[scarface_74]

When I did live in the burbs of Atlanta GA- both the south side and the north side, there were also public parks, bike trails etc within 3 miles of my home.

All of the things you mentioned are right there in suburbia. We rarely went “in town” for anything and I remember having a conversation with some relatives that said it had been years since they actually been to Atlanta proper and they lived in the burbs.

Of course you can find places in most major cities that are walkable and around parks and lakes. We briefly looked at moving to this suburb of Orlando

https://www.zillow.com/orlando-fl/lake-eola-park_att/

https://www.orlando.gov/Parks-the-Environment/Directory/Lake...

If we had decided to stay in Atlanta, we were looking at places close to Piedmont Park

https://www.zillow.com/atlanta-ga/piedmont-park_att/

You don’t have to move to Europe. Right now the original poster was comparing Seattle of all places as far as affordability. That’s one of the most expensive cities in the US and the weather is always awful. I actually turned down a chance to even interview for a job there because I knew I would never want to live in Seattle and the compensation difference wouldn’t have been worth it.

[maxldn]

Three miles is quite a long way though. From central Amsterdam, for example, it’s basically as far as the ring road and contains all the main parks

[scarface_74]

So everyone lives in these idyllic places close to parks in all of the Netherlands or the EU or is that a choice people make just like in the US?

After my youngest graduated high school and we became empty nesters, we were in fact looking for that smaller place, walkable area, where we could easily get to gyms, restaurants, a park, etc.

We decided to change our entire city to a place in Florida with better weather and no state income taxes. Those places do exist in the US just like I am sure that most people who live in the EU don’t live in the idyllic places you describe.

[maxldn]

I’d say that it’s pretty normal in the Netherlands to be very close to a park. It’s a very densely populated country. In Amsterdam specifically I think they consciously decided a few hundred years ago the parks should be everywhere. It’s hard to generalise about the EU as it’s pretty large and diverse, but most of the places I’ve been, 3 miles would be a long way to go in a city. I would expect to come across several parks of varying sizes, shops, schools, etc. In the countryside there are fewer facilities generally, but less need for parks.