So I guess I can't tempt you to Bahrain, then?

Summer temperatures 50+ C with 100% humidity, hot fog like a turkish bath
Highest driver/pedestrian fatalities in the world
220 square miles with the cultural outlets commensurate

We're looking for a similar choice -

One of my best friends and colleagues has chosen (mentioned by someone in this thread earlier) Turkey - inland and uphill of Fetiyeh

Skiing 20 mins (and they say they'll build a lift sometime soon), sea and watersports 20 mins the other direction, new build house with 4 bdrms and a pool for 125k sterling

We're tempted. Our kids say, 'oh, forxxxxsake why'!

wow, this is interesting,as my wife and i were just looking at places to retire. We came across The Villages in Florida. It looks very nice. They also have to bike clubs and a bike shop in the Villages.Looks like some good weather now. Does anyone know anything about this area?

Santa Fe, NM, or if you want a busier and cheaper location, maybe Albuquerque.

SF has a winter and it can get cold, but that's due to being at 7,000 ft. It can snow, but it's usually gone in a day and then the temps are back up to 50. I know a few local roadies that when it snows, they drive south 1/2 hr.and down 1500 ft. where it's sunny, 50 and no snow. Summers are sometimes up in the 90's, but that's at mid afternoon with zero humidity and it's back to the 60's at night, few folks use air conditioning at home as example. There's ton's of restaurants as it's a tourist town, art galleries, museums, theater, a world class opera, and a pretty good selection of decent roads in a town where folks are somewhat more tolerant of cyclists as a lot of folks are into an active lifestyle. Plus if you get bored with road riding, you go mt. biking and you never run out of places to go. Or go hiking and you never run out of places to go. Or camping, or fishing. etc....

It's a bit pricier to buy into, ABQ is a lot cheaper, and the entire SW has water issues, but SF is the state capitol, so there will always be water.

Plus NM has the finest Mexican style food on the planet.

SB

Albuquerque is pretty big, Santa Fe pretty, but expensive. I'd move to Santa Fe in a heartbeat, saving my pennies.

Here are three to visit, winters are milder than you'd think in Durango or Grand Junction Colorado, both are nice size. Also visit Moab, UT, small, excellent climate, cycling mecca and beautiful.

I also love the California suggestions, but be careful to study taxes in any place you are interested in, I've been shocked at some sales taxes in some communities there.

I lived in Reno NV for many years and loved it. Sounth from Reno, Carson city and particularly the Minden/Gardnerville area are also very nice, and are Greg Lemond's old stomping grounds. No state income tax in NV...yet. I'd move back in a heartbeat.

Look at Inland Southern California. Great weather, tho some heat in the summer. Where I live (Hemet, CA) as long as you get out and ride early you are fine. Homes are quite affordable now. Many people are snowbirds here and in the surrounding area. Maybe you could find a winter place here, and keep you place in Maine for the beautiful summers. And it doesn't have to be H-town, there are lots of nice snowbird communities in Riverside County or the San Diego area. My husband and I also kind of like Yuma AZ in the winter. Yuma would be way too hot for me in the summer.

They have a try out visit program. Don't know the details now; but when we did it we stayed in a snowbird's home for a week. If you are considering the place you might want to take advantage of their program.

If memory serves the place was designed by the same people that designed one of the theme parks, like Universal Studios I think. Lots of developer subsidized activity. It will be interesting to see how all that works out as sections are turned over to homeowners.

Be sure you check out the climate. That part of Florida in the summer can be pretty hot and humid.

Thanks Lat.65 I was wondering about a few of those things. Gets cold here and hot in the summer so we thought we could handle the heat for a short while. Did you decide it was not for you?or have you not made up your minds yet?

I rode it about 20 years ago when I lived in Tulsa. It was fantastic. We were driving across it going into Mena. I took my bike off the rack and coasted down into Mena letting my late wife to drive the car into Mena. I pedaled back up from Mena later on.

Wow, first response hits it out of the ballpark.

Yep, Tucson would be my suggestion. But I'm biased: My parents moved to Tucson when they retired a dozen or so years ago, and when I started cycling in their new hometown it made me want to take an early retirement package and join them!

Chew on that for a second: The cycling is so good in Tucson that I would willingly move close to where my parents live!

...unless you like hills. Last summer we did a ride around Winters & Davis and over the course of 40 miles my wife's altimeter recorded a total elevation gain of only twenty feet!

The best thing about this thread for me is reading about all the places people consider to be wonderful for cycling. I sense some tours on the horizon.

Considering that real estate is in the dump right now, no sense in considering selling the old place just yet. You might keep it for your summer home, and winter over in Arizona.

I really like Wyoming in the summer. Nice countryside and no state income taxes! I think it would be a great place for summer, and winter in Florida (also cheap real estate right now + no state income taxes). Or, you can do winters in Belize (English-speaking country in Central America), or even better, Panama.

Interesting topic!

The one thing that scares me about some of these great locations (domestic and international) is the lack of top notch healthcare. I don't mind going for a couple of weeks to some exotic third world location for a vacation but don't want to spend the rest of my life in a place with less than stellar healthcare. I think I would want to be within 15 minutes of a place that could handle a serious emergency (such as heart attack or stroke) and maybe within an hour of a place that would offer top notch treatment for other serious (but not immediately life-threatening) illnesses. Sorry to bring this up, but I am just keeping it real.

