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Where to live in California?

Travel Info
I'm 19 years old, and plan on attending college in California next year. Right now I live in a town of 60,000 people , very safe and helpful people. I'm good in big cities and can find my away pretty much anywhere, but I want mountains, palm trees, beaches, and good night life. I have thought about Seaside, CA since it is quite small, but close to San Fran. I also like 70-80 degree weather. My main concern is that living too far up North would be boring, while too far down South I might get killed.. so give me some unbiased input!

Travel Tips

Since you want palm trees and beaches I would suggest Southern CA since the coast is very cold in Northern CA. It's just as safe in Southern CA as it is in Northern Ca. San Diego is one of the safest big cities in America and is safer than San Francisco; SD has nearly 2x the population as SF but about 1/2 the number of murders. I was born and raised in the Bay Area and moved to SD for college six years ago and stayed after graduating; both places are great but SD might be more of what you are looking for. The nightlife in SD is great, especially in Pacific Beach, which is the best beach community in Ca in my opinion. Everyone in PB is 20-30 and people are very friendly and chill there. Tijuana is cool for under the 21 crowd and is plenty safe to visit. The mountains are about an hour away and ski resorts about 2-2.5 hours away.

You aren't going to find 70-80 degree weather anywhere along the coast in Northern CA except for maybe 5 days out of the year. Santa Cruz tends to be warmer though b/c it faces south, so that might be a community that's worth checking out. SD is pretty much between 70-80 year round and it barely rains there too; weather in SD is amazing.

There are tons of community colleges in the region and 4 major university's including UC San Diego, San Diego State, University of San Diego, and Cal State University at San Marcos.

Housing in SD is expensive compared to other parts of the country but not as high as the SF Bay Area or LA/Orange County. You can get places near the beach for not too much compared to what you would pay in SF or LA. Northern SD County is a little more suburban/rural if you don't want to be right in San Diego and has great beach communities too.

Others
Oceanside, CA

Colleges
Beaches
Close to moutain views

Your an hour from L.A and an Hour from San Diego
ok, i live in Huntington Beach, CA. and it's quite fun! there are movie theatres, malls, the beach is right there, and theres clubs, theres a few gyms and its sooooo fun!
Santa Barbara. UCSB. Meets all of your requirments. Either the towns of Goleta, or Isla Vista are perfect college towns.

The weather is perfect year round. And you are only an hour away from LA, and 7 hours away from SF.
Had many friend who attended UCSB and visited them many times.
Don't move to the Bay Area. We are nasty mofo's!
San Diego County, it is all you want