Biggest Pluses To Sarasota Vs. Orlando?

[sware2cod]

Brucerby: If you like action packed city/highrise condo living, you really should consider Ft Lauderdale area..it is quite the fun city with lots of action and it is very, very nice. I think it matches what you are looking for much better than Orlando or Sarasota.

Also check out South Tampa. I know you visited Pinellas over the years, but did you visit South Tampa? It has really become quite the active area over the years.

[brucerby]

Originally Posted by sware2cod

Sarasota, in general, has a much older population than Orlando. Also Sarasota gets a large influx of retirees aka anowbirds that arrive Jan-Feb-Mar more or less. There are younger areas of Sarasota, mainly in the many newer subdivisions in Palmer Ranch area and Lakewood Ranch area, both outside of the downtown area.

Sarasota has some newer and some not-as-new mid-rise condos downtown which is not far from the beach but closer to Sarasota bay. However, the place is not action packed, especially in the summer. Retirees live in a lot of the not-so-new condos.

There are condo buildings on the beaches in Sarasota, and that might be something for you to evaluate. ........

Just wanted to say thanks to all the posters, and especially to Sware2Cod, for the great detailed reply. That is going to help me a lot!
...and I may check out Ft Lauderdale and DelRay Beach as well.

[jamesmars12]

Originally Posted by brucerby

The 20+ years coming here was mostly spent in Tampa and Clearwater....I had family there for many years and stayed with them. But made day or two trips to Orlando and down to Sarasota. So, I know Tampa/cw/and st pete very well, but came to realize I'd not want to live there.

If I was in Orlando, I'd want to live in a high rise in downtown. In Sarasota, close to the beach.
The only absolute is I want to be around a lot of people - all ages. I'm sensing cost-of-living is pretty close?

I know all these "whats the better place" questions can seem pointless, but I just have trouble evaluating big decisions.

Picking the best pizza, for comparison, is easy for me

20+ years visiting FL and never been to SoBe or miami?

[jamesmars12]

Originally Posted by sware2cod

Brucerby: If you like action packed city/highrise condo living, you really should consider Ft Lauderdale area..it is quite the fun city with lots of action and it is very, very nice. I think it matches what you are looking for much better than Orlando or Sarasota.

Also check out South Tampa. I know you visited Pinellas over the years, but did you visit South Tampa? It has really become quite the active area over the years.

South tampa is not active compared to Fort Lauderdale in 2012, but definitely a bit more active than pinellas for sure, there is only one "club" in south tampa called hyde park cafe. Only two whole foods market stores in the entire city of tampa, in the entire tampa bay area as a matter of fact...SE coast of FL has 9 whole food markets that should give you an idea in terms of development and how many people are in which areas.

Sarasota is an older crowd like Clearwater and tampa
Orlando is much younger with more 20 somethings and UCF, Valencia college students (UCF has the second largest student body of all the colleges in the U.S. around 58,600 students enrolled in 2011)
Fort Lauderdale and Delray for sure are the most lively out of the three area choices that are being thrown around in this thread- for a younger person the SE area of the state definitely blows away any other area of FL, only downside is that its hotter, 98 degrees pretty much all year however that means only a week of "winter aka 55-60 degrees" and beautiful warm sunshine all year long not to mention beautiful south floridian women if youre a single male (age doesnt matter if youre older and have the dough you can always be a sugar daddy to a 20-24 year old brunette barbie doll who looks like adriana lima lol actually not joking about that)
Hope you have/had the best of luck with your move

[Skunk Workz]

Originally Posted by jamesmars12

20+ years visiting FL and never been to SoBe or miami?

I lived in FL for 20+ years and have never been to South Beach, and have only been through Miami to the cruise port.