Best place to live and boat; West Palm to Vero

The ride from Las Olas to Port Everglades? It's less than 3 nm. 2.8 to be outside, 2.3 or so inside.

Not sure what a country vibe is to you, but Jupiter is more of a small town vibe. The negative is that it's not boating centric. Still there are marinas you might find you like and housing much less expensive than West Palm or Fort Lauderdale. Convenient to airport. Keep in mind, Jupiter Inlet is not Port Everglades.

Stuart is also a nice subdued area with more of a boating emphasis. A little further from the airport but within your acceptable range.

We love ❤️ living in Fort Lauderdale in the Citrus Isle area: Only 10 minutes drive to FLL airport, easy Uber ride. Far enough inland to be considered a hurricane cane hole, but only :40 minutes boat ride to the ocean and a few minutes less to the ICW.
28 miles to MIA airport, but we hardly go there anymore, plenty international flights from FLL.
That being said, Fort Lauderdale is getting more busy and more “vibrant”, cars and people all over. Been playing with the idea of moving North, perhaps Vero in 15-20 years. For now Fort Lauderdale is ok, but also getting tired of staring killer hurricanes in the face.
Pluses and minuses, pretty much like everywhere, but can’t beat the proximity to the Bahamas and the Keys, or the winter weather.

Should we merge these threads...?

https://www.yachtforums.com/threads/buying-in-florida-coconut-grove-bay-harbor-ft-lauderdale.31135/

Different areas. What about his Charleston one?

They will find their perfect place sometime and it may be in any of these places or in none of the above.

If it was me, I'd live in Jupiter. Lots of terrific local unique restaurants. The water has a nice clear blue/green color, the lighthouse and inlet are very picturesque and it's a laid back town. But 15 minutes away from great shopping on PGA and and the gardens mall. Stuart, it's too far to get to things like shopping, if you're close to the inlet. Granted Jupiter inlet is a nice day inlet, not a Port. But Jupiter has a small town feel with a big town nearby. Also close to Palm Beach airport. Stuart/Ft. Pierce/Vero all far from a good airport.

In Fort Lauderdale in Harbor Beach, the neighborhood off of Cordova Road, or Las Olas on the South Isles, you're 10 minutes from the inlet at 5 knots.

As for insurance, it's going to be about the same for any waterfront place from Vero to Miami. The key is the house has to have all impact windows and doors for every opening (or FBC/Miami Dade approved hurricane shutters), if it does, insurance is about 1/3 and on most houses, putting all new windows and doors, they pay for themselves in insurance and electric savings in 3 years (or less) generally.

What about Daytona Beach down to Melbourne area ? Daytona airport is right near by and you have Ponce de Leon , the town and inlet which is nice. I don't believe the realestate is a little bit more affordable and there are quite a few marinas around.

Loved Miami. Really enjoyed Ft Lauderdale. Very happy with Vero.

The problem from North of Ft. Pierce to New Smyrna is there isn't an inlet worth a sh@t. Vero is a LONG ways to an inlet.

I have a slip in The Moorings, very south end of Vero. I’m 40 minutes to Ft Pierce inlet at 10 knots. No, it’s not Miami. But, no, it’s not Miami.

Consider Stuart. Lots of good waterfront properties with docks, the town is thriving and attractive, no high rises in Martin County so it feels less jammed than most communities, Stuart Inlet is not bad. I've lived in Stuart for five years and my wife and I are very happy to be here. Nice place.

I'll second Stuart for the same reason above, no high rises, smaller town appeal.

We live in Jupiter and keep the boat at our yacht club in Stuart. Jupiter has everything close by but still is not full of high rise buildings although construction continues. We chose Jupiter because of the distance to PBI which has pretty good airline coverage. Restaurants are close and pretty good and the Maltz Theater is there as well. Not too far to West Palm and close to Palm Beach Gardens.

Stuart is more boat friendly and we certainly like the inlet better than Jupiter. And housing is less expensive. We spent a good amount of time looking when we decided on Jupiter after living aboard in North Palm Beach for a number of winters.

about 35 min run from southern west palm to palm beach inlet. I don't use boyton inlet much but that's probably about the same time from southern west palm. Takes me 25-30 min from southern blvd to Palm beach inlet.

I would think that Stuart would be much more comfortable to live in than West Palm. Completely different more small town feel and boating is much more of the lifestyle there.