Telling people where they should live is surprisingly hard.
Recently, a reader named Andy reached out after he finished If You Could Live Anywhere. He and his partner are considering returning to the United States after years living overseas (in the Swiss Alps!). Except they have no idea where they want to move, and he wrote to me for suggestions.
Here’s their fairly bare-bones wish list:
They want to be in a neighborhood with restaurants and breweries.
They want to be less than 20 minutes from a trail network where they can ride their bikes or hike.
They don’t want to be in a big city.
It’s shocking how underqualified I am to be any sort of expert on place. I told Andy to check out Roanoke, Virginia, and Asheville, North Carolina, both decently close to my home in Blacksburg, Virginia . . . and then the limits of my own experience of geography became embarrassingly clear.
So help a guy out. What cool, restaurant-laden, close-to-trails towns and small cities should Andy look at? Email your ideas to me at mw@melodywarnick.com. I’ll let Andy know—and share the answers in my next newsletter.
P.S.—If you’ve read If You Could Live Anywhere too, I’d be grateful if you left an Amazon or Goodreads review. I won’t even make you promise to keep it to five stars.
