Wife just got offered a job in the area that she will likely take. We've never been there, but its in the mountains and we love mountains. The research we have done there looks good, nice downtown area, beautiful scenery. We arent much for the club/bar scene, so that wont matter to us. We do like good restaurants however.

What are your opinions of the area? Good? Bad?

10/9/2013 5:14:41 PM

Beautiful scenery in that part of Virginia... I have family up that ways, but I've never spent much time specifically in the blacksburg side of Roanoke.

10/9/2013 5:24:07 PM

We have a customer up at Covington and stay in Roanoke a good bit. It's pretty much how you expect and stated, beautiful and some of the mountain ranges are literally right up against Roanoke. Great for outdoorsy people. Among Blacksburg/Christianburg/Roanoke its not bad at all, especially the slightly lower cost of living once you get a few miles away from Roanoke proper. 81 is a fairly straight and easy highway drive between them all. Good restaurants (subjective) are a little tougher to find IMHO compared to the greater raleigh area, they're around in a decent supply but mainly dispersed and around downtown Roanoke. VTech is in Blacksburg so you have a fair share of the younger crowd and bars in and around there as well. If I could paid the same I do now and the wife was OK with it I'd do it in a heartbeat, me gusta some mountains.

[Edited on October 9, 2013 at 5:52 PM. Reason : .]

10/9/2013 5:49:28 PM

I love Roanoke...hope to end up in that area actually. It's the "center" of southwest Virginia so you get a healthy mix of everything (a little bigger than Asheville, population-wise).

10/9/2013 8:52:40 PM

My mom's side of the family is from there. I have really fond memories of it. It's a great place for a family.

10/9/2013 8:56:31 PM

I moved to the area in 2007 after i was offered a job in Roanoke and my wife was accepted to grad school at Radford. We lived in Blacksburg for two years and Roanoke for a year and a half.

We really liked Blacksburg and made some great friends there between grad students and young faculty. The drawback was that those people typically don't stay long. Just about all of our friends there have since moved away. There are a fair number of fun restaurants and such. Christiansburg has most of the shopping you would want out of a large town.

We did not love Roanoke. It was very difficult to meet people around our age. I joined the Jaycees and my wife joined the Junior League, but it was still difficult to meet people. The downtown area is ok and there are 1-2 other pockets of cool areas, but overall the city is fairly worn down. I personally chose to live in botetourte just outside the city in the north east and would do so again if I had to move back. I believe you're used to a more rural area and SW VA is great for that. A lot of the guys I worked with had large properties all over the place since land was fairly cheap.

Outdoor activities were great but I didn't find myself utilizing it very often. I would go on a day hike every couple of weeks when the weather was nice or fish the James or New rivers occasionally, but unless your really into it then its not as big of a draw as you'd think. It was always nice looking at the mountains while driving around though.

Those are just my experiences as a married 22-26 year old with my personal tastes. We moved back to raleigh in 2011 after deciding we would rather live here.

Like I said I lived throughout that area for around 3.5 years and can answer questions on restaurants, areas to live, etc if you have any specific questions. Just let me know.

10/9/2013 10:58:06 PM

^Hmm, well it sounds like some aspects will be nice. Roanoke seems to be where more jobs are located for me, so we may end up staying around there. The houses we have been looking at renting are mostly in the "town" area of Roanoke, hopefully that will lend itself to meeting people more.

I'm mostly just concerned about the job market for me. Wifes job is really good with really good pay, but the job market for Ag and Construction up there seems slim.

10/11/2013 9:00:56 AM

any hotel recommendations near besides hotel roanoke? i'm traveling to roanoke for business in a couple weeks.

10/11/2013 1:52:42 PM

I have a good opinion of Roanoke

10/11/2013 7:45:52 PM

So we went there today looking for rental houses. First house was right off 220 in a clean, but kinda gross looking brick neighborhood. Second house was in the historic southwest district, which was nice, but it has on-street parking and no garage, so all of my vehicle activities are out of the question. Left that one, went to another house showing in some little neighborhood, and didnt fall in love with that one.

Ate lunch in downtown at some chicken and waffles place, downtown was kinda cool, but nothing to write home about.

Left lunch and went to Salem to do a driveby on a house. I liked Salem much more than Roanoke City, it was more like towns I'm used to, house was nice and we liked Salem.

