Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Where to live in VA? (Or in NC?)

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Where to live in VA? (Or in NC?)

My fiance I are talking about moving. I moved down from NYC to be with him in Atlanta. He's an optometrist and I'm in advertising. My parents and friends are in NJ and sister is in Syracuse NY. His sister is in Atlanta and his parents are about to retire from RI to NC or Atlanta. So we've decided to move halfway between to be close to both, and have better quality of living. He won't live above the Mason Dixon Line. He has offers in VA: Staunton (somewhat near Charlottesville); south end of Richmond, and Newport News. We want to know first-hand advice of the area. Please help! (His first choice was Charlotte or Chapel Hill NC, so you can compare and contrast too.) We'll be settling for a while to build up his patients, and we'll have kids and the whole 9 yards. HELP!

I wouldn't live below the Mason Dixon line!!

Must be a smart guy to live below the line !! Staunton is a nice, small town. Charlotte, Raleigh/Chapel Hill and Asheville are great locations as well.Upstate SC (Greenville) is a fantastic location and town also.

Dear Dana, You are engaged to a very smart man and you will live to enjoy the home in Va or NC, although I am partial to western NC, I like Staunton better than the central NC cities noted. But all are better than Atlanta! The quality of life, tax bases, etc are great in both states. Good choices to pick from. Good luck and let us know how it goes a couple of years from now. J Bunch

Dana, My brother lives in the Harrisonburg, VA area, just north of Staunton. It's a beautiful area with mountains and valleys -- he has 7 acres of land in the woods. The city of Harrisonburg has gotten more built up over the years - you can now get bagels, put guests up at the Hampton Inn, etc. But outside of the town is still very rural. James Madison University is in Harrisonburg, which means there are young professionals in the area. Another plus of the area is that it is less than 2 1/2 hours from DC. If you are interested in talking to my brother, e-mail me. I'm sure he'd be willing.

I don't know much about the areas you mentioned except for Chapel Hill. I have lived in that area for quite a while on two occasions and was an undergrad at UNC-CH. I have an MBA in marketing and conducted my own job search here not long ago after moving back from up north, so I can give a little input on the advertising market too. Chapel Hill is a wonderful place to live in most ways. The city will likely maintain its quaintness for a long time, since its government tends to be very unfriendly toward growth. However, Durham isn't and is just down the road five miles or so. That makes for a good quieter place to live with lots of shopping, etc. not far away. It is unlike anywhere else in the state in attitude - very liberal and progressive. It has some of the absolute best schools in the state. The crime is low but not nearly like it was ten years ago. It can be expensive to have a house there, depending on where you live. Apartments are easy to get if that is what you need. There are many many medical professionals in the area, but because of the rapidly growing population in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, there should be enough customers for your husband. The Triangle also seems to be pretty good for marketing/advertising professionals. Chapel Hill has several consultants and marketing services companies, with FGI being the largest. I would do some research on the whole area though. He may want to consider that he may want to practice in Raleigh or Cary rather than Chapel Hill/Durham. There is a four-lane highway between them (well, 2 lanes part of the way), but traffic is getting worse all the time. It will generally take 30-45 minutes to get from Chapel Hill to Raleigh at rush hour, but it can be worse at times. Considering how bad the traffic is in Raleigh itself though, that is often less time that it takes someone from the outer edges of Raleigh to get to downtown. By the way, I have lived on both sides of the line and enjoyed both. It all depends on the place.

Thank you all for your input! I am excited about moving to VA/NC. Tom has sent his application and fee in for his license for VA for now. We are visiting Staunton, Richmond and Newport News in a few weeks. Richmond and Staunton are about tied right now. Is Staunton within commuting distance of Charlottesville? I like it there. I visited JMU once years ago, and it was a little too rural for me. Any other advice on those towns would be great -- any pro/cons to go to one over the other?

I've lived in NC all my life (well, until last year). I grew up on the coast in Wilmington. Wilmington is going through some growing pains right now, but it is also an area you might want to look at. It is a pretty place- where the Capre Fear River meets the sea, and there's a lot to do there. If you want to know what it looks like, check out Dawson's Creek- it is filmed in Wilmington and a lot of the places that they show are really local businesses. Anyway, even if you don't move to Wilmington, it is a great weekend trip from any of the places you are considering. I highly recommend the Triangle area. I lived there for seven years. Having three nationally prominent Universities all within 40 miles of each other is great! There's always something interesting going on, and the people are the friendliest around. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

Staunton is a nice small city, about 1 hour from Charlottesville. Only potential problem is in winter when Afton Mountain (between Staunton & C'ville) may get fogged in / snowed in & make travel difficult, but highway dept does great job at keeping it as clear as possible. The area always gets snow in winter, but usually not too bad (compared to NY). Feel free to email me directly. I live between Richmond & Williamsburg.

