I lived in Estero, West Palm Beach and now Clermont. I really like Clermont but I am also a super simple person. I really do think this is an amazing community to raise a family though, with new schools and lots of activities. It is far enough from Orlando to not even think you are anywhere close to and you don't have any of the big city problems, but it close enough to MCO that you can get out of here in a heartbeat. We have a great lake that we OWS, a great pool, lots of trails, and hills for the bikes. If you are absolutely a city person it may not be for you.

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We're a fairly simple family as well. Work, play with the kids, train (me - triathlons/running/mtb, the wife - whatever workout tickles her fancy that day). This isn't the first time Clermont has been mentioned to me. I've liked what I read but you know how the internet can be so its nice to get an actual persons opinion on it. I actually don't mind being near Disney, and with a 4 and a 2 year old something tells me I'll be there often. Thanks for the heads up, I'll do more digging.

DON’T DO IT!!!

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

Haha, also not the first time I've heard that. Why do say so?

Depending on where you go, the riding can be mediocre (Clermont) or a death wish (Miami).

I grew up in Florida and moved to Denver after 28 years. Never going back.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

I can understand that. I've been in Massachusetts all my life. 41 years of snow is enough. We have family and friends scattered over Florida and we both like it there (even the heat). I do most of my rides on the trainer but would like to get out once in a while so its not a deal breaker (plus my wife doesn't care if it is good bike riding or not). I live in Western Mass which is more on the rural side compared to the Boston area and I've had several near death experiences with cars. I'm just starting to accept it as the price of doing business and riding as defensive as possible. If I have to do a 10 mile loop over and over so be it. I'd rather see my kids grow up .

Ha, I went to High School in Panama City, Florida and college in Colorado Springs. I would much prefer to be here. You simply have to know what you like.

  
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ing=jupiter#p4484390

teebles wrote:

There is the possibility of moving to Florida in my near future. If you had carte blanche to go wherever in the state you wanted, where would you pick for a triathlete with a young family (4 and 2 year old). Looking for good school system, and a better than 50/50 chance of not being killed while riding my bike. Bonus points for an outdoor pool, something about seems very cool to me though I'm sure the novelty would wear off. Thanks!

Clermont is the tri capital of Florida, but is starting to get swallowed by Orlando. Check out Ocala. 45 minutes away from great riding in Clermont, two outdoor pools (Y and local community college), active triathlon community, home to some of Florida's best mountain bike trails. Close to two paved trails. School system is pretty solid too.

Other places I would consider: Tallahassee, Sarasota, Tampa.

Clermont is a good choice. I live southwest of Orlando and make the 15 minute drive to Clermont all the time to ride the West Orange trail. Not ideal for a TT bike but it's acceptable on a road bike and you don't have to deal with traffic. Open water swimming in the area is pretty solid.

However, if I had kids that age I'd want to get a place in either Nocatee or Beachwalk in St. John's county which is a suburb just south of Jacksonville. St. John's county has a great school system and if you're willing to pay for private school Bolles is tough to beat. When I have kids I'll likely relocate to send them there (bonus: I'm told they have a great masters program for parents after they drop their kids off).

Nocatee is a mature community and has a nice 25m pool dedicated to lap swimming in the community center. You're only a few minutes from the beach if you want to swim in the Atlantic. The community itself has decent bike trails and you can safely ride on the road IMO. If you want to put some serious mileage on your TT bike you can get out on US-1 and do a south/north loop early on a weekend morning. You get a lot of house for your money in Nocatee IMO. Also, the cost of living in general in Jacksonville is pretty low (especially if you're coming from the northeast).

Beachwalk is a similar story to Nocatee but it's just coming out of the ground now, doesn't have the dedicated bike paths that Nocatee has, and is located in the same general area, but it will have that sweet 14 acre "crystal lagoon". They've started excavating and I'd estimate it's at least 200 meters long.

Both are also close to Guana Preserve which has some flowy single track if you want to get out on your mountain bike. You're also only about an hour away from Santos in Ocala which is friggin awesome if you have a mountain bike.

Steer clear of south florida entirely.

I can only speak to Tampa but Tampa does have some nice places to ride and run that are wide multi use paths. Suncoast trail is long so you can get good mileage in there. Flatwoods Park is a 7 mile loop but has cold water every 2 miles so good place to run or do brick workouts. Also Courtney Campbell causeway has a nice trail. And a short drive north of Tampa is San Antonio which has rural roads and hills. Not crazy hills but still hills. Lots of YMCA pools which are pretty nice. I feel like Tampa is one big strip mall but there’s plenty to do and I always felt like the parks were nice.

