Warm in Winter?

[BTravlin]

You might want to consider something a little further south like Cozumel, Mexico. Very safe island with lots of condos to choose from. Rental properties were overbuilt during the last boom period and there are many owners who would love to rent their place for up to 3 months at a time. Lots to choose from so you could probably land a nice place on the water at a good price. Tons of good inexpensive restaurants, beautiful beaches and much, much more.

And December through March the average high temp is 80F and average low temp is 64F.

Cozumel Gallery, Cozumel Mexico Official Destination Website

 

[Koolau]

I actually did live in Hawaii Kai and Nui Valley (Remember that small area?) When I lived on the outer Islands I found myself needing items or things I wanted to do that were all on Oahu, that is why I ended up here after Kona and Maui.

As far as travel goes, I leave Hawaii once a year for 2-3 weeks for Nevada so the travel thing also never hurt me.......I guess it is like they say, what works for one person may or may not work for another....

I am very lucky that in over 35 years I have never gotten rock fever although I am very familiar with people who have.

Out of curiosity, where did you end up living?

6 years now on Oahu and I have never gotten rock fever. It may be because we leave "the rock" once per year as does Kimo. Just knowing you can leave when ever you want to is enough for most folks to lose the "fever" that a few folks get. I will say, when I get back to the mainland, I DO enjoy just GOING someplace a good distance away (last year, vacationed from midwest to FL). Still, I believe I could live out my days and never leave again - not that I'll try that. It is definitely a personal thing - so recommend anyone considering a move to the Islands 1) explore the Island options 2) rent before you buy 3) Read Toni Polancy's book So You Want to Live in Hawaii: Toni Polancy: 9780966625301: Amazon.com: Books I found the book helpful and also correct on most subjects she covers.

For those only "snow-birding" to the Islands, I can not imagine "rock fever" setting in, but as always, YMMV.

 

[anethum]

But what about crime? Scary being so close to mexico and the bad stuff going on down there. Wasn't that young guy that got picked off his jet ski a couple years ago from around that area?

I don't know about Brownsville, but El Paso is right across the border from Juarez, supposedly one of the most dangerous cities in the world, yet El Paso has a low crime rate relative to other US cities. (I admit to being surprised myself when I learned of El Paso's low crime rate a few years ago.)

The cities (pop. 250,000+) in the table in the link below are in alphabetical order by city name:
United States cities by crime rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indeed, Buffalo & Detroit appear to have much higher crime rates than El Paso or San Diego, which might lead some people to believe that it's a lot more dangerous to live near the Canadian border than the Mexican border.

 

[susswein]

Lots of canadian snowbirders in beach towns on the west coast of mexico (San Carlos, mazatlan, puerto vallarta, etc). You can live pretty cheap down there, especially if you get away from the gringo ghettos.

 

[kramer]

Lots of canadian snowbirders in beach towns on the west coast of mexico (San Carlos, mazatlan, puerto vallarta, etc). You can live pretty cheap down there, especially if you get away from the gringo ghettos.

I lived in Mazatlan before and there was a decent sized community of Canadians. Most are over 65 years old. It seemed like half the expats were Americans and half Canadian.

Hmmm, the Canadians considered Mazatlan a good wintering destination. It was getting down into the upper 40's almost every night in December. I couldn't believe how cold it was and I would never spend another winter there. When I asked the Canadians why they considered this good snowbird weather, they would always say, "Do you know how cold it is in Calgary right now!" Ha ha, nice comeback but I don't care how cold it is there, I am freezing my arse off here. Also, the water gets quite cold in the winter, down to the low 60's and it can get windy.

And the summers in Mazatlan were simply blazing, too hot, even though I like hot weather, it was extreme.

Southeast Asia weather is great in the North American winter, but I am biased ;-)

I did some of the same research and I didn't find any place in the continental USA a good wintering destination climate-wise -- every place is a compromise. Although the USA has some great summer weather.

 

[jflynn4]

For the last five years, we've rented a condo across from the beach in Bonita Springs, FL. For only two months, buying anything doesn't make sense. We drive down in late January and drive home in mid-April, so for us the Chicago winter is only 2 months long. We can handle that.

We're getting slightly bored with the area, but have many friends who winter within 30 minutes drive from our place there and that counts for a lot.

Florida really is God's waiting room. And pretty crowded in winter.
If you go to central/north Florida, many things are nicer but the temps can get a lot colder. The difference between 60' and 70' is major.

Flagler Beach - between Daytona and St Augustine - is a gem that doesn't seem to have been discovered (just yet). Very reasonable housing prices, temperatures that are warmer than north Florida yet cooler than south, very clean quiet beaches, and situated about an hour or so from both Jacksonville and Orlando. Saying it's not been discovered is something of an understatement .... most days, it has the distinct feel of the 1950's-1960's to it. Much different than the gulf or the southeastern coast!