I used to live next to VA Beach, and I like it alot. The beach is decent and there is alot of water (freshwater as well as saltwater) around if you like to fish or boat. Williamsburg and Jamestown nearby if you like history. You still get to experience the seasons and no huge risk of hurricanes. And if you like rampant Christians CBN is there.
Charleston is nice. Or, you could live in Charleston. Another nice town is Charleston. Have you given any thought to living in Charleston? Here’s an idea – How ‘bout Charleston? Ooh! I just though of another one – Charleston!
I love that damn town.
Other options would include . . . um . . . Beaufort. Yep. That’s the other option in South Carolina. Columbia and Greenville are too far from the sea for my tastes although they do provide good access to wonderful woodlands. Aiken / N. Augusta, while lovely in themselves and further beautified by their proximity to the Savannah River, are a bit too quiet in my opinion.
If Georgia is on your mind, look to Savannah. It’s a fabulous town that almost matches its sister city, Charleston. You’d have to put up with all the freaky SCAD students, but even they provide some amusement in small doses.
I got married in Charleston–not because we have family there, but because it’s a kick-ass town and a neat place to visit. Only not in August, granted. Love it there.
However, we’ve always said (after living in VA) that NC is a Valley of Humility between Two Mountains of Conceit.
Asheville hasn’t been given adequate pluggage yet. It’s close to Greenville, SC, actually. Also close to TN. Somewhat artsy town. High enough up that you get four seasons and even snow. Gorgeous scenery. Skiing nearby. College nearby (which always drags some culture to the area).
If you go the SC route, Columbia is actually not a bad choice. Medium-sized city with some degree of ‘college-town’ feel to it.
- Tamerlane
Count me in as another Charleston fan. What I don’t know, as an occasional tourist, is what the economy/job prospects are like. But I love the sense of history, the small-city feel, etc.
I’m also quite fond of Asheville. I’ve spent a lot of time there; my wife lived there from six months old until she graduated from college and her parents are still there, we were married there, etc. Lots of outdoorsy things to do nearby, plenty of cultural activity, lovely scenery. UNC-Asheville has a pretty good, if underappreciated, liberal arts program. Downsides would be the cost of living (it was actually slightly more expensive than Atlanta last time I checked), not quite as much history as Charleston (or at least history of a different sort), less water (there’s the French Broad and Swannanoa Rivers, and Lake Junaluska about an hour west, but nothing like the river/ocean combo in Charleston) and a more fundamentalist Christian tone to the place. It also feels smaller than Charleston, though whether that’s good or bad depends on your point of view.
I lived in Columbia for three years while I was working on my doctorate. It’s a much better place to live than to visit. I recommend the Shandon neighborhood as a place to live - nice, funky houses, shade trees, flowerbeds.
The main drawback of Columbia is summer. Excepting some rural areas, it’s got to be the hottest place in the Carolinas during the summer - it’s too far from both the mountains and the ocean to be cooled by either one. Every summer I was in SC (five total - I also lived in Florence for two years - don’t live there!), there would be one or two forecasts of a cool Canadian air mass headed our way. Every time, the cool air would get no further than the NC/SC line before stalling out. So we’d continue to swelter.
Raleigh (go to grad school there now) and Charlotte (grew up there) are OK, but too big and pretentious for me. Lots of SUVs and subdivisions.
Asheville (went to college there) is great. Not too big, but a fascinating mix of people and lots of stuff to do.
Wilmington seems quite nice, and I like Durham. It’s a little grittier than Raleigh or Charlotte, but also not as snotty or concerned with being the next Atlanta. They also have a fair amount of arts stuff going on and at least two colleges (Duke and NC Central).
One plea, though. If you move to NC, please appreciate its idiosyncrasies (no, not like racism) and don’t complain that it’s not like where you lived before. I’ve met a lot of Northerners who whine that they can’t find a real deli, or that no one knows how to drive in the snow, or who make fun of Southern accents. It makes me furious.
Ahh Charleston. I spent the first twenty-two years of my life there. I lived on Tradd Street. I lived on Sullivan’s Island, Isle of Palms, Folly Beach, Mt. Pleasant. The whole bit. Lived in the slave quarters of a house built in 1790. I walked out to my car one day to go to work, and a couple walked up to me and said, “Excuse me, but do people really live in these houses?” There are at least four restaurants to every person, and two of them are expensive. Beautiful.
But too many people. It used to be a sleepy little town of southerners; now it’s not. Everybody wants to live there, and just about everybody does. Very expensive, and there’s definitely an undercurrent of assholes (South Of Broad = Son Of a Bitch). Not to worry: there are non-native assholes, too. Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. Now I’m in Missouri. And I actually like it. Go figure.
And the only thing I really miss is the ocean and the history. I would suggest Beaufort or Savannah, which is like Charleston 15 years ago. But I had my fill of Charleston–which is to say I’m definitely in the minority. Most people love it there and would never leave. Chances are, you will too. And yes, they try to keep the rabid Christians upstate.
Fine options mentioned. Just stay the hell away from Orangeburg, SC.
I graduated from Claflin University last spring (a fine institution in an otherwise bland and insipid little town) and have been stuck here ever since. How horrible is it here?
Envision: if the U.S. could magically develop anthropomorphic features and somehow stand on its own two feet, with the head of the nation being DC (natch) and its metaphorical feet emerging out west somewhere, Orangeburg would stand revealed for what it truly is, the festering left armpit of the nation, a hamlet teeming with microorganisms called Orangeburgians clinging like parasites to a pitiless, infested, stinker of a town. It’s small, insular, boring and devoid of culture, class or atmosphere. The biggest thing underway NOW is – hold it, let me check the pitiful excuse for a local newspaper, I don’t want to misquote anything-- AHA – perfect – ‘The 36th Annual Grand American Coon Hunt.’ Perfect way to make a black man more paranoid about living in a town with, allegedly, the highest per capita reported HIV infection rate in the nation.
I hate this freaking town.
Me? I’m packing my bags to move to Charleston soon. As much as I love that city, I am fearful of the high cost of living on the increasingly gentrified peninsula, where development is making the price of everything skyrocket and the town itself has a nasty habit of attracting belligerent hurricanes every decade or so. But that’s gotta be a small price to pay for place where red rice and shrimp gumbo is the local cuisine of choice, and has the prettiest view of Atlantic Ocean from the Battery…
When everyone ends up moving to Charleston after reading this thread, let me know and we’ll have a dopefest!
::Pokes his head in the door::
Please stay the fuck away from Lake Norman/Mooresville, NC. Especially if you have a Yankee accent and drive an SUV.
::Shuts the door behind himself::