# Paradise on Earth **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 14, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352 "2018-09-14T18:45:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/21 "2018-09-15T15:10:14Z")
> [@senoy](#): > > Cartagena Colombia. Really, that whole Caribbean coast south of Baranquilla is storm and earthquake resistant. Asking out of ignorance, isn’t Cartagena a dangerous drug city? ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2018, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/22 "2018-09-15T18:04:04Z")
The concept of paradise is subjective. I hate the heat. To me an an ideal place would have a cool and dry climate year round. I wouldn’t mind if the winters are extremely cold, as long there wasn’t excessive amounts of snow and freezing rain to deal with. I currently live in New Hampshire which really doesn’t fit the description above; I don’t think there is any place in the United States that does. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/23 "2018-09-15T21:19:49Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I have lived in CA all my life. I have lost power for three days and a couple knick-knacks walked off shelves and broke. That’s it for 60 years. May I point out that 63 people died in that quake, another 4,000 or so were injured, and $6 billion in damage resulted. I’d say that it’s a bit ridiculous to try and write off that quake as having had little or no effect, even if all that you experienced were some broken knick-knacks. My house in Watsonville suffered damage, including a hole in the spanish tile roof that we didn’t find out about until next February, when it rained. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/24 "2018-09-16T02:07:06Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > Mangosteen wins. Agreed. Th rest of us can only argue about places nearly as nice as Hawaii. ---
**Author:** ![Dickerman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@Dickerman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dickerman)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/25 "2018-09-16T03:51:06Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > [sup]2[/sup]As a lifelong East Coaster, I may have a slightly exaggerated impression of California earthquake problems. How dangerous is it actually? Is California the paradise on earth I’m looking for after all? "California is a garden of Eden, It’s a paradise to live in or see. But believe it or not, You won’t find it so hot, If you ain’t got the do-re-mi.’ - W. Guthrie ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/26 "2018-09-16T04:04:05Z")
Small world, DSYoung. I was going to high school just over the hill from you when Loma Prieta hit. Watsonville was one of our rivals. Weird seeing the ground ripple… I thought Coastal California was supposed to have the most idyllic existence outside of Hawaii for aboriginal peoples in the continental US? I think Mangosteen wins. Lottery dream is to have a house on the Northern Kauai coast. Beats the hell out of Houston weather. I recall reading awhile ago, in something like Harpers, that Hobbs, NM won for having the lowest chance of natural disaster for things like a data center. I think they get a bit of snow, though. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/27 "2018-09-16T04:20:26Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Asking out of ignorance, isn’t Cartagena a dangerous drug city? No, not really. The Caribbean coast of Colombia might be where some smuggling ships embark from, but Cartagena is hardly a “drug city” in the way that Medellin was in the early 90s. The northern coast is mostly unaffected by the kind of drug crime that would impinge upon the average person. However, I question whether it’s really a “nice climate.” I lived in Barranquilla once, and I’d say most of the year is like living in a steam room. (It helps to have a job where there’s air-conditioning.) I still go back a lot, and when there, I just have to expect to have a lot of energy sapped away by the heat. It’s one thing if you’re just sitting on the beach all day, but every-day activities of life can be a lot more tiring when you’re out on the street getting around. ---
**Author:** ![blob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blob/32/489_2.png) [@blob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blob)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/28 "2018-09-16T04:26:43Z")
If you’re talking natural-disaster-free, here is pretty good. If you like the beach, we’ve got beach. You don’t have to go far to be in bushfire-prone areas, though. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/29 "2018-09-16T05:52:18Z")
I’m with Mangosteen on Hawaii. My house on Oahu is nice and up the hill a bit but this island is too crowded with tourists AND locals. I’d pick Maui, especially near the Kula/Pukalani area. You’re 1500 -2000 ft. up with a great view of isthmus between East and West Maui. You overlook the coast/beaches/resorts from Kihei to Wailea. To your back is the great volcano (and mostly dormant) Haleakala. Peak is at 10,000 ft. Crafts and artists abound. Craft beer, a winery, lavender farms, music, horses, seafood, Maui sweet onions. Depending on your altitude, you might need one of your old sweatshirts and a mug of hot chocolate (optional additions - I’m talking whipped cream; not booze;) ) in the evening. Dryer up there but still plenty of overnight showers. Here is the google map centered on Kula. In satellite view, you’re still in the green vegetation area above the rain shadow. https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=20.7168977,-156.4211116&z=10&output=embed&dg=ntvb&q=Kula,%2BHI%2B96790 ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/30 "2018-09-16T08:29:34Z")
In Australia, I’d go the east coast between [Noosa Heads](https://www.google.com/search?q=noosa+heads&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab) in Qld down to [Byron Bay](https://www.google.com/search?q=byron+bay&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab) in northern NSW. Just exclude the bits in between. You have a sub-tropical climate, gorgeous coastline and hinterlands, and fabulous swimming beaches. The lifestyle is pretty damned sweet. Just hope you have $1millon + to buy somewhere to live. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/31 "2018-09-16T08:44:45Z")
It’s called the Island of Sri Lanka. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/32 "2018-09-16T09:04:20Z")
