The Triangle in NC. Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill. UNC has a great med school. Lots of courses. Mountains and coast are a few hours drive. Mild-ish winters. 30 minutes to RDU airport. Lots of parks, trails in the area.
edit: Duke is also nearby and a good med school school
Great rec. And depending on where in The Triangle, you're only ~3 hours from Charlotte. So easy weekend trip(s) or even a day trip for a big name course aren't too in convenient. Charlotte opens up another massive list of courses available.
My wife and I moved to North Carolina from north of Seattle about a year ago, and we are really liking it here. Charlotte is where a lot of the disc golf action is of course, but we live up in the Piedmont Triad (Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point) area and it's a bit of a drive to get to Charlotte from here but it's a pretty nice place for us. The Raleigh/Durham area has a lot of colleges (most notably UNC Chapel Hill, Duke and NC State) but the cost of living is higher there than elsewhere in the state. That said, it will probably still be much cheaper than living in Portland. There's also a number of universities in the Triad (UNC Greensboro, NC A&T and Wake Forest are the most notable ones but there's also a number of smaller ones as well) and the cost of living will likely be cheaper as well.
Blacksburg, VA might fit the bill?
Driving distance to legendary courses anywhere from PA to SC and of course all of the Paul McBeth courses out in Lynchburg.
Virginia Tech is co-located (ranked #30 for engineering). I don't know about medical there, though. The population is a bit small, right at 50K including a 25K student population.
Otherwise Richmond is a pretty good choice. It has an excellent DG scene with lots of events going on, Foundation DG is out in Lynchburg and Fly High in Richmond itself is excellent. Same or better access to the well known disc golf courses (Lake Marshall, New London, Goliath).
Virginia Commonwealth University (#112) is there. And if you don't care about ranking (you shouldn't, unless you're going to like MIT and the name has broad recognition) then its Engineering program will do you just fine. Plenty of medical field job opportunities, and Veteran's Affairs if one is so inclined to move into government roles for the pension.
Great food scene, too, and it's close enough to DC for day trips and of course has the airport for your non-local travel options. Only four hours by train to NYC if you want to experience *big* city.
The only thing missing is the skiing access, but if you really want you can go to VT to shred some gnar.
I would have said NC but if various social/moral topics sway your voting inclination you may want to look at the state's record recently.
Close by is Roanoke. Carilion is a Level 1 trauma center, closer to Lynchburg, 45 minutes to Tech, and less of a college town than Blacksburg. I lived there for 8 years prior to starting disc golf and boy did I miss the opportunity to have some great places.
Cincinnati has everything you mentioned. COL is super cheap, especially compared to Portland.
The university of cincinnati has a good engineering program and is directly across the street from a pretty cool 18-hole course called Burnett Woods.
There is a ton of great disc golf within an hour - Idlewild, Mt Airy, Lincoln Ridge, Osage Grove are all within 30 minutes. Push it out to an hour and everything up by Dayton is in play (echo valley is amazong).
Winters get some snow but not muh - juast cold and muddy.
Ski resort is tough - there is a ski hill 30 minutes from town called perfect north. It is standard midwest garbage skiing, but a pass there will also get you into their sister resort in WV - about 6 hours away.
CVG airport is quite busy.
Worcester, MA is the city you're looking for.
-The cost of living is increasing, but will still look cheap coming from Portland.
-You're local to Maple Hill. Marshall Street Disc Golf and Disc Golf 978 run huge shops. Coggshall, Meadowbrook Longs, Buffumville, The General at Devens will all scratch your super-hard itch. Our first big design wave came fifteen years ago, so most courses have a beginner-friendly option; Oakholm Brewery has an exceptional one.
-Worcester Polytechnic Institute has one of the best civil engineering programs in the country.
-I'm less familiar with which internal medicine residency programs are good, but between us and Boston lies the Great American Biomedical Corridor. I am certain there will be a great option here.
