DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Moving to Florida???

Sanford is on the Northeast side of the city. I never lived in Lake Mary, but I always thought it was a nice area. Kirkman? STAY FAR AWAY! Right by all the tourism hustle and bustle and a lot of rif raf in that area.

Southwest over by Bay Hill is nice if you have a little cash. College Park and Winter Park are nice. Orlando is a little different than up north in that on one side of a major road you will have ghetto and on the other side you have a nice neighborhood.

I moved to Largo (don't recommend that area close to Clearwater/St. Pete as it's referred to as Larghetto), Florida from Jackson, MI in the summer of 2009, and was back summer 2010. For me- being a young guy with no education or specific job skills- it wasn't a good fit. I always thought to myself, though, that if I were established and had security that it'd be a great place to live.

That said, between Tampa and Orlando is a no brainer. Tampa. Easy. Orlando is just this monster, inland tourist trap where the heat in the summer is excruciating and it's colder during the winter than on the coasts. The entire town pretty much centers around Disney, UCF, and the Magic. Beyond that it really doesn't offer much industry beyond shallow tourism.

The city of Tampa is nothing special, but it offers so much more culture and is actually on the water. St. Pete has some of the most beautiful beaches around. Fort De Soto beach is gorgeous, the Skyway Bridge is one of the most scenic sites in the state, Centro Ibor offers a lot of culture (authentic Cuban cigars, unique pubs, etc. as it's a big party site by night but daytime more tame). They opened up a new Salvador Dali Museum in St. Pete if you're interested in that. It's a cool place with a lot to do, and even if you're not looking for much to do, you can do whatever that is around good natural scenery scenery and weather.

That's a bit vague. I heard Clearwater suggested- which makes sense as a neighborhood. Northeast St. Pete has some really nice historic homes and is a pretty tame neighborhood also close to one of the bridges to Tampa.

Also Windermere, in the southwest, is pretty nice. I live right next door to Windermere and Isleworth (where Shaq and Tiger live) is right there. But if you don't want to break the bank, Winter Garden has some really nice areas and a nice, quaint downtown area.

I live in Apollo Beach on the south shore of Tampa Bay. It's an average of 30 minutes to Tampa and 45-60 minutes to St. Pete. Most of the homes here are canal/waterfront with access to Tampa Bay and the gulf.

It is much quieter here than most of the other tampa suburbs within this range, but we have all the major necessities. I lease a nice waterfront house with a boat dock. If I were going to be here long term I would definitely buy a house. The prices right now are hard to beat. Check out zip code 33572 on zillow.com

One thing to remember here is that if there is an accident on one of the bridges crossing tampa bay.... you're stuck for a while. I travel the whole west coast of florida for work so let me know if you have any other questions.


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