I'm pretty dead set on moving to Florida after I finish paramedic school. I’m obviously going to visit before I decide to move though, so I’m looking for some opinions! I have an obsession with palm trees also, so being surrounded by them is pretty important to me! I've done some research, and this is what I've gathered: So correct me if I'm wrong..

Emerald Coast
- has clearest water and whitest beaches
- affordable to live within walking distance, or on the beach
-cold-ish from late December to early February
-mostly Sabal Palmetto's; (cabbage palms) not a lot of variety in palms unfortunately

Bradenton/Sarasota down through Naples
- water and sand is same quality as the panhandle
- expensive to live within walking distance of, or on the beach
- never cold
- huge variety of palms, including the big, swaying Coconut palms you see in Mexico 😊

(The only place on the east coast I really consider a contender is Daytona/New Smyrna Beach area. Everywhere else on the east coast requires Paramedics to be firefighters, which really isn't my thing..)

Volusia County/Daytona
- Darker sand and water is deep blue (I’ve seen this at cocoa beach)
- affordable to live within walking distance of the beach
- warmer than panhandle, colder than Naples
- mostly cabbage palms, but a bit more variety. I’ve actually seen pictures of some coconut palms in south Daytona!

any opinions or comments?
Thanks 🙏

Can you easily find employment in all of these places? I'd personally wait until I had a job and let that help decide the location.

And I'd rent the first year to make sure that Florida really is what you want. (There are palm trees lots of places!)

All of the emerald coast aside from Walton County uses EMS-only for 911 transport. So my choices would be Escambia County EMS, Lifeguard Ambulance Service (Santa Rosa County), Okaloosa County EMS, and Bay County EMS. Walton County is the only one that uses Firefighter/Medics. I don’t think I’ll have a problem finding a job on the emerald coast. Most of these places hire all year round. Volusia County only has one EMS agency, so that might be tougher. I think I like the emerald coast better anyway lol