Where to move to in California (San Diego, San Jose: how much, hotels, home)

[movingtocali26]

I am 26 years old and looking to move to California this summer. I haven't decided between the North and the South. I'm looking for a place that has people around my age, single, and a good nightlife. I am university educated and work for myself so job market is not an issue. I make about 200K per year so I'm fairly flexible when it comes to the prices.

I realize that the LA area has the benefit of having a beach and better weather for the most part, and the drawbacks of lots of traffic and I heard that things are very far apart and there's lots of crime.

I am travelling to California on Friday for 10 days, to drive around and see the different regions, where would you recommend that I go? I am landing in San Fransisco, and flying home from LA. I am pretty open to anywhere in California. Which cities/towns should I visit?

[drshang]

Before I moved to CA, my GF and I did a similar trip where we basically wanted to tour CA for something like 10 days to get a feel for the state and get an idea (both from a tourist and a living perspective) of what it would be like to live there. We tended to stay in more touristy areas and spend most of our time in real neighborhoods with only a little bit of time spent on actual tourist attractions. It's just easier to bid for nice hotels cheap in more touristy areas as long as you aren't going in some peak season. Our trip started in OC and ended in SF, but here is where we went.

Day 1 - Orange County
Day 2 - Pasadena
Day 3 - Santa Monica
Day 4 - Santa Barbara
Day 5 - Monterey
Day 6 - San Jose
Day 7 - Sausalito
Day 8-9 - SF Proper
Day 10 - Departed from OAK (spent most of day 10 in SF too)

Some comments would be that we were pretty tired by day 8 and doing one city a day was great for the first week but we were a little worn out by the end of the trip. That said, the end of our trip was more compacted in one area so that made it less of an issue. I don't think, had we done the trip again, we'd have done it much differently except maybe try to spend a couple more days doing the same stuff...but if you have 10 days you have 10 days. We didn't go to SD because we were both already familiar with SD and didn't really have time to visit that city.

Since you are self-employed (I am too) I would focus on a similar set of cities. Not having to commute would put some of the more "sleepy" CA towns as a part of your range, but my assumption is you want a city type of lifestyle. Both LA< SF and SD would all be appropriate for you. Given the fact that you don't need to worry about finding a job (SD job market is crap and the main reason we didn't move there was because my GF isn't self-employed and needed to find a job) I think you really should check it out. I'd do something like this:

San Francisco (definitely spend a couple days here)
Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo (either one or two of these)
Santa Monica/West LA (spend a couple days here since I think this is a large part of the range you'd end up wanting to live in)
Downtown LA/Pasadena (they are 10 miles apart and there's really not much to do in DT so stay in Pasadena and check both of them out)
Orange County (I personally despise this area but you should still visit and make your own judgment as to how you feel about it)
San Diego

This is a lot to do in 10 days but it'll really help you narrow down your choices and give you a feel for many different places/cultures within CA.

[Kibbiekat]

Maybe go north of SF the first day, then drive down the coast. If you are interested in Mountains at all, try the Tahoe area or gold country. CA is very big, so it helps to narrow down what you want to see before you plan your route.

[Jonotastic]

I'd choose between San Francisco or San Diego.

Santa Barbara is also very nice, but I don't know about the job market there.

[MtnSurfer]

Interesting question...

I am from LA and now live in Monterey and know most of the other places in between.

Since you are flying in to SF check out the city. Then swing down to the coast and take a look at Santa Cruz which has a lot of young singles due to the University and great surfing and other ocean sports available. Take a drive south from there to Monterey.

Then drive south to LA and check out Manhattan and Hermosa Beach. This is an area with a huge young adult population. Walk down to the strand and you will see what I mean.

From there you could visit Newport Beach and then go south to San Diego.

Personally I prefer NorCal. But you might like SoCal better. Either way you need to check out both to decide for your self. There are a lot of nice places in CA. But not all of them meet your criteria for young ppl and good nightlife. Once you move here you can always visit different places and relocate as you get to know the various areas better.

A lot of it boils down to personal taste and a bit of trade offs such as the traffic of LA vs. a lot more to do at night, etc... How much nightlife is enough? Do you want big Hollywood performances or will some kind of local funky bands be good? What about daylife and types of outdoor activities as well?

Derek

[CA central coast]

San Luis Obispo. 45kppl good looking Cal Poly girls, great downtown, lots of activity. Be there Thurs. night for Farmers Market, near the ocean.

[MtnSurfer]

I was going to mention SLO. I just wasn't sure about the nightlife. But with all those college students you would think there would be something going on, even though it is kind of isolated from larger cities like SF/LA/SD.

[buckeyenative01]

Like others said, its a bit isolated, but SLO is gorgeous. I'd guess there's be a significant military population there as well, what with Vandenberg being somewhere in between SLO and Santa Barbara?

Amtrak can get you down to SB/LA or up to the Bay Area if need be. Personally, I hated driving up and down the hills around SLO on the 101.

[Dean Trails]

Originally Posted by CA central coast

San Luis Obispo. 45kppl good looking Cal Poly girls, great downtown, lots of activity. Be there Thurs. night for Farmers Market, near the ocean.

CCC.........you have to keep quiet!
You don't want have everyone flocking to the area!

Recommend Fresno or Bakersfield.........I hear that Yuba City is nice??
Doesn't Stockton have a farmer's market???

Heck, pretty soon SLO will get this GIANT indoor mall!

[cobmw]

For the good life look at the Orange County coastal area and north San Diego County. If you need to party a lot then I guess you'll have to look at LA. But you couldn't pay me enough to live there.