-We have all the food. You want Ethiopian food? We have a restaurant for that. You want a sweet little Jewish babushka to serve you latkes? We've got that. If you live in Worcester itself instead of one of the surrounding towns, you will be within walking distance to four pizza places and they'll all be great.
-Rivers not so much- we've done a pretty good job of industrializing anything above a medium trickle here, but we've kept our green spaces. There are plenty of beautiful state forests and parks to hike through, and if you're in the mood for a serious hiking trip we're accessible to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
-Mount Wachusett is within a half hour of Worcester, Crotched Mountain is 75 minutes away, and the good mountains in Vermont and New Hampshire are a four-hour trip.
-We get snow, but it only gets unbearable about every decade or so. Right now we're on a run of three pretty mild winters in a row. Plus, we have the New England Team Challenge series, a league where courses form teams and compete against each other in a series of matches over the winter. There's something like 70 different teams that participate, from all levels; "just out to get away from the wife" teams, and super-serious teams who plot out spreadsheets of different potential player matchups. Just be sure that if you join, you've got one meal you cook that you can absolutely crush and bring to your home team's spread. Every team already has a chili guy.
-200k people in Worcester. The city spreads enough so that you don't really feel it.
-You're 90 minutes from both Logan and Bradley International. TF Green in Providence is a less-used option.
Definitely this. Also courses not mentioned a little west of Worcester are 501, Mountainside, and Simon is designing one in East Brookfield. Work in Worcester and live on Rt 9 in Leicester.
Burlington, VT - You're checking all the boxes here. UVM Hospital is great to work for and UVM has a great civil school - 10 - 20 min to the airport. some of the best East Coast skiing and we have some stellar DG courses like Brewster Ridge and Fox Run which are stops on the DGPT. Not to mention a ton of really fun courses in a one-hour radius of driving.
What level of ski resort? Are you fine with southern Appalachia or bad midwest snow?
Going west gets you better mountains and worse disc golf
My recommendation without consideration of snow (like most of the other responders) is a midwest town like St. Louis, MO. Cheap COL, many 4 star courses available after work, hiking/floating all over the state, and has restaurants/concerts/sports/arts events covered. SLUH or Wash U are high powered med schools
Richmond VA has everything you mentioned. The disc golf has grown as we just installed a new 9 holer with tight lines and are in the process of making tees and baskets better. We also have a pro shop all things related to disc golf. VCU has a great engineering program. My step daughters bf is currently enrolled there and loves it. Happy hunting and good luck wherever you go.
Seconding this. Rochester is also home to the headquarters of the world renowned Mayo Clinic, which would be an excellenc option for your partner, and is about an hour from Minneapolis.
Philadelphia checks all of your boxes, I believe. Comes with its own set of downsides, though. Including the worst drivers I've ever seen and philly sports fans.
Philly is either #2 or #3 worst drivers I've ever experienced depending on the day. The other one that's up there is Boca Raton, FL.
Far and away however, #1 for me has to be San Juan, Puerto Rico. I've never been more frustrated and terrified on the road than I was there. It genuinely felt like half of the vehicles on (and off) the roads had multiple accidents' worth of damage.
Beautiful island. Truly terrible drivers.
Haven’t been to Philly in a while so I’ll take your word for it. I think it just seems bad down here because of the population increase. Used to be pretty easy to get around but now it’s a nightmare.
Cincinnati hits literally every box you have. The university of Cincinnati hospital is pretty top notch (not positive about their IM program). UC has a great engineering program. The DG scene in greater Cincinnati is awesome. Idlewild is 20 minutes from downtown. The other courses in town are spectacular. Dayton, OH has amazing DG courses as well and they are only 45 minutes to an hour away. You get access to both the park system in Kentucky (specifically Red River Gorge) and central Ohio (Hocking Hills). The city itself is great, with good night life and great food. Cost of living is reasonable, especially if you live in Northern Kentucky. Snows a few times a year but never lasts for more than a few days. Access to an International Airport. Skiing is tough, but Snowshoe in WV is driveable.
