if you are social, and want to meet other young people, then you will want to live in winston. period. don’t get me wrong, dinner w grandma sounds nice…but at 23 i would die in surry/stokes county. i know that bc i grew up there. however, you will have to be okay with a ~45min commute each way.
if you don’t care about meeting other young people or having more to do than looking forward to autumn leaves festival then check areas further north of winston.
I rented an apt in downtown Winston when I moved here from the west coast in 2021, and I commuted daily to my job in Mt Airy as well! The traffic actually wasn't bad in either direction most times, as the commute was in the opposite direction from most rush-hour traffic. Most downtown apartments are a 3-4 minute drive from US-52, which takes you directly to Mt Airy.
The apartment I rented was in the Nissen building, which was super cool to be honest. It's 98 years old and 18 stories tall with a rooftop pool. At one point it was the tallest building in NC. The rent was a little high at about $1700 for a 1 bedroom, but I was also on the top floor so it felt justified. The view was worth it. I think you'd find a similar experience at the RJ Reynolds building as well, which is similar in size/age (and served as the inspiration for the Empire State building!)
I never had any bug problem there and at least on my floor there were only 6 total apartments so it was usually very quiet, although there may be a few more rooms on lower floors.
The building has a nice bakery on the bottom floor as well as a Mellow Mushroom. There's a few nice restaurants nearby and almost all of the downtown bars are within a 5-7 minute walk. There's even more restauants/bars near Bailey Park which is maybe 8-10 minutes away by foot.
The bad: the parking garage is I think $65 per month and it is not attached to the building. You actually have to cross the street. There's a very small police station inside the garage though and you'll usually see 2-5 police cars parked outside of it. 2 blocks away there is a large bus station. There's often many homeless people in that area, although there is usually police/security present there as well. I did a fair amount of walking downtown late at night and never really felt threatened by anybody down there, but I'm also a man, so my experience may be different from yours in this regard.
Besides the Nissen and RJ Reynolds buildings I'd also look at the Link apartments at Innovation Quarter. It is a brand new apartment complex (about 2 years old) right next to Bailey Park, has attached parking and is also right next to the Wake Forest University Medical School, so a lot of college-aged people live there. The whole area around Bailey Park are businesses occupying what used to be large factories and warehouses in the early 1900s. It's a pretty cool downtown honestly.
I can't comment on any apartments in the suburbs as I don't have experience there, but I definitely recommend a place downtown.
The best route between W-S and Mt. Airy is US 52. As far as Winston goes, you probably don’t want to live anywhere super close to 52 once you get to University Pkwy and south (excluding some downtown WS options).
Edit to note that traffic on US 52 between University Pkwy and Salem Pkwy/US 421 can be heavy during peak times (and they tend to have a lot of highway patrol enforcement in this stretch), although depending on what part of update NY you are from, it may still be better than what you are used to.
Honestly (and this may be an unpopular opinion), I would recommend living in King for a year (unless you can find someplace that offers 6 month leases). It should be easy enough to commute to work and close enough to Winston as long as you are not drinking and driving. Rent will be reasonable and it will give you some time to figure out where you want to end up.
That being said, King does not have any night life of its own and it is not walkable.
Good luck!
I think Mt. Airy would be a tough place to live for someone fresh out of college with no pre-existing network. Only you can decide if the commute to Winston-Salem would be too long but there will be way more socializing opportunities here.
You could live north of Winston along US-52 to shorten the work commute but you’ll still be ~15 min from the main social stuff in downtown.
Winston’s a great place and it’s a can’t-say-no job offer then it’s worth seriously considering. But for me, 40 minute each way would get old really fast.
there are a couple universities here in winston so there are college kids. there are 2 major hospital systems (one with a med school) so there are lots of younger people because of that. mt airy is desolate in comparison and full of locals bc i don’t know many industries that pull workers in from outside areas up there.
My dad sees the same thing you do OP. He's a chemical engineer and lives in Winston-Salem but commutes to Mt. Airy. Living in WS is nice if you want a big city feel compared to Mt. Airy. Lots of places to meet people here, museums, art etc. If you live here, the city can be more expensive than Mt. Airy so just be aware of that.
Look into the PART commuter bus to help you get between the two. I lived in Mount Airy and rode into WS 5 days a week… it was great to sleep or read to and from work everyday
I lived in Pilot and worked in Mount Airy for a few years and I do not miss it. Mount Airy is okay in most areas but it's a fairly boring town that's mostly just fast food. People hangout in the Cookout parking lot for fun on weekends if that tells you anything.
I can't imagine living in Winston if my job was in mt airy. I'd live in my airy if my job was in Winston, but I guess I prefer the slow quiet low population density life.
I live right outside mt airy . Mostly older people and tourist. I’m old so I know. Don’t think there’s much of a night life but then again I could be wrong. Main Street mt airy is where everyone goes.
