Florida is its own region due to being huge. It was amazing and easily one of our favorite states and regions. It has many options for places to live, a fairly low cost of living for what you get and a reasonable service culture. In many ways, with the exception of the Miami area and the Panhandle, it felt like the Midwest by the beach. We enjoyed this. The rain was quite torrential when it happened, but the lovely beaches and year round warmer weather are big positives for Florida. It also looked like there might be work related to tech and tourism. A downside is, of course, the hurricanes and that all that lovely beach front property is very pricey and the more affordable properties are more inland, which rather than being a lovely beach, is increasingly swamp-like the further in you go.
Our favorite city was Jacksonville. It was friendly and affordable, without being quite as touristy as the rest of Florida. It also apparently is less prone to hurricanes than the rest of the state. If anyone has more Jacksonville info, we’d love to hear it. We didn’t spend as much time there as we wish we had compared to the amount of time we spent in Phoenix, for example. It did seem like the most viable city though.
Here’s the video:
Runner up goes to Naples. It is a lovely city, but I think it is probably too expensive for us. That said, if we ever get rich, we will consider it as its gorgeous Gulf beach is one of the best in the world and it is a lovely place.
Honorable mention goes to Panama City Beach. The city itself isn’t doing that well, but the beach is probably the best in the country in terms of sand, water and affordability. We will definitely be back to visit its clear, blue waters and sugar white sands.
Second honorable mention goes to the Keys. Once again, it is way too expensive to consider and it’s beaches aren’t very good for swimming, but it is a beautiful place to visit and we really enjoyed our time there:
