I moved to Greenville about a year and half ago and have fallen in love with the city and the region - I always tell friends that my husband and I have found the perfect place.  We really enjoy being able to take day trips to the mountains.

I’ve been blown away by how easy life is here in Greater Greenville. There are so many resources and conveniences here without the stress of living in a major city. I’ve been here for almost two years and aboslutley love it! The weather is great, the people are friendly and the are so many things to do. The best part is being just a few hours away from the beach AND the mountains. It’s the best of both worlds.

While living in Columbia, S.C., I fell in love with a man born and raised in Woodruff, just outside of Greenville. I’ve had the pleasure of spending time there with him and his family, and although business has brought us to Florida, we take every opportunity to return and enjoy the kind, wholesome and beautiful South Carolina Upstate. Time and time again, I’m blown away by the incredibly perfect balance between modernity and tradition; city and country; peacefulness and excitement. We look forward to owning our own home in the Upstate one day.

I grew up in Orlando, FL, but moved to Greenville to go attend school at Furman University.  As I was graduating high school, I never imagined I’d stay in SC after graduation, but I fell in love with the Upstate during my time in college—particularly the downtown.  I can’t get enough of it!  You can probably find me standing on the Falls Park bridge carrying ice cream from Spill the Beans at least once a week.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit a friend who lives in Clemson, SC, but who previously lived in Charlotte and Greenville.  I was, therefore, fortunate to get the tour of the entire area and BOY HOWDY was I impressed!  I live in the desert area of Texas so was knocked away by the beauty of TREES.  Then there was the shopping experience unlike anthing I have ever seen.  OH ... did I mention those tall green trees?  Seriously, papers are probably being served on my husband in West Texas as I write this.  Don’t want to leave heaven when I’ve just found it!

I moved to the Upstate less than a year ago from Mobile, Alabama. It’s the first time in my life I haven’t lived on or near the water, and I wasn’t too sure how I felt about that. Well, little did I know there are TONS of lakes around here. And mountains. Wow. Add in the amazing downtown restaurants and bars, and I really was blown away. I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.

It was a blistery cold February morning in Akron, Ohio and my husband and I asked ourselves, “why do we live here again?” That simple question changed our well-being, our futures and drastically improved the world in which we live. We moved to a Greenville apartments in 2005 with no jobs, a U-Haul of stuff and we never looked back - except to hike it up north to visit family and friends about twice a year.

The Upstate has been extremely generous to us! We’re now raising our 2 children here and have no regrets or second thoughts of being any place else. We love everything about our surroundings: mountains, a long weekend at the beach, our homes in Mauldin and on Lake Keowee,  southern hospitality, seasonality without snow, big city escapes to Atlanta or Charlotte, a rebirth of downtowns thoughout the area and friendships that will last a life time. There really is no place else like it!

I was blown away by the trees and the mountains.  Being an Army Brat, I was lucky enough to see quite a bit of the US and Europe before my father retired to Clearwater, FL where I essentially grew up. As an adult, besides Clearwater, I’ve lived outside of NYC and in Ft. Lauderdale and Greenville has the best of all the places I’ve lived without the traffic, smog and formally laid out streets.  I love the winding roads, the trees that change with the seasons, the little bit of snow we get each year (enough for my son to have a “Snow Day”), the ability to go camping in the mountains less than an hour away and hit the beach in 3 hours.  There is big city enough to get the Broadway roadshows and big concernts, but small town enough to close down mainstreet 2 evenings a week from April - October for free concerts and street vendors.  The upstate really has it all.

I am originally from Texas and lived in cities such as Dallas, Houston and Corpus Christi.  I first moved to Greenville in 1972 and went to high school here.  Then over the years moved back and forth from Texas.  Now I have spent over half my life in Upstate South Carolina.  I found my soul mate, raised two sons, one serving our country for the second time in Iraq and am blessed with three wonderful grandchildren.  Life couldn’t be better!  After all these years seeing the Upstate grow, I am still blown away!

10 years ago, I moved to the Upstate from my hometown of Raleigh, NC.  What a great move!  Wonderful restaurants, an active downtown and best of all….a great cost of living and quality of life.

I’ve had several opportunities to move back home to Raleigh but just haven’t been interested.  I guess it’s safe to say that Greenville is now the adopted home for my wife and I. 

My husband and I moved to Spartanburg from Simpsonville two years ago.  Simpsonville was a nice community and we loved living there.  We moved to save on gas as my husband was working in Spartanburg.  I was blown away with downtown Spartanburg.  The nice place to take the kids, the parks, the restaurants,  the small hometown feel.  I grew up in a small town and this was like coming home.  Everything is so close and accessable.  The transit system is there if I ever needed it,  which with gas prices I just may.  The college atmosphere is great.  You don’t have to drive far to have some entertainment with everything that is going on in the city.

Thanks Spartanburg for making our new home easy and fun.

