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Relocate-America's™ Top 10 Best Places to
Live in 2007
see more articles below
Traverse City,
Michigan #2
Beach bumming,
treasure hunting & castle building. This is the
stuff memories are made of. Perhaps the most
stunning features of the Traverse City area are
its sandy shoreline and crystal clear lakes.
The Traverse City region has a total of 180.8
miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and 149' deep,
aqua-colored lakes that are 10 acres or larger
in size. In this section, you will learn where
some of the area’s best beaches and parks are
located and the amenities that they offer.
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Below
are the top 10 cities on Relocate-America.com's America's Top 100 Places to Live
for 2007:
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If you are searching for solitude, choose a
remote beach - even during the height of the
summer season, it is possible to be alone on a
long Lake Michigan beach. Or choose one of the
many beaches right in Traverse City for
companionship, volleyball and a friendly family
atmosphere.
Nowhere in the Midwest is there a more alluring
winter playground than the Grand Traverse Bay
region, where all the snowy pleasures present
themselves in abundance and variety. There's
something for winter enthusiasts of every
stripe. No matter how you take your snowy
pleasures, you'll find easy downhill slopes,
daunting steeps, terrain parks for trick-riding
snowboarders and miles of cross-country and
snowshoe trails.
In addition to skiing, snowshoeing and
snowmobiling, the Traverse City region also
hosts several outdoor skating rinks, four
year-round indoor hockey rinks and other winter
diversions including sleigh rides. Follow the
links below for details on the major outdoor
sports.
Set against a backdrop of woods, water and hills
throughout picturesque Leelanau, Grand Traverse,
and Antrim counties, Traverse City golf is, in a
word, incomparable. Matchless designs, stunning
beauty, impeccable conditioning and a warm
welcome await golfers teeing up in Traverse
City. It's Michigan's Golf Coast, a region
selected by Golf Magazine as one of the top six
golf destinations in the country. Traverse City
golf includes designs by Nicklaus, Palmer,
Player, Doak, and Weiskopf.
Located on the 45th parallel, Traverse City is
home to vintners who grow grapes and bottle
wines on the scenic Old Mission and Leelanau
Peninsulas. The wines are fast becoming among
the finest offered nationally and
internationally. The ideal climate, with
vineyards protected by winter snows and
conditions moderated by proximity to Lake
Michigan, has given rise to a wine industry that
has been recognized for its quality and variety
since the first winery opened here in 1974.
Notable for Rieslings, methode champenoise
sparkling wines, Chardonnays and fruit wines,
Traverse City area vintners are now also
receiving high praise from critics and consumers
alike for their red wines, Pinot Noirs, ice
wines and other varieties.
Visitors can enjoy days of touring and tastings
at beautiful wineries located on some of the
most breathtaking sites in the area. Our
wineries are located on two beautiful peninsulas
extending north from Traverse City - the
Leelanau Peninsula and the Old Mission
Peninsula.
Traverse City and the surrounding region are
filled with dozens of galleries, each offering a
range of works from local, regional and national
artists. Choose from paintings, sculpture,
glassware, photography, folk art and more! While
Traverse City itself is home to many galleries,
you will also find fascinating galleries in
nearby towns such as Leland, Elk Rapids, Glen
Arbor, Suttons Bay and Northport.
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CNN.Money Best Places to Live 2007
Full Story
Top 100 rank: N/A
Population: 15,600
Compare Traverse City to Top 10 Best Places |
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AARP's membership magazine
has revealed it's annual ranking of the top five places
to live for people older than 50. The selections are
based on criteria that make a community livable, such as
mass-transit systems so residents can drive less,
expanded sidewalks to encourage walking, better health
care, and a wide range of mixed use housing, according
to the magazine. Looking for a great place to retire?
This year's top picks are:
Atlanta: "A sophisticated metropolis with southern charm,
Atlanta offers abundant volunteer and cultural
opportunities. Retirees also appreciate the wide range of
housing options."
Beacon Hill in Boston: "This historically genteel part of
Boston is full of culture and great restaurants. The Beacon
Hill Village provides concierge style access to a network of
support services for aging residents including
transportation, health care and entertainment."
Chandler, Ariz.: "Gracious desert living combined with an
activist twist that encourages residents to get involved
with the spirit of the town. A city climate and plenty of
parks and open space provide ample recreation
opportunities."
Milwaukee: "An example of urban renewal at its best,
Milwaukee features picturesque river walks and affordable
water-front living.
Portland, Ore.: "European charm meets environmental nirvana
in this environmentally progressive city. 50-plus residents
love the miles of safe bike lanes and the revitalized Pearl
District."
