St Pete, Pensacola (Gulf Breeze) or Ft. Myers? (Tampa, Clearwater: homeowners insurance, house)

[Susannah Noll]

Early 30s Chattanooga couple seeking advice on a possible transfer. No kids, schools are not a factor.
Between the 3, which would you choose? Things we take into account: the least "sprawl" possible, traffic, VARIETY in restaurants (needs to be plenty of rest.)!!, entertainment (shopping, walking), the locals, housing insurance and property taxes.

Note that we have not been to Ft. Myers but it is on our "to-go" list.

Please feel free to answer if you live there or have visited all places. Remeber, which would you rather live not visit

Many thanks everyone

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by Susannah Noll

Early 30s Chattanooga couple seeking advice on a possible transfer. No kids, schools are not a factor.
Between the 3, which would you choose? Things we take into account: the least "sprawl" possible, traffic, VARIETY in restaurants (needs to be plenty of rest.)!!, entertainment (shopping, walking), the locals, housing insurance and property taxes.

Note that we have not been to Ft. Myers but it is on our "to-go" list.

Please feel free to answer if you live there or have visited all places. Remeber, which would you rather live not visit

Many thanks everyone

I would say easily St Pete. It's much larger than the other two and has so much more to offer. I find the people largely quite friendly and laidback as well. Surprising St Pete

[sportsterjohn]

I am in Atlanta and lived in St. Pete for a year. I am not a fan of Pensicola but I loved living in St. Pete (and will be returning shortly). St. Pete has a happening little downtown has 20 miles+ of gulf beaches in the area as well as the bay. Think of downtown St Pete as the riverwalk area with palm trees. Always something going on down there. I have lived in about 15 different cities and St. Pete is tied for my favorite. (Charleston SC is the other).

[Susannah Noll]

Charleston is awesome! Pricy, but just so cool. We always hear about Ft. Myers and thought, well heck we should check it out before we decide. The pics look stunning. I did notice tho that Ft. Myers has a major airport, so that made me think for sure it was a somewhat big city--or rather a place with bigger city amenities.

I know St. Pete has an airport that is equivalent to ours, but of coarse you could drive to Tampa to the major one.

[gulfer]

The one knock I have always heard from people on FT Meyers was that is so slow. Lot's of retirees down there. Being in your 30's, may want to take that into account.

[071402]

Originally Posted by Susannah Noll

Early 30s Chattanooga couple seeking advice on a possible transfer. No kids, schools are not a factor.
Between the 3, which would you choose? Things we take into account: the least "sprawl" possible, traffic, VARIETY in restaurants (needs to be plenty of rest.)!!, entertainment (shopping, walking), the locals, housing insurance and property taxes.

Note that we have not been to Ft. Myers but it is on our "to-go" list.

Please feel free to answer if you live there or have visited all places. Remeber, which would you rather live not visit

Many thanks everyone

St Pete. check it out. We LOVE love it.

[tonyff67]

Originally Posted by Susannah Noll

Charleston is awesome! Pricy, but just so cool. We always hear about Ft. Myers and thought, well heck we should check it out before we decide. The pics look stunning. I did notice tho that Ft. Myers has a major airport, so that made me think for sure it was a somewhat big city--or rather a place with bigger city amenities.

I know St. Pete has an airport that is equivalent to ours, but of coarse you could drive to Tampa to the major one.

I lived in Ft Myers for 7 years. The list of negatives is entirely too long, so I will list the positives it has over the St Pete area.

1). When Florida gets cold fronts, Ft Myers will be 5 to 10 degrees warmer!

END OF LIST!

[BBI]

We're early 30s, married w/o kids and live in St. Pete. I'd caution you that the whole county is sprawl. There's basically no open space here; this is the most densely populated county in Florida, and it's nearly all single family homes on postage-stamp-sized lots. St. Pete proper is laid out like a grid, so traffic isn't an issue in town most of the time, but traffic can be bad outside of St. Pete proper (and you may need to leave town for work). Homeowners insurance is expensive (we pay 3 times as much as we did in PA and our house here is cheaper), but probably not more expensive than in Pensacola or Ft. Myers. So those are the negatives.

We love it here, though. We live in the Old Northeast neighborhood, walkable to downtown. Lots of retaurant and entertainment variety downtown; festivals many weekends. Excellent use of the bay here in town (park system runs along the bay from downtown through my neighborhood), which really sets St. Pete apart from most other coastal towns its size I've visited (I've never been to Pensacola or Ft. Myers, though). Really great mix of neighbors here. 15 minute drive to excellent beaches on the gulf. Very laid back "beach vacation" sort of vibe in town. And, unlike the other towns I've visited on the west coast (Sarasota, Venice, etc.), enough people our age live here full time that it's easy to make friends.

FYI on airports, the St. Pete-Clearwater airport is small and offers limited flights. Could end up working for you, but most of us use the airport in Tampa 99% of the time. It's only a 25 minute drive from downtown St. Pete to the Tampa airport parking garage, so no biggie.

[Susannah Noll]

Thanks everyone. This is great