Left there and went back to Roanoke but over near the airport on Peters Creek Parkway. Looked at a rental that was very large on 2 acres of land that was perfect, but the owner said she'd rather sell.



Basically, I dont like Roanoke City. Its kinda beat-down and weathered looking. Now, that being said, it had cool aspects, the downdown looked fun. It does look like most of the areas outside of the city are nice and have nice views. Overall, I'm not overly "wow'd" by the area, but I'm not disappointed either. I didnt get to see all the cool outdoor areas that I would like.


So now we are going to try and look for houses more on the outskirts of the city or maybe in other suburbs. I'm from a small town, and would love to find that same feeling up there.

10/13/2013 8:56:00 PM

take a look on the SW side of town, near Cave Spring. It has all of the conveniences for when you need them (being off 419 and Brambleton), but it's on the outskirts, so you have the rural appeal if that's what you're looking for. plus the schools are great if that's a priority

10/13/2013 9:31:09 PM

We lived in Roanoke for 2 years. My wife has lived there 12 years total. We'd move back given the chance.

It's definitely a city you need to have friends in to really get to know. Not many new people move to town very often, so the few that do often get there, see how tightly knit and cliqueish the people already there are, and get turned off. If you put yourself out there and just meet people, you're in forever. Truth is, they love new people that move in and mix things up, it's just a shy city.

You will not get to really enjoy the best bars and restaurants on a regular basis living out in the county. Someone mentioned living in Botetourt. For comparison: that would be like living in Franklin County and complaining about not enjoying Raleigh. You really aren't close to being able to. There are some great new lofts downtown. Old SW is a historic district. We lived there, but I can see how it wouldn't be for some people. You can't do much with the existing architecture. Over around Highland Park is a bit more relaxed.

Raleigh Court is probably the best place to live if you have kids. You're within walking distance of the best neighborhood bars and some good restaurants, as well as the co-op market (don't let the hippy vibe scare you, it's good food), the Grandin movie theater, and Pop's Ice Cream, which does a lot of kid events as well as nights where they let customers bring in their own records to play.

Bars: depends on what you want. If you're new and looking for anything resembling a dating scene, there's Cornerstone. My cousin owns that place, as well as Flanary's, an Irish Pub that draws a huge crowd for Wed. night trivia or Sat. night karaoke. Blue's BBQ is good for the food/drink combo. In Raleigh Court, I prefer Community Inn. It's definitely a neighborhood bar. Most people in there are regulars. You really need to go with friends who are already "in" there to get into it. Beer's cheap though and there's no more comfortable bar to hang out with friends or watch football at. There's a few new places like Wasena Tap Room and Parkway Draft House that are getting into the brewpub thing. Roanoke Railhouse is your best local brewery.

Restaurants: I could go on a long time about these. I'd really need to know what you're into. Thelma's Chicken and Waffles is good, but always packed and slow as hell. Two of my favorites just closed last year, but have been replaced by new, nicer looking places. Billy's is good for a fancy dinner. Grace's in Raleigh Ct. for pizza. Local Roots for farm-to-table. If you really want the best, drive across Craig County to Swinging Bridge in Paint Bank on the WV border. They raise bison there and sell the meat. The restaurant is the best.

I could go on.

If you live downtown, you can't go wrong. Stay close to downtown.

If you're a childless couple, there's no reason to live in South County or Cave Spring unless you like Applebee's and boredom.

If you want "small town", Salem. There are affordable houses around their downtown area and Roanoke College (which is in Salem, actually). Don't make the mistake of Vinton. It needs a serious makeover. Land is cheap in Botetourt, but there are no real towns. If you want a lot of land, I guess it's ok.

[Edited on October 31, 2013 at 2:21 PM. Reason : z]

10/31/2013 2:19:08 PM

^^We have made an offer on a 5ac mini-farm in Vinton. Its actually in Bedford County east of the Blue Ridge Parkway, but has a Vinton address.

The town of Vinton seems to be just like any old small town, but we are only about 20 min to Roanoke.

If the house passes inspections, appraisals, and our loan goes through, we close Dec 2nd. We are planning on living up there by early January.

11/2/2013 7:43:25 PM

Congrats man! I wish you and the wife the best of luck in your future endeavors. If you need a hand with the moving, just hollar at me

11/2/2013 7:58:42 PM

^I'll be getting up with you soon, we need to catch up

11/2/2013 8:03:03 PM