Your friends in Vernon and Ellington were out of power for over a week in August (Hurricane) and another week in October (snow storm) after two freakish storms. It was quite awful.

Somers is very rural, University of Connecticut is close by.

That's how we ended up in Norwalk. My Dad was commuting to NYC by train at the time.

I still say it depends how often they need to be in each city, and whether it would more often be NY or Boston, or equally, to figure out the closest location that will offer what they seek.

I disagree that there are no towns near Boston with a "rural" feel. The towns I mentioned upthread, especially Sharon and Easton, have very quiet, small town feel. Sharon only has a 25 or 30 minute train ride into Boston. It has a lake and is close to Borderland state park. The housing stock there is probably roughly equivalent to Avon, CT, not Greenwich and other commuter towns into NYC. It's also far cheaper than Brookline, Chestnut Hill, etc, but with a small town feel that they don't have, and still an easy commute into Boston.

I haven't been there for a while, but would Rhode Island give the future New Englander another option? How are taxes/housing/train access in RI compared to CT and MA? Local posters to the area are welcome to reply.

Thanks for the great info everyone, very helpful!

consider southern RI, from N. Kingstown south---wickford is very nice