<p>I worked for an educational collaborative with offices in Northampton, MA for several years. I see it on your list and agree with the positive things already mentioned. Northampton is a liberal college town. Smith is there and Amherst, Mt. Holyoke, and UMASS are all close by. You aren’t near the beach and the two closest cities are Springfield and Worcester, which can’t really compare with being close to Boston (but Boston is only about 2-2 1/2 hours away).</p>
<p>Northampton would be a good locale for your business. It is also a town with lots of cultural activites, both through the town and the local colleges.</p>
<p>I had assumed you wanted something more “urban” (thus I mentioned Burlington)…but if that is not the case, I can think of great places to live in Vermont. I only suggested Burlington due to some criteria you mentioned. But many people choose to move to certain places in VT for the lifestyle, second home, or retirement and so if you are interested in other areas of Vermont, I’d be happy to share.</p>
<p>I’ve never known of a definition of beach meaning solely the shore of an ocean. I grew up in an area of NJ which is known for dozens of man-made lakes. Each one had a beach. I now live on one of the Great Lakes, which, again has hundreds of beaches as do the thousands of lakes in cottage areas in Ontario. I can’t imagine that it’s different in the many states which are filled with lakes and rivers.</p>
<p>m&s, good luck with your research. Immigration issues aside, there would be many areas around Toronto that would be great choices for what you’re looking for, but my picks on your current list would be Portland and Burlington. Have fun with your visits!</p>
<p>soozievt,
I am looking for a place with an urban area not far from where we may settle down.</p>
<p>Alwaysamom,
My husband actually mentioned Toronto. I have family there, some of which I have never met and others I haven’t seen since I was 15.</p>
<p>milkandsugar…if don’t have to be in the urban area and being within an hour or so is OK, and if you like Vermont (and consider Burlington “urban enough”), and you like the outdoors and areas that are into cultural activities and such, you might want to look in Stowe or in the Mad River Valley (also referred to as Sugarbush Valley) and you’d be within an hour of Burlington (many in those communities even work in Burlington) in both these resort communities. </p>
<p>I also like the Southern coast of Maine (such as Kennebunk, Wells, Ogunquit) and if you were to live there, you’d have the ocean and a certain lifestyle and be near Portland or else not far from Boston.</p>
<p>You might also look at Pittsfield or Great Barrington- easy access to the mass pike to get to either Boston or NYS- easy access to Rt 7 to head up to VT, incredible cultural life and restaurants, hiking, skiing… although not inexpensive for housing. The ME coast is not as harshly cold in the winter as inland New England…but winters are not as bad as they used to be. We have close friends that have been in Burlington since the 70’s… and that is what they have to say-winters are shorter and probably a bit warmer than they used to be. Burlington offers much cultural life, easy access to Montreal, an airport, the lake, easy access to skiing and hiking and also a very good hospital in UVM Medical Center.</p>
<p>I was raised in southern Maine, but have lived in SE New Hampshire for the last 23 years. I am currently located about 25-30 minutes from both Portsmouth, NH and Newburyprt, MA. </p>
<p>My husband and I are bumping up against 50, and we prefer the vibes of Portsmouth, NH and Portland, ME to Newburyport. All three cities are lovely coastal towns, but N’bypt is smaller with a more seasonal downtown. It literally becomes a ghost town in winter. </p>
<p>Portsmouth is less than 10 minutes from Durham, NH… where UNH is located - there is a great mix of folks downtown, from students, to business professionals, to artisans and retirees - lots of restaurants, brew pubs, specialty shops, etc. It is close to beaches in ME, MH and MA… and a quick shot to the Lakes and Mountains. Portland is very similar to Portsmouth in all it has to offer. I wish we were able to visit Portland more than we do. I miss it.</p>
<p>Manchester and Nashua might offer you better home values…but they are bigger cities - for good and for bad. There are lots of beautiful rural surrounding towns to all these cities - in the country and along the coast. Just beware the NH property tax!</p>
the part of the shore of an ocean, sea, large river, lake, etc., washed by the tide or waves.