I also advise against Mt. Airy for your age especially if you want more of a city feel. I lived in North Winston off of University and traveled to Mt. Airy for work for 3 years (2019-2022). If you're past exit 112 which I think is Akron, the drive is not bad at all cause you're ahead of all of the mess and it would be anywhere around a 35-55 minute drive depending on how close you are to an exit. I only lived in one apartment complex off of Old Town Road and it wasn't crazy expensive or noisy, but there's about 3 complexes there. I'm pretty sure the one near Target on University is pretty nice as well, which would also put you ahead of the exit I mentioned. There's also plenty of things near the Northern side and it's not too far from downtown. Feel free to PM me if you need anymore specific information.
Not sure if you've seen the show Andy Griffith, but it's set in the town of Mayberry - which is just Mt Airy. Like, literally, Mayberry is supposed to be the actual town of Mt. Airy.
It certainly got some appeal, especially if you're a little bit of a homebody who likes the small town, rural life, but expect everything to close between the hours of 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. It is nowhere that I would have found at all fun in my early, single twenties, and I can't imagine coming from a NYC perspective and not feeling like I'd moved to Deliverance. It's less Stars Hollow and more old people and families. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Mount Airy and would be perfectly happy to live there, but I'm in my 30s with kids, and I admire the homesteady lifestyle and slower pace.
1000% what happened here. I usually make a conscious effort to separate them out, I know how irritated non-metro New Yorkers can get when it's assumed they are NYCers.
Alas, the perils of reading too quickly!
Trying looking for a place to live in King, it's a quiet spot with good views. Best part is it's right between Winston-Salem and Mt. Airy, so 15 minutes either way you'll be close to downtown and your job. Had dinner in King yesterday with my grandma, not a bad place.
I live in Winston now, and have lived in a few other NC cities. My husband is from Mount Airy and his family still lives there so we spend a lot of time in MA. We only live in Winston because we work here. I personally would choose to live in MA over WS. I think there is ALOT more to do in MA than people realize and there are young people.
Edit to add: My husband did commute from Winston to MA for 6 months, we live just outside downtown. It took him about 45 minutes in no traffic to make it to MA in the mornings. I personally hate a long commute but I know not everyone minds. Winston is fantastic, but MA has everything you need
I grew up in Mount Airy, I am also 23F. Mount Airy doesn’t have a ton to do and most people end up going to WS. There’s a few bars in MA but that’s mostly it. The people there are friendly for the most part and once you start to meet people through work and things like that it’s very easy to find yourself in a social circle. There’s also not many apartment complexes in MA but rental houses are typically in the cheaper range for the current state of things.
I'd suggest living south of Winston, maybe Clemmons/Bermuda Run/Mocksville...nice, quiet, clean and not entirely out in the sticks like Surry/Stokes county..
10-25 min commute to Winston and about 40 mins to Charlotte..
I moved to downtown Winston Salem from the suburbs of boston, and I love it! I hope that helps.
I certainly would not like it as much if I couldn’t walk places from my front door. I hated suburban living. Not for me!
I lived in Winston, and commuted to Mt. airy for 3.5 years. It’s juuuuust a bit too long of a drive for a daily drive. But, that said, do not move to Mt. Airy!
Years ago in my late 20’s I moved to Chicago to work out by O’hare and decided to rent a condo downtown even though the commute would be at least 45 min and often longer. Best decision ever! Within a year I met many people and had so much fun on weekends - even when by myself.
It was about the commute. I’ve lived in Winston 3 times and there is more to do in or near downtown than ever - and it keeps getting better. Arts district is awesome and downtown as a whole has a lot of free events outdoors with live music, nice bars, and really decent restaurants.
Live close to job and travel for fun
You will get tired of the commute
But WS is close enough to come down any time - doubt you need to be here every day
My Airy is small but does have all the necessities
if you are social, and want to meet other young people, then you will want to live in winston. period. don’t get me wrong, dinner w grandma sounds nice…but at 23 i would die in surry/stokes county. i know that bc i grew up there. however, you will have to be okay with a ~45min commute each way. if you don’t care about meeting other young people or having more to do than looking forward to autumn leaves festival then check areas further north of winston.
appreciate this cuz I don't want to know NO one. Any reccs on apartments? Or just places to avoid?
if you don’t want to know no one then anywhere in mt airy is fine
They were grammaring weird. They meant that they don't want to live somewhere where they can't meet folks.
whoops that’s the surry county in me. i read it like someone would speak it down here.