Australia has no volcanoes , and earthquakes are must less likely. Can’t say immune but frequency of any one strength is much reduced. So tsunami is much reduced, but not totally zero chance. Queensland, Australia can get hit by floods. Brisbane’s CBD can be wiped out as its on a river that canbe flooded by tropical cyclone (aka hurricane, typhoon) or monsoon type rain events. But Newcastle and south around to Adelaide, no such risks. WA has a higher chance of earthquake,but otherwise much the same… very far, from tsunami generating earthquake zones. There are still the possible East Coast low, which is not quite as strong as a tropical cyclone, but its still a gale and lots of rain, and there’s thunderstorms with their hail and short lived whirls. (Which is like a tornado at ground level. As you know, tornadoes really start high up … if the swirl starts down low, it doesn’t develop the long lived tornado ) Large parts of africa would have low chance of earthquake or tropical cyclone. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/33 "2018-09-16T09:21:43Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > The concept of paradise is subjective. I hate the heat. To me an an ideal place would have a cool and dry climate year round. I wouldn’t mind if the winters are extremely cold, as long there wasn’t excessive amounts of snow and freezing rain to deal with. I currently live in New Hampshire which really doesn’t fit the description above; I don’t think there is any place in the United States that does. This. The closest place in the US with what _I_ consider a moderately cool and dry climate year round is San Francisco but there’s the whole earthquake thing from the OP. Every other place I can think of in America is either too wet, or gets too cold, or too hot, or both! I think a lot of coastal Europe fits the bill for me, but probably not the Mediterranean which probably gets too hot (I’ve never been there so I wouldn’t know.) ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/34 "2018-09-16T12:25:08Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > The concept of paradise is subjective. I hate the heat. To me an an ideal place would have a cool and dry climate year round. I wouldn’t mind if the winters are extremely cold, as long there wasn’t excessive amounts of snow and freezing rain to deal with. I currently live in New Hampshire which really doesn’t fit the description above; I don’t think there is any place in the United States that does. Yeah, this is the right answer. Paradise is an entirely relative term. My mom - with literally all the options in the world - retired to rural northeastern Wyoming, having first tried the Black Hills. It snows there in August. That’s ludicrous. But she appears happy as a clam. She’s left alone to live her life and that’s what she wants. That and to probably grow weed. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/35 "2018-09-16T21:28:58Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > May I point out that 63 people died in that quake, another 4,000 or so were injured, and $6 billion in damage resulted. I’d say that it’s a bit ridiculous to try and write off that quake as having had little or no effect, even if all that you experienced were some broken knick-knacks. > > My house in Watsonville suffered damage, including a hole in the spanish tile roof that we didn’t find out about until next February, when it rained. ☹ Sure. But I was in San Jose. And I have lived thru 60 years of CA earthquakes and that’s my total damage. Hurricanes kill about 20 people _a year ,_ lightning 55, tornadoes 70, etc etc. Earthquakes in CA have killed less than 200 Californians in that last 60 years, or about 3 people a year. You are nearly 20 times more likely to be hit by lightning than killed in a CA earthquake. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/36 "2018-09-16T21:31:23Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > I’m with Mangosteen on Hawaii. I will point out that Hawaii also has deadly earthquakes. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/37 "2018-09-16T22:58:12Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > The concept of paradise is subjective. I hate the heat. To me an an ideal place would have a cool and dry climate year round. I wouldn’t mind if the winters are extremely cold, as long there wasn’t excessive amounts of snow and freezing rain to deal with. I currently live in New Hampshire which really doesn’t fit the description above; I don’t think there is any place in the United States that does. > [@Ludovic](#): > > This. The closest place in the US with what _I_ consider a moderately cool and dry climate year round is San Francisco but there’s the whole earthquake thing from the OP. Every other place I can think of in America is either too wet, or gets too cold, or too hot, or both! > [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Yeah, this is the right answer. Paradise is an entirely relative term. My mom - with literally all the options in the world - retired to rural northeastern Wyoming, having first tried the Black Hills. It snows there in August. That’s ludicrous. But she appears happy as a clam. She’s left alone to live her life and that’s what she wants. That and to probably grow weed. Precisely. That’s why I specified _my_ definition of a perfect climate in the OP. I hate hate hate hate _hate hate **hate HATE** _ winter. Just in case you were wondering. ---
**Author:** ![Sloe\_Moe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sloe\_Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sloe_Moe)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/38 "2018-09-16T23:22:10Z")
Brazil has one of the most stable climates in the world, with abundant rainfall in most parts. Nice, if you can stand piranhas, anacondas, confederates, and God-awful congestion in the cities. ---
**Author:** ![Section\_Maker\_Jupe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/section_maker_jupe/32/1424_2.png) [@Section\_Maker\_Jupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Section_Maker_Jupe)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/39 "2018-09-16T23:23:10Z")
North of Hilo did well with the recent lava over there, and the multiple hurricanes, but south of Hilo not so much. Storms could get bigger and slower too, with the climate heating up. And that is some strong sun in the tropics!!! I thought Santa Barbara/Montecito was pretty good, still do…but debris flows went through my neighborhood like a giant garden rake…:eek: after the fires luckily didnt burn the whole town down… so its probably good here for another 100 years. (if they let the fires burn) On my low income, it would be trailer park for me, in the desert or somewhere cheap, so living in this nutso rich community I get to share the weather wealth. And waves.😃 ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352/40 "2018-09-16T23:58:00Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I will point out that Hawaii also has deadly earthquakes. Nothing much on Kauai, Maui or Oahu. Big Island sure. Of course, someday before our sun goes nova, the islands will collapse into the sea.:eek:😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paradise-on-earth/821352.md?page=3)