the area adjacent to a seashore: We’re vacationing at the beach. </p>
<p>I never thought of the word “beach” as referring exclusively to the seashore. Of course the beaches of Burlington are real beaches! See definitions 1 and 2.</p>
<p>Maybe applying “beach” to a lake is an east coast or mid-west thing. Here in California (and in Oregon where I grew up) we have both lakes and an ocean. And if you tell people that you are “going to the beach,” it will never occur to them that you are headed to a lake to sit on the shore. A house built next to a lake would never be sold as a “beach house” or be described as located “on the Beach.” Did anyone, even for one fleeting second, ever guess that The Beach Boys were so named because of their enthusiasm for lakes and/or the culture and fun of frolicking on the shore of a lake?</p>
<p>coureur, I think because you are located on the coast, the term, “beach” is primarily thought of in terms of an ocean beach. When people live inland, they may still consider the idea of going to the beach as going to the beach on the lake, which can be a sandy beach as well. Here, if someone said, “I am going to the beach this afternoon,” everyone would know it was the lake (or the river) because you can’t go to the ocean beach that easily for just the afternoon (though I can get to the beaches in Maine in 3 1/4 hours). </p>
<p>As far as the Beach Boys, it was obvious they were seaside “beach boys” as they were California guys and some of their songs reflect that setting and so it was pretty clear that did not mean the beaches on the lakeshore.</p>
<p>~~Signed someone who went to a very MINI beach by the river here in Vermont and jumped in tonight to escape the heat. But I LOVE ocean beaches more. I grew up, however, in South Jersey, where the ocean beach was an hour away and so saying I was going to the “beach” was obviously the ocean shore. In fact, there, people would say “I am going down the shore.” :D</p>
<p>^^Where I went to high school in Oregon we were more than a hundred miles inland from the ocean and about 2 miles from a fair-sized lake. And if anyone had said “I am going to the beach this afternoon,” the typical reply would have been something like “Where are you stopping to eat dinner on the way? That’s a long drive. Make sure you start early enough to get there before dark.”</p>
<p>my son insists that winters in central illinois with the cold and biting wind are far worse than any of the winters he spent in hanover. granted, with the d-plan there were only 2!</p>
<p>i think the cost of housing might be a bit high in hanover, but if that isn’t a problem, that would be my number 1 choice for a new hampshire town!</p>
<p>In the northeast “Beach” is used in different contexts depending on where you live. If you live on Long Island going to the beach means either an ocean beach (e.g. Jones Beach) or one on Long Island Sound. If you move further inland to CT or NJ, going to the beach can mean going to a beach on a lake (Candlewood) or river unless you live close to LI Sound (e.g. Lordship Beach). I spent decades living on an inland lake in NJ that has 3 beaches. If you live in NJ and are going to the ocean you are “going down the shore.”</p>
<p>Yes.
Just like that awful ‘Jersey Shore’ program says it.</p>
<p>In NJ, if you’re going to the ocean, you’re going ‘down the shore’.
I guess ‘down’ because mostly you’d be going south to the ocean from northern NJ?
If you’re in south jersey, you are kinda down the shore already…</p>
<p>I grew up in Monmouth county near Sandy Hook which I guess if the most northern point of ‘down the shore’ in NJ.</p>
<p>In NH, “beach” can either mean ocean, as in Hampton Beach OR lake, as in Weirs Beach which is on Lake Winnepesaukee.</p>
<p>wbow - it certainly is possible to have two mild winters in Hanover. It also is not uncommon to have dayssssssssssss when the temperature does not get above zero degrees and weekkkkssss when the temperature does not get above freezing. This is what drives many retirees to the south for a few weeks/months during the winter.</p>
<p>We were just in NH for the 4th weekend. We went to a beach with the best of intentions, but just couldn’t face the cold water! :eek: Felt like my feet were going to fall off.</p>
<p>And the beach is mostly rocks…sharp rocks. There was some sand, but I’m convinced they imported it from Virginia Beach. ;)</p>
<p>So I wouldn’t go there for the “beach.” But for beachcombing, boat-watching, and general scenicness–it’s great.</p>
<p>I was dumbfounded to hear friends from the mid-west refer to their sandy spots on the lake as a ‘beach,’ as well. Growing up and living close to the ocean my entire life… the term beach was reserved solely for the ocean. If we were headed to a fresh water venue, it was simply referred to as going to the ‘lake,’ ‘river’ or ‘creek.’ Clearly a geographical distinction.</p>
<p>The beach at Newbury/Newburyport is Plum Island…which is lovely. It’s green head season there now, so you can’t actually sit on the beach without being bitten. There are great stretches of sandy beaches from Salisbury, MA through Hampton, NH to North Hampton and Rye, NH. On the ME side, there are even more sandy stretches from York up through Biddeford Pool on the south side of the Saco River (Cape Neddick Goose Rocks and Fortunes Rocks are among my favorite spots) …and again from Ferry Beach/Camp Ellis up through Old Orchard, Pine Point and Crescent Beach in South Portland/Cape Elizabeth. The coastline gets very rocky north of Portland, with small patches of sandy beach thrown in as a tease.</p>
<p>My favorite is Short Sands Beach in York. Hampton Beach gets a little rowdy sometimes. Short Sands is mostly families and it’s a very short walk into town for food, drink or anything else.</p>
<p>Just thinkin… Exeter, NH is right outside of Portsmouth… With the Academy and thriving downtown/cultural offerings…I think it would be a GREAT spot for your specialty food business. I’d come :D</p>