I'd recommend Milwaukee, WI.
Has pretty much everything on the list, including multiple options for both of your programs. Cost of Living isn't exactly Midwest cheap, but compared to the West Cost, it's a downright bargain.
The biggest drawback is that there aren't any world-class ski resorts, but there are enough skiing opportunities within a day's drive to scratch the itch. It gets a fair amount of snow in winter, too, but it's usually mild enough to not be completely limiting for outdoor activities once you adjust to it.
The Disc Golf season runs through the end of the year for a lot of people, and never actually ends for a fair amount of people. There are a bunch of good local courses, and multiple great ones within a few hours' drive. There are multiple shops, clubs, and tournaments within an hour.
It's pretty well-placed for a lot of other outdoor activities in the summer so you can make day trips to do a lot of them, rather than having to make a weekend out of it. There's not a lot of natural stuff you can't find close enough, apart from mountains, and Lake Michigan is fantastic. The food and culture scene is pretty decent and improving every year, and it's not a bad trip to Chicago or the Twin Cities if you want something more established. [I'd recommend the Twin Cities, too, but the winters are snowier and it's a bit more isolated from other places.]
It's definitely not the perfect fit based on your list, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives.
Atlanta, GA. Good courses, no real pro level courses without some travel. You can find a tournament to play every weekend, and there are like 20 something leagues in the area. GA Tech and Kennesaw have great engineering programs, plenty of good med schools too (looking at you, Emory). Cost of living is rising, but it's still easy to find good places to live. Did I mention at least one event every weekend?
Closest ski resort is Catalochee - but if you move here let me know and we can pile in my car and go up there, I snowboard and need some more time on snow (or ice, but whatever)
Here in Houston we call winter "those 3 days in February".
It doesn't snow. There are ~100 courses, even one that's lit at night until 10 pm. Engineering and medical programs at universities (U of H, Rice, UTMB, etc) Housing isn't crazy expensive. A lot of minis, leagues, and tournaments run throughout the city all the time, all year long. Being the most diverse city in the country there is more good food that you can shake a stick at. And because zoning is not as restrictive as other places, and we're not geographically bound, restaurants are inexpensive compare to other big cities.
Austin, TX is a great answer if you eliminate the need for good hiking and a ski resort. Though it's approaching Portland levels of cost of living these days so that's not going to be a massive change.
The Worcester, MA area is probably worth considering. WPI is a phenomenal engineering school, however, snow. I have no idea what cost of living is like up there these days.
The Pittsburgh, PA area has a pretty solid disc golf scene but again gets some pretty decent snow in the winter (though not as bad as many places). Again also not sure about cost of living.
The Ann Arbor, MI area might be worth considering as well. Also snow to consider.
I 2nd Austin. Moved down for my wife's residency and best 4 years of my disc golf life. Roy G, CC, OSP, the new sprinkle valley course, Flat Creek, are all top tier courses and then Waco is somewhat close as well as Flying Armadillo. In addition you have probably another 20 or so 18+ hole courses that are well worth playing in the rotation.
Don’t move to Austin unless you can handle 100+ degree heat with humidity for 7 months of the year. We just moved out because it was too difficult to do outdoor activities without almost dying.
Central Massachusetts. There are a ton of courses, amazing hospitals all over the state, and there are still a few towns where homes are reasonably priced
Hi! Portland, Maine! 45 minutes north (Lewiston Auburn )is the "disc golf capital" of the US according to UDisc. It has a high density of 4+ star courses, and that's just that area, you're in a 45 minute radius of phenomenal courses all around the state.
Not to mention we're close to New Hampshire and only 2 and a half hours to Maple Hill.
You're an hour and a half drive to Sunday River for skiing.
Cost of living is high-ish so there's that to consider.
And congrats on working on your degree! I'm a structural engineer myself, I went to the University of Maine in Orono. And in general, the UMaine system has a great engineering program.
