The Sunshine State is a perennial contender for most popular retirement destination. TopRetirements.com lists three Florida towns on its 2011 list of best places to retire: Sarasota, Fort Meyers and Venice. These locations offer bits of old and new Florida at the same time, and all are under 60,000 in population. With the weather working solidly in its favor, Florida continues to do its best to attract retirement dollars with targeted recreational activities, attractions and planned neighborhoods designed for seniors.
Like Florida, Arizona has one big natural thing going for it - the weather. Though the mountainous northern part of the state around Flagstaff gets snow every year, the central and southern areas, especially around Phoenix and Tucson, rarely even get cool. Prescott, which sits at an elevation of 5,400 feet in the central part of the state, is a popular destination for active retirees. The Prescott National Forest offers plenty of opportunities for recreation, as do the city's handful of museums and a slate of annual festivals.
Austin, the capital of Texas, keeps growing in popularity as a prime place to retire. As recently as 2009, the city was mentioned by U.S. News & World Report as one of the "Best Places to Live." Add to that a quirky, artful area with a robust cultural scene long viewed as the Live Music Capitol of the World. With a population of more than 700,000, Austin is larger than some of the other cities normally thought of as retirement fodder. However, this sprawling metropolis never feels quite as big as it is.
As founding members of the Deep South, both North and South Carolina offer havens for retirees looking for a warm area but turned off by the hustle and bustle of Florida. Asheville, N.C., is one example. This prosperous city of 75,000 in the Blue Ridge Mountains got the nod this year from TopRetirements.com as the nation's best retirement spot. Also in the Top 10 is South Carolina's city of Beaufort, a quaint retirement seaside community of only 11,000.
