Recommendations for towns to retire in?

[geohbs]

Hi! Just curious to get recommendations of some nice towns/ area of the US to retire in. Particularly places that have good schools (our minis will be ~6 and 8 years old when we ER), are very walkable, and places with lots of fun outdoor activities (we are geologists... need more be said?).
Thanks!

[samdbtto]

Does the state need to be retirement friendly?  If so that can narrow down your options a bit. 

What kind of outdoors?  Ocean, Mountains, Hiking etc....

Weather preference?

Cost of living matter?

http://www.walkscore.com/ , that can help with how walkable an area is, even has biking scores too.

I can think of a bunch of places but don't want to make a list if a lot of them can be crossed off with a few questions.

[Melody]

I lived in Flagstaff Arizona and it was beautiful - amazing outdoor activities and a fun historic college town. The only drawback is housing pries and rents were both quite high (higher than Phoenix). Lots of good rocks (Grand Canyon, Sunset Crater, Giant Meteor) and Navaho ruins nearby too :) I'd imagine with the university and number of professors loving in town the schools would be reasonable, although that could be relative (AZ schools are not as good compared to the US as a whole, due to low taxes - so a "retirement friendly" state might be at direct odds with good public schools). The snow put a bit of a damper on walk/bike ability - but I guess this is an issue in many cities/towns. Also the nearest grocery store to downtown was nearly a mile away. Downtown has more social/fun stuff which would be important if you were retired.

[AccidentalMiser]

Chattanooga, TN.  Lots of outdoor activities, beautiful scenery, cheap!

We moved here 4 years ago.  We've lived many places all over the US and we've decided to retire in this area.

[Eric]

I thought this was an interesting discussion of where to live and what drives the decision making process

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/real-estate-and-landlording/cheap-but-nice-places-to-retire-to-in-us/

[dragoncar]

... we really don't need another active thread on this topic:

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/how-did-you-choose-your-retirement-cityplace/
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/can-you-beat-these-places-suggestions-for-liberal-mustachian-eretirement/

or the oldies:

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/real-estate-and-landlording/cheap-but-nice-places-to-retire-to-in-us/
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/most-mustachian-townslocations/

etc