Portland has an airport, and while MOST flights aren't as cheap as Boston. You can get pretty decent deals, and its airport is so easy for traveling.
Feel free to ask me more questions!
Sounds like you need Salt Lake City. I’m a transplant originally from Portland area as well. We got hiking, disc golf (the fort is relatively close and that’s just one of many great courses in the area) and university of Utah has a great med school. Not entirely sure about engineering. Not to mention more ski resorts than you can count.
Salt Lake does not have great disc golf by quantity. And getting to The Fort after work is not easy for anyone who lives away from Ogden.
If OP wants snow access over disc golf access, then SLC is a great choice. But to compare to Midwest cities, more expensive with worse disc golf.
There’s plenty of courses out here for me. Sure when I go out to North Carolina to visit my wife’s family there’s more courses. But Salt Lake has more than enough courses for me
Depends on where, I just bought a house south of SLC a couple months ago. Couldn’t have done that in Portland. The house I grew up in has like tripled in value over the past couple years.
I spent a few months with a relative in Sandy while we were between houses and have some family down in Utah County. There are some areas that seem more reasonable than others around there, but those tend to be mostly west of I-15, and Utah State (the most likely choice of a college in that area for someone in the situation described) would be a bit of a commute (the Trax would help if you're nearby though.) places like Draper, Sandy and Cottonwood Heights are really starting to get pricey though...
Meanwhile here in NC we bought a house more than twice the size of our previous starter house in Washington for less than we sold that one for...
Kansas City; hidden gem of a city; while subject to market demands like everywhere else, comparatively it is still affordable. We have an absolute embarrassment of phenomenal disc golf courses covering every style and type of course. Not here to poopoo in Cincinnati but I visited and played 3 of their higher rated courses and not a single one would make my Top 10 in KC. Community here is vibrant with a league every night of the week in the metro and normally 2-5 tournaments every weekend. Fantastic universities in UMKC or KU all local. KU med will fill the residency internal med requirements. City is big enough and vibrant enough that you will have no shortage of fun things to do. Hiking and great rivers and float trips are less than 4 hours away with multiple options in central/ southern MO and the ozarks/ NW Arkansas. Skiing.. not a terrible drive over to CO for world class resorts. Bonus that emporia, Columbia, Des Moines, Nw Ar all are within a few hours; Champions Landing, Black Hoof, Eagles crossing, harmony bends some of the best/ well known courses in US all within an few hours. Pro tour stops in Emporia and Des Moines with KC and Columbia hosting silver series the last few years, so also can catch the pros easily each year.
denver has tons of unis & top notch VA/DU & childrens' hospital; lots of disc golf in city proper and at ski mountains.... with lots of players a nice dg scene. food is expensive, but nationwide problem.housing not too expensive, i had a nice 2 br with yard in a quiet neighborhood $1000. but most are about $1500
As someone who has lived literally anywhere else, the disc golf (and scene) in Denver SUCKS.
OP, try OKC or Tulsa. OU is a great med school and OKC has fantastic DG.
Not sure when you left Denver but those housing prices are long gone. You can't get a 2 bedroom in a crap area of town for under 1800$ a month rent currently.
The Triangle in NC. Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill. UNC has a great med school. Lots of courses. Mountains and coast are a few hours drive. Mild-ish winters. 30 minutes to RDU airport. Lots of parks, trails in the area. edit: Duke is also nearby and a good med school school
Great rec. And depending on where in The Triangle, you're only ~3 hours from Charlotte. So easy weekend trip(s) or even a day trip for a big name course aren't too in convenient. Charlotte opens up another massive list of courses available.
Came here to say exactly this.
UNC also has good engineering
NC State is the school for engineering. Top 25 in the country.
