Starting to learn about The Villages
 

Hi Everyone.

I am a retiree and am considering moving to The Villages sometime prior 2030.

I am starting to educate myself about the geography and amenities there.

My hobbies are hiking, listening and dancing to live music, and attending theater.

So, I would like to find an area in The Villages that is both close to good hiking and also a town square. When I say 'hiking' I mean walking off pavement; that is, on wood boardwalk, decomposed granite, dirt, etc.

My impression is that a lot of the live music takes place on the town squares. Is that right?

The Sharon Rose Wiechens Preserve seems like the premium place for my hiking needs. I believe that it is in or adjacent to the neighborhood of LaBelle.

The nearest town squares to the Preserve appear to be Brownwood Paddock Square and Sumter Landing, which are about 4.5 and 6 miles from the Preserve respectively.

So, I was thinking that the neighborhood of LaBelle might best fit my needs.

Please educate me regarding any wrong assumptions that I am making .

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Sometime prior to 2030 you need to come on a lifestyle visit or rent for a month or more. This will give you a chance to form your OWN opinion of The Villages.
You can explore and see what would be acceptable to your future lifestyle.
Good Luck!

You need to come here for a good period of time and explore and explore. Lots of stuff here and more to come and what you like today might not be what you want down the road.

Rent for at least a month.

In 2030 you could have Disney as your neighbor. When we were Snowbirds, each year we came down there were drastic changes. In “07” SS was the hopping place, and LSL was empty storefronts. Brownwood is finally starting to fill in with retail. Middleton and Eastport is being built as I type (well voice to text).

Don’t listen to you need to be 5 minutes to your Doctors, unless you need to take up residence in their office. Groceries can take 5-10 minutes to get to, unless you are prefer more upscale organic shopping, then again Krogers does drop at your door. No travel involved.

Squares they are intriguing for the first 6 months, then you are so busy, where do you find the time to stop.

No worries if you don’t love your house, pick and move to different area, is very easy to do here. No attachment to homes, and sometimes just want to move to a different area, house, or neighbors. We bought 10 years before one semi retired. It’s done often here.

By the time you move close to the area you are considering homes will be over 15 years old. New models will emerge, and better options. Just remember what you love this year will change by 2030. You drive more than 10 minutes to shopping, groceries, and gasoline. We have traffic, and some just can’t get past that, not they would drive to that area, but it’s obvious it bothers some who find their village is better than any one else, and the rest shouldn’t exist

What others have said is exactly correct. You simply cannot learn about this place online. You need to come here and see things in person.

There is no place in TV suitable for hiking. There are several greenways within 30 miles that are.

I’ll echo other posters. Spend some time here, and not just a week “lifestyle” stay. Rent for some time—several months if possible, divided up among two or three villages you think might fit your needs. Talk to the neighbors, the people you’re paired up with on the golf course, folks at the squares. Attend a church or two if that is your thing. But get as Much firsthand experience as possible and then make up your own mind.

Agree that time here in The Villages is essential. You could start with a lifestyle visit. In general, the northern villages are more shady (and prettier) because of the mature trees. We love the north. Hiking at Lake Weir is 25 minutes drive for us. The Florida Greenway is 35 minutes. The Greenway is north of TV as is Lake Weir. Both are natural surface.

Many of us full time residents are likely to reply to you with similar thoughts:

. 2030 is so many years away that even residents here can only guess how many miles E-W, N-S, the Villages might be by then. 40 miles across ? 50 ? Four counties rather than the present three ?

. There are so many factors, keep in mind which county your villages is in will make a difference in choices (utility choices for gas, electricity, etc.), cable providers, land line phone companies, not to even get started on the property tax and retail tax structure you will live with depending on which county you choose to live in. Come counties like Sumter, have non profit electric companies. Our utilities, compared to when we lived in a Marion county village, is HUGE, on we have a larger home than we had in Marion county. Difference is for profit utility providers versus non-profit. You may not care at all, other things may be more important, but it all illustrates how impossible it is NOT to spend time here in order to know what you really want.

