area (Bee Ridge, Hampton: for rent, waterpark)

[RIMomof4]

We are hoping to relocate to the Sarasota area from dreary RI. We have 4 children ages 4 - 15 and are looking for a family friendly area with good schools. Coming from a small town in the smallest state, I am overwhelmed with the large cities and am having a hard time zeroing in on one or 2 areas to consider. We would love to live near the beach, in an area with lots to offer in terms of family activities but with a small town feel. Any suggestions??

[SoFLGal]

I'm gonna try to reply from my Droid and see how it goes. You might want to look at turtle rock in palmer ranch. I personally know eight families that live in there. I had a client a few months back the wanted me to find out how many kids lived in turtle rock and attend line view school. I called the hoa and the lady I spoke with said there are several bus loads of kids that get off I'm turtle rock and many attend pine view school. You might also want to look into deer creek and the hamptons as well. They are all located about 10-15 mins from siesta beach, right next to the uncanny with waterpark, the mall, etc. You can look at my blogs on this website to get more information about palmer ranch. Another idea is downtown sarasota, which is a personal favorite of mine but is not gated.

Good luck with your search!

It's supposed to say ymca waterpark and pine view school. It wouldnt let me edit the above text.

[jnanner]

send all the families to Rivendell so we have someone to play with!!

[SoFLGal]

Oh yeah rivendell is an excellent choice as well. Tons of pine view families because it back up to the school. I think I spend half of my life in those two communities shuttling my kids back and forth to friends houses. Another community we spend quite a lot of time in with the kids is serenoa. My middle daughters best friend lives there as well as many of her other friends.

[Rushmore]

Originally Posted by SoFLGal

I'm gonna try to reply from my Droid and see how it goes. You might want to look at turtle rock in palmer ranch. I personally know eight families that live in there. I had a client a few months back the wanted me to find out how many kids lived in turtle rock and attend line view school. I called the hoa and the lady I spoke with said there are several bus loads of kids that get off I'm turtle rock and many attend pine view school. You might also want to look into deer creek and the hamptons as well. They are all located about 10-15 mins from siesta beach, right next to the uncanny with waterpark, the mall, etc. You can look at my blogs on this website to get more information about palmer ranch. Another idea is downtown sarasota, which is a personal favorite of mine but is not gated.

Good luck with your search!

It's supposed to say ymca waterpark and pine view school. It wouldnt let me edit the above text.

We live in The Hamptons I and see a fair number of kids around. They're not hellions either. There seem to be some nice stable families here. The school bus picks up at the pool/clubhouse every morning. I know there are a lot of families behind the gate as well.

When I was shopping for our house, I also saw a fair number of families with children in Deer Creek.

[culturedmom]

I'm sorry I ahve to diagree a bit about Turtle Rock. I have lived in Turtle Rock a year and I don't find Turtle Rock to be family friendly at all. Well, maybe that is a bit harsh, but there are hardly any young kids in my area at all and for such a large community, to be deamed family-friendly I think it ought to have much more families then it does. It's one reason we have no qualms about moving. My daughter has 2 friends from school who live in Turtle Rock, but they are way at the other end (the North end) so it makes no difference cause that is just as far as going to another community. I think if you are goign to live in Turtle Rock and kid friendly is an issue, you need to be more specific about where and do research on the specific house. To just say if I move to Turtle Rock my kids will have friends to play with is not a safe bet at all. I am a boy and girl scout leader and volunteer a lot in the school and I only know of 3 of my kids friends who live in Turtle Rock and they all live at the opposite end to us, which might as well be another town since the North Gate is so far from the South.

I think you shoud start with what school you are interested in your kids going to and work from there. For example, there are little ungated communities around Ashton that have many more kids.

[jnanner]

Originally Posted by culturedmom

I'm sorry I ahve to diagree a bit about Turtle Rock. I have lived in Turtle Rock a year and I don't find Turtle Rock to be family friendly at all. Well, maybe that is a bit harsh, but there are hardly any young kids in my area at all and for such a large community, to be deamed family-friendly I think it ought to have much more families then it does. It's one reason we have no qualms about moving. My daughter has 2 friends from school who live in Turtle Rock, but they are way at the other end (the North end) so it makes no difference cause that is just as far as going to another community. I think if you are goign to live in Turtle Rock and kid friendly is an issue, you need to be more specific about where and do research on the specific house. To just say if I move to Turtle Rock my kids will have friends to play with is not a safe bet at all. I am a boy and girl scout leader and volunteer a lot in the school and I only know of 3 of my kids friends who live in Turtle Rock and they all live at the opposite end to us, which might as well be another town since the North Gate is so far from the South.

I think you shoud start with what school you are interested in your kids going to and work from there. For example, there are little ungated communities around Ashton that have many more kids.

Yeah, every realtor i spoke to said the same thing about Turtle Rock being so great for families and kids but...maybe that's it. Maybe there aren't so many kids around in general and that *is* kid friendly for Palmer Ranch??

i really hope Rivendell works out for us but, well - we are only renting. Fingers crossed X X

[beachymom]

There really is no guarantee anywhere about living around families. You can live on one side of a neighborhood and hardly see any kids, then on the other side of the same neighborhood you see them all over.

We are coming here without any expectations since our old neighborhood was extremely family friendly. Get togethers all the time, night drinks on the patio, book clubs, rib-off's, poker nights, girls night out, etc. It was crazy with everything. I plan on volunteering alot at school and I hope to meet other families that way through our children.

[beachymom]

Originally Posted by RIMomof4

We are hoping to relocate to the Sarasota area from dreary RI. We have 4 children ages 4 - 15 and are looking for a family friendly area with good schools. Coming from a small town in the smallest state, I am overwhelmed with the large cities and am having a hard time zeroing in on one or 2 areas to coon nsider. We would love to live near the beach, in an area with lots to offer in terms of family activities but with a small town feel. Any suggestions??

We also have 4 children and just made the move a few days ago and I was concerned about the same thing. We focused on the Palmer Ranch area since the schools are great and it is a newer community and just gorgeous. I think if you steer clear of the neighborhoods with golf courses, you will find something family friendly. I have heard that Deer Creek was 'so' family friendly, yet they have a rule where you cannot leave a car in the driveway. Most of the homes are 2 car garages, so how is one suppose to store their bikes and such if they have 2 cars? Also, we have a son that will be getting his license soon and we wouldn't be able to get him a car. We ended up in the Hamptons and we will see how family friendly it is. But the kids are loving it so far, from the pool to Legacy Trail. It's so pretty. Good luck!

[JesseS]

We just bought a house in Emerald Gardens. Which is near Bee Ridge and Honore. We had rented a house for two years in EG before buying. WE LOVE IT!!! TONS of kids of all ages! Great people, SAFE! We LOVEit!! And the house we rented is a 4/3 and is now up for rent. And would love if we could have more families move in!