where is CA best quality of life...

hello i plan to take a break this year having achieved postgraduate studies and i am thinking of teaching French in the US...

i wondered which California county is supposed to have the best quality of life?...since most have universities i may choose any of them...

i%26#39;ve heard that Santa Barbara county may be the best place, who can tell me more about comparative advantages/drawbacks of CA%26#39; shore counties?...

apart from those i know like climate wetter up north and San Francisco...huge urban sprawl in LA... and bigger cities being more cosmopitan i suppose...

where is CA best quality of life...

Congratulations! Fantastic! and best of luck to you in your studies! The most important aspect of studying is your surroundings. I would recommend any college town. I, myself, am originally from Southern CA. Because of public transport difficulties I highly recommend living close to campus. UC-Santa Barbara is a very good school, and it is quite a beautiful scene -- if you can afford to live there, I%26#39;d highly recommend it; I had a friend who found his group of life-long, unpretentious, true friends there, and you%26#39;d have to study because there, because everyone else is busy doing same. The cafes and clubs are there, and so is the beauty of the Pacific..... But for relative inexpensive places to live and really good, non-frustrating public transportation, I would also recommend Northern CA. Berkeley, Oakland, Orinda, S. Francisco can be managed relatively cheaply. And the weather keeps one moving. Good luck to you. (I%26#39;d take Berkeley, if I could go.) Also: Try www.craigslist.com, for postings of recommendations.

where is CA best quality of life...

Hi surfsearch,

I went to U.C. Berkeley for a semester and really enjoyed the atmosphere and surroundings--you%26#39;re only about a 25 min. subway ride away from San Francisco. There are lots of great restaurants and hangouts in Berkeley and the school has the best academic reputation (at least it did when I went in the 1980s) of all the University of California campuses. You may also like U.C Santa Cruz which is about an hour and 15 min. away from San Francisco. This school has a reputation for being a party school, however, but is near the coast in a small college town. U.C. Santa Barbara is very nice and Santa Barbara is a lovely and beautiful town but it is much closer to Los Angeles than it is to San Francisco. I also like U.C.L.A. a lot and that is in the heart of Los Angeles so if you like a big city atmosphere, I would choose between U.C.L.A. and U.C. Berkeley. I hope you have a great time whichever school you decide to attend.

We live in Ventura County, Thousand Oaks and we love it. The air is clear, the city safe and lots of hiking %26amp; biking trails, easy drives to the beaches (both Malibu %26amp; Ventura). Easy drive into the city and up to Santa Barbara. The climate is nice - we stay about 5 -10 degrees warmer than the coast, but 10 - 15 degrees cooler than the Valleys. You get a nice coastal breeze in the evenings and fog in the morning. We have a great farmers market and lots of fresh produce throughout the year. Thousand Oaks is slow growth - and although it has grown up a lot over the years, they are very strict on keeping a lot of open space. Thousand Oaks has a popluation of 120,000 but still maintains a small town feel. We have a civics art plaza that gets great entertainers and plays.

We also have a very good public school system, Cal Lutheran University is here as well as Moorpark College (a 2 year college) and Cal State Channel Islands.

Downside - HOUSING - it is very expensive - it has more than doubled since we moved out here.

Good luck.

More and more, I hear good things about the Sacramento/Davis area. It does get very hot in the summer, but overall has a great climate. Only about an hour to San Francisco and about 3 hours to the mountains and Lake Tahoe area for skiing. Great access to the American River for boating and white water rafting. No doubt real estate there is climbing as in the rest of the state, but you can still buy a house there. The biggest university there is UC Davis (in Davis), but Sacramento has smaller colleges, such as Sacramento State. I live in Monterey County and, like Santa Barbara County, it%26#39;s so very expensive. It%26#39;s gorgeous here, but we pay for it. Plus, there is no major university except for the relatively new Cal State Monterey Bay, which has a shaky reputation. The expensive coastal communities are seeing older and older populations, as young people cannot afford to move here and buy real estate. It%26#39;s a shame.