FREE NEWSLETTER
THERE’S AN OLD SAYING: Good things come in threes. That’s certainly been true for one aspect of my life. I’ve lived in just three locations—and all of them have been featured in national “best places” lists.
My early years were in Moorestown, New Jersey, a quiet town with a population of some 20,000. It’s an affluent suburb of Philadelphia that defies stereotypes about New Jersey. In 2005, Money magazine identified Moorestown as the best place to live in the country. This was well after I’d moved away. Still, the town was certainly a pleasant place to grow up during the 1960s and ’70s.
Moorestown has a strong school system, which I experienced first-hand. It also has a relatively low crime rate, a charming downtown and beautiful public spaces. It’s a little over an hour’s drive from the Jersey Shore. One downside: The town is so popular that homes have been richly priced for decades.
After I graduated from Moorestown High School, I made my way to Blacksburg, Virginia, to attend Virginia Tech. Blacksburg regularly makes lists of desirable places to live. For instance, Forbes included the town in its 2016 list of the top 25 places to retire. In 2018, Blacksburg was named the 63rd best place to live in the country, according to Livability.com.
I was only in Blacksburg for four years, back in the 1980s. It was an idyllic place to attend college. With the town located in the Blue Ridge Mountain range, it was easy to get away, even without a car. Within 10 minutes of leaving campus on a bicycle, you could feel like you were completely away from civilization.
The college itself has a mix of academic sophistication and friendly country charm. In a survey a few years back, Virginia Tech’s student quality of life was reported to be the best of any U.S. college. It was also recently rated as having the third-best college food in America. Sadly, that was far from the case when I attended.
All of my post-college life has been spent in either Lancaster, Pennsylvania, or an adjacent suburb. According to U.S. News & World Report, Lancaster is 2023’s top U.S. city for retirement. Lancaster County is probably most famous for its Amish population, but there’s much more than that.
The food scene here has exploded—a good thing for my family of foodies. For instance, when I first came to Lancaster nearly 40 years ago, there were no Thai restaurants. Now, there’s easily a dozen, most of them outstanding. Sushi is another family favorite. There’s a large number of great sushi places, Genki being our personal favorite.
Want top-notch Vietnamese? There are several options, along with Burmese, Ethiopian, Moroccan, Indian and Peruvian restaurants. In fact, name just about any ethnic cuisine, and you can find it. Of course, the famous Lancaster County Pennsylvania Dutch buffets are still around, as well as many fine dining establishments that defy easy definition. In short, this small city of 60,000 has just about everything you could want, food-wise.
What else is there in Lancaster County to attract retirees? A great health care system, parks galore, the Sight & Sound theater, top-rated farmers’ markets and sprawling shopping outlets. The historic Strasburg Rail Road is popular with both tourists and local folks. Scenic drives through farmland abound. And, oh yes, you’ll see plenty of Amish folks with their horses and buggies. You may even get to know some of them when you buy their produce.
There are several large, high-quality retirement communities in or near Lancaster. Willow Valley is the most prominent, with around 2,600 residents living on 210 acres just south of Lancaster.
It’s convenient to already live in such a location. As I ease into retirement, we’re not planning to move any time soon. Most of our social network is here. We love the people in our church, where we’ve been members for nearly 30 years. I regularly get together with friends from work. We have great neighbors on either side of our house, in back of us, and across the street.
We also have established relationships with a medical practice, a dental practice, auto mechanics, hairdressers and landscapers. A fully stocked hardware store is less than a mile away, and our well-managed fitness center is also close by.
Since the criteria used in the various “best places” lists change regularly, I fully expect Lancaster to relinquish its crown as the “best place to retire” sometime soon. No matter. We’re staying put.
Ken Cutler lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and has worked as an electrical engineer in the nuclear power industry for more than 38 years. There, he has become an informal financial advisor for many of his coworkers. Ken is involved in his church, enjoys traveling and hiking with his wife Lisa, is a shortwave radio hobbyist, and has a soft spot for cats and dogs. Check out Ken’s earlier articles.
Want to receive our weekly newsletter? Sign up now. How about our daily alert about the site's latest posts? Join the list.
I have the Northern California version of this story. I grew up in a bucolic, lovely small town (Larkspur) with great schools and perfect weather. And I’ve spent the vast majority of my adult life in Davis, a terrific university town. (There were a few years in Sacramento and four years in LA while going to grad school, but we’ve now lived in Davis for over 30 years.) I totally get staying put both for the lifestyle and for the ties we already have.
If you want to check out a cute Amish town in Lancaster county try Lititz just north of the city where my aunt lives.
Lititz also made “the lists” 10 years ago:
https://www.wgal.com/article/lititz-named-coolest-small-town-in-america/6224421
My son is a recent grad of VT. We loved visiting him and the entire area for his 4 years. And when we drove down/back from New England we frequently stopped in Lancaster for a day or more because we loved that too.
You have good taste in towns sir.
Thanks. Now all you have left to do is check out Moorestown sometime!
Three of our children went to F&M so we spent a lot of time over several years in Lancaster. I suspect it has changed quite a bit in twenty + years.
There is much to be said for staying in place in retirement. We moved to a condo, but less than a mile from our home of 40 year so nothing much changed shopping, friends, doctors, etc.
I don’t get the off to Florida when we retire thing leaving friends and family and virtually starting over. Sure the weather can be nice in the winter, we spend several weeks there in Jan and Feb, but not so much in July.
We could move to our place on the Cape and save $10,000 a year in property taxes alone, but leaving us six hours from children and grandchildren. Even Monte Carlo can’t measure the probability of the happening.
With three kids at F&M, I’m sure you did get acquainted with at least that part of Lancaster city. My son went to Virginia Tech, so I got to see how Blacksburg evolved in the past 35 or so years. It was still very familiar, although a lot of downtown stores had changed out. Food options couldn’t come close to comparing with Lancaster, however.
I interviewed with your old company coming out of college, but have to say I am not sorry I left Jersey. I do miss the diners, though.
Ah yes, the diners!
Your mention of the Sight & Sound theater piqued my interest. Over the years, I had been to a few shows at the Sight & Sound theater in Branson, MO and knew that another location existed, but had not remembered exactly where until I read your comment. The shows I have experienced there were quite breathtaking.
Sight & Sound is quite amazing, and there’s really nothing else like it out there. It is a huge draw to the area.