# What's the best place in the world to live? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 22, 2014, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-place-in-the-world-to-live/691344 "2014-06-22T02:55:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-place-in-the-world-to-live/691344/61 "2014-06-24T16:08:23Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > \*\*What’s the best place in the world to live? \*\* > > Lake Tahoe. Nevada side. Waves…I neighbor:cool: ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-place-in-the-world-to-live/691344/62 "2014-06-25T03:44:20Z")
> [@PurpleClogs](#): > > Curious why no islands? In and out. Anything coming in faces a surcharge because it has to be shipped in. Anything going out has surcharge because it’s flying out. Also, I have lived on an island for 40+ years, so screw beaches and mountains, I’ve seen the best and don’t care if there is another place with better. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-place-in-the-world-to-live/691344/63 "2014-06-25T12:06:19Z")
Just my opinion, but I have found that living next to an ocean is amazing. The Pacific is much better than the Atlantic. I have lived and visited maybe 30 diff cities in my life and the single most beautiful city ever was San Diego. Vancouver and Seattle were close seconds. San Francisco was very similar. But there is just something about San Francisco that scares me. I have heard that Cost Rica is amazing. But Central American governments scare the _BLEEP_ out of me. So do South American countries and Mexico. I haven’t spent much time in West coast Canadian cities. But I have heard great things about Prince Rupert and cities in that vicinity. I have spent a little time in some cities on Vancouver Island. I don’t like Victoria at all. But Campbell River is a small city that was very peaceful and friendly (if you want friends). Nanaimo was too industrial (too much smoke and soot). To clarify, I found that people in Campbell River are wiling to be friends if you want friends. But they are also willing to leave you alone if that is what you prefer. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-place-in-the-world-to-live/691344/64 "2014-06-25T14:00:06Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I have heard good things about Slovenia, Latvia, and Estonia. The latter two are known for their high quantity of unusually gorgeous women. I don’t know if you can just move there though or how much it costs. They are all rather poor and still developing in general. Been through Slovenia, but that was 10 years ago. Never been to Estonia. I have been to Latvia and Lithuania just a month ago. Latvia was nice, not sure how much it would cost to live there though. I was at a friend’s house about 30 minutes outside of Riga and they said it cost 120,000 euro for the place. It was nice, but might be a bit pricey for the OP. They also seemed to be a bit behind some of the other former Eastern Block countries. Some of the smaller places, and even larger cities I was in, seemed really run down, just going a block one way and there were major changes. From what I was told it’s hard to get a loan to fix older homes up, which is a shame because some of the houses I saw were really nice but falling apart. Honestly, going to the Baltics I would go to Lithuania. They seemed to be far more ahead of Latvia in terms of newer buildings, better roads, friendlier people. I spent 3 days near the sea and really liked it. Both countries are far more western in their cultures then other parts of the ex Soviet Union, they don’t even like being called Eastern Europe for that reason. > [@Mr.Nylock](#): > > Cumberland, MD. or even Frostberg MD - they both have everything you listed, a bit on the boring side though. Yeah no. Frostburg is almost only a college town, don’t think one could find a house for under 100k in the area. Plus, in the 4 years I was there we got 2-3+ feet of snow at least 3-4 times. Cumberland will not get as much snow, but I don’t think house prices are any better. Plus Maryland property taxes are pretty high. If the OP wanted to move to that area it would be better to go straight south in to West Virginia. I owned a house about 20 minutes south of Cumberland and the the property taxes for about $300 a year. If the OP likes the Mid Atlantic then the Frederick area would be much better. Though housing is not going to be in the 50k range. And there’s still the higher property taxes, but there’s no real extreme weather for the most part. Can get hot and humid in the summer though. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-place-in-the-world-to-live/691344/65 "2014-06-25T14:30:31Z")
Any where you don’t need a passport (spells USA) Any where you don’t need a winter coat or Any where you don’t need air conditioning (maybe just a fan). Any where you don’t have to test the water Any where you don’t have to stay tuned to the weather radio Any where you don’t have a lot of people spreading a lot of germs Any where that has a good farmers market Any where that women wear hardly anything Any where you don’t have to drive fast to get to the store Any where that has low crime Any where that has millionaires paying the tax base for city services Any where that rolls up the side walks before mid-night Any where that has satellite reception Any where you can get gasoline cheap Any where you can smile when you get up and still be smiling when you go to bed ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-place-in-the-world-to-live/691344/66 "2014-06-25T14:59:15Z")
> [@Mr\_Quatro](#): > > Any where you don’t need a passport (spells USA) > > Any where you don’t need a winter coat or > Any where you don’t need air conditioning (maybe just a fan). > Any where you don’t have to test the water > Any where you don’t have to stay tuned to the weather radio > Any where you don’t have a lot of people spreading a lot of germs > Any where that has a good farmers market > Any where that women wear hardly anything > Any where you don’t have to drive fast to get to the store > Any where that has low crime > Any where that has millionaires paying the tax base for city services > Any where that rolls up the side walks before mid-night > Any where that has satellite reception > Any where you can get gasoline cheap > Any where you can smile when you get up and still be smiling when you go to bed Man, you guys don’t ask for much, do you? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-place-in-the-world-to-live/691344/67 "2014-06-25T16:11:43Z")
> [@Edward\_The\_Head](#): > > Yeah no. Frostburg is almost only a college town, don’t think one could find a house for under 100k in the area. Plus, in the 4 years I was there we got 2-3+ feet of snow at least 3-4 times. Cumberland will not get as much snow, but I don’t think house prices are any better. Plus Maryland property taxes are pretty high. If the OP wanted to move to that area it would be better to go straight south in to West Virginia. I owned a house about 20 minutes south of Cumberland and the the property taxes for about $300 a year. I can’t say a with a whole lot of certainty much about Frostberg, but Cumberland had plenty of very good options under 50K when me and my SO visited when we were looking for a house last year. It has very low crime, but is also very small. It seems as if there is a small amount of culture and they are tying to attract artists and more young people. The taxes might be a downside though. We looked into West Virginia also, but much more casually - the houses and land there were unbelievably affordable. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-place-in-the-world-to-live/691344/68 "2014-06-25T16:42:12Z")
“…south of the Mississippi.” Seriously? ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-place-in-the-world-to-live/691344/69 "2014-06-25T16:56:02Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Islands. Islands are forbidden! It’s only an island if you look at it from the water. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-place-in-the-world-to-live/691344.md?page=3)