The Best Places

My wife and I have been discussing where we might live next for some time now. We love Southern Utah; at one point we were making a couple of trips there a year for canyoneering and mountain biking. But we’re not enamored of some aspects of the culture and, since we like wine (and Utah won’t allow wine shipments), you’ll notice that we’re generally looking at the states surrounding Utah.

As we move through our search, I may add names and take others away. I’ll go into each city in more detail before too much longer. So without further delay, here’s a first pass at the candidate list:

The best places to live?

Arizona

• Prescott
• Tucson

California

• Bishop

Colorado

• Colorado Springs
• Durango
• Grand Junction
• Salida

New Mexico

• Albuquerque
• Las Cruces
• Rio Rancho
• Silver City

North Carolina

• Asheville

Okay, that last one is sort of a ringer. But my daughter is in college there, and my Mom, who is getting up there in years, is nearby. It’s a long shot, but one that we can’t quite rule out.

Welcome to TheBestPlaces.info, where we will explore the best places to live, work and play.

This is a personal journey for my family — we’re looking for places where we may ultimately want to relocate. I’m hoping for an early semi-retirement; my wife will be wanting a place where she can put her therapist skills to work.

We’re starting out with a love of the southwest, so that’s the locus for the search. Criteria we’ll be looking at include climate, outdoor recreation opportunities, licensing requirements for my wife, housing values, quality of schools, etc.

Currently, we’re living in an isolated corner of Northern California. It’s 1-1/2 hours just to the nearest Wal-Mart! Our typical shopping trip, for anything other than groceries, is a two-hour drive to a city with a Costco, Trader Joes, etc. Airline travel is a major hassle, starting and ending with a three-hour drive, so our criteria will include distance to major metropolitan airports and other components of an “isolation factor.”

We like our small town, but we’re open to city life too. So stick around. I’ll be getting to the criteria and a list of possible locations very shortly.