Lorie Roueche

I moved to Greenville 20 years ago when it was not thriving as much as it is now, but i feel so lucky because i was able to change with the city and see the exciting changes.  I love Greenville and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.  You have the ocean, the mountains, lakes and a wonderful city all so close.  Greenville has grown by leaps and bounds and for the good and i only seeing it get better.  I hear so many stories from people who were just “passing through” the area and NEVER left.  Very proud to say i am from here.

I was offered a job here in the Upstate, in September of 1999.  I accepted the job an asked if my wife could join me for a house hunting trip on the same weekend that this company was having their company picnic.  They invited us along Friday night to downtown Greenville with associates from their Italian operation.  My wife and I were blown away by Friday night Jazz,  children drawing on Main St with chalk, and the whole atmosphere from the Hyatt to Soby’s. 

Well, some eight years later now, downtown still blows us away with each trip there!  I just keeps getting better and better!  From the Hyatt, now to Fluor field, Liberty bridge to the zoo!  Safe, clean, family friendly.  I do miss the hockey, basketball, and arena football teams however.  SInce Shearer Sports did not want these teams at the Bi-Lo, maybe someone else will open a sporting venue at the empty Point by Greenridge.  Perfect location off 85 and 385!

Plan the next Wow for Greenville!  Put a rail system from downtown, to Greenridge, out to the airport, with stops at the mall and hotels along the way.  Bam! instant attraction in this new world of high fuel prices.

I was blown away by everything that Greenville and the Upsate have to offer a young professional couple looking to start a family.  From the natural beauty of the surrounding area, to the countless fine dining options throughout downtown Greenville, to the low cost of housing in Greenville there is truly something for everyone.  We moved here from Southern California and haven’t looked back since.  We have found our home…Greenville offers Southern Hospitality mixed with modern urban renewal.  We are so glad we found this area!

I was blown away almost 15 years ago when my husband and I came to Table Rock on vacation.  We are originally from Eastern North Carolina, 30 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.  The Upstate was such a contrast to what we were used to.  I fell in love with the mountains and lakes.  I was so impressed with the friendliness of the people.  We would be driving along and people in the opposite lane would wave!  We finally got it, they were JUST BEING FRIENDLY.
So impressed were we that we went back to North Carolina, put the house up for rent, made week-end trips back here, found a place, got the utilities turned on and within 6 months, we were South Carolinians.  Unfortunately, my husband was killed in a boating accident on Lake Jocassee less than a year after we moved here, but this is so much like home to me, I stayed, first in Anderson County, then moved to Greenville.  Greenville’s growth has been phenomenal, 15 years ago, Woodruff Road was more trees than traffic.  I’m just amazed at how Greenville has grown and how cosmopolitian it has become.  Downtown makes me smile.  There is an atmosphere there that makes me feel like I’m in Europe. Wonderful!

The South Carolina of old, at least here in the Upstate, is fading away. The sterotypes associated with the South, and especially South Carolina, is a thing of the past and may it stay there.  Just walking around downtown and seeing the racial and cultural diversity proves that and I AM STILL BLOWN AWAY!!

I moved to Easley in 1997 from a small town called Painesville, Ohio. It’s about 30 miles NE of Cleveland on lake Erie. 
The second day I was here, I thought I would take a walk down Main St. in Greenville to check out a location for a restaurant.
Now remember, this is 1997 and there wasn’t much on the south side of the bridge. There were, however,  some fine restaurants popping up on N Main and I was amazed at the impressive and daring menus they had. The other remarkable thing was how metropolitan the city was. The people were so friendly and very chique. Fall for Greenville was just getting going and I was blown away by the quality of the production and the many restaurants involved!
Fast forward to now and Greenville continues to reinvent itself. It just keeps getting better and better!. Fall for Greenville is now enormous, and you can barely get to all the booths.
I have been to most of the restaurants in Greenville and I am still impressed at how knowledgeable the servers are and how cutting edge and eclectic the food is. I owned an upscale restaurant near Cleveland and frequented the fine restaurants in and around the Cleveland area. I have also been to restaurants all over the country and I would put the restaurants in Greenville up against any in the country….that’s how hip they are. This place is amazing and I love to take my family to ball games at Fluor Feild or just take a walk down Main Street. Whenever we have guests or family from out of town, we go to Downtown Greenville. We take them to falls park, go in the fountains, try to find the mice, and visit Mass general.When I am out of town I don’t even brag about Greenville to strangers anymore for fear we will be overrun. Now, when our guests return, it is they who ask to go to downtown Greenville. It truly is a surprise of a city and I’m happy I was blown away with my first visit, and every visit since.

an elderly couple playing tennis
a family having a picnic
two bicyclists preparing for a race
a brother and sister playing catch with the football
kids hanging from the monkey bars
a father taking a picture of his young daughter
a couple playing fetch with their dog

this is Cleveland Park in Greenvile
it’s where I live and I am blown away

My wife and I are building a home and moving to the Upstate from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During the construction phase, we have rented an apartment in Downtown Greenville where we stay a few weeks a month.  The Upstate is where we plan to get old together. 

We were blown away by the vibrance of Main Street, the friendliness of the people, the cultural events in the Upstate and the beauty of the parks, mountains and lakes in the area. Being active is key to our life plan. Whether its golf, biking, hiking, triathlons or running races, the Upstate has a great deal to offer. 

