Best Place in America to Live for a Coaster Enthusiast

OK, this has been on my mind for some time. I live in Maryland, and my closest park is Six Flags America (lucky me ☹) Hershey Park, Kings Dominion, Six Flags NJ and Busch Gardens are within a three hour or less drive. I think I am pretty lucky because that is five theme parks within driving reach. I work in IT and work remotely from home. Technically, I can live anywhere in the US. It doesn’t matter to my work. So if I could move ANYWHERE IN AMERICA to be right next door to a great theme park, what would that be? A park close enough that I could go to any day the park is open with ease. Have the season dining plan so food is accounted for. Where would that be?

To start off, I’m not moving to Prince Georges County to be even closer to Six Flags America (attempt at a joke.)

Doswell, VA – Not sure moving for I305 and Twisted Timbers makes sense
Williamsburg, VA – Busch Gardens is nice
Hershey, PA – I love me some Hershey Park but OMG the crowds are insane
Sandusky, OH – Nothing better than Cedar Point, however now you are in Northern Ohio and have to deal with the biggest roller coaster park in the world and those crowds.

Pigeon Forge, TN - Yeah, that's a little too deep into the Appalachia
South Florida – Lots of theme parks, but then again it is Florida.
Charlotte, NC – Never been to Carowinds but I like NC/SC

Personally, I am just familiar with the East Coast parks, but Central or West Coast locations are fair game as well.

Columbus Ohio. Do we have a lot of coasters? No.
Are we near a butt load of coasters? Yes.

Yeah, I suspect that Columbus is closer to more coasters than anywhere else.

Aurora, Ohio

I'm in a similar boat to Taco. Northern Delaware resident logging on to say we prolly got everyone beat by a long shot lol. This is actually a topic I've thought a lot about and one of the reasons I never want to move. 3-4 hours or less (mostly less) to: SFGrAdv, Dorney, Hershey, Knoebels, SFA, BGW, KD, any Jersey shore ride, Nick Uni @ AD. 5 hours for SFNE, 6 for Kenny, 8 for Caro, CP and KI. I'd take that over having a shorter trip to Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, or Michigan's Adv. Ohio's enthusiast community is certainly unmatched tho. And I'd guess much more affordable than say, SoCal or Orlando.

I’ve thought for some years that one of the underrated coaster enthusiast hotspots is the Hartford, CT area. SFNE and Lake Compounce are well under an hour from both (SFNE being only 15 minutes or so from the airport area), and Quassy isn’t much further. Not quite the same level as having all the parks DC, central Ohio, LA, or Orlando folks have, but no slouch by any means.

Lived in DC for a year, was 2.5 hours from Hershey and BGW (the two parks I had passes to) that was pretty great.

Toledo OH wasn’t bad either with 1.25 hrs to CP and 3 to KI.

Haven’t lived there but Orlando and Orange County CA would be pretty sweet too.

If you're willing to drive 6-8 hours and stay a few nights, the Ohio/PA turnpike along Cleveland/Youngstown/Pittsburgh has major parks along almost every major highway in every direction. Florida, SoCal, and Texas are all excellent, but get pretty barren outside of their immediate clusters and generally require flights to get to places further away.

DoubleMeatTaco:

South Florida – Lots of theme parks, but then again it is Florida

South Florida??? I think central Florida is way better. No bias, but it’s way less congested and I don’t have to drive on 95 with the fear of death. That said, Orlando is where it’s at. The big three just really set the bar for the ultimate the park experience.

Yeah, if I had my choice (and money was no option), I would def. choose the Orlando area. The thought of being able to drive to any of those parks on any given day would be amazing.

Living in Central Indiana, the closest I have is KI at about 2.5 hours. Which is doable, but makes for a long drive back if you close the park down like we normally do.

That’s why I aspire to be a snowbird at some point, would never move there full time as my family has a lake house in New England that I view of the perfect place to be in the summer and fall (especially when compared to a FL summer) but would love to spend winter and spring down there, with homebase being in the Orlando area.

Tokyo.

Vader read the thread title again, last I checked the USA has not absorbed Japan into the Union.

Orlando is pretty much the only real choice if you're serious as it's open all year long. Sea World, Busch Gardens, Universal, the Fun Spots, and Disney's roller coaster shaped objects (I kid).

Touchdown:

Cater read the thread title again

I will not vater to your stipulations.

Hmm...you edited.

Touchdown:

Vader read the thread title again

I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further.

Aesthethica:

I'm in a similar boat to Taco. Northern Delaware resident logging on to say we prolly got everyone beat by a long shot lol.

Stale data, but I made this visualization a few years ago that might be useful for this questions and prove you right.

https://public.tableau.com/...oastersUSA

While Delaware (lets say Dover) has no amusement parks in it, with the eyeball test it has several major parks, 12 parks with 4 plus coasters, plus many seaside parks all within a 4ish hour drive (not counting traffic). Maryland is basically the same (As OP suggest, a great location) but Delaware is right in the center of all this oddly enough.

Would want some spatial analysis to get the real answer. Should add a total based on selection as well. A distance tolerance and perhaps someway to incorporate quality would be nice too (I.e Number of coasters in the Cbuzz top 50/100/200 within that distance). I'd suspect Columbus might win the quality over quantity award, with a a ton in the top 100 and many in the top 50 within a few hours drive.

Autocorrect is so wonderful

Jeff:
Yeah, I suspect that Columbus is closer to more coasters than anywhere else.

Thanks for that vote of confidence, but I think this topic was brought up years ago and if I recall correctly the actual winner was someplace like Harrisburg Pa.
Once again a city without a park but with many parks and rides that could be accomplished on a day trip. I love where I live but to get to my best parks I burn a tank of gas and it’s more of a chore to plan- I need to set time aside and can’t just knock off on some random June afternoon to hit my home (local) park because it suddenly quit raining.

I think the OP needs to cast a wider net and consider a few additional things. Remember the task is to come up not with great places to visit or travel to but for a place to live. All the time. Ohio is great for parks but it’s entirely seasonal. We’ve noticed that seasons have stretched to accommodate things like autumn and winter festivals but year-round activity just isn’t feasible. And remember that the best place may not be the one nearest the most parks or greatest number of coasters. I’m one that would rather live near a small park with one or two outstanding rides than a huge park with mediocre rides.
Also, be careful of what you wish for. I lived in Sandusky off and on for four summers. Everyone’s dream, right? A visit to Cedar Point could’ve been on the daily agenda but as much as I love it there it eventually turned into an eye-roller for me. I call it Home Park Ennui- eventually everything grows tiresome.
And lastly, obviously, another thing to consider is how the location stacks up otherwise. I enjoy Columbus for the overall vibe and political climate. It’s also not the most expensive place to live. I had to wonder what was up when the OP inferred that Gatlinburg was a little too Deep South but indicated that the Carolinas were of interest.
I know personally I’d rather die than live full time in central Pa or southern Indiana, in spite of their proximity to great roller coasters. And you can keep most parts of Florida, too.
Oh, what am I saying, the same thing goes for polka dot Ohio, right? lol.

Edit to add: Maybe it was Dover, Delaware!

Variety is important, I really liked having a choice of two parks when I was younger. BGW was my favorite but (at the time) had no wooden coasters and still doesn’t have many flats. Hershey filled both those holes and was a good pallet cleanser. Ditto KI for CP. That’s why Orlando I assume is going to be great, WDW and Universal are amazing, and the two SEAS parks are very good and different from the two themed goliaths.