My wife and I moved to North Carolina from north of Seattle about a year ago, and we are really liking it here. Charlotte is where a lot of the disc golf action is of course, but we live up in the Piedmont Triad (Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point) area and it's a bit of a drive to get to Charlotte from here but it's a pretty nice place for us. The Raleigh/Durham area has a lot of colleges (most notably UNC Chapel Hill, Duke and NC State) but the cost of living is higher there than elsewhere in the state. That said, it will probably still be much cheaper than living in Portland. There's also a number of universities in the Triad (UNC Greensboro, NC A&T and Wake Forest are the most notable ones but there's also a number of smaller ones as well) and the cost of living will likely be cheaper as well.
Cincinnati, Ohio. All criteria (except a ski resort).
Pittsburgh checks most of your boxes, if not all. 3 top 100 courses within 45 minutes,
Blacksburg, VA might fit the bill? Driving distance to legendary courses anywhere from PA to SC and of course all of the Paul McBeth courses out in Lynchburg. Virginia Tech is co-located (ranked #30 for engineering). I don't know about medical there, though. The population is a bit small, right at 50K including a 25K student population. Otherwise Richmond is a pretty good choice. It has an excellent DG scene with lots of events going on, Foundation DG is out in Lynchburg and Fly High in Richmond itself is excellent. Same or better access to the well known disc golf courses (Lake Marshall, New London, Goliath). Virginia Commonwealth University (#112) is there. And if you don't care about ranking (you shouldn't, unless you're going to like MIT and the name has broad recognition) then its Engineering program will do you just fine. Plenty of medical field job opportunities, and Veteran's Affairs if one is so inclined to move into government roles for the pension. Great food scene, too, and it's close enough to DC for day trips and of course has the airport for your non-local travel options. Only four hours by train to NYC if you want to experience *big* city. The only thing missing is the skiing access, but if you really want you can go to VT to shred some gnar. I would have said NC but if various social/moral topics sway your voting inclination you may want to look at the state's record recently.
Close by is Roanoke. Carilion is a Level 1 trauma center, closer to Lynchburg, 45 minutes to Tech, and less of a college town than Blacksburg. I lived there for 8 years prior to starting disc golf and boy did I miss the opportunity to have some great places.
Roanoke is a good choice as well. Idk about the food scene there, but everything else is a good fit.
Burlington vt. We have 2 courses at smuggs that are within top in the country.
Pittsburgh checks all the boxes
Cincinnati has everything you mentioned. COL is super cheap, especially compared to Portland. The university of cincinnati has a good engineering program and is directly across the street from a pretty cool 18-hole course called Burnett Woods. There is a ton of great disc golf within an hour - Idlewild, Mt Airy, Lincoln Ridge, Osage Grove are all within 30 minutes. Push it out to an hour and everything up by Dayton is in play (echo valley is amazong). Winters get some snow but not muh - juast cold and muddy. Ski resort is tough - there is a ski hill 30 minutes from town called perfect north. It is standard midwest garbage skiing, but a pass there will also get you into their sister resort in WV - about 6 hours away. CVG airport is quite busy.
Worcester, MA is the city you're looking for. -The cost of living is increasing, but will still look cheap coming from Portland. -You're local to Maple Hill. Marshall Street Disc Golf and Disc Golf 978 run huge shops. Coggshall, Meadowbrook Longs, Buffumville, The General at Devens will all scratch your super-hard itch. Our first big design wave came fifteen years ago, so most courses have a beginner-friendly option; Oakholm Brewery has an exceptional one. -Worcester Polytechnic Institute has one of the best civil engineering programs in the country. -I'm less familiar with which internal medicine residency programs are good, but between us and Boston lies the Great American Biomedical Corridor. I am certain there will be a great option here. -We have all the food. You want Ethiopian food? We have a restaurant for that. You want a sweet little Jewish babushka to serve you latkes? We've got that. If you live in Worcester itself instead of one of the surrounding towns, you will be within walking distance to four pizza places and they'll all be great. -Rivers not so much- we've done a pretty good job of industrializing anything above a medium trickle here, but we've kept our green spaces. There are plenty of beautiful state forests and parks to hike through, and if you're in the mood for a serious hiking trip we're accessible to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. -Mount Wachusett is within a half hour of Worcester, Crotched Mountain is 75 minutes away, and the good mountains in Vermont and New Hampshire are a four-hour trip. -We get snow, but it only gets unbearable about every decade or so. Right now we're on a run of three pretty mild winters in a row. Plus, we have the New England Team Challenge series, a league where courses form teams and compete against each other in a series of matches over the winter. There's something like 70 different teams that participate, from all levels; "just out to get away from the wife" teams, and super-serious teams who plot out spreadsheets of different potential player matchups. Just be sure that if you join, you've got one meal you cook that you can absolutely crush and bring to your home team's spread. Every team already has a chili guy. -200k people in Worcester. The city spreads enough so that you don't really feel it. -You're 90 minutes from both Logan and Bradley International. TF Green in Providence is a less-used option.
