“Hello, Mr. Bin Laden? We’ve been trying to reach you about your-“ kaboom

I wasn’t trying to put down Pittsburgh. Living in Mohnton, Shillington, Wyomissing, or Exeter Township near Reading will be pretty much the same. Reading City is “a city”, the communities around it are “suburbs” without much in the way of unique flavors.

Shadyside is different from South Side which is different from Homestead which is different from McKees Rocks or Mount Washington, despite all being fairly close to one another and all being “Pittsburgh”. Never mind the spread of suburban communities…McKeesport isn’t like Sewickley or Cranberry.

There is more diversity in the communities of the tighter Pittsburgh area. That is a good thing, but it makes it harder to recommend one area or another.

I wish I could - NePA is not somewhere I have a ton of knowledge about. I’ve been through the area, but haven’t lived there. I suspect there are plenty of folks on this sub that can help!

Happy to do it. I worked for Penn State and that took me all over the state. If you have specific questions when you get closer to a move, I’m happy to help.

I have lived all over PA. TL:DR? The bigger towns like Reading, Lancaster, York, Hanover/Gettysburg, and Harrisburg/Hershey/Carlisle will meet your needs.

Based on what you are asking, I would say that Reading is a good fit (there is a large and growing medical industry, it has every big box store you could need, and the malls of the Philly suburbs are about 45-60 minutes away).

Alternatively, Gettysburg/Hanover/York could be another good fit. The suburbs of DC and Baltimore are both creeping north but prices in PA are still much lower than MD. Frederick and Westminster in Maryland have hospitals and shopping and are both 30 minutes away (depending on which town you leave from). All three have hospitals, though G-Burg is smallest. Hanover and York have the big stores (Walmart, Target, Sams, Dicks) and the DC area has everything that Philly has.

I have never lived in Lancaster, but I’ve lived all around it. It’s a good sized community with small farming towns around it. There is shopping and dining (chains, box stores, and local stuff). Penn Med, Penn State Med, WellSpan, and UPMC are all expanding across the state (buying up local hospitals) and Lancaster is seeing PSU and UPenn both moving into the market. It is located close enough to Philly that a train ride to hospitals in the city feasible (but pricy) on commuter rail. I took that train a few times and it is much less stressful than driving in at rush hour.

Harrisburg’s suburbs will be fine for you, too. Solid internet and a wide array of shopping/dining. On the medical side, Hershey Medical Center (east of Harrisburg) is the Penn State Med School. They have a massive complex. There are hospitals scattered around the Harrisburg “metro” area (metro is a strong word for Harrisburg). I would recommend against Harrisburg proper as well as the river towns of Steelton, Highspire, Middletown. They aren’t bad, but they have a distinct post-industrial vibe. Hershey, Mechanicsburg and Carlisle may be a good place to look.

State College is (wait for it) a college town. It has amenities and shopping, but it also has tens of thousands of college students coming and going. It can get wild on weekends (especially home games) and it is pretty isolated from anywhere else.

Pittsburgh is hardest to recommend…it is a big town that thinks it is a city. It defiantly has the population to be a city, but there are so many small communities with their own vibe that it is hard to nail it down. The terrain around the city is very hilly, which makes commuting/driving a challenge. If you aren’t by a highway, it may be a lot longer than a map would have you think, since all the roads seem to follow creeks. UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) is the big name in town, but the outlying communities still have smaller, local hospitals and clinics. A good number of the towns around Pittsburgh got hit hard by the decline in industry and have not fully recovered. Crime is higher, incomes are lower, and (when I lived there pre-pandemic) heroin/opioids were a big problem. That said, there are great communities and places to live around Pittsburgh.

Away from the larger towns, you will struggle with internet and cell service. It is getting better, but the mountains and ruralness of the state make service spotty. Perhaps check the service in areas you are considering? A rule of thumb to imaging PA is to visualize a big T in the middle of the state running up from the Maryland line and branching east and west parallel to I-80 and the NY line. In the T you have large swaths with small towns, plenty of parks and protected woodland and not much else. There are some small college towns, but otherwise, it is mostly rural/agricultural. Finding reliable high speed internet within that T will be harder than finding it in the suburbs of Philly or Pittsburgh or one of the more developed areas like Reading, Scranton, Allentown, York, Lancaster, Erie, or Harrisburg/Carlisle.

Pennsylvania has a TON of state parks. Like 100+. They are largely spread up the arc of mountainous land that runs roughly parallel to I-81/78 from Chambersburg to Allentown, but they are all over the state. You swim in a Great Lake (Presque Isle, Erie), hike a trail with a dozen waterfalls (Rickett’s Glen), see the darkest skies on the East Coast (Cherry Springs SP) or go white water rafting (Ohiopyle state park) all in the same state. There is a ton of history - the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philly, the Gettysburg Battlefield is interesting, Fort Necessity (where young Lieutenant George Washington hid from angry French soldiers and Native warriors prior to ‘getting famous’) is outside Pittsburgh. And NYC and Washington DC aren’t more than a few hours away from most anywhere in the state (expect Erie…everything is far away from Erie, except Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio, that’s not far…)

A lot here…hope it helps

You will go to a state licensed store for a large amount and grocery stores or Sheetz for small amounts.

But the strong stuff, that is a different state run store.

Edit: this was supposed to be sarcastic and a commentary on how absurd it is to buy beer and liquor in PA. I don’t think recreational cannabis is happening anytime soon.

Sure - the train in Lancaster County from Harrisburg into Philly are good and reliable. I can’t speak about the trains to NYC.

Sure - the train in Lancaster County from Harrisburg into Philly are good and reliable. I can’t speak about the trains to NYC.

From Annville/Ft. Indiantown Gap, NYC is about a 2.5 hour drive. If you park in Jersey City or Hoboken you can take the subway (PATH) directly into the WTC and lower Manhattan. It makes for an easy day trip.

DC isn’t too far, either. If you don’t want to drive into the city (and pay an assload to park) I’d recommend one of the outlying metro stations on the Red Line. They are the first ones you come to if you take US 15/I-270 from central PA. Look at Shady Grove or Grosvenor/Strathmore Metro stations, I know they have parking garages.

Little Round Top is closed for the foreseeable future for renovations and restorations. The road to access Big Round Top is closed to vehicles but you can walk or bike it and still explore the Big Round Top. There is some parking and a bathroom near the road closure turn around.

Devils Den is mostly open, but there are closed off areas there, too. Just FYI.

Oma!