Moving advice: Midwest -> Florida (or Atlanta)

[Easy]

195 would be fine in the bays/ICW, I see them all over in the Destin area. My opinion, Florida is a great place to live right now, and the boating is great. in No state income tax, a government/governor that supports individual liberties etc. A downside is hurricanes. Would you be living in base with either airline? If I had a the choice between Tampa and Atlanta, and was in base for either, I would take Tampa in a heart beat. Living in base and having the ability to sit reserve at home and rack up the paycheck is life changing from what I hear.

Individual liberties that's a freaking joke. Gov...Death.. I live in North Florida

 

[jocolo21]

Just commute to work i live in orlando based in Jfk/lga been doing in it for 20year ATL is a shorter commute but when DAL uses a 767 atl to mco and you are in the jumpseat all the time that tells you the amount of commuters living in central fl...i will pick Fl and commute. For what i heard Lenier you will need a bigger boat.

 

[BlkGS]

Context: I grew up in So FL, now in space coast, travelled a lot (not as much as a pilot, but a lot).

Tampa sucks. No really, it does. There's nice parts (not in actual Tampa) and the gulf coast is great but it has traffic like Atlanta and the entire area is a royal bitch to get from one place to another in. It's a series of highways that all funnel into choke points. It's also insanely expensive and growing like top 3 or something in the country. So... factor that in.

Boating in FL is also not the same as lake boating. While Tampa is a bit different than most of Florida in this aspect, most of Florida isn't a "cruise out to the sandbar and chill" kinda boating. It's also not a "found our peaceful cove to tube with the kids" kinda boating. There's a LOT of boats and if youre not in big water, it can be crowded. The ICW in West Palm would literally have boats on it like cars on a road, and that was 20 years ago. Tampa does have some pretty sweet sandbars and keys to hang out at, and I do think that the gulf side is preferable in terms of boating and beaches and water to the Atlantic... But watch out for red tide.

If it were me, I'd probably lean Atlanta. Having lived in NC for a few years and now being back in FL, a little bit of seasons was nice. FL goes between being too crowded to WTF ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE DOING HERE in winter. Atlanta also has 2 awese race tracks in town, and because I am a masochist, that's my other super expensive hobby.

Will either job pay you enough to buy a waterfront house to keep the boat docked at? That'd be a deciding factor of boating was my pure motivation.

 

[BlkGS]

Just commute to work i live in orlando based in Jfk/lga been doing in it for 20year ATL is a shorter commute but when DAL uses a 767 atl to mco and you are in the jumpseat all the time that tells you the amount of commuters living in central fl...i will pick Fl and commute. For what i heard Lenier you will need a bigger boat.

MCO is like, the top tourist airport in the country. The amount of people Delta moves from the ATL hub to MCO has to be insane.

 

[Thermobrett]

We relocated from the midwest (eastside of Cleveland) in 2010 and it had to be the best decision ever made. Yes the cost of living is more expensive, but the quality of life out weighs that. You do not have the gloomy, cold, wet/snowy depression months waiting to go outside for that short 3 month window to open and close. Now, I will say about the only thing I miss from Ohio is the food. Its hard to find a good Italian deli/restaurant that is not a chain, or some good European food (we did find the Pierogi Grill in Clearwater). Aside from that, I think the boating is great down here. You can use it year round, if you don't mind trailering, you can be in different parts of the bay or gulf in a short amount of time. Everyone is definitely entitled to their own opinion, this is just mine.

 

[84rzv500r]

A house on the water comes with its own challenges however it is absolutely the best for boating... I made the transition form western NY to Juno Beach 12 years ago and never looked back... Decided the Atlantic side wasn't for me and then moved to the Lower Keys... A house on the OPEN WATER will be 4X the dollars and was not worth it to me... I lucked out and found a spot on a strait out canal that dumps in to Pine Channel. There are not so subtle differences even in which side of an island your on in terms of the focus of your boating activities.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

So I'm an airline pilot by trade. Recently I've been offered positions at two different airlines. Airline A would move us down to Florida (likely live in the Tampa/Riverview/Brandon/Apollo Beach area). Airline B would move us down to Georgia (likely live in the north ATL burbs...near Lake Lanier or Lake Altoona). I'm pretty torn on where to move. I'm definitely one of the Midwesterners that despises the cold and snow so either place will be better in the sense. Florida though is much more aligned with my lifestyle/vibe with the warm-weather and year-round boating/motorcycle riding. On the flip side, I do like the idea of living very close to one of the big lakes in the north ATL area. However, I have heard that the traffic and the commute from north ATL burbs to the airport can be downright miserable and places like Lake Lanier aren't as desirable as they used to be due to overcrowding. An additional consideration is I currently own an AR195. Obviously that'd be fine in any Georgia lake until I can upgrade to something bigger. An AR195 in Florida I'm a little less sure about. I've operated both an AR210 and a 242s down in the ICW's and gulf before. Those do plenty fine but would an AR195 be okay cruising around the gulf in Florida until I can find a bigger boat down the road? Trim tabs I presume would be a must on a 195? Is dry-docking worth it? Seems convenient as hell rather than trailering.

Other than that any if any of you guys out there got any tips or input or have spent time any time in either of those two places and wouldn't mind sharing what you did/didn't like or heck even where you personally would move to given my situation would be incredibly appreciated!

I see you posted this back in February and nothing since. Lots of great posts here on several places to go, their pros and cons.
So what did you decide?