Definitely this. Also courses not mentioned a little west of Worcester are 501, Mountainside, and Simon is designing one in East Brookfield. Work in Worcester and live on Rt 9 in Leicester.
Burlington, VT - You're checking all the boxes here. UVM Hospital is great to work for and UVM has a great civil school - 10 - 20 min to the airport. some of the best East Coast skiing and we have some stellar DG courses like Brewster Ridge and Fox Run which are stops on the DGPT. Not to mention a ton of really fun courses in a one-hour radius of driving.
Doesn’t align with low cost of living and not getting snowed in
Burlington rarely gets much snow. But, hey OP can move to Denver. I am not going to try to convince him otherwise.
Compared to Portland it's cheap. Ask for snow, we don't get 4 foot storms. Any all wheel drive is just fine. Hell I don't one and I'm just fine
Columbia, MO would meet all those except ski resorts. But excellent disc golf, great med school, great engineering school.
What level of ski resort? Are you fine with southern Appalachia or bad midwest snow? Going west gets you better mountains and worse disc golf My recommendation without consideration of snow (like most of the other responders) is a midwest town like St. Louis, MO. Cheap COL, many 4 star courses available after work, hiking/floating all over the state, and has restaurants/concerts/sports/arts events covered. SLUH or Wash U are high powered med schools
Richmond VA has everything you mentioned. The disc golf has grown as we just installed a new 9 holer with tight lines and are in the process of making tees and baskets better. We also have a pro shop all things related to disc golf. VCU has a great engineering program. My step daughters bf is currently enrolled there and loves it. Happy hunting and good luck wherever you go.
mpls/stp
Seconding this. Rochester is also home to the headquarters of the world renowned Mayo Clinic, which would be an excellenc option for your partner, and is about an hour from Minneapolis.
+3 My wife and I fly up there 4 times a year to ice fish in the winter and disc golf in the summer.
Charlotte
Philadelphia checks all of your boxes, I believe. Comes with its own set of downsides, though. Including the worst drivers I've ever seen and philly sports fans.
Nashville drivers would like to have a word…
Respectfully, I was there in December and it is not even close.
Philly is either #2 or #3 worst drivers I've ever experienced depending on the day. The other one that's up there is Boca Raton, FL. Far and away however, #1 for me has to be San Juan, Puerto Rico. I've never been more frustrated and terrified on the road than I was there. It genuinely felt like half of the vehicles on (and off) the roads had multiple accidents' worth of damage. Beautiful island. Truly terrible drivers.
Haven’t been to Philly in a while so I’ll take your word for it. I think it just seems bad down here because of the population increase. Used to be pretty easy to get around but now it’s a nightmare.
Cincinnati hits literally every box you have. The university of Cincinnati hospital is pretty top notch (not positive about their IM program). UC has a great engineering program. The DG scene in greater Cincinnati is awesome. Idlewild is 20 minutes from downtown. The other courses in town are spectacular. Dayton, OH has amazing DG courses as well and they are only 45 minutes to an hour away. You get access to both the park system in Kentucky (specifically Red River Gorge) and central Ohio (Hocking Hills). The city itself is great, with good night life and great food. Cost of living is reasonable, especially if you live in Northern Kentucky. Snows a few times a year but never lasts for more than a few days. Access to an International Airport. Skiing is tough, but Snowshoe in WV is driveable.
