If you're planning a long-distance move, one of the hardest things to plan for is what you'll miss. Plenty of people left Los Angeles thinking they'd miss the sunshine...only to realize that they weren't much of a “sunshine-loving” person after all.
In other cases, people who hardly ever saw the beach while living here might miss having the Pacific Ocean less than an hour away. It's harder than we think to know what we love about home—and what we'll miss in our new home. Leaving Los Angeles might have a different impact than you’d think.
On today's blog, we thought we'd play a little game by trying to list what Los Angeles natives might miss about LA while living elsewhere.
1) LA Is a One-of-a-Kind Location
Okay, we admit it—this is the easy one. In Los Angeles, also known as the City of Angels, there's hardly a couple hours' difference between the beach, the mountains, the forest, and the golden California hills.
For people who grew up here, we might think it's natural for a city to be near 4 different ecosystems at once.
Hint: it's really not.
Leaving Los Angeles most likely means leaving a city that is within arm’s reach of so many different places with a variety of activities you can enjoy. Depending on where you move, however, you may find that you find more things you love. The best way to find out is by getting out there and exploring after you move to a new city.
2) Other Places Won't Have as Much Food Diversity
While plenty of great cities feature a wide array of cultures and nationalities within city limits, Los Angeles truly has nearly every great cuisine within a few blocks of each other. And we mean a few blocks.
Here are just a few of the mini-cities found in Los Angeles:
- Little Tokyo
- Koreatown
- Little Bangladesh
- Historic Filipinotown
- Little Armenia
- Chinatown
Unlike many other cities around the world, these places are friendly to people not from the neighborhood coming in for a bite. Don't speak Thai? You can still enjoy some of the best Thai food on this side of the Pacific.
If you’re leaving LA, you might miss the food. But, you can get out and try the local cuisine, whether it’s family-owned spots, high-end restaurants, or favorite chains. You might find some new restaurants that fulfill your inner foodie.
3) Salads Are an "LA" Thing
Yes, people eat salads elsewhere too.
But if you're a vegetarian or vegan leaving LA, you might find that you've been taking your city's menu options for granted.
A combination of obsessive beauty standards, a health-conscious culture, and readily available produce has made it fairly easy to enjoy a fresh, healthy salad in Los Angeles in any season. While you can get salads pretty much anywhere, you'll be hard-pressed to find a place in November that serves a plate of greens like your favorite spot on Sunset Boulevard.
Fortunately, many cities have begun to embrace a more healthy culture with vegan, vegetarian, and low-carb menu options for most diets. So even if you’re leaving Los Angeles, you might still be able to find a great salad so you can get your greens fix.
4) No One Else Talks About Freeways
Cliché? Yes. True? Also, yes.
Surviving LA traffic has given us a complex. Some deep, dark part of us thinks you need to earn your destination—and that means suffering through the crucible of the 405/101 interchange on a Monday morning.
Of course, if you move to Minnesota and try talking about your morning commute in the same way, people won't be impressed. They'll just feel sad for you. You can try it anyway, but...your mileage may vary.
The terrible traffic is one of the reasons some people choose to leave Los Angeles. So while you might not be able to complain about it, you’ll probably be saving yourself an hour or more a day by getting rid of a commute full of aggressive drivers.
5) You Might Actually Experience Real Seasons
Seasons? What are those?
If you’re a Los Angeles native, you probably have little experience with real seasons, just slight shifts in the weather and maybe a little rain.
Depending on where you move, leaving Los Angeles might mean that you’ll have the opportunity to experience real seasons. This can be inconvenient if you live somewhere that has snow during the winter, but it can also be beautiful and present an opportunity to still go skiing or snowboarding if you used to drive to the mountains when you lived in LA.
Leaving Los Angeles? AQMS Is Here to Help You Move
If you’re leaving Los Angeles, Affordable Quality Moving and Storage can help make your move as stress-free as possible. We’ve served customers throughout Southern California since 1996, and we handle local, out-of-state, and even international moves. No matter where you’re going, we have the manpower, trucks, and equipment to help you get there. Our services are also customizable, meaning you can get as much or as little help as you want. We offer complete packing and unpacking, moving, and storage solutions for home and office moves.
If you're leaving LA and need a good moving company, give AQMS a call—we'll be happy to give you a free in-home or in-office quote. Our team is licensed and fully insured. Call (661) 622-2636 today!
