[ivcceo]

You may also want to look into Delray Beach on the east side. It's hip and has a young, artsy feel to it and it close enough to all the areas you need to get to.

http://www.downtowndelraybeach.com

[Kb_Perez79]

Matt,

I have the perfect location for you and your wife. We live in an area called Fishhawk Ranch in Lithia, FL. Its just outside of Brandon, FL which connects to Tampa, FL.

I can send you a link of Fishhawk Ranch. There are so many amenaties I know you and your wife would love. It is a pet friendly neighborhood. Moderator cut: email

I look forward hearing from you.

Krystal

[planetsurf]

Originally Posted by Matt1976

• I love the ocean and would like to be close by to it, however I’m slightly torn between the east and west coasts. Mainly because I surf, and therefore east coast is preferable for that, but I prefer the beaches of the west for their better waters and more picturesque appeal???

The answers here seem VERY thorough and well thought out.

I'll just add my 2 cents here as I grew up as a SoFla surfer.
The 3 best places in the state, BY FAR, for surfing are Jacksonville-St Augustine, New Smyrna or the Melbourne area.
You can (and we did yesterday) surf in SoFla or the panhandle it's just MUCH less consistent.
Tampa area is tougher but it DOES exist. 2 of Florida's best surfers, the Lopez brothers, come from around there.

But just understand that to surf in Florida you MUST be A) ready to travel to where the waves are and B) take advantage of the waves when they're there.
That's why the 3 areas I mentioned are the best. Most consistent and best quality waves on average.

Good luck.

[Keeper]

There really isn't much of surfing in Tampa unless there is a storm heading that way. We use to sail our hobie all around the gulf and you just don't see surfers. My niece use to go to the east coast to surf.

There are a lot of wind surfers in Tampa, especially around Dunnedin.

[HidnFox]

Matt1976 asked: One thing that I often see on this forum is that Sarasota is described as being full of older people with very little young people present, this makes me a little concerned about meeting people our own age and finding fun things to do,
-------------------------------------------------
It is true that Sarasota has become a retirement mecca. I've worked in marketing for home builders all over the west coast of Florida and we always had to target Sarasota with home designs that could accomodate seniors. However, there is a mix of ages there and even though some of my single lady friends who live there say it is very hard to find single men their age (30 - 40), as a married couple this will probably not be as big a problem. And one last thiing that I've observed about Sarasota - because it is a very 'creative' kind of place the retirees it attracts are often artistic themselves - there are a lot of musicians, artists and actors who move there because of the 'artists colony' kind of atmosphere and the lower cost of living than New York or California. It's also safer than Miami and much cheaper housing wise than Naples.

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by HidnFox

Matt1976 asked: One thing that I often see on this forum is that Sarasota is described as being full of older people with very little young people present, this makes me a little concerned about meeting people our own age and finding fun things to do,
-------------------------------------------------
It is true that Sarasota has become a retirement mecca. I've worked in marketing for home builders all over the west coast of Florida and we always had to target Sarasota with home designs that could accomodate seniors. However, there is a mix of ages there and even though some of my single lady friends who live there say it is very hard to find single men their age (30 - 40), as a married couple this will probably not be as big a problem. And one last thiing that I've observed about Sarasota - because it is a very 'creative' kind of place the retirees it attracts are often artistic themselves - there are a lot of musicians, artists and actors who move there because of the 'artists colony' kind of atmosphere and the lower cost of living than New York or California. It's also safer than Miami and much cheaper housing wise than Naples.

I also want to add that Sarasota has become MUCH younger and "hipper" overall in the last decade or so. We first moved there in 1980, and back then it was really filled with conservative seniors from the midwest and northeast. There were very few good restaurants or live music, etc. Fast forward to today - the "seniors" there now are a new breed - healthy, young at heart and artistic. There are also a growing number of professional, hip 30-somethings, and the three colleges are growing exponentially - New College, Ringling School of Art, and USF so there are many more artistic young students as well. It is also now known as the best city in the state for "green and sustainable" living. Also, lots of live music, art villages, etc. It's a great place to be, IMO.

[Matt1976]

Dear all,
I just wanted to give an update on what happened to us after almost a year from my original post asking for advice. We took you up on your advice after never ever visiting the place before and chose Sarasota!

We really like it and after renting for a couple months in an older property just off Bee Ridge Rd whilst waiting for our home shipment from England we are now renting long term in Palmer Ranch. For the same price we rented a tiny 2 bed house in England we have a 3 bed, 2 bath, single family pool home which is only a few years old and three times the size! So much more house for the money, thats for sure.

We moved out here in February, dogs and all, quite an initial shock to the system but we really like the city. We've explored it quite extensively and are pretty familiar with all the areas now. Favorite spots are Siesta Key, St Armands, Myakka State Park, Oscar Scherer & Legacy Trail, Longboat key. I like bar hopping and love the amount of live music you can see so quite like Gulf Gate, Sarasota downtown, Siesta Village, also heard about another district by the hospital with some live music places, so will check that out at some point.

Have jumped through all the hoops with the driving licenses, must say the test was very easy, think the exam was about 2 miles around the block, maybe hit 30 mph at one point! You guys call that an exam?
Also bought a motorcycle recently, and yes another test needed for that, have found some cool roads out in the boonies to explore so far, not enough corners though.

One of the biggest things we've come up against is "Credit". Totally impossible to get any, our UK credit counts for nothing and is not even recognized, its like we've never existed. I have one credit card which isn't really a credit card as had to use my own money to add credit to it, I then pay it every month to show I can be responsible. This I'm told i'll probably need to do for a year at least, at which point I may be able to get a "real credit card". As far as buying a house goes, thats going to be impossible, at least for a few years. Anyone have any tips on this?