Lived in VA my entire life (so far!). I'd choose Harrisonburg or Staunton for quality of life; Richmond for careers. The Martin Agency is in Richmond if you want to stay in advertising, and RIC airport has many daily nostops to Newark and Atlanta.

Hi Dana, Move to the Triangle if you don't mind heat & humidity from May - October. It's got a lot going for it; Chapel Hill is the prettiest. It's God's land! That's why He painted the sky Tarheel Blue!!! You're two hours from the beaches, and 2-1/2 hrs. from gorgeous mountains. Can't beat it! And the people are very friendly! Good luck!

dana - i have lived in chesapeake, va (just south of newport news) and asheville, nc and went to school in clemson, sc so i've either visited or spent a significant amount of time in all of these places. staunton - if your fiance accepts the position here i would strongly recommend living in charlottesville if he can stand the commute. charlottesville is lovely and all around pretty hip for a small town, thanks to u of va. the best thing staunton has going is its proximity to interstates 64 & 81 - which will take you to better places. i can't imagine that you would like it there unless you're trying to get to the exact opposite end of the spectrum from your starting points of NYC and atlanta. richmond - have not actually spent a whole lot of time here, mostly because there never seemed to be anything worth stopping for. seems to be a very dirty, industrial city without a whole lot going for it. maybe it has some hidden treasures that locals could tell you about? from what i can tell the best quality of richmond is the short 2 hour drive to dc or the coast. newport news - well, you've gotta love being right on the coast (unless you prefer the mountains i guess!)...and the parts of newport news i saw while living in the area looked very nice, it's mostly new housing developments and apartments (many with private docks if you have or want to get a boat) but you've got the entire hampton roads area at your disposal...norfolk at one point was very run down and well, kind of nasty, but the city has really been doing a lot of re-building and beautifying. i moved from the area in early 98 and everything was well on the way by then, so i'm guessing by now it is really pretty nice. during the summers they have free concerts at the waterfront park (while we were there - big head todd & monsters, paula kohl, vonda sheppard, the connells all come to mind and many more that we missed). they've got the navy shipyard right there as well, which can be interesting. by the way, if you go to the waterfront (shops right on the river there, you can't miss it) there is an english pub upstairs which has the best bangors and mash i've had in the states...we've been craving it ever since. then you have virginia beach, which thanks to recent efforts to improve tourism has also become a reasonably happenin' place. hampton roads is not my favorite area of the coutry but it has kind of a nice quality to it, just enough tourism to give it a more relaxed feel than a typical city, but not so much that it takes away from normal city life - it isn't the main industry there by any means. you really don't notice the tourists unless you stop to think about them (or, of course, go to the beach in the middle of high season). that said, i have to agree with carla. wilmington, nc would be my choice if i could pick any city in either state. asheville, nc is a very pretty decent sized town up in the mountains - very popular place for families and retirees. hope this helps!

Dana, I'm involved in computer network sales and design in central Virginia so I've traveled all over the state. I have to agree with Joy about living in Charlottesville and commuting to Staunton. Afton Mountain is notorious for fog and hazardous driving conditions. In fact, I recently saw a blip about it on Dateline or 20/20 as having one of the worst multi car pileups in recent history. I've done quite a bit of business in Staunton and parts north and there's nothing I dread more than a dark, rainy day in Oct.-Mar. and the trip over Afton Mountain. I feel that Staunton itself is VERY rural and not much to look at. Money Magazine ranked Richmond as the #1 mid size Southern city and the Hampton Roads area (adjacent to Newport News) as the #1 large Southern city. Again, I've done alot of business in both and enjoy both areas. While I agree with Julie that some of the area in Richmond is a little run down, they've really tried to clean the city up. All of my friends have moved there and love it. Supposedly there's SOOO much to do there! As you may already know, crime has been a problem in the Richmond area and was ranked as the murder capital of the U.S. (per capita) a couple of years back. They've done alot to try to shed this image but there's still a few places I wouldn't want to be at night. My friends say that you just learn to avoid these areas and enjoy the rest of the city. Hope this was some help!

Two issues that haven't been mentioned: transportation and economic base. 1. If you truly want to be able to travel easily both north and south, consider which cities have airports from which you can easily get where you're going -- i.e., hubs. Charlotte, Raleigh, and Richmond qualify. Staunton and Newport News will require all kinds of transfers. 2. Would Staunton really provide you with enouugh $ in the populatin to sustain your work? Finally, you've missed a great bet in the Cary/Chapel Hill/Raleigh-Durham area, but that's fine by me because I'd just as soon no one else knew!