NC ladies (and I guess gentlemen ;) )

My DH and I are thinking of coming to NC with DD for a visit, where would you recommend to go for a long weekend 4-5 days . We need a place that's affordable and close to or major cities like Charlotte or Raleigh and family/kid friendly.
We would also like to check out some real estate close to major cities while we are there(since DH's company maybe opening an office in Raleigh or Charlotte down the road, NOT 100% YET) , what towns would you recommend looking into? Good schools, family oriented , safe , easy and short commute to the major city ( about 20min to 45min from Charlotte or Raleigh) by bus or by car.

Thank you in advance

P.S. I have a feeling this will be moved to home , but I'll take my chances and just xpost later

Re: NC ladies (and I guess gentlemen ;) )

We live in Cary,NC. We are about 10 minutes from downtown Raleigh. It is a great family oriented area. There are lots of new developments and some older more established neighborhoods. There is every store you could ever want to go to. Some other areas around here are:

Chapel Hill-college town but really cute-very busy lots of traffic-30 mins from Raleigh
Apex-town next to Cary about 20 minutes to Raleigh, has extablished neighborhoods but also a more rural feel-again all the stores you could want are within 5 miles
Carrboro-right next to Chapel Hill-supposed to be an up and coming, artsy but small town
Durham-this is an area you either love or hate. We thought it was sort of ghetto

You should check out city-data.com forums. They will give you a great idea of the areas. My sister lives ij Charlotte and could probably giv eyou the rundown there FM her: Mikismom

Re: NC ladies (and I guess gentlemen ;) )

Posted by melijane

We live in Cary,NC. We are about 10 minutes from downtown Raleigh. It is a great family oriented area. There are lots of new developments and some older more established neighborhoods. There is every store you could ever want to go to. Some other areas around here are:

Chapel Hill-college town but really cute-very busy lots of traffic-30 mins from Raleigh
Apex-town next to Cary about 20 minutes to Raleigh, has extablished neighborhoods but also a more rural feel-again all the stores you could want are within 5 miles
Carrboro-right next to Chapel Hill-supposed to be an up and coming, artsy but small town
Durham-this is an area you either love or hate. We thought it was sort of ghetto

You should check out city-data.com forums. They will give you a great idea of the areas. My sister lives ij Charlotte and could probably giv eyou the rundown there FM her: Mikismom

Re: NC ladies (and I guess gentlemen ;) )

We live in Harrisburg-is a small town in Cabarrus county, just outside CLT. I commute into CLT, takes about 25 minutes.

Harrisburg is family oriented, small town kind of place with a great school system (two elementary schools, a new high school and a middle school opening next year).

We looked all over and almost bought in "south Charlotte"-where most people seem to go. The big issue we had with Mecklenberg (the county that Charlotte is in) is the population growth and congestion. Schools get rezoned (so you can buy in what you think is a good district but then due to population growth and zoning, your kids end up in another one), the congestion was an issue for us-growing up on LI, I was done with traffic. To get a gallon of milk I did not want to have to sit in traffic or deal with traffic lights, etc.

However, the south Charlotte area has lots of stores, restaurants, more day care options, etc, so there are benefits too.

There are some really really nice areas (South Park, Meyers Park, Ballentyne), but they can be just as pricey as LI, and we wanted to reduce our cost of living and live comfortably. Also, the plots of land can be very very small in some of these areas-like .10 acres.

Good luck!

Re: NC ladies (and I guess gentlemen ;) )

OK so we have decided to go to Raleigh for 5-6 days :):):) what's the weather like ? We are coming with DD who is 17 mo. Is there a hotel anyone can recommend? Also could you recommend a good real estate agent in Raleigh(FOR RENTERS AND BUYERS)?

TIA

P.S. End of February or first week of March.

Message edited 2/12/2009 12:23:31 PM.

Re: NC ladies (and I guess gentlemen ;) )

I have a great realtor:

www.elisadeloach.com

She is very familiar with moving from NY to NC and very helpful and informative.

I have been living in North Raleigh for over 3 years now so please feel free to FM me with questions.