Old Town area of Fort Collins, CO. Not always warm, but almost always sunny. 300 days of sunshine a year and they may get some bitterly cold weeks, but usually snow comes in and is gone by the afternoon with all the sun. Large, walkable, pedestrian area with shops, services, arts, restaurants and small grocery co-op. There are always people around, even in the middle of winter. It’s only more charming with a bit of snow and the twinkly lights up. Great bike system. Public transportation. Access to Colorado State University which borders Old Town.
What we really love about Fort Collins is that you have the charming area of Old Town, but you can be on the south side of the city within 10-15 minutes and have every big box store imaginable. THere are over 700 restaurants in FC, lots of breweries and there are so many resources available.
If you are over 55 you can take any course your want at CSU as long as there is space through their Life Long Learners program. OLLI also runs their own courses. In addition, the town has it’s own Senior Center that it is expanding as well as a Rec Center with tons of classes. Lots of free arts, cultural, and recreational festivals and activities in town, easy access to parks, hiking, skiing, biking (not our thing), and prices for things like gyms, pools and classes are lower than what we are used to in MA. There is a great mix of young families, working professionals and students.
Colorado is rated high in both education and medical care and Fort Collins is only an hour from the Denver airport. We’re really trying to decide if we could leave the coast, our doctors, and everyone we know, but if we do, Fort Collins is the #1 contender.
Since my dream retirement is taking interesting classes and I tend to like college towns, I used the list of OLLI chapters to create a list of towns to investigate. I would say that many college towns are walkable and offer lots of opportunities for human interaction. The Bernard Osher Foundation | List of Institutes
I think you have to share a bit more about what you are looking for in terms of your checklist. Must it be more temperate? Do you want 4 seasons? Have you ruled out any parts of the country/states? What kind of budget? And I ask the budget part because depending on where you live now you might find TOTALLY opposite prices - either way - in other parts of the country.
Do you want a newer home? Suburb?
I agree above with the idea that university towns often offer good walkability.
Brookhaven and Chamblee, Georgia are nice little towns. Diversified with some established homes and young professionals. Chamblee’s a little more diverse than Brookhaven. These are small towns in Atlanta.
Almost all the northern suburbs in the inner ring of NYC that are along the Metro North lines are quite walkable and bonus you can jump on the train to get to NYC. Minus of course is housing costs and taxes are high and you have to be okay with winter.
We are also looking for this. My dream destination is Vancouver. So very walkable, lots of people out — including older women by themselves after dark on unlit streets, which I take as a good sign of relative safety.
But…expensive and rains a lot. Plus one would have to become a permanent resident to live there year round, which is not easy to do, at least from what I have learned.
I see winter park was already mentioned.
I personally wouldn’t live in Florida for a variety of reasons, but it has a cute little downtown in that city
Several magazines create lists of best places to live while retired. I think Wilmington Delaware was high on one magazines list of places to retire.
Lots of places in Florida make the list.
We considered Asheville, and it was rated a top spot to retire for years, but after we visited we realized it was too small for us.
There are a couple of places near Las Vegas I’ve known people to retire to. One is called Summerlin. We considered it “for a minute” (no state tax in Nevada), but realized it wouldn’t work for us.
St. George Utah seems like it’s becoming popular.
OP may not have her “list” worked out yet, but it it’s important to figure out what you really care about. I think I may have started a thread on what people care about for retirement living at some point.
Henderson NV…I know a few retirees who moved there. Not sure it’s a walking town, but they are happy with what it has to offer, and all live close enough to what they want.
I was also going to suggest San Diego. It’s basically a city of neighborhoods and people are walking, biking, boarding, scooting and more everywhere. If you can afford it! Along with the La Jolla area, there are several areas bordering a Balboa Park that are eminently walkable - North Park, Hillcrest, Bankers Hill, Little Italy, etc. Many areas on Point Loma are walkable to the ocean and San Diego Bay. Pacific Beach is walkable to the ocean and Mission Bay. Loads of recreational opportunities, restaurants, and excellent health care systems.
I think where you want to be is very individual, so I put little stock in list of “ best places” for anything. We are happy in the twin cities, our friends are happy in Sarasota, SoCal and North Carolina, etc. We all had different priorities, preferences and budgets.
I would narrow it down by listing out priorities:
Near family? Near culture/ education? Near a beach or mountains? Price point? Etc.
We started with a general location we liked, based upon our criteria. Then we looked for walkable areas within that location.
For those considering Florida, how much do you care about hurricane season? You don’t need to be right on/near the coast to suffer the effects, and you can count on (multiple) hurricanes every year and high insurance costs. And that humidity is not for the weak.
(if your friends know anyone who is selling……)