. Most know it is a very large place, yet they are still overcome the first time they realize it will take them 45 min. at least to drive from one side to the other. You will always be near squares with live music nightly, you will always be near hiking areas, bike trails, pools, etc. Also, once here you will find that Florida is such a paradise for hikers you'll want to get out of the "V's" some too. Many many wooden hiking trails along water areas, lots of wildlife to see, can't even begin to adequately describe.

. Finally, if there is any possible way financially, you can come and spend some serious time.... a month would be fantastic, but may not be possible for you... but the best would be to be able to come long enough to just live a "normal" life pattern, where you like to shop, which major highways would you rather be near ? Would you often use the Florida turnpike ? Or would you be visiting south Florida frequently, or going north on I-75 ? There is really no way to listen to others, only YOU can come, rent, see what will mean the most for YOUR life.

Pay attention to the advice people posted here ! There is no way you could come and rent for a week near Spanish Springs, and go home saying THAT's IT, that's where we want to be... by all the major department stores, by the major highway 441 (called Orange Blossom Trail), that's nearest the Atlantic side beaches. It's just way too large to even see all the areas in one week ! Maybe you'd find you like being closer to the west, Gulf, side and the beaches on that side ? Or you'd rather have easy access to the toll way ? I don't know how anyone could ever make those decisions without time to "live their own normal life routine" first. The mind boggling numbers of people who buy, only to sell when they find another area makes more sense for them... keeps the real estate agents doing very well here....LOL ! One tip we found, not wanting to appear to give the opinion one area or one villages is "better" than another, agents will tell you there is no difference. That is not true of course. Like in any area of the country that covers many counties, you have to do your own in person or on line research to get the tax mils, the retail taxes, compare the utilities you will have to use, etc.

Very true will add one more thing. Sales agent are in business to make money and will push in often very subtle ways to buy on a lifestyle visit.

You do not know what you do not know.

Nine years ago, a life style visit of five days was enough. We had a rental car and cart and went to every recreation center from one end to the other. Got a map and looked at everything inside and outside of the villages. A week to ten days may be more appropriate now because this place has grown. Seeing is believing but you can do a lot of prep before you arrive. A great deal of hiking outside the villages too. Good luck.

Preserve Not that Big
 

The preserve is not that big - you can see the entire walkway from the entrance - less than a mile in length. It is pavement and boardwalk. Nice place to walk but I wouldn’t call it a hike.

Hogeye Preserve in Marshview is similar but longer - approximately 3 miles but still not what I would call a hike.

South of 44 has plenty of paved pathways for walking - I can easily do a 10 mile walk from my house - again, not really a hike.

For true hiking, you need to leave TV. The Lake Apopka Loop Trail is 17 miles with a few spurs. Loose gravel, hard pack and some dirt make up the trail as it wanders through woods and along the lake. A decent hike but not much elevation change.

As another poster mentioned, the Florida Greenway has many miles of hiking and camping too.

2030??? wow, that's a long long time away. So much will change by then. Come now, do a lifestyle visit and get your bearings. Who knows what your health will be like then.

I agree. If Lake Weir is 25 minutes for you, then you probably live north of 466A, right? But if they buy a new house south of Florida’s Turnpike, Lake Weir will be more like 50 minutes to an hour, won’t it? They throw around a reference to “six miles” as if that were nothing, but that’s a good 20 minutes by car and twice that by golf cart. The homes south of the Turnpike are nice and new and a good place to make friends, but they really are sort of a different world, rather inconvenient. It may be that they are wanting a hiking place in The Villages because they want to get there by golf cart. But that may not be as romantic as it sounds. I used to drive from 466 and Morse to Aviary Rec Center down near Bradford for a club, and that took 30 minutes by car, and it would have been well over an hour by cart. This is all to say that they have their fantasies, and they read the brochures, but the reality will be different. Good, but different. I bought a great golf cart when I moved here, then realized I wasn’t going to be playing golf, and a cart was too slow and inconvenient and hot in the summer and cold in the winter for my life the way it was shaping up, so I sold it.