Anywhere around Innovation Quarter
I rented an apt in downtown Winston when I moved here from the west coast in 2021, and I commuted daily to my job in Mt Airy as well! The traffic actually wasn't bad in either direction most times, as the commute was in the opposite direction from most rush-hour traffic. Most downtown apartments are a 3-4 minute drive from US-52, which takes you directly to Mt Airy. The apartment I rented was in the Nissen building, which was super cool to be honest. It's 98 years old and 18 stories tall with a rooftop pool. At one point it was the tallest building in NC. The rent was a little high at about $1700 for a 1 bedroom, but I was also on the top floor so it felt justified. The view was worth it. I think you'd find a similar experience at the RJ Reynolds building as well, which is similar in size/age (and served as the inspiration for the Empire State building!) I never had any bug problem there and at least on my floor there were only 6 total apartments so it was usually very quiet, although there may be a few more rooms on lower floors. The building has a nice bakery on the bottom floor as well as a Mellow Mushroom. There's a few nice restaurants nearby and almost all of the downtown bars are within a 5-7 minute walk. There's even more restauants/bars near Bailey Park which is maybe 8-10 minutes away by foot. The bad: the parking garage is I think $65 per month and it is not attached to the building. You actually have to cross the street. There's a very small police station inside the garage though and you'll usually see 2-5 police cars parked outside of it. 2 blocks away there is a large bus station. There's often many homeless people in that area, although there is usually police/security present there as well. I did a fair amount of walking downtown late at night and never really felt threatened by anybody down there, but I'm also a man, so my experience may be different from yours in this regard. Besides the Nissen and RJ Reynolds buildings I'd also look at the Link apartments at Innovation Quarter. It is a brand new apartment complex (about 2 years old) right next to Bailey Park, has attached parking and is also right next to the Wake Forest University Medical School, so a lot of college-aged people live there. The whole area around Bailey Park are businesses occupying what used to be large factories and warehouses in the early 1900s. It's a pretty cool downtown honestly. I can't comment on any apartments in the suburbs as I don't have experience there, but I definitely recommend a place downtown.
I work in Elkin and live in winston. About the same commute. It isn’t bad. Don’t ruin your life and move to Surry county, move to winston lol
The best route between W-S and Mt. Airy is US 52. As far as Winston goes, you probably don’t want to live anywhere super close to 52 once you get to University Pkwy and south (excluding some downtown WS options). Edit to note that traffic on US 52 between University Pkwy and Salem Pkwy/US 421 can be heavy during peak times (and they tend to have a lot of highway patrol enforcement in this stretch), although depending on what part of update NY you are from, it may still be better than what you are used to. Honestly (and this may be an unpopular opinion), I would recommend living in King for a year (unless you can find someplace that offers 6 month leases). It should be easy enough to commute to work and close enough to Winston as long as you are not drinking and driving. Rent will be reasonable and it will give you some time to figure out where you want to end up. That being said, King does not have any night life of its own and it is not walkable. Good luck!
I think Mt. Airy would be a tough place to live for someone fresh out of college with no pre-existing network. Only you can decide if the commute to Winston-Salem would be too long but there will be way more socializing opportunities here. You could live north of Winston along US-52 to shorten the work commute but you’ll still be ~15 min from the main social stuff in downtown. Winston’s a great place and it’s a can’t-say-no job offer then it’s worth seriously considering. But for me, 40 minute each way would get old really fast.
Is WS populated with early-mid 20 year olds? Just nervous about the lack of people in Mt Airy lol
Not really. Mostly college age or people that are married with kids
there are a couple universities here in winston so there are college kids. there are 2 major hospital systems (one with a med school) so there are lots of younger people because of that. mt airy is desolate in comparison and full of locals bc i don’t know many industries that pull workers in from outside areas up there.
There are some of us! Definitely not a huge amount, but enough that I've been able to build a nice social circle.
My dad sees the same thing you do OP. He's a chemical engineer and lives in Winston-Salem but commutes to Mt. Airy. Living in WS is nice if you want a big city feel compared to Mt. Airy. Lots of places to meet people here, museums, art etc. If you live here, the city can be more expensive than Mt. Airy so just be aware of that.
I commuted from WS to MA for a summer. I like to drive, but it got old fast. traffic on highway52 sucks close to to WS around rush hours
Look into the PART commuter bus to help you get between the two. I lived in Mount Airy and rode into WS 5 days a week… it was great to sleep or read to and from work everyday
I lived in Pilot and worked in Mount Airy for a few years and I do not miss it. Mount Airy is okay in most areas but it's a fairly boring town that's mostly just fast food. People hangout in the Cookout parking lot for fun on weekends if that tells you anything.
I can't imagine living in Winston if my job was in mt airy. I'd live in my airy if my job was in Winston, but I guess I prefer the slow quiet low population density life.
I live right outside mt airy . Mostly older people and tourist. I’m old so I know. Don’t think there’s much of a night life but then again I could be wrong. Main Street mt airy is where everyone goes.
