Ideal Snowbird Pairings and More: Fascinating Comments from Our Survey
Category: Retirement Planning
December 5, 2018 — This is Part 2 of our report on our recent Snowbird Survey. Part 1, “Florida is Favorite Snowbird Destination“, contained the detailed results on the survey’s first 9 questions. This installment is mostly made up of verbatim comments detailing where people snowbird to, and how they get there. Because these are actual comments from real people on this issue, we think you will find it a great source of ideas and comparisons to your own thoughts and experiences.
This article has three sections: Section 1 will start will overall observations, Section 2 is a sampling of 351 overall comments made to Question 10, “Anything More to Say”, and Section 3 has a link to all 166 comments made to Question 8, “How Hard Was It to Find a Place to Snowbird”.
Section 1: Observations
Driving vs. Flying. More people drive to their snowbird destination than fly; the ratio is about 3 to 1 in favor of driving. Top reasons for driving include: having a car at the destination, more room for stuff, taking pets, and visiting/exploring on the way are . Avoiding a multi-day, long drive is a top reason for flying. Many people who fly either keep a car at the destination, or have the car driven down.
East vs. West snowbirds. As is usually the case with Topretirements surveys, the majority of our audience is east coast based, mostly from the Northeast or Midwest. Although there were some folks who cross the Mississippi to either
Comments on "Ideal Snowbird Pairings and More: Fascinating Comments from Our Survey"
Jemmie says:
There is a lot of good reading here! Love to see how others are deciding where to go and how to get there along with how long they snowbird. Article is great and thanks for the links to all of the comments as they are also very helpful.
Admin says:
What about single snowbirds?
Admin says:
Great question. Sure there are many other singles in same situation. One friend of mine (male) rents a room every year in the Naples area. Found it on one of those Roomates websites. Works great for him. I did a search of the responses to Q 10 and found 3 people who posted and identified themselves as single.
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My snowbird destination is in Gulf Shores, AL. Alabama wasn't listed on your choices of states, so I chose Florida, which is the closest alternate. I drive from Illinois. I am a single female, therefore don't have a lot of money to spend. The Gulf Shores is very affordable. I have done research into going a little farther south into Florida, but the prices are out of my budget.
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Because I'm single AND have a small dog, it's been next to impossible to find a place to go for the winter..I'm 61,female,retired and live in Buffalo NY... Myrtle Beach is a possibility ..but not that warm and looks to be very wet this winter, but I would have had to book way before now... If I had a travel partner, it would be more doable on many levels. As in driving or flying together...Splitting the rent..knowing someone ect...But I don't have one..I have seen a website on
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I live in Iowa and am considering NC or FL. Scary for me. because I am single and African American. My children will come with (yep we all get along and could live together). Climate of hate in the world is scary. No one really addresses that. So even though I do not like cold at least I feel somewhat safe.
Paul says:
To escape Chicago winters for a while, without being a complete snowbird. I spent 4 or 5 days in Las Vegas or Palm Springs in January, then a week at baseball Spring Training in Florida in March. Works pretty good, and breaks the winter!
Admin says:
The first year after I retired the wife and I spent about 3 weeks on the way to, in, and coming back from South Florida. We had both agreed we wanted to get away for the winter. The next year we rented a place for a month, and spent another 2 weeks coming and going. At the end of that we bought a condo, but we couldn't move into until the next year. The next year we spent 2 months in FL and rented it out when we weren't. That became 3 months, 4 months, and finally we were out of our New England state long enough (more than 6 months) to become Florida residents. In our experience that is a fairly familiar snowbird path.
Jennifer says:
Nick, yes that is nearly the same path my Aunt took. She lived in Indiana on a lovely spring fed lake. Trips to Florida originated with two week vacations, then progressed to a month then eventually when she retired six months, they now have become full time residents of Florida and it does have its ups and downs. She lives in a gated golf course community in Naples and has noticed that since the community has been turned over to the residents by the builder. It is mixed age, but really only older people seem to have enough money to live there. They are still dependent on a car to get around.
