indigogirl1976

We live outside Tampa, Fl on the beach side. It has all the things you mentioned but the thing that we really appreciate is that Tampa airport has direct flights to London...it makes it easy to get back and forth to the UK. We lived in Southern Virginia before and had to use washington Dc airport which was a 3 1/2 hour drive away. I love the convienience of a good airport! However, if proximity to an airport isn't important there are some lovely places on the SE coast. Charleston, Sc is wonderful...has lots of history, culture and nice beaches. Myrtle beach is also fairly popular....

homelover

Many thanks , will look up those places as well.

Pulaski

As quaint and picturesque as Blackpool.
I would too if someone else was paying, but I'll eat my hat if most of them don’t tire of it after a couple of years.

Pulaski

There is nothing in the US of any consequence that is more than 250 years old, and in terms of historical significance everything either relates to the War of Independence or the Civil War, and most of the "sites" related to either are fields, which might have historical significance, but quickly become a bit samey.

Perhaps as great a "problem" is the distance over which everything is spread in the US. In few days in Britain you can visit Stone Henge, Roman remains, a variety of medieval castles and stately homes, and spend time in London without ever driving more than 100 miles. A similar variety of attractions is also often compressed into similarly small areas in Europe. Outside of NY and DC you would be hard pushed to find two or three such "world class" attractions and I would argue, given the relatively short history of the US, completely impossible to find the same depth or variety of attractions. ..... I believe that the US vacation phenomenon of "the road trip" is a result of the distance between sites of significance and interest.

So far as museums go, sure the US has them, but after being used to seeing cases of medieval weapons or whole collections of other artifacts predating 1750, in museums in the UK, and galleries choc full of old masters and impressionists, or stately homes full of ancient furniture and pictures of a similar age and/or historic significance, most US museums, especially outside of NY and DC, pale into insignificance. I only know of one house in the US that I would call "stately" (Biltmore), and that is a blatant knock-off, in setting and scale, of arguably the greatest stately home in Britain.

Sue

Yep, I would second that. Much preferred the lifestyle there.

Nutmegger

The US has packed a lot of history into those 250 years! But I do agree that the distances pose a problem. There are interesting houses all over -- San Simeon, Winterthur, the "summer cottages" of Newport -- and they don't have to be large to be of note; my favorite is the Custis-Lee House at Arlington. Likewise art doesn't have to be centuries or decades old to be interesting -- there's been a lot of art created since the impressionists, including specifically American movements, and there are wonderful, diverse collections throughout the US -- the High in Atlanta, Walker in Minneapolis, SITE Santa Fe, as just a few examples. There may not be the same kind of history and museums as in the UK, but there is no shortage of things to see. (In fact, the BBC website and UK newspapers have been writing about the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the NY Botanical Garden for the last few days.)

My small town in CT has a contemporary art museum, a colonial museum in an old tavern, a national historic site artists' colony -- oh, and Keith Richards propping up the bar at his nephew's restaurant at lunch time. How's that for a historical artifact!

Pulaski

All that, and a living fossil.

AdobePinon

scrubbedexpat099

That does not look like North Carolina.

Pulaski

It looks old, but what is its significance?

scrubbedexpat099

Colorado has the same thing, but them I used to go to a pub from the same era.

MMcD

Well (and better) said (by you rather than by me )!

Furthermore equating historic significance with age alone denotes a blinkered and thoroughly trivial perspective.

In any case OP said they're looking to find a retirement get-away in a quiet location - not proximity to ancient sites.

sir_eccles

Well, if Pulaski hasn't heard of it what's the point?

Pulaski

Either works - ancient or significant. ..... I would also add interesting - such as folk, farm, or industrial museums, which can be very interesting. But merely traipsing round a not-very-old house, with no interesting artifacts/ exhibits/architecture, and of no historic significance seems a bit pointless.
They specifically said they expected family members to visit the house on a recurring basis into the indefinite future. So the point was that merely a house in Podunk might not have any enduring appeal after the novelty wears off.
Well this is a first. I appear to be being criticized for not being sufficiently positive about America.

Bob

If you're looking for outdoors stuff to do during the summer and place that'll rent easily in the winter, check out a ski resort mountain.

Sugarloaf up in Maine, pretty cheap places to be found and folks have no problems renting them out during winter.

Golf during the summer and all the stuff on the rivers and lakes.

Plenty of other mountain resorts in NH that are worth a look too.