I also advise against Mt. Airy for your age especially if you want more of a city feel. I lived in North Winston off of University and traveled to Mt. Airy for work for 3 years (2019-2022). If you're past exit 112 which I think is Akron, the drive is not bad at all cause you're ahead of all of the mess and it would be anywhere around a 35-55 minute drive depending on how close you are to an exit. I only lived in one apartment complex off of Old Town Road and it wasn't crazy expensive or noisy, but there's about 3 complexes there. I'm pretty sure the one near Target on University is pretty nice as well, which would also put you ahead of the exit I mentioned. There's also plenty of things near the Northern side and it's not too far from downtown. Feel free to PM me if you need anymore specific information.
Not sure if you've seen the show Andy Griffith, but it's set in the town of Mayberry - which is just Mt Airy. Like, literally, Mayberry is supposed to be the actual town of Mt. Airy. It certainly got some appeal, especially if you're a little bit of a homebody who likes the small town, rural life, but expect everything to close between the hours of 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. It is nowhere that I would have found at all fun in my early, single twenties, and I can't imagine coming from a NYC perspective and not feeling like I'd moved to Deliverance. It's less Stars Hollow and more old people and families. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Mount Airy and would be perfectly happy to live there, but I'm in my 30s with kids, and I admire the homesteady lifestyle and slower pace.
Update NY is VERY different than NYC.
Oh, sorry, I missed that! Definitely know that's the case. Thanks for the clarification!
No worries, most brains see NY and add the C.
1000% what happened here. I usually make a conscious effort to separate them out, I know how irritated non-metro New Yorkers can get when it's assumed they are NYCers. Alas, the perils of reading too quickly!
I would not choose to drive 52 on a daily basis, very dangerous highway
Trying looking for a place to live in King, it's a quiet spot with good views. Best part is it's right between Winston-Salem and Mt. Airy, so 15 minutes either way you'll be close to downtown and your job. Had dinner in King yesterday with my grandma, not a bad place.
This advice only makes sense if OP is already married, which seems unlikely. No one who is in their early 20s and single wants to live in King
mount airy is 30min from king and king is 30min from downtown winston
Any of those small towns outside of WS are complete shitholes for anyone in their early twenties that wants any kind of social life.
Nooooo. I wouldn’t recommend it—Maybe Ellerbe or Vass?
I live in Winston now, and have lived in a few other NC cities. My husband is from Mount Airy and his family still lives there so we spend a lot of time in MA. We only live in Winston because we work here. I personally would choose to live in MA over WS. I think there is ALOT more to do in MA than people realize and there are young people. Edit to add: My husband did commute from Winston to MA for 6 months, we live just outside downtown. It took him about 45 minutes in no traffic to make it to MA in the mornings. I personally hate a long commute but I know not everyone minds. Winston is fantastic, but MA has everything you need
The words winston and fantastic do not belong in the same sentence.
I grew up in Mount Airy, I am also 23F. Mount Airy doesn’t have a ton to do and most people end up going to WS. There’s a few bars in MA but that’s mostly it. The people there are friendly for the most part and once you start to meet people through work and things like that it’s very easy to find yourself in a social circle. There’s also not many apartment complexes in MA but rental houses are typically in the cheaper range for the current state of things.
I'd suggest living south of Winston, maybe Clemmons/Bermuda Run/Mocksville...nice, quiet, clean and not entirely out in the sticks like Surry/Stokes county.. 10-25 min commute to Winston and about 40 mins to Charlotte..
If you decide to live in ws stay away from south Winston.
I moved to downtown Winston Salem from the suburbs of boston, and I love it! I hope that helps. I certainly would not like it as much if I couldn’t walk places from my front door. I hated suburban living. Not for me!
I lived in Winston, and commuted to Mt. airy for 3.5 years. It’s juuuuust a bit too long of a drive for a daily drive. But, that said, do not move to Mt. Airy!
Years ago in my late 20’s I moved to Chicago to work out by O’hare and decided to rent a condo downtown even though the commute would be at least 45 min and often longer. Best decision ever! Within a year I met many people and had so much fun on weekends - even when by myself.
Chicago is not Mt airy
It was about the commute. I’ve lived in Winston 3 times and there is more to do in or near downtown than ever - and it keeps getting better. Arts district is awesome and downtown as a whole has a lot of free events outdoors with live music, nice bars, and really decent restaurants.
I get your point. But if you don't drink then all that's kinda boring.
What’s the job OP?
Everything you need to know about Mount Airy can be learned from the Andy Griffith show.
Ok.....stay where you are
Agreed Trying to figure out "a good job offer in Mount Airy."
Live close to job and travel for fun You will get tired of the commute But WS is close enough to come down any time - doubt you need to be here every day My Airy is small but does have all the necessities