Which VA cities do you recommend for living? (Virginia Beach, Norfolk: college, moving)

[valery.p]

I was considering moving out to Virginia (or the Carolinas) within the next 1-2 years. Based on the following things I would like in a city or town, what cities/towns would you recommend for me?
-A population of atleast 40,000-50,000.
-A drive (2-3 hours tops) to the beach.
-If it's a town, a drive (2-3 hours tops) to closest very major city.
-A large young population (people in low-high 20's.)
-Inexpensive living cost.
-Not pretentious/ filled with yuppies.
-Bike friendly.
-Live music/ bars.
-Lots of open land (mountains/rivers/etc.)
-And of course, friendly folk.

[richmondpics]

Richmond checks all of these boxes.

[Deluusions]

Lynchburg or Richmond. Good luck!

[spencer114]

Lynchburg, Harrisonburg, Winchester, Roanoke, and Richmond.

Richmond has surprisingly good mountain biking and lots of biking in the city (a city bike share program kicks off with 300 bikes later this year). There is live music 364 days a year and pretty big music festivals.
There is a robust bar scene and 11 breweries in town (with more on the way). There are 3-4 wineries within a 30 minute drive too (and hundreds more throughout the state). The James River is an amazing resource (great for swimming, boating, fishing, drinking, sketching, painting, bird watching). The city is pretty hip. The suburbs are pretty yuppie and wealthy but overall filled with friendly people and interesting things to do. The beach is 2 hours away (Chesapeake 1 1/2 hours). The mountains are 1 1/2 hours away. Washington is 2 hours away (less if you drive at night). There are roughly 80,000 college students in the metro area (most in the downtown area) so there are lots of 20'somethings.

Norfolk is cool too. The downtown area is very nice and bike friendly. They have the breweries and music venues too. Again, there are lots of college age people downtown and throughout the Tidewater metro.

Richmond and Norfolk may be bigger than you are looking for but both offer a pretty "cool" lifestyle (good balance of work and play).

[Flamingo13]

Lynchburg isn't a hot bed of live music/bars - in fact, lots of places close EARLY.

[cam4vt]

Originally Posted by Flamingo13

Lynchburg isn't a hot bed of live music/bars - in fact, lots of places close EARLY.

Lynchburg is a great town all around, but I would have to agree. Richmond and Norfolk are light years ahead of lynchburg in the regard of live music/bars. (If that is enough to sway you one way or the other.) Roanoke has more live music and festivals these days then lynchburg. Bars too, but I still think Roanoke is lagging behind the two first mentioned.. However, if mountain biking and the outdoors are more important than the night life then IMO Roanoke and Lynchburg have the upper hand. Its all dependent on what is most important.

[Panu16]

Norfolk, VA.

[sregorat3]

Originally Posted by Flamingo13

Lynchburg isn't a hot bed of live music/bars - in fact, lots of places close EARLY.

Early as in 10 or 11PM? I'd look into any of the larger municipalities west of Richmond and see how you like them. Lynchburg and Roanoke trump all others in outdoor activity, but if you want to live an a larger city that has everything- just about- Richmond would be a great choice.

[gomason]

Lynchburg, Harrisonburg, Winchester, and Roanoke are no where near the beach and have very few young people.

I would recommend Richmond or Virginia Beach itself.

[SteelCityRising]

My first thought was Winchester until I saw the requirement to be 2-3 hours maximum from the beach. As such I'd probably have to give the nod to Richmond as being the ideal city in Virginia that meets the most desired criteria.