Originally Posted by
SpongeDad
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.
This. I loved Arlington as a young single guy for lots of reasons (Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. See
www.walkarlington.com and
http://www.bikearlington.com/), but it's expensive and frankly sort of annoying.
Check out the "West Bethesda" area. It's about 5 miles from downtown Bethesda, 4 miles from Metro (with plenty of bike parking - we got a bike locker), some local shopping and conveniences and some great little neighborhoods. Prices vary from the mid 200's for a condo to whatever you want to pay. We're kind of wedged in between Potomac and Rockville, there are lots of great riding roads (Potomac area, River Road, Glen, Tuckerman, etc), it's about 12-15 miles into downtown DC, an easy trip via bike (road or Capital Crescent Trail) but car commuting is less fun. Schools are some of the best in the area.
But to be in the center of that "town center" feel... downtown Bethesda, Arlington, Alexandria, Takoma Park, the horribly fake retail Rockville Town Center are your best bets.