Bethesda is nice and being further west than Silver Spring, it gets you closer to the agricultural reserve where riding is very nice (Poolesville on out to Mt. Sugarloaf). My 55 mile Sunday ride is Bethesda out to Poolesville and back, adding Sugarloaf gets it to about 65 miles.

Buying a house in Bethesda is painful, but there's a fair number of rental units close to the restaurant zone, which is also very convenient to the Red Line subway for getting into DC itself.

Finally, if you have kids, the public schools are very good.