Best Swimming Places to retire

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::applaud: One benefit of having such a big Masters program is having many workout times to choose from. There is even a workout that gives preference to seniors, though of course they can choose other workouts if they want.

I've been to Phoenix twice in the summertime, and once in the spring. All were for swimming events of course. ... Wonderful place though. I see myself heading back again sometime in the future. And when you do, be sure to let me know. My club hasn't scheduled any meets yet, but Mesa Aquatics already has several listed: www.mesamasters.com/Home.jsp As you know firsthand, their meets are always a lot of fun. :agree: Hope to see you soon!

... that left OR...The greater Portland area has a number of GREAT masters options and pools, but might be high on the COL index. If you want, I think, a lower COL, consider Bend: beautiful town, smaller, less rain and an awesome masters team with an awesome facility (http://www.comaswim.org/).

Thanks for posting this thread. I'm not at retirement, but I am looking at possibly moving to a more economically friendly place. I've been in Austin, TX for just over 6 years and have been unable to reach most of my primary goals, mostly due to the toughness of the job market here (especially if you are "older"), and the high cost of living. (Property taxes are high here. Most of my friends my age say they will work till they die so they can keep their house.) If you have a lot of "spreadin' around money" however, Austin is a great place to retire for swimming, as Gull mentioned. The SNAFU is that there are no USMS pool meets here, mostly OW events (that may or may not be USMS sanctioned). If you offered me $500K I might swim in Ladybird Lake, but anything less and I'd have to think about it a long time. Lake Travis is OK, most of the year. There is a lot of competition for lane space here, but if you like swimming with a program, then there are nearly limitless choices. So if you got lots of cash, and like swimming in coached sessions, Austin is a fantastic place to retire, especially if you like Music and Art festivals. Politically Austin is pretty liberal, but this is Texas... and then there is the heat... and water shortage.... Yep... dang ol' tell you what man.... Don't know if this will help you, but this is the process I'm currently using to see about relocating. First I narrowed down the State because I have some health issues and want to have the option to possibly partake of a unique treatment ('nuff said on that). The short list was OR, NM, HI, CA. Since cost of living (COL), water availability, population density, and general economic stability are top issues, that left OR. I've been judging the COL using Property Taxes, and (as mentioned early in this thread) the COL Index. I then went to the USMS Places to Swim page and started looking up what pools were listed. My reasoning is that if it is listed there, it must be a pretty decent pool. Some LMSC webs have great lists of their groups and pools. Once I identified cities through the above process, I started looking up info on them. Wikipedia is a good resource for that. There are a number of web sites that allow you to compare cities, and list loads of demographic info, etc... try: www.google.com/search I've moved a lot. I'm convinced now that I'm part Gypsy. A few times I've just "bottled up and went". All I can say for sure is that you cannot know for sure if you will like a place till you live there. As for Austin I misjudged the job market, and was clueless at the time regarding Property Taxes vs. COL (yeah, I know, I'm not always the sharpest tool in the shed, but I get by). The Grateful Dead- Ripple - YouTube :-) Be Well... Have Fun!

I guess the Texas people may be onto something: www.aarp.org/.../10-best-rated-states-for-retirement.html (Don't see AZ anywhere on the list... :)) I'll give them Texas, but they lost all credibility with this reader when they put both Oklahoma and South Dakota on this list. Have you ever heard anyone say,"Man! I can't wait to retire ... but I'm struggling between which retirement mecca to choose: Wounded Knee or Norman?"

I'll give them Texas, but they lost all credibility with this reader when they put both Oklahoma and South Dakota on this list. Have you ever heard anyone say,"Man! I can't wait to retire ... but I'm struggling between which retirement mecca to choose: Wounded Knee or Norman?" I agree, Patrick. More than one place on the list is in "Tornado Alley", which is definitely not on my list of places to retire. Besides, I don't have to worry about it too much as I'm already living where I will be retiring. :)

I guess the Texas people may be onto something: www.aarp.org/.../10-best-rated-states-for-retirement.html (Don't see AZ anywhere on the list... :)) Then there is this: www.aarp.org/.../10-worst-rated-states-for-retirement.html Of course, shame on the AARP for not including masters swimming in their so-called "objective" rating!

I agree, Patrick. More than one place on the list is in "Tornado Alley", which is definitely not on my list of places to retire. Besides, I don't have to worry about it too much as I'm already living where I will be retiring. :) Charlotte County FL. We have 2 county pools (constant 79-81 degrees) 8 lanes each, lane swimming 10-7 Tuesday - Friday 11-5 weekends plus 6:30Am T-F. Oh yes the cost $80 a YEAR! Add zero state income tax, on the gulf with tons of canal homes. We are between Sarasota and Naples. Add golf, gators, fare restaurants and shopping. But we have no master swimmers....but we could start.

If you're thinking of the Gulf Coast of Florida, you should probably consider Sarasota. USMS headquarters are there, so I imagine you will be able to find someplace friendly to swim nearby. Me, I'd opt for something with more interesting cycling terrain. That said, I will probably follow Ellen wherever she wants to go. :)

PWB would say Mesa & I agree!