What's a good smaller town to move to that has lots of outdoors options, and is well-educated and beautiful?

Have you heard of a place called Gary Indiana?

East Dubuque

East St. Louis

East New York

Camden

You can't have it both ways.

If it is a legit small town, there will be a gun-totin' Prius-hating anti-intellectual bent.

Trust me. I live in one. For me, the low cost of living, no traffic, and access to the outdoors are worth it anyway. You can always take a vacation to the city.

Your best bet is a college town, that's for sure. Shoot for east or west coast. I live in the midwest and things have gotten so culturally conservative in anything smaller than a town of 100,000 or so you won't find what you ar looking for.

RacingtheCanteloupe wrote:

If it is a legit small town, there will be a gun-totin' Prius-hating anti-intellectual bent.

What's anti-intellectual about hating Priuses? It's a terrible car.

There have to be some smaller towns that have some industry or educational institute though. What about Los Alamos or Oak Ridge, which both have big national labs? Also I know Boulder is not as small, but how does that compare?

Boise, Idaho!

Portland, ME

Williamsburg or Charlottesville, Virginia

College towns will be your best bet both professionally and culturally. I've lived in Ithaca, NY and State College, PA. Both were cool little towns with a lot to offer relative to their size.

What about a place with less harsh winters?

college towns wrote:

College towns will be your best bet both professionally and culturally. I've lived in Ithaca, NY and State College, PA. Both were cool little towns with a lot to offer relative to their size.

Yup, generally this.

O.P. could give us more information, which might get more specific recommendations. The field is wide open based on what he posted.

What outdoor activities does he like (besides assuming running)? What is his specific career field? Does he want to work in government, academia, private industry? Region of county or climate considerations?

4342424242 wrote:

What about a place with less harsh winters?

Athens GA... but harsh summers

Bellingham WA though possibly slowly moving toward "big city" cost of living if that's what you're trying to avoid

Southern NH - Manchester - Concord - Nashua - Portsmouth

Mr. Obvious wrote:

college towns wrote:

College towns will be your best bet both professionally and culturally. I've lived in Ithaca, NY and State College, PA. Both were cool little towns with a lot to offer relative to their size.

Yup, generally this.

O.P. could give us more information, which might get more specific recommendations. The field is wide open based on what he posted.

What outdoor activities does he like (besides assuming running)? What is his specific career field? Does he want to work in government, academia, private industry? Region of county or climate considerations?

Running is my favorite #1 but I like hiking, mountain biking, and rock climbing too. Anywhere scenic. I work in computational mechanics so I also have a lot of "transfer over" skills. I am open to working either in government, academia, or industry: wherever has good jobs that are interesting to me and also a good working environment (i.e. smart people, etc.).

I would prefer a place that doesn't have very harsh winters so while I have been to places like upstate NY, etc., the winters seem very much on the harsh side. I am currently in southern California.

Colorado is great. Boulder isn't exactly small, but not too large. I'm partial to CO and it is warmer than most people think (I mean, unless you get out to Alamosa or Gunnison or something).

Somebody offered up Oak Ridge. Again, that is a pretty good area.

Chattanooga.

Chapel Hill?

Asheville

HMMMMMMMMMMMMM wrote:

Southern NH - Manchester - Concord - Nashua - Portsmouth

Great if you love white trash.

Rahht.

Thanks. Right now some places that seem to meet what I am looking for: Boulder, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, Chapel Hill/Research Park area in NC.

However, Oak Ridge and Chapel Hill sound like they would have hot, humid summers. Any other suggestions or comments on the places named so far?

4342424242 wrote:

Thanks. Right now some places that seem to meet what I am looking for: Boulder, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, Chapel Hill/Research Park area in NC.

However, Oak Ridge and Chapel Hill sound like they would have hot, humid summers. Any other suggestions or comments on the places named so far?

Chapel Hill would be hotter than Oak Ridge. The mountains would mute that a little bit.

If you don't want areas that are too cold and you don't want areas that are hot and humid in the summer, than a whole lot of the east coast is out. The Southeast will be too warm and the Northeast too cold. Stick to the West coast or intermountain west.