Clyde says:
To the African American person from Iowa who was concerned about NC or FL: The greater Miami area (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties) is diverse, with large representations of Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Haitians, Russians, South Americans, etc. The three counties are by far the “bluest” in Florida. You might want to consider this area by giving it a test run in the winter sometime. It’s very sad that because of race, a person might not have the full range of retirement opportunities. I’m Caucasian and very much appreciate the diversity of people I find in the Miami area. Best wishes to you!
RichPB says:
To the African American poster who expressed fears for moving to the South: unfortunately hate exists exists everywhere whether hidden or not. I honestly don't expect you'll find more hate in the South. In general, you would be at least as safe in the South as in any of the northern areas that have reported hate brutality and murder. As Clyde stated, most areas are very diverse and racial acceptance is the norm. I'm also Caucasian which has at times "let me in" to the hidden hate. It's shocking and depressing, but it exists everywhere. But acceptance, love and friendship exist everywhere also. My hope is that the scariness we see in the world is an expression of the unveiling of hate and can lead to understanding and acceptance. The backlash we have seen to hate crimes has not been an expression of simply black or hispanic or LGBT feelings, but an across the spectrum expression of human hurt, indignation and outrage.
Editor's note: This and the previous comment are very thoughtful and important. However we are deviating from the avowed topic, which is favorite snowbird pairings. We will let this comment stand but urge everyone to get back to snowbird destinations, while we consider if there is another blog where this might fit better. We do have Blog on "Can a Yankee Find Happiness in the South" in 2 parts, but we had to close comments to those because it became too repetitive with everyone trying to get the last word in. See https://www.topretirements.com/blog/great-towns/can-a-yankee-find-retirement-happiness-in-the-south.html/
Mikes says:
Um, why was this 2018 article promoted in a TopRetirements email from December 2023? I don't see any updates, and question how current the information now is.
Admin says:
Hi Mikes. We published this again because of the very rich comments made in and to the article. Most of those are quite evergreen and we hope they will be useful. Also, new comments always appreciated!
Jennifer says:
I agree with Mike that any material presented should also include any updates. Things have changed since 2018. Five years makes a big difference considering we all went through a pandemic and have high inflation now.
Daryl says:
The article contains results from a survey in 2018. HERE is what was happening in 2018, now let’s have a new survey to see what everybody’s doing in 2024. Maybe just lead with that—a new survey. I don’t see a problem here.
Daryl says:
In fact, John, a new survey would give everyone a chance to brag about new destinations they’ve found, diss all the old ones, and provide a few enterprising souls free advertising for their rentals. I’d suggest Pittsburgh, since we are getting warmer each year with less and less snow, have lots of indoor entertainment, but unfortunately can’t offer you any sunshine…
Admin says:
Great suggestion Daryl. Since there seems to be a lot of interest in a new survey, here it is:
https://www.topretirements.com/blog/best-snowbird-pairing-suggestions/
Please be generous with your suggestions and thoughts - where to snowbird, how to get there, how long, when, etc. The more the merrier - and we'll start off with Daryl's and my ideas.
Daryl says:
Just kidding about Pittsburgh—my goal is to leave it in the rear view mirror when winter arrives. We only want to snowbird for Jan/Feb and would like to know if senior communities in south Florida generally welcome renter snowbirds, or is it too hard to fit in to an established social scene? Are we better off trying to amuse ourselves for 2 months in a more touristy environment? Love tropical surroundings and abundant sunshine, low-key activities like walking and bike trails, casual restaurants. On or short trip to beach a plus. Hate having to drive all over the place. Anyone love Vero Beach? Fort Lauderdale overwhelming? Key West was fantastic for a week.
Stevo says:
I was touring the Ft Lauderdale area for 2 weeks and found it to be populated by real rich / real poor people and lots and lots of foreigners who don't speak English. One day I parked my car and was accosted by someone speaking some other language and had no idea what I've done. Needless to say it's a BIG pass for me.