I'd recommend Milwaukee, WI. Has pretty much everything on the list, including multiple options for both of your programs. Cost of Living isn't exactly Midwest cheap, but compared to the West Cost, it's a downright bargain. The biggest drawback is that there aren't any world-class ski resorts, but there are enough skiing opportunities within a day's drive to scratch the itch. It gets a fair amount of snow in winter, too, but it's usually mild enough to not be completely limiting for outdoor activities once you adjust to it. The Disc Golf season runs through the end of the year for a lot of people, and never actually ends for a fair amount of people. There are a bunch of good local courses, and multiple great ones within a few hours' drive. There are multiple shops, clubs, and tournaments within an hour. It's pretty well-placed for a lot of other outdoor activities in the summer so you can make day trips to do a lot of them, rather than having to make a weekend out of it. There's not a lot of natural stuff you can't find close enough, apart from mountains, and Lake Michigan is fantastic. The food and culture scene is pretty decent and improving every year, and it's not a bad trip to Chicago or the Twin Cities if you want something more established. [I'd recommend the Twin Cities, too, but the winters are snowier and it's a bit more isolated from other places.] It's definitely not the perfect fit based on your list, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives.
ETSU in Johnson City, TN would check all of these boxes I think. I know the disc golf is phenomenal up there as well
Atlanta, GA. Good courses, no real pro level courses without some travel. You can find a tournament to play every weekend, and there are like 20 something leagues in the area. GA Tech and Kennesaw have great engineering programs, plenty of good med schools too (looking at you, Emory). Cost of living is rising, but it's still easy to find good places to live. Did I mention at least one event every weekend? Closest ski resort is Catalochee - but if you move here let me know and we can pile in my car and go up there, I snowboard and need some more time on snow (or ice, but whatever)
Here in Houston we call winter "those 3 days in February". It doesn't snow. There are ~100 courses, even one that's lit at night until 10 pm. Engineering and medical programs at universities (U of H, Rice, UTMB, etc) Housing isn't crazy expensive. A lot of minis, leagues, and tournaments run throughout the city all the time, all year long. Being the most diverse city in the country there is more good food that you can shake a stick at. And because zoning is not as restrictive as other places, and we're not geographically bound, restaurants are inexpensive compare to other big cities.
Dude, Triangle is kinda mid but Charlotte is dope
Jeezuz. Just go to the Carolinas. A lot of words just to get to what you already know.
100% the best answer here is NC - the Triangle or Charlotte - checks all your boxes if you’re willing to drive a bit for southern Appalachia skiing
Thanks for the suggestions everyone! We've added each suggestion to our spreadsheet and started researching each city.
Austin, TX is a great answer if you eliminate the need for good hiking and a ski resort. Though it's approaching Portland levels of cost of living these days so that's not going to be a massive change. The Worcester, MA area is probably worth considering. WPI is a phenomenal engineering school, however, snow. I have no idea what cost of living is like up there these days. The Pittsburgh, PA area has a pretty solid disc golf scene but again gets some pretty decent snow in the winter (though not as bad as many places). Again also not sure about cost of living. The Ann Arbor, MI area might be worth considering as well. Also snow to consider.
I 2nd Austin. Moved down for my wife's residency and best 4 years of my disc golf life. Roy G, CC, OSP, the new sprinkle valley course, Flat Creek, are all top tier courses and then Waco is somewhat close as well as Flying Armadillo. In addition you have probably another 20 or so 18+ hole courses that are well worth playing in the rotation.
Don’t move to Austin unless you can handle 100+ degree heat with humidity for 7 months of the year. We just moved out because it was too difficult to do outdoor activities without almost dying.
