I have a (younger) relative who moved there this past autumn. He loves it! He seems to go skiing or hiking every single weekend. Isn't it the most fit of all the US cities?

He says the weather is beautiful, a dry cold in the winter with lots of sunshine between snowfalls. The people seem very friendly too (compared to the northeast, anyway).



Found the link that says Denver is the fittest. Also it's the most educated city in America!

http://www.hometodenver.com/Stats_Denver.htm

I would make a pitch for the Bay Area, CA, for so many reasons (weather, food, diversity, outdoor opportunities, etc) but - it is hellishly expensive and hard to break into at this point if you aren't in some high-paying job or have a lot of equity to drop on property.

So I will make a strong pitch for Arizona! I had absolutely no intention or desire to live here, but a job situation arose in 2009 (take it or leave it ... right when the economy collapsed) and I had to come down here to keep my job. Bottom line is, I fell in love with the place!

I've never liked humidity (and can't handle Florida or anywhere on the east coast / midwest), but I found that the ultra-dry heat of the desert was perfect for me. I have no issues with the weather at all until it gets over 100F, and that only applies for a couple of months a year (and even then, the evenings can be nice). The rest of the time is just beautiful. There are no mosquitos, no flying insects in general, and - at least in my neck of the woods - no roaches. The politics suck in my opinion (I'm a die-hard liberal), but I doubt its any worse than Florida or Texas. Economy is not great, but there is an abundance of hotels and property prices are recovering, and construction (and lending) are picking back up. In my opinion, a whole lot of the Phoenix Metro area is bland and ugly, but there are some really lovely spots in the various 'burbs. There are mountains all around (I developed a passion for hiking here, of all places), and great places to visit (Sedona, Grand Canyon, etc). Not everyone likes the 'Southwest' look, but I love it.

My job here has finally come to an end, and I'm in the process of relocating back to CA, but I can't bring myself to give up on the place ... I'm trying to find a way to keep a 'foothold' here and not have to get rid of my condo.

If I had to move again, I'd give serious consideration to Albuquerque, NM, Santa Fe, NM, and a few places in Colorado.

Good Luck!

Certainly, I would need a job lined up, wherever I was headed.

I have not seen much info about inter-state moves. I doubt I would be qualified for much corporate assistance.
Anyone done a self move across country?

Just vague budgetary figures to give you a ball-park idea.
Coast to Coast (say Tampa-San Jose)
Penske diesel truck, the big one (26ft load bed, 4 ton load),
Truck rental $1800, fuel $2200, casual labour each end to load and unload $200+, miscellaneous moving supplies $200, motels on the road $300.
Obviously less if you are not going so far. A little less if you don't have that much stuff. A lot less if you can just tow a trailer behind your car (though that's dangerous if you have no experience in trailering).

At those prices it makes you think hard about dumping stuff and buying replacements at estate sales.

If you need a job then that has to override all other considerations. Find the best job you really really want and move there. San Diego has the best overall climate in the 48 States.

Holly, thanks for the eye-opener on the moving prices. I agree, there is not much I own that would not be best sold/dumped and replaced vs transported.

San Diego is now on my list.

I have some friends who moved from Boulder to San Diego and they love it. Boulder is a hard act to follow so San Diego must be all that and a bag of chips.

Last May my daughter moved back to Houston from San Francisco on her own. After her divorce she stayed for a few years but finally decided that it wasn't worth struggling moneywise when she could be more comfortable back in Texas. She had a job to come back to and the offer of a Condo share with an old friend.

She had a total purge of everything she owned. She sold all her furniture, and loads of other things she had accumulated in her time in California. She mailed some smallish boxes to us of mostly kitchen stuff, and the rezt she packed in boxes into her car. She has a hatchback VX, so not a big car. Then she spent 2 and 1/2 days driving back to Texas.

I love San Diego; I've done some work there and have friends there, and have also visited as a tourist. I'd place it only a notch below the Bay Area, and since I've spent 30+ years in the Bay Area, I'd leap at the chance to try San Diego. In my 'older' years, the more laid-back pace would suit me fine, and the downtown area is good. However - it's also only a notch below the Bay Area in terms of prices, so I'm not clear that moving from Tampa is going to be easy. But if you can do it, do it!

We have a relative who did the same, moved house 2000 miles with a smallish car packed with personal belongings...and a dog as well! Took the better part of a week, but makes sense if you don't need to take a lot of furniture and can spare the time.

Yeah, when I came to Texas, I moved out of a furnished apartment in which I had been living pretty sparely. I packed up my Corolla (the computer monitor took up a good portion of the available space), made sure I could see out of the back window, stuck my seven-month-old kitten Bandersnatch in the passenger seat in an airline pet carrier (yes, he howled the entire two-day drive, only stopping when we slept in a roadside hotel) and booked it out of there.

Hmm. Reality bites. Tampa to Houston 1000 miles, 14 hour drive; to SanDiego 2500mi/36hr drive.

Flights in the $300-400 region sounds like good value.

Depends how much time you have and whether you'll need a car to get around when you get there. If you're doing a recce, you could driving to Houston, spend a few days there and then drive on to SanDiego spend a few days there and then drive back through Denver. Never know, you might find your ideal place on the way. 5384 miles/76 hours. If you miss out Denver, there and back to San Diego via Houston is 4896 miles/68 hours. May as well add another 8 hours and go to Colorado.

Or are you thinking you'll just pick a place and go?

Wow, what a road trip!

If it's just one driver, the longer trip--FL/Houston/SD/Denver/FL--could take a minimum of 2 weeks. If you take someone else and can share the driving between you, you might cut it down to perhaps 10 days...

That's a whole lot of driving, but you'd see so much of the country. Maybe the process would help you make your decision?

If you can, you want to space it out a bit more. You don't get to see much of anything going along the interstate, without any nice detours or time to check places out, plus getting stuck in all that traffic.

We did around 3K miles this summer, going to the midwest and back, spread over 10 days, spending a couple days in Chicago and going back/scenic routes for some of it...but the interstate for a lot of it was bloody hard work because it was so dull and mind numbing. Single driver probably didn't help and 3am starts to beat the traffic in some places didn't really help because of the serious number of speed traps all over the place.

I would Love to do a road trip like this, and call it a recce. Finances, and employment seem to hinder the idea.