AARP also named four cities to watch: Austin, Texas;
Burlington, Vt.; Mankato, Minn., and Traverse City, Mich.
Source: AARP The Magazine |
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Forbes has a report on
150 cheap places to live. Author Richard Karlgaard
points out the obvious: it’s more expensive to live in some
places than others.
This is the
21st century, man! Today you can enjoy
the best of both worlds:
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Live
where you want.
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Get paid
like you’re in a big city.
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Never be
isolated or bored.
Happy Hootervilles — porch-swing communities with less
than 25,000 people, such as Traverse City Mi.
This category is
designed for families and others in search of
that Norman Rockwell hometown feeling--vintage
Americana suffused with parades, country fairs
and summer evenings playing kick-the-can.
Schools are a high priority to many folks
considering this category, and the best American
K-12 public schools tend to be found in the
Upper Midwest.
Traverse City
nestles on a small inlet on Lake Michigan
directly across the lake from Green Bay, Wis. It
boasts sunset views among the best in the
country, respectable ski resorts (for the
Midwest, anyway), Michigan's best indoor water
park and a huge outlet mall. Before the growth
of its local airport, the town was just too
inconvenient for most outsiders to reach, but
increased air service to Cherry Capital Airport,
three miles from downtown Traverse, is changing
that.
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Fly Rod and Reel Online >
November/December 2005 (Volume 27, Issue 5)
Here's FR&R's
article on the finest places for living out the
dream
Let's face it, none of us is
getting any younger.
In fact, our recent FR&R Reader Survey indicates that a good portion of
us are at that stage of life when retirement may be right
around the corner. You know, time to relax, move into a
condo in Florida and pick up golf. Maybe even play a bit of
bingo every now and then.
Just imagine it-drawers full of pastel shirts and pleated shorts; bus
tours of the Maine Coast during the summer and maybe a
part-time job at Wal-Mart. Ah yes, that sweet payoff after
years of toil in the elements or under flickering
fluorescent lights. Enjoy!
Yeah right. If you're reading this, chances are you prefer
Montana to Florida-unless you happen to be stalking a
bonefish or battling a tarpon; your favorite thing to do on
a golf course is poach bass out of the water hazard, and you
think bus tours are for ninnies. In fact, if retirement
means anything it means more time to spend on the water
fishing, right?
That's how we feel, too, which is why we compiled this roster of the 12
best retirement towns for the hard-bitten fly angler.
Now, many of the places listed here may have been mentioned elsewhere as
good spots for retirement in general, and are far from
undiscovered. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing-it just
means they all possess adequate infrastructure to handle the
needs of a graying population-hospitals, part-time jobs,
cultural activities and perhaps a Denny's or two.
But all of these towns are also located near fantastic fly-fishing water,
plain and simple. And although Western hotspots are given
prominence for obvious reasons, our choices are otherwise
fairly evenly spread throughout the country, so an angler
looking to relocate can offer his wife a variety of options.
So here then, in no particular order, is Fly Rod & Reel's list of the
top-12 fly-fishing retirement spots:
12 Top Fly-Fishing Retirement Towns
Area Fly Fishing Info.
Traverse City, Michigan
Northwest Michigan may not have the "best" of a single type
of fishing, but from steelhead to salmon, and smallmouth to
pike they have a bit of everything, and Traverse City is
located right in the heart of it. An angler would have to be
pretty jaded to get bored up here with the Manistee, the
Pere Marquette and the legendary Au Sable rivers all
situated nearby (and don't forget the nearly endless
possibilities of Lake Michigan).
All that water is enough to make a guy pick up and move there, and that's
exactly what Chuck Hawkins did. He retired to Traverse City
from Los Angeles 14 years ago and hasn't looked back.
Fly-fishing was high on his list of criteria, and he looked
at places such as Jackson Hole before choosing Traverse
City. The fishing, he says, is incredible. "I don't know how
to describe it. We have, arguably, the best fly-fishing in
the United States."
Area Stats
Grand Traverse County
Pop: 77,654
Median age: 38
Median household income: $43,169
Median home value: $130,400
Distance to nearest metro areas:
Detroit 250 miles
Chicago 320 miles
What to do off the water:
If winter steelheading isn't your thing, go skiing on the
friendly slopes of nearby Mount Holiday.
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Retirement Places Rated:
Sixth Edition, 2004, by
David Savageau
Traverse City, Michigan #25
What You Need to Know to
Plan the Retirement You Deserve",
More than 200 places rated on Ambiance, Cost of Living,
Climate, Personal Safety, Services and Economy.
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