We also have Hanging Rock State Park and Pilot Mountain just up the highway for an even closer day trip. We are a short drive to the Blue Ridge Parkway and an hour or so to Boone for great hiking and other outdoor activities. Not really a 'nightclub' scene here, but for me that doesn't matter. There are some nice places to eat, and a few good breweries. Nobody seems to shove their politics down your throat here. IMO, the political idealogy diversity a good thing. As someone said, the city itself leans to the left politically, but the suburbs and surrounding rural areas are very conservative. Well, this is long, but I grew up here and have been back here for about fifteen years. We have outstanding medical care with two major health systems in town, including a medical school. Ardmore is one of the few walkable neighborhoods. One of the downsides to Winston is that it's pretty car dependent. (I have family members who are alive today only because they went to their basement. The worst weather we get is the occasional tornado. I've found this to be one of the confusing things for transplants. If they say, 'bless your heart,' you know it wasn't a compliment. Older Southern women (I'm in my 60's, so I count I guess) have been trained from a young age never to communicate directly, especially if it's confrontational. The person who said that it's really more like a town than a city nailed it. You'll find total strangers speaking to you as you pass by, and generally there are a lot of good hearted people here. If you like sports, there's minor league baseball and hockey, and teams from Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State University. In non-covid times Winston hosts the national Black Theater festival and River Run film festival. The downtown transformation has been amazing, including repurposing of old tobacco factories. The house itself is a home to a museum of American art. There's a large green lawn out front (great for a picnic) and lots of walking trails. Another is Reynolda Gardens, the former home of RJ and Katharine Reynolds. One is Salem Lake, a large lake with a seven mile trail around it, surrounded by lots of woods.

I'd check into the specific neighborhoods for crime reports. I feel perfectly safe here (in Winston) walking my dog at night. My dog kept my house from being broken into once. In my neighborhood over the 16 years I've lived here we've only had a few incidents of crime. As others have said, both pollen and humidity can be wicked.

Living in winston salem