Poss relocating from Va Beach to Raleigh. Help?

[Mike A.]

Hey guys thank you in advance to those who help. I have lived in Va Beach for over 30 years and am considering the real possibility of relocating to Raleigh with my company (banking) I have frequented the Hampton Roads forum for years and thought that this is a pretty good pool of people to get info from. I've been to Raleigh once back in the 90s to visit a friend who was in school down there at the time and I'm sure it's changed a lot since then. 

 I want to know how the overall quality of life is. I love Va Beach due to the great schools, low crime and amount of things to do so. I love the beach and surfing so I know that's out but I also like other outdoor activities, great restaurants and bars and being able to make days trips to DC, NY or Philly if I want to go. I wanted to see if anyone familiar with both areas may be able to compare the two, relatively speaking. 

My apologies if this isn't the right place or there is another thread like this somewhere that I missed. The news came down today the will be closing our site at work and I have about a 6 month window to figure it out just two weeks after I got engaged and in the planning stages of our wedding. I have some very tough decisions to make and whatever nuggets you guys can send my way about what Raleigh has to offer would help tremendously. Thank you 

[Jones_]

Mods will probably move this to the Coffee House but Raleigh and the area in general accommodates all of the things you mentioned in your second paragraph. Even surfing is possible with the Wilmington area beaches only about 2 1/2 hours away (Wilmington itself is just 2 from downtown Raleigh). Downtown Raleigh and Durham both have substantial nightlifes. Even several of surrounding smaller towns are developing happening little downtowns...most have a brewery and a coffee shop. Raleigh and Durham are chocked full of many of both. The Raleigh Greenway system is substantial and is almost fully connected all the way to Durham and the American Tobacco Trail via Cary and Umstead Park. Raleigh now owns the old Dorthea Dix land and is working on a master plan for how to use it...it is beautiful and practically adjacent to downtown Raleigh. Durham is a little edgier, Cary is a little more family oriented. Raleigh sort of splits the difference between those two. Chapel Hill/Carrboro is dominated by University of North Carolina in a good way. RTP is an international airport and I fly all over the place with ease (just got back from Philly on Frontier actually). 

I would suggest reading the other forums in here to get a good feel for the various new things coming along and what gets folks here excited. It's a changing, growing, solid area to live in and is very much a "something for everyone" sort of place. 

[RaleighHeelsfan]

I would consider the two areas very similar. Minus the beach. Tons of outdoor activities and lakes. Great places to eat all over Raleigh and Cary. You name it...we have it. Shopping places, we have it. Traffic, we have it. lol

google city data.com Raleigh. Post the same things and you will get tons of answers a lot quicker. Especially about the schools.