Job is going good, spent a lot of time on the I-75, and yes there's a lot of troopers, hence I now have a radar detector. Tampa airport is only an hour away which is great and flies direct to London, and all the other citys I have to visit. My wife also managed to get a work permit within a couple months which was great and is now working full time in health care.

Surfing un-fortunetly has been put on the back burner, boards have not been out their bags since they got here, I think when a low pressure system creeps into the Gulf i may get some waves, but so many other things going on in our lives it is not a big priority at the moment.

The critters, well I must say we've seen our fair share, so far we've seen about 12 snakes, 4 or so on our doorstep, one literally was on the front door step and turned out to be a Pigmy rattlesnake which is poisonous, i took photos of it and had them checked out. Most of the rest were black racers, but pretty big ones which were quite scary at first. There's an alligator in the pond at the back of our house, but have never seen it on the land as yet. Fire ants seem to be a problem. Geckos, well are everywhere. Frogs, huge sand hill cranes, eagles, ospreys its like a wildlife park. Have gotten used to the undergrowth moving when walking around shrub land etc now which was weird at first.

Storms, wow, seen lightning like I've never seen before, madness, but cool!
Also feel like we've both turned into weather channel addicts and now feel like we're semi qualified meteorologists, much more scientific forecasting than we're used to! Have to keep an eye on those tropical systems.

So much more I could add but won't bore you all, but would like to say a big big thank you to all for your advice on everything, it really helped the move decision so much easier as it was a pretty big leap into the unknown.

Glad we did though.......

All the best Matt

[RMD3819]

Thanks for the update.

What kind of visa do you have? We get a few inquiries from the UK and the visa seems to be a big problem for most of them.

[xgemaxmwahx]

Hiya, we moved over from Manchester 6years ago. We bought an E2 business. Best move we ever made. We are currently living in Apopka, which is about 20min north of Orlando. Alot of brits live up here. What kind of area you looking for? Quiet? touristy? nightlife? Beach? Coming across here right now with the currency rate is great! you could get a mansion for 100pounds. Its crazy! I have helped alot of brits move over here, from visas,busineses, homes, cars, furniture etc. If you haev any questions feel free to email me direct and I will help as much as poss.
Good luck!!

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by Matt1976

Dear all,
I just wanted to give an update on what happened to us after almost a year from my original post asking for advice. We took you up on your advice after never ever visiting the place before and chose Sarasota!

We really like it and after renting for a couple months in an older property just off Bee Ridge Rd whilst waiting for our home shipment from England we are now renting long term in Palmer Ranch. For the same price we rented a tiny 2 bed house in England we have a 3 bed, 2 bath, single family pool home which is only a few years old and three times the size! So much more house for the money, thats for sure.

We moved out here in February, dogs and all, quite an initial shock to the system but we really like the city. We've explored it quite extensively and are pretty familiar with all the areas now. Favorite spots are Siesta Key, St Armands, Myakka State Park, Oscar Scherer & Legacy Trail, Longboat key. I like bar hopping and love the amount of live music you can see so quite like Gulf Gate, Sarasota downtown, Siesta Village, also heard about another district by the hospital with some live music places, so will check that out at some point.

Have jumped through all the hoops with the driving licenses, must say the test was very easy, think the exam was about 2 miles around the block, maybe hit 30 mph at one point! You guys call that an exam?
Also bought a motorcycle recently, and yes another test needed for that, have found some cool roads out in the boonies to explore so far, not enough corners though.

One of the biggest things we've come up against is "Credit". Totally impossible to get any, our UK credit counts for nothing and is not even recognized, its like we've never existed. I have one credit card which isn't really a credit card as had to use my own money to add credit to it, I then pay it every month to show I can be responsible. This I'm told i'll probably need to do for a year at least, at which point I may be able to get a "real credit card". As far as buying a house goes, thats going to be impossible, at least for a few years. Anyone have any tips on this?

Job is going good, spent a lot of time on the I-75, and yes there's a lot of troopers, hence I now have a radar detector. Tampa airport is only an hour away which is great and flies direct to London, and all the other citys I have to visit. My wife also managed to get a work permit within a couple months which was great and is now working full time in health care.

Surfing un-fortunetly has been put on the back burner, boards have not been out their bags since they got here, I think when a low pressure system creeps into the Gulf i may get some waves, but so many other things going on in our lives it is not a big priority at the moment.

The critters, well I must say we've seen our fair share, so far we've seen about 12 snakes, 4 or so on our doorstep, one literally was on the front door step and turned out to be a Pigmy rattlesnake which is poisonous, i took photos of it and had them checked out. Most of the rest were black racers, but pretty big ones which were quite scary at first. There's an alligator in the pond at the back of our house, but have never seen it on the land as yet. Fire ants seem to be a problem. Geckos, well are everywhere. Frogs, huge sand hill cranes, eagles, ospreys its like a wildlife park. Have gotten used to the undergrowth moving when walking around shrub land etc now which was weird at first.

Storms, wow, seen lightning like I've never seen before, madness, but cool!
Also feel like we've both turned into weather channel addicts and now feel like we're semi qualified meteorologists, much more scientific forecasting than we're used to! Have to keep an eye on those tropical systems.

So much more I could add but won't bore you all, but would like to say a big big thank you to all for your advice on everything, it really helped the move decision so much easier as it was a pretty big leap into the unknown.

Glad we did though.......

All the best Matt

That's great! What part of Palmer Ranch did you move to-Turtle Rock, Huntington Pointe, The Hamptons? I really love the convenience of that area-close to Siesta, Westfield, etc. Every buyer of mine that has bought in that area has been very pleased.

Sounds like you're having quite an adventure over here. Thanks for the update and best of luck to you!