I like the idea that someone posted earlier of continuing to live where I do (with 8-9 months of good weather), and just leave for 2-3 months a year to get out of the worst of the winter. You could go to a different location every winter.

A lot of the final decision depends on how much money I will have when I decide to retire in 10-15 years.

Good point about health care. We live in a suburb of Salt Lake City and love it here. Great cycling about 9 months out of the year, and excellent health care, not to mention all the wonderful things this community offers. We're not Mormons and haven't found that to be a problem in the least. The University of Utah hospital was just ranked as the best overall medical facility in the U.S., and having had 2 major leg surgeries in June-July (broken femur) and prostate cancer surgery in September at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. I'm told I should recover 100% from both procedures, and was really impressed with the loving care I received. We usually leave in our RV about the first week in Feburary and head to S. CA and S. AZ for 6 weeks or so for some cycling. Wish me luck that my rebuilt leg will hold up.

I agree with you in your health care concerns. But if the entire health care system does in fact get completely reworked by the government, it will be dumbed-down to it's lowest common denominator. To insure everyone gets free health care, I understand that everyone will get much lower-quality care. Simple fact.

In which case, Panama has stellar doctors and hospitals. You might want to do some Internet research on Panama. Their doctors are mostly USA-educated and trained, and as the systems evolve, will no doubt have much better quality than here in the States.

Just my observation.

Could you expand on that a bit. My sister lives in North Tuscon. I visited her for a few days a couple of years ago and rode a bit on some beater bikes she has. The roads up that way seemed OK but I wasn't thrilled. Could you describe a few of the rides you liked so much. I may have failed to give the area a decent look.

We always make a point to do these two rides every time we visit:

- climb Mt. Lemmon (take Catalina Highway north-east from Tanque Verde for ~20 miles...all of it uphill. Get a slice of pizza at the Cookie Shack, then turn around and ride another ~20 miles...all of it downhill.

- the loop at Saguaro National Park East. Imagine a roller coaster that went through the most scenic, colorful portion of the Arizona desert. Now replace the tracks with smooth paved asphalt. Exquisitely beautiful. I think if I lived anywhere in the eastern part of the city I would make riding that loop my daily pre-breakfast ritual. It can be either peacefully meditative and a gut-busting workout...or both!

We also really like to take Sunrise > Skyline west to Oracle and then head up north into the Oro Valley...though sometimes traffic on those East-West roads can be nerve-racking, especially when there's road construction.

But where ever we ride in Tucson, we notice three things:
1) the city infrastructure acknowledges & accomodates cyclists as a fundamental component of travel, not as an afterthought
2) motor vehicles acknowledge & accomodate cylists -- perhaps begrudgingly, but that's better than nothing.
3) the other cyclists we meet on the road are, without exception, the most overtly friendly cyclists I've ever encountered anywhere!

We have been here in southeastern NC for the last 15 or 16 years and it is great. Still have season changes, but really nice weather year round. Now it is snowing today which is VERY unusual for here but normal winters you need a jacket or coat in the morning but you peel it off around noon. Even have a great buy on a retirement home for you too. Take a look at this for only 90K.
Annual property taxes less than $600 (yep, thats not a misprint).

Wilmington is a nice area. I have often thought about a house like above for a winter home once retired. It also far enough away from the Duke fans!

To be fair, Winters is ~ 5 miles from "foothills" that have enough elevation to make it interesting for retirees. Running down Pleasants Valley Rd will yield Cantelow Rd, Mix Cyn and Gates Cyn Rds. If the latter two don't get your attention as a climber, then perhaps the flatlands are a better choice. Heading due west is Lake Berryessa and Napa County, which is not pan flat like Yolo County.

I wouldn't have thought of Winters as a retirement option, but, since it was mentioned I suppose it would appeal to certain retirees.

There is a reason so many coaching and training organizations have winter camps in Tucson. Even Phoenix based groups will do camps in Tucson, mostly because of Mt. Lemmon.

And I think the friendliness of the motorists is at least in part because El Tour de Tucson draws so many riders - it gets people used to eth idea of cyclists sharing their road.

I have an aversion to ghettos, even self-inflicted ones. The Villages is, like other age based "retirement" developments, a ghetto; albeit a very plush one. That said all decisions of where one lives are a blancing act.

Another factor is economic. The continuing global economic restructuring has made decisions to move to another area and into a culture that may not be compatible more difficult. Used to be if things didn't work out, something that is fairly common, a person would just sell out and move again. Now declining house prices and increasing moving costs put a high price tag on that.

All that said I haven't totally eliminated any possible course of action.

That makes sense Lat.65 , From what i understand about the Villages is that there all about fun.And i could dig that, always been a bit of a playbaby. LOL.Thanks for your insight.

There is a wonderful 55+ community in my town that my husband didn't know about all the years he's lived here. My parents checked it out several years ago, and boy were we impressed. I describe it as "a neighborhood within a neighborhood" within the historic "old town" part of the city. One can buy into a free-standing home w/garage, a duplex or single, and have the option of assisted living (if needed) or full care (if needed). The grounds are beautiful, manicured and well-kept. This place has many happy, active seniors. Claremont also has one of its own for active seniors. I wouldn't describe either of these places as "ghetto", not even remotely ----- unless I'm not understanding the current use of the word.