I also would consider Clermont or the area fairly close to it. I have no knowledge of schools though. I also really love Winter Park, having just spent some time there. Great Y with a good masters program and a nice outdoor pool and great people, A very nice community with many local owned shops and killer farmer's market. It feel like a true community which is hard to find sometimes. Biking made me drive to catch the trail but doable for sure. The great thing is Orlando airport is so user friendly and easy and cheap to fly into from virtually anywhere. By getting away from the concrete jungle of Orlando there are some really nice communities and even hills! ;-) I would absolutely stay away from either coast as the congestion and constant tourist stuff gets old very fast. Just my opinion, but I see myself moving that way fairly soon.

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Don't do it. Seriously...Here's a short list of reasons not to:
1) The people here suck.
2) Florida schools are horrible. You have two young ones and eventually you will be looking at public schools. Yes, you will find a decent school here or there. But even those schools rarely hold their own compared to the northeast. The only option is to look at private schools or compete in lotteries for magnet schools. Magnet schools are usually pretty good but it's not a plan for the future cause it's a lottery. You may, or may not, get in. And private schools drain your bank account. On average we spend over 15k a year for our little ones. That price may go up to over 30k a year for high schools (when we get to that point). Do the math. Financially, Florida is a terrible investment.
3) There are no hills. That doesn't sound like a big issue, you can simulate them for training right? But it makes workouts so boring that you will be tempted to give up the sport.
4) It's the same god damn weather every day. It's sunny and warm. I'm by the water so it's never truly hot. Variety is the spice of life. Florida is bland.
5) Did I mention the people here suck? They are the rudest people I have met in my lifetime. I would gladly spend time in any big city versus dealing with people in Florida.

That said, some people love it here. (I clearly have no idea why)

Something that has to be considered is your financial situation. That will vastly help narrow down (unless you have endless money) what locations would work for you. Real estate in Florida is ridiculous compared to areas up north.

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I agree with this post, Nocatee is pretty nice and new. Has ton's of runners, some of the fastest group rides in NE FL and is a couple minutes from Micklers Landing where they do OWS. You get a1a which runs from Micklers to St. Augustine with zero stop lights for 25 miles one way. I'm about 45 minutes from Nocatee but drive over almost every saturday for these reasons.

This thread is interesting. I grew up outside Portland, OR and moved to South Florida (near Tampa) in high school. After college I settled in north Florida. I find Florida interesting in that culturally and geographically north/ south are completely different. I've been in Florida now 25+ years and I hated south Florida, I like (not love) north Florida. Whenever I think about moving that whole cold/snow thing always keeps me here. It gets cold enough in N Florida to be cold/ have season but not so cold to prevent training outdoors year round.

Grew up in Cocoa Beach. Moved to Boca Raton for undergraduate and graduate school. Lived in Jacksonville for 2 years. Now Tampa for about a year (South Tampa). Did an internship in Jupiter and gf at the time lived there, and spent lots of time in Miami, Orlando, Gainesville.

CB is a great place to raise kids and has a good community vibe. Westhore and Edgewood at highly ranked schools. Cocoa Beach high has an IB program. Jacksonville has good schools in the Ponte Vedra area but overall that place could burn to the ground and I would drink a beer and watch. Its trashy in my opinion and Ponte Vedra people are uppity. Boca Raton was very wealthy and uppity but very pretty. College it was fun, not to sure about little kids though. Jupiter was the same way. Very new money flashy. Gainesville is nice but boring is all hell. Orlando is traffic congested and landlocked but Winter Park is actually very nice (Where Rollins College is). Miami - just no. Although my uncle LOVED Miami. Came from Penn and went to U of M and never wanted to leave.

Personally my favorite place so far is Tampa. You got city, nice weather, wealth but not flashy wealth (for the most part), people seem very nice, it is a younger crowd (due to the colleges perhaps), no idea how the schools are. Always something fun to do or an event going on. Traffic isnt to awful bad - depends where you work and the times. Water everywhere. Boats. Fishing. VERY athletic culture/community here.


This is all my opinion though. So please do not be offended by it - but if you are - that is your problem. I grew up in a middle class family that was well educated in a small beach town where even if you could buy a Bentley - you bought a Toyota.

St. Pete. Moved here from Portland Oregon almost 5 years ago now. Downtown is nice, lots to do. Great outdoor pool(s) at the North Shore Aquatic Center. St. Anthony's triathlon, which is happening in a couple of weeks is centered downtown. Public school system is awful, at least compared to Portland, and the drivers, yikes, but there are a lot of roads that are well travelled by cyclists, just gotta pick your spots. It gets really humid/tropical during the summers, so be prepared for that.

I'm in my third year in Gainesville, and while I agree it might be a bit more boring than a larger city, we find it is a great place to raise a family. Property values seem reasonable, and Alachua County schools are pretty good. I mostly train on my own, so I don't know much about the tri-scene here, but I see group rides going on every weekend up around Millhopper.

