What are the best areas to live around Richmond, Virginia?|137416

My son might transfer to Richmond and we no nothing about the area.
Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

The Richmond Metro area is primarily comprised of the City of Richmond and the surrounding counties of Henrico and Chesterfield.

If he is interested in living in the City of Richmond itself, I can suggest living in the Business District, the Fan, or the Carytown area. There are very few places to live in the Business District, but what is there is very nice! Honestly, there are only about 4 major apartment buildings in the area. Two are brand spanking new. The benefit of living in the Business District is that it is located on top of the Shockoe Slip/Shockoe Bottom areas which offer a lot of restaurants and night life. The Fan is located west of Virginia Commonwealth University, and is a mix of students and young families. The only issue in this area is parking as very few of the apartments have parking lots. Carytown is further west of _The Fan_ and has less students. Again, both of these areas are close to theaters, restaurants, eclectic stores, and night life. Pretty much everyone who grew up in the Richmond Area or went to VCU has lived in those two areas.

If your son is looking at moving _south of the river,_ within the city limits then he should look at the Forest Hill Ave. area or besides the Stoney Point mall.

The main area of Henrico County is the west end, called Short Pump. This area is served by I-64 and has a lot of shopping centers, malls, etc. Lots of stuff here, but the night life is not as eclectic as Richmonds. If he wants to move into the eastern portion of Henrico (Varinan, Sandston, Highland Springs) it is a bit cheaper but he will have _a drive_ to get to everything other than a grocery store. (OK, they just opened up a new shopping center off of I-64 on that end, so he has a Target and a Best Buy that he can go to without going to the west end of Henrico.)

Chesterfield is wide and varied. Most of the areas that a young professional would be interested are located off of route 60 (Hull Street) and route 360 (Midlothian Turnpike). This area is a lot like the west end of Henrico County: Lots of malls, lots of restaurants. Not a bad area at all.

I hope that this helps. Good luck!

Glen Allen which is basically ten minutes from downtown richmond is where I live and i love it. I live in the suburbs which if thats what ur looking for makes glen allen a great place to live. short pump town center. innsbrook is the local area for a bunch of companies and stuff. everything u would wanna do is in close proximity to richmond and its a lovely area. west end pride woohoo