Best Swimming Places to retire

We did a lot of research before we settled on a Del Webb Community, Sun City Grand which is located in Surprise, AZ, about 20 miles NW of Phoenix. After two years of part time visits, we moved here Jan 1st of this year. I LOVE it! Have to agree with Elaine, my only complaint are that the pools are too warm. You can check it out at www.grandinfo.com. Feel free to shoot me any queries!I'll second the greater Phoenix area as an awesome place to live, retired or not. Plus, with the real estate market in the toilet, it's really a buyer's market. As a Masters swimmer, there are great teams at both Phoenix Swim Club (central/slightly east PHX) and Mesa Aquatics Club (definitely east valley). The city of Scottsdale (where I live) has two awesome pools with dirt cheap lap swimming year-round (McDowell Mountain Ranch and Cactus Aquatic Center), along with a couple of other semi-seasonal pools. I'm very biased towards Scottsdale -- pools, restaurants, cultural events, running/biking trails, dog parks, etc.

Thanks Elaine, Cokie and pwb:) We were focusing in on Phoenix and your info has really helped. The cost of living is definitely less than the Seattle area. We're going to visit in February. Thanks so much!

Eagle, Idaho has some new interest. Ask Bob Strand.

I'll second the greater Phoenix area as an awesome place to live, retired or not. Along with the Del Webb properties, there's also Sun Lakes (another developer, Robson did this one). The advantage of this is that it is very close to Chandler, and you'd be within a few miles of the 2 pools Chandler keeps open year-round for swimming. I know a few people who live there, min age is 45 (I'll be there in a few years). They have decent lap pools, both indoors and out, and a small masters-type group right in the community. There's golf and all of the other activities that are typically found in retirement communities. I sometimes bike through the area, and people are always friendly, waving to me as they drive past in their golf carts. One great advantage of Sun Lakes is that you'd be an easy drive to swim with either the Mesa team (at either Kino or Skyline pool) or Sun Devil Masters @ ASU (at either the Rec Center or Mona Plummer). There's also Leisure World out in east Mesa, which would be well-situated for the Mesa-Skyline facility, and not a bad drive to Kino. There's many other retirement communities in Mesa that you could select from. Housing prices in Sun Lakes or the Mesa retirement areas are typically much less than elsewhere in the area. Even at the housing peak, most houses in these areas didn't get much above $200-250,000. Now you can probably find something for $100,000 or less.

My wife and I are looking into a place to have our motor home happydaysrvpark.com/.../photos.html Thanks Elaine, Cokie and pwb:) We were focusing in on Phoenix and your info has really helped. The cost of living is definitely less than the Seattle area. We're going to visit in February. Thanks so much!

I'll second the greater Phoenix area as an awesome place to live, retired or not. Plus, with the real estate market in the toilet, it's really a buyer's market. As a Masters swimmer, there are great teams at both Phoenix Swim Club (central/slightly east PHX) and Mesa Aquatics Club (definitely east valley). The city of Scottsdale (where I live) has two awesome pools with dirt cheap lap swimming year-round (McDowell Mountain Ranch and Cactus Aquatic Center), along with a couple of other semi-seasonal pools. I'm very biased towards Scottsdale -- pools, restaurants, cultural events, running/biking trails, dog parks, etc. I can never, ever leave Arizona because of the swimming. Scottsdale actually has 3 dirt-cheep aquatic centers--don't forget Eldorado Pool in the south part of town. My neighborhood even has 2 pools with one lap lane each (outdoors, heated in the winter). And there's plenty of open water swimming. From my house in N. Scottsdale, I'm 45-50 minutes from Saguaro Lake, an hour from Bartlett Lake, and a little over an hour from Lake Pleasant or Canyon Lake. Check here www.watergirl.co/.../open-water-swimming-arizona or here www.facebook.com/.../ for more info on open water swimming in Arizona. The summers are unbelievably hot, but I don't even feel it because I'm in the water every spare minute.

Austin. Great people. Lots of sun. Good food. Music and film festivals. No state income tax. And open water swimming year round in Barton Springs, where the water is a constant 68 degrees. Hey Robert Plant just moved here.

Have you considered the Sacramento/Davis area? In terms of swimming, that would be hard to beat. Davis Aquatic Masters is a huge and very good team. You'd be located in the biggest LMSC in the county in Pacific Masters, giving you access to lots of great swim meets and probably the best open water program in the country. You'd also only be an hour or so from Lake Tahoe (since you prefer mountains) and an hour or so from San Francisco and Napa. In terms of cost, I'm sure places like Arizona are cheaper but Davis/Sacramento is as reasonable as you can get in California. The weather is better than Arizona too (and you can still swim outdoors year-round, which is awesome).

Just to let you know the rental for the motor home lot in Apache Junction is under $225 a month for a 12 month rental. They have WIFI so I can keep in touch with the world. I already have my Magic Jack Arizona phone #. We will soon be there. Kino or Skyline pool are not far away. They do have a small pool and a hot tub at the RV park...

Have you considered the Sacramento/Davis area? In terms of swimming, that would be hard to beat. Davis Aquatic Masters is a huge and very good team. You'd be located in the biggest LMSC in the county in Pacific Masters, giving you access to lots of great swim meets and probably the best open water program in the country. You'd also only be an hour or so from Lake Tahoe (since you prefer mountains) and an hour or so from San Francisco and Napa. In terms of cost, I'm sure places like Arizona are cheaper but Davis/Sacramento is as reasonable as you can get in California. The weather is better than Arizona too (and you can still swim outdoors year-round, which is awesome). :applaud: