We went down to Florida for 10 or 12 years vacationing, with relatives. Observed many things there, compared, evaluated, local knowledge and in general got then lay of the land...my takeaway... I needed a slower paced retirement area. Plus it always felt like there was this undercurrent of felony everywhere, and the weather doesn’t suit me.
As I’ve aged, there’s three things about living in beachy areas that I don’t like salt, sand, and sunburn... it’s sort of an inside joke but there’s a lot of personal truth in that. Besides I can get that same feeling in the Carolina’s, and it’s closer.
Much of the article is quite accurate, particularly the references to the crowds and traffic. We definitely limit our time on the road, and use delivery serves quite often to avoid the 24/7 traffic jams.
A personal anecdote: before we retired, we’d vacation for 10 days-two weeks every winter in the Naples/Bonita Springs area on the gulf. Typically, lodging would run a little over $100/night.
That was ten years ago.
You can triple that now, which is why we moved inland.