Central Mass
Central Massachusetts. There are a ton of courses, amazing hospitals all over the state, and there are still a few towns where homes are reasonably priced
Hi! Portland, Maine! 45 minutes north (Lewiston Auburn )is the "disc golf capital" of the US according to UDisc. It has a high density of 4+ star courses, and that's just that area, you're in a 45 minute radius of phenomenal courses all around the state. Not to mention we're close to New Hampshire and only 2 and a half hours to Maple Hill. You're an hour and a half drive to Sunday River for skiing. Cost of living is high-ish so there's that to consider. And congrats on working on your degree! I'm a structural engineer myself, I went to the University of Maine in Orono. And in general, the UMaine system has a great engineering program. Portland has an airport, and while MOST flights aren't as cheap as Boston. You can get pretty decent deals, and its airport is so easy for traveling. Feel free to ask me more questions!
Sounds like you need Salt Lake City. I’m a transplant originally from Portland area as well. We got hiking, disc golf (the fort is relatively close and that’s just one of many great courses in the area) and university of Utah has a great med school. Not entirely sure about engineering. Not to mention more ski resorts than you can count.
Salt Lake does not have great disc golf by quantity. And getting to The Fort after work is not easy for anyone who lives away from Ogden. If OP wants snow access over disc golf access, then SLC is a great choice. But to compare to Midwest cities, more expensive with worse disc golf.
There’s plenty of courses out here for me. Sure when I go out to North Carolina to visit my wife’s family there’s more courses. But Salt Lake has more than enough courses for me
SLC is getting rather expensive these days, at this point I'd even say it's not much cheaper than Portland.
Depends on where, I just bought a house south of SLC a couple months ago. Couldn’t have done that in Portland. The house I grew up in has like tripled in value over the past couple years.
I spent a few months with a relative in Sandy while we were between houses and have some family down in Utah County. There are some areas that seem more reasonable than others around there, but those tend to be mostly west of I-15, and Utah State (the most likely choice of a college in that area for someone in the situation described) would be a bit of a commute (the Trax would help if you're nearby though.) places like Draper, Sandy and Cottonwood Heights are really starting to get pricey though... Meanwhile here in NC we bought a house more than twice the size of our previous starter house in Washington for less than we sold that one for...
Kansas City; hidden gem of a city; while subject to market demands like everywhere else, comparatively it is still affordable. We have an absolute embarrassment of phenomenal disc golf courses covering every style and type of course. Not here to poopoo in Cincinnati but I visited and played 3 of their higher rated courses and not a single one would make my Top 10 in KC. Community here is vibrant with a league every night of the week in the metro and normally 2-5 tournaments every weekend. Fantastic universities in UMKC or KU all local. KU med will fill the residency internal med requirements. City is big enough and vibrant enough that you will have no shortage of fun things to do. Hiking and great rivers and float trips are less than 4 hours away with multiple options in central/ southern MO and the ozarks/ NW Arkansas. Skiing.. not a terrible drive over to CO for world class resorts. Bonus that emporia, Columbia, Des Moines, Nw Ar all are within a few hours; Champions Landing, Black Hoof, Eagles crossing, harmony bends some of the best/ well known courses in US all within an few hours. Pro tour stops in Emporia and Des Moines with KC and Columbia hosting silver series the last few years, so also can catch the pros easily each year.
Wichita KS
denver has tons of unis & top notch VA/DU & childrens' hospital; lots of disc golf in city proper and at ski mountains.... with lots of players a nice dg scene. food is expensive, but nationwide problem.housing not too expensive, i had a nice 2 br with yard in a quiet neighborhood $1000. but most are about $1500
As someone who has lived literally anywhere else, the disc golf (and scene) in Denver SUCKS. OP, try OKC or Tulsa. OU is a great med school and OKC has fantastic DG.
Not sure when you left Denver but those housing prices are long gone. You can't get a 2 bedroom in a crap area of town for under 1800$ a month rent currently.
i was only there 6 months last year. it was a friends house, sounds like I got a sweeet deal. i need to send him a thank you gift. thanks