I feel the same way when I visit my in-laws at their 55+ community in FL (not the Villages). I think it’s the cookie-cutter nature of the community, identical houses, identical landscaping, no individual personality. Also the “big brother” of it all. A small group of people setting rules for everyone else and the tattling if rules aren’t followed. Also, there’s a surprising amount of drama that harkens back to middle & high school days.
My friend’s mom has lived in The Villages for many years and has recently started to complain about the medical care in the area. She claims that it’s almost impossible to be seen by a medical doctor - that she keeps getting routed to PA’s and NP’s. They actually brought her to their home in MD for the summer and got her in to see medical doctors there (she’s a heart attack survivor). Not sure if that’s true across the board there but I know her mom and she’s not one to be timid about asking for what she wants.
I agree that it does look like they have a lot of fun (or at least the ones on the younger side of the 55+ do). I have a college friend who has retired with her husband to a 55+ in Myrtle Beach and she gets tagged on social media doing a ton of activities in her community. Again, she is in a community where the houses all look the same.
Maybe if I could find one on the water (a real body of water, not the 10,000 ponds and lagoons in FL) and where the home sites were larger and not all the same.
I also agree about medical care, which is why I am hesitant to pursue living internationally (also don’t want to be far from my kids). Portugal keeps coming up in my feed as a good place for American retirement but other articles I see claim that finding housing in the popular cities there is very competitive.