When I first moved to Greenville and as I was driving into the city on I-385 I remember thinking “so this is why they call it Greenville”.  Trees are everywhere.  While down town in the North Main Area, I also just fell in love with the huge trees overhead.  Not many cities have as many trees/greenery and areas as lovely as does Greenville.  Seling homes over the last 13 years has been a pleasure and people moving here are a “Blown Aawy as I was”!

Not many places can match the many positives we have in this area.  I was Blown Away

My family relocated to Easley, South Carolina from Georgia in 1980.  After graduating from Clemson University, I left the upstate for Seminary in North Carolina.  I returned to South Carolina and served in a church in the Low Country while my wife finished medical school in Charleston.  On a weekend trip home we were travelling up I 385 when we saw the snow capped Blue Ridge mountains appear over the horizon.  We were both “blown away” by the unmistakable beauty of those upstate mountains.  I could here through my wife’s tears that the Upstate of South Carolina was where we belonged.  Now two boys and ten years later we live north of Clemson where my wife is family doctor and I am a minister.  There truly is no other place in the world like the Upstate of South Carolina as far as we are concerned.

I grew up here in Upstate SC, so of course I love it…it’s HOME! However, after reading some of the stories here on this web site, I have come to appreciate it that much more. Although I have never taken for granted what this area has to offer (mountains, lakes, parks, hiking trails, concert venues, the Peace Center, the ocean and the big cities that are just a hop, skip or jump away), I guess I never realized I had it so good living here. We do have seasonal changes, without all the snow due to our mild winters. We have tons of options for outings with our children. We have an endless array of restaurants, cafe’s, and bars. We have PLENTY of shopping destinations, including the outlets in Gaffney, SC. We have small town life mixed with big city life. And then there is the large mix of people!
Overall, we really do have it ALL right here in the Upstate!

We discovered Greenville “by accident”, but once we’d visited, we couldn’t get the place out of our minds.  For years as we traveled about on vacations, we would write down features we liked in each locale, gradually developing our “wish list” for what we wanted when we relocated to our dream location.  Greenville fulfilled all our requirements - it had about 95% of everything we were looking for - mild weather, colleges, sports, theater, an international community, continuing educational events, water, forests, close to airports, excellent restaurants….  We bought a place right downtown and can hardly wait to move into it.  Now we just need jobs!

I have lived in Upstate South Carolina for over 50 years and enjoy writing about my hometown of Pendleton.  I thought visitors to this site might be interested.  All the links to my Squidoo Scroll Down Web pages called lenses are located at http://www.squidoo.com/ten-reasons-to-love-pendletonsc

Thank you.

I’m from Minnesota and have lived in 14 cities and six states and worked in seven different states.  My family relocated to the Upstate 2 and 1/2 years ago.  This area has such beauty and charm that my wife had told me she has no plans to move again.  So for the first time in my adult life, I’m finally calling a place home.

On the same note, my parents whom live in Minnesota, have visted more since we’ve lived in the upstate than anywhere else we’ve lived.  Thats a testimont to the beauty of this area.

My young family and I moved to Greenville several years back, after my husband accepted a job there.  We are native Arkansans, both of us having deep ties to it!  I wanted no part of leaving home, but the job won.  When we arrived in G’ville, it was doable because it was enough like home and there was little culture difference. But it was NOT home!  After a while of being there and purchasing a home in Taylors, it finally started to grow on me.  The loneliness and longing for home left, and I expanded my mind and started soaking in all the area has to offer.  I found myself wishing it was there from which I was from.  Had I been able to have taken everything fond from home and placed it there, I would have!  We had a baby while there and that made it all the more bitter sweet when we unexpectedly found out the employment wouldn’t hold out.  When we found ourselves in the position of looking for other jobs, and I started to panic realizing we would not be able to stay there in that city with his line of work.  Greenville had grown on me so much, that I didn’t want to leave.  I always tell everyone now how it is such the perfect city!  At least for my taste.  Very Southern, beautiful, cultured just enough, very affordable, and so easy to make yourself at home!  I still have a VERY soft spot in my heart for it and will never forget my time there.

I’ve lived here all my life and I’m continually blown away by the beauty of the city (Greenville) I live in, and the people that I live around.  There is no better place to be than in the upstate of SC.  I LOVE being a Carolina Girl!

I grew up in Greenville and I never really thought too much about it.  I just lived here - it’s where I was born.  I stumbled upon this website one day and I was blown away.

I’d never looked at the trees as being too awfully special and I’d certainly never cherised the view of the mountains the way I do now. I walked downtown dozens of times and just went through the motions of accomplishing what I set out to do.  After reading the comments here, I now see the beauty of our city.  I hear the ‘city’ sounds mingled with the birds and I cherish the variety of dialect and language floating through the air downtown. I actually take notice of what I’ve been blessed to have grown up with here and I make a purposeful point of enjoyg it.

I’ve come to a much deeper appreciation for what we have here.