Opinions on moving to the Hampton Roads area

In My Humble Opinion
1

Last month, I applied for a job in Norfolk, VA. I’ve never been there. What do people in that region think of it for a relocation, given the following facts about both the job, and us:

The job is listed as “100% telework”, but there will probably be field trips involved. I’m not really sure how often I might need to go into the Norfolk office. It’s a Federal job with a grade increase that also pays relocation.

It’s just my wife and me; no kids, several pets. She’s disabled but can walk with a walker.

We’ve lived a lot of places… she prefers suburbs to city living. We’ve lived in the Cincinnati area and liked it, and Louisville and liked it. We didn’t care for New Hampshire (too isolated), or the Denver area (too expensive to live somewhere decent, awful traffic, not great food). We are currently in the Kansas City area, and it’s “meh”.

I’m hoping to retire in 10 years or so, and am hoping this next move is to a place suitable for retirement.

Our house budget is up to $300k.

If it turns out that I have to go to Norfolk once a month or less, we will also consider the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. I’ve been there and liked it. If someone is familiar with both areas, how do they compare?

Richmond, or its suburbs, is right out.

We don’t want to be super close to the ocean. We’d rather not be in an area that is going to have to be boarded up and abandoned for hurricanes, or will be underwater when ocean levels rise.

Finally, we like playing bar trivia, so would like to be within 45 minutes or so of places that have it.

Thanks to any responses we get! It’s even harder now to do this since we can’t just hop on a plane and visit for a weekend to help us decide. We may have to make the decision without ever having visited.

2

I was set to make some suggestions, but then I remembered I moved out of the Hampton Roads area in 1988, and even then I was on the Peninsula (Hampton/Newport News) side of the river. Though if you only have to be in Norfolk once every so often, being on the other side of the tunnel is no big deal. I used to get over to Virginia Beach frequently to play disc golf on a course over there.

It wasn’t a bad place to live then, and from what I’ve heard, it’s gotten better in many ways. But I’m thin on details, for obvious reasons. The area’s kinda flat, but judging from the location in your profile, you’re not likely to regard that as a problem. :slight_smile:

3

Yeah, I don’t have any objections to living north of the tunnel, at least until I know more about the job and the need to go to.Norfolk.

I have heard good things about the Williamsburg area.

4

The whole area S/E from Williamsburg is going to have a lot of traffic and a lot of people. Be sure you don’t move somewhere where you’d have to regularly go through the tunnels on I-64, those have frequent backups.

There should be plenty of bar trivia.

The whole area is a potential evacuation area for hurricanes. They have gates on I-64 so that all lanes can head West if need be.

5

We’re in the Washington DC area. I used to go there occasionally for business, and more recently would travel through there when we took our kids to summer camp on the Eastern Shore.

Traffic in general can be fairly bad down there. Not DC-area bad, usually, but it’s a large area that has seen more and more development over the past decades; the US Government is a major employer so they haven’t had the economic downturns etc.

You’ll find plenty of bars etc., I’m sure; I don’t know about trivia nights and the like.

As far as the Triangle area: We lived there for a while, but that was 30 years ago. It’s gotten built up a lot more since we moved. The roads used to be fairly bad (I used to have to drive from Chapel Hill out to RTP for work - before I-40 was built) but now that 40 has gone through, east and west destinations are more reachable. I don’t know what the route from there to Norfolk would be - probably not interstate the whole way, since Norfolk is well east of I-95.

With UNC (and those piddly wannabes in Durham and Raleigh :D) you’ll find plenty of interesting opportunities for outings.

6

BW3’s in Chesapeake, and AJ Gator’s in Fairfield in Virginia Beach have bar trivia last time I went there.

I love Hampton Roads. Great weather, though flooding is a bit of a concern. If you’re living in Norfolk, there can be some serious flooding below low underpasses when it rains really hard.

I’ve lived in Hampton Roads since '04, and have been rarely hit by super-bad weather. There was a tornado in Suffolk a year or so before I moved here, which devastated parts of the area near Obici Hospital. There was a hurricane that was a bit scary a few years ago, and a nor-easter that took out power to much of the area for about a week.

7

I spent time in the area as a child and loved it. Loved being so close to the beach. There is lots of suburban living around. Never had a hurricane in the 7 years I lived there. The Williamsburg area is very nice but touristy.

8

How are the hospitals in the area? How is Suffolk, specifically? (There’s a nice house for sale at the moment)

I may pick your brain if I have any other questions, if you don’t mind.

9

I’m envious! It’s so beautiful there. My family paid for us to stay in Williamsburg for a week at Christmas, and it was great even then. The history in that area will give you many opportunities for recreation once we’re allowed to do that.

I miss living near the ocean; I’ve been landlocked for the last 14 years, but I understand the apprehension about storms. Just remember, preparation is the key to survival.

I suspect that being near the Naval Station, there will be many bars with trivia and other activities.

10

Certainly!

Obici Hospital has always been very kind to us. My mother has recurring not-serious medical conditions that have necessitated occasional visits to the emergency room. The ER is currently in the middle of a remodeling and expansion that, I believe, will take two years.

Suffolk is a nice place to live, but downtown can get kinda noisy with trains coming and going at all hours of the night. I live in the rural area of Suffolk, near Franklin, and it’s very relaxing.

11

I used to live in Virginia Beach and we came to the Triangle area of NC in 2000. I have been back to see friends several times since then, and of course it’s gotten even more built up since we left. A lot of military folks decide to stay there after they retire.

Medical care here in the Triangle is much better than in the Hampton Roads area, IMO. We have two large and very well respected medical centers here, I’ve used both and have been much happier with both of them than I was with the choices when I was in Hampton Roads.

Since I live in the less populated area of the Triangle (about 15 miles north of Chapel Hill and I just drive into Chapel Hill for work), I don’t get into traffic issues much, but the traffic in Hampton Roads was always bad even back in 2000 - I had to drive from Virginia Beach into the Norfolk Naval Base every day and it was always a pain in the butt. Not DC bad, but not fun. Since the area relies on a series of bridges and tunnels to get to the various parts that make up the Hampton Roads area, potential for backups is pretty high.

It doesn’t sound like this issue will be a problem for you, but the opportunities for employment were, and probably still are, limited if you can’t do something the government or the military wants in Hampton Roads. If you don’t have skills that relate to those areas it is hard to find work. That’s why we left - my husband got out of the Navy and finding a job with good pay and benefits was very hard, so we moved when he got offered something decent here in NC, which was pretty easy.

Hampton Roads is a very pretty area, but there are some areas that are low-lying and are now being affected by climate change. The whole area is also a hurricane zone and evacuation, if it ever needs to be done on a grand scale, will be a nightmare due to the bridges and tunnels, because they are bottlenecks. It’s also adjacent to a swamp, so expect mosquitoes the size of Buicks. We used to cheer the mosquito truck when it came into the neighborhood!

I can’t speak for bar trivia, since I don’t do that, but the craft beer culture in both areas is really thriving and there’s a lot fun stuff going on in both places as a result of that. The Triangle has much better restaurants and a wider variety of food, though.

Traveling from our area to Hampton Roads is not easy - there is no direct interstate route, so you have to take state routes, and the area around Emporia, VA is a notorious speed trap. Set your cruise control to 56 mph and keep it there in the 55 mph zones.