Naples has earned a well-deserved reputation for its outstanding quality of life. Its exquisite beaches, gorgeous environment, exceptional golf courses, and charming marketplaces have drawn national acclaim. It’s little wonder that it’s garnered awards — from Travel + Leisure and US News and World Report — for being one of the best and safest places to live in the whole country.
Of course, if national publications are highlighting these features, they can hardly be called secret advantages. But there is a secret advantage awaiting boomers and seniors who retire to lovely Southwest Florida that these publications haven’t talked about … its magic, magnetic pull drawing in children and grandchildren!
Retiring to such a gorgeous locale makes it very easy to get on your children’s and grandchildren’s winter vacation itinerary … particularly if they live in the frostier north.
Bill and Judi Nusbaum are snowbirds who spend their summers in Canada. They recently moved to Moorings Park Grande Lake but have enjoyed wintering in Naples for decades. They have four children and eight grandkids who live up north.
“Three of them live in Canada and one in Michigan,” Bill explains. “They came down at Christmas; they were quite impressed. They spent a fair bit of time enjoying the sun, of course. That’s what they’re coming down for, in addition to seeing us. They loved the pool here.”
Their daughter, Christina, says the winter visit is a long-standing family custom.
Christina explains her love of Naples and visiting her parents with a smile, “We’ve been coming down for decades. It started with my dad and his golf group. They fell in love with the golfing here and we started coming for vacations, and we just grew up with the town over the last 30 years.
“I am not somebody who likes going into clubs and loud bar scenes or anything like that,” she continues. “Naples appeals to me because it feels like it’s got everything else, like theatre, performances, and state parks.
“We’ve gone on airboat rides; the kids love that!” she says. “We love to go down to Fifth Avenue and window shop. My sister and I are going to check out some of the pickleball courts as well on this trip, that’ll be a first.”
Of course, living in a premier Naples Life Plan Community like one of the three Moorings Park campuses — Moorings Park, Moorings Park at Grey Oaks, and Moorings Park Grande Lake — makes the winter trek even more enticing for one’s children and grandchildren.
Bill and Judi’s daughter, Betsy, points out her parents’ recent move to Moorings Park Grande Lake made her family’s winter visit special.
“This year was a brand new experience for us, being at this new location,” she says. “We all love coming down here. I think everyone was so surprised at how resort-like this place felt.
“My parents had said a long, long time ago that they thought our kids wouldn’t want to keep coming down,” she explains. “Every year we give our kids the option, ‘Do you want to cut back a little bit?’ ‘Nope, no, we want to come down, we want to see everyone, we want to all be together!’ This year they seemed all the more excited because of all the stuff that was available here.
“I walked the grounds and around the lake and made myself a circuit,” she adds. “The views are really pretty. I really enjoyed the pool area. The people here have been so lovely and so friendly. It’s just been such a nice transition.”
“I also overall find people are friendlier,” agrees Christina. “It’s more of a community feel than the previous place.
“I love the wide glass wall that looks out onto the balcony,” she says. “For me the thing that I really look forward to when it’s all done and finished is the outdoor living space. It wraps around two corners of the unit and you can have everybody out there, so everybody is sitting outside in the evening chit-chatting. That’s something you could not do in the previous place; the balcony was big but wasn’t this big and it wasn’t wide enough to accommodate eating while facing each other.”
Christina mused about how much her kids — the grandkids — have embraced the annual visit to see their grandparents.
“Even though the grandkids are now in their 20s and teenagers, they want to keep coming down,” she says. “This is a highlight of our year. You’d think in their 20s they’d want to go off on the holidays to a Caribbean island or something like their friends do, but no, they all want to come here and be together.”
Judi is pleased with the decision she and her husband made to move to Moorings Park Grande Lake. She particularly appreciated the warm welcome they received.
“These people help you get accustomed to the place and get to know the others in the place,” she explains. “Where we were before, everybody was for themselves. I just love the change.”
“Naples is one of the best places in the country to retire to,” says Tom Mann, Vice President and Senior Living Expert for Moorings Park Communities. “And there’s no better Life Plan Community in Naples, if not the country, than one of our three extraordinary Moorings Park campuses.”
Tom continues, “I’ll be giving a presentation about this exceptional lifestyle on Thursday, April 6, at 2:30 p.m. at our flagship campus, Moorings Park. I’ll be happy to answer questions about any of our fine communities at this event. Plus, you’ll have an opportunity to taste some of our chef’s creative culinary delights.”
Unable to join us? Interested boomers and seniors may also want to learn more by enjoying a webinar on Friday, April 7 at 10:30 a.m.
To register for either of these educational events, please visit MooringsPark.org/Events, or call 239-232-3903.