I’ve heard pro and con about The Villages...On Top of The World has better reviews, but the HOA fees are outrageous. Ocala’s crime rate is also really high for an otherwise lovely town.
There s NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING to do in Ocala outside of one of those big communities.
I left Anne Arundle county 9 years ago and never looked back. I bought a house in Sebastian located in rural Indian River County on FL’s Atlantic coast, one hour south of Melbourne and an hour north of Ft. Pierce. The county has one other town, Vero Beach. My requirements were easy ocean access via an inlet (avid offshore fisherman) laid back, decent surf (Sebastian Inlet) low traffic/crowds and access to amenities. I’m 90 minutes from W. Palm and 90 minutes from Orlando.
Do yourself a favor and when exploring places to live, do it during the season (Jan-April) so you can get an idea of how crowded it can get. We did 3 trips to NE FL, W FL and SE FL before we found this gem of an area.
Good luck to you!!