Random GNV slowtwitcher, we should have trained while I was still there. lol.

I can say that GNV has a decent setup to train. We would ride throughout Alachua County and never had any real issues as far as traffic. A lot of wide open roads.

And for the life of me, I can't fathom how people are getting good training in Tampa. I was there for a summer and it was miserable. I did Davis Island loops every single morning, both bike and run. The Suncoast Trail (or whatever) is nice, but if you're relocating to an area and cycling is a big part of your life, you're going to be very disappointed to realize that the only "long" route you can do is a straight, 40 miles stretch of a path that hugs an interstate... Tampa was awful. I have lived in Orlando, the Treasure Coast, and Gainesville, and Gainesville by far was the best for training. Orlando was okay and the Treasure Coast has A1A which is perfect for long rides... But Tampa? IMO, stay away.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

I live in Panama City. Nice area with decent places to ride a good community of cyclists and a constant stream of people coming to town to train. The advantage is having an outdoor pool, lots of opportunity for OWS, and a load of tri events locally including IM70.3 Gulf Coast and IM FL... Depending on where exactly you are, property values are reasonable. The pace of life is a bit more relaxed than big cities but you do have to deal with a huge influx of tourists 8-9 months out of the year... and tourists are not the most awesome of sorts on average. School system has opportunities for magnet system but you are dependent on the lottery system.

Overall, there are a lot of things I like about being here as a triathlete. Weather is trainable year round, there's always somewhere to swim/bike/run on or off road, and you can do every distance without traveling. Somebody pointed it out, but there are basically no real hills so you will eventually lose whatever climbing skills you've built up :-P

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Blog | Strava

Tampa was nice before they tore down the Gandy bridge. You could get in a good 70 mile ride by riding over to St. Pete, ride with the fast guys out to Fort Desoto and then ride back to Tampa. Now the bridge is gone and that I'd never ride on the real Gandy bridge, unless i was looking to die. But you're right...Davis Island laps during the week. Over and over and over. That's about the only safe place to ride.

I second for St. Pete. Lots of cyclists around there and there are large group rides out of North Shore pool (which is outdoors and you can see the sun coming up in the morning as you're breathing).

I will have to agree with this. The cycling is pretty bad for any length of route in South Tampa. My boss does a group ride in eastern tampa and I guess there is rideable places there. Id just throw my stuff in the truck and drive 20 mins to where I could. That is not a biggie for me. Also gives me change of scenery as I get bored easy.

but yes - ull have to be creative if you are a dye hard cyclist.

As far as Gainesville. I like to visit (fam there) but to me it is boring but I am also single and 29. My cousin has two small kids and horses loves it. UF is always fun on game days and it is quite busy in town (midtown and downtown). Thinking about it - might not be a bad place to raise some kids depending on your lifestyle.

Unless you are rich, you aren't going to live in South Tampa, so who cares about the riding down there. Most FAMILIES are going to be in North Tampa (or further) and thus close to all the hills and great riding around Brooksville, San Antonio and Dade City. Virtually every roadie group is out there every weekend (check out Aeropro rides). This is also location for the Florida Gran Fondo every year; and the Hilly Hundred (Dec, free) is held out of Brooksville on many of the same roads. Of course, you can go to Clermont for the annual Horrible Hundred (Nov) or the Tour Latino (Feb). A short ways up from Clermont is the Mt Dora Cycling Festival (Oct). And if you are afraid of the roads and don't like the Suncoast Trail, check out the Withlacoochee or Van Fleet trails within a short drive. And every April there is the 170 mile Cross Florida ride.

A lot of folks choosing to live in NE Tampa might consider the new subdivision going in at Wesley Chapel. Show me the city up north that has a 7.5 ACRE POOL in their subdivision. Shit, you can practice your 2.4 mile OWS with only a few turns in that sucker. I'm just waiting for an RD to host a triathlon there now that it is open! And we have OWS race opportunities all the time such as Hurricane Man 2.4 OWS, Sand Key OWS Series (1.2/2.4 mi), as well as long options 6.2 miles, 8 miles, and 24 miles for the nuts. And I feel sorry for anyone who hasn't had an opportunity to swim the Rainbow River in Dunellon (3.6 miles in crystal clear 72 degree water (year round) with an effective distance of about 2.5 due to the current). Myself - I live in the NW side of Tampa. My subdivision (Westchase) has 2 pools regulated to 82 degrees year round. Admin time from my house is less than 5 minutes to either one (opposite directions). Top that.

https://www.abcactionnews.com/...ow-filled-with-water

I would argue that the biking and the swimming are fantastic. Running is great, but only in running season which is about Nov to Mar. After that, yeah, it sucks to run in the summer, but that's what sprint triathlons are for, and there are a shit ton in this area.