Comments, Critiques of VA Beach area
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 - 12:29pm
I'm looking for any comments and/or critiques of living in the VA Beach area, specifically how it is for families with small kids. Is it a good family environment, or too touristy, stuff like that. I'm hoping some of you guys have some good info. All info is welcome, good or bad! If it stinks down there, I'd rather know ahead of time! (My husband is trying to get stationed down there.)
Thanks for any responses!
I should get points for admitting he's my brother...
Mixolyde (7:28:44 PM): put me in your profile!
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Mixolyde (7:32:21 PM): how about Tigger: Forgetting about tact since 1980
I don't live in VA Beach, but I have a couple friends who do. In general I think it's a pretty nice area, with crappy parts too. Most of the bad areas are in Norfolk and Newport News (aka Bad News.) As for being touristy, I don't know. I know the major roads get pretty busy during the summer with people heading to/from Kitty Hawk.
I lived in Va Beach for a few years and in the surrounding area for a couple of years. Since Hampton Roads has the biggest navy base in the world, it has a LOT of families. This also means if your husband goes on deployment or overseas (depends on service) you should have a lot of support, plus it is an area that knows that a lot of business comes from service members so that is nice. There can be a good chunk of tourists in the summers visiting the beach, but it is nice and has a nice boardwalk style walkway.
Although with the large service means a lot of single crazy people partying as well.
Also, expect big traffic like Rob says. Although it is mainly in the morning and evenings when people are traveling to and from the base. If you already live in a metropolitan area you are probably used to it though.
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It gets pretty touristy during the summer months. The roads are troublesome then, as you get all sorts of drunk, distracted, and/or lost traffic. I believe it has some of the highest vehicular accident rates in Virginia during tourist season, though the last time I saw the data on that was at least five years ago. Couldn't tell you about living there though.
I'm used to the tourist bit, I already live near the shore. And I remember hearing years ago that Newport News was a bad area, good to know some things never change..
I should get points for admitting he's my brother...
Mixolyde (7:28:44 PM): put me in your profile!
Tigger1fic (7:30:05 PM): say something worth putting in my profile!
Mixolyde (7:32:21 PM): how about Tigger: Forgetting about tact since 1980
I assume you're military, based on your avatar. My wife was a military brat and finished high school there. We visit her parents there still. (He was Navy.)
There's some really nice beaches in that area. There's also some cheesey touristy areas. If you like living at the beach, VA Beach is a nice area. You even have relatively easy access to the NC Outer Banks.
There's some good schools in the area if you have kids. And if you plan to live there a long time VA has a very strong public higher education system.
Busch Gardens is a very nice theme park just 1.5 hours up the road in Williamsburg. They do a lot of military theme parks. We go there all the freaking time. Good rides. Water Country USA is fun too. We buy season passes since you can go to both.
You also can get to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Williamsburg, Washington DC and other good day trips.
I grew up the DE beaches and seriously considered living in VA Beach. It's a nice area IMHO. Only reason I chose NC was that I was looking to work in the tech industry. (Not a lot of that in VA Beach.)
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I've lived in DE most of my life, so most of the stuff you mentioned I've already been to or know about!
Good to know the school system is pretty good, though. Now we just wait and see where they send us...
I should get points for admitting he's my brother...
Mixolyde (7:28:44 PM): put me in your profile!
Tigger1fic (7:30:05 PM): say something worth putting in my profile!
Mixolyde (7:32:21 PM): how about Tigger: Forgetting about tact since 1980
Live on the peninsula. You get away from most of the touristy stuff. The commute will be slightly worse if your other half has to work down there, as traffic in the tunnels sucks. It never fails that some moron can't drive in a straight line through the tunnel without plowing into the wall.
I grew up in Yorktown, and did quite a bit across the water in VA beach through my high school years.
Somewhere on a deep ocean vent no man has ever seen, God smites a small colony of tube worms because you masturbate.-JoeBedurndurn, on sin
Yeah, but obviously not all school districts are equal. Do the normal research on test scores/grades when you start picking your location.
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