Exploring Gainesville, GA: Insider's Perspective on Living in Hall County

Thinking about living in Gainesville, GA? I was in your shoes about five years ago when my family relocated from South Georgia. Since then, I’ve discovered some pros and cons of living in Gainesville.

Gainesville, Georgia, is a beautiful city nestled near the Blue Ridge Mountains and Lake Lanier. While it’s known for its chicken farms, there’s much more to this vibrant city.

With a friendly community, excellent schools, and a lively downtown area filled with shops and restaurants, Gainesville offers a wonderful place to live and thrive.

1. Lake Lanier

Let’s get into it and let’s start with the best. My absolute favorite thing about living in Gainesville is Lake Lanier. It’s beautiful and no matter where you’re at in the county. you’re probably minutes from it.

It actually stretches through five different counties and it is great for boating and fishing, but there’s so many more activities you can do on the Lake. Head to Margaritaville at Lake Lanier Islands and book a margarita cruise, or you can hit up the water park or even go camping.

There are plenty of public parks around the lake with lake access, including public beaches, and even in the winter months, there’s still plenty to do. I love to gather a car full of friends and go drive through the Magical Night of Lights at Lake Lanier Islands, or you can jump on a snow tube there as well.

No matter what time of year it is, there’s always something that you can do on Lake Lanier.

2. Falcons Training Facility

If you’re a sports enthusiast, you’re in luck. How cool is it that our very own Atlanta Falcons has their team headquarters and training facility just down the road in Flowery Branch. I love that every spring, you can head to the training grounds and watch the professional football team practice for free. Touchdown!

3. Great location

One of the most surprising things that I have found out about living here and perhaps my favorite pro is the great proximity we have to a ton of things to do. Hall County is positioned in a great part of the state where you can drive 45 minutes south and enjoy the big city luxuries of Atlanta or you can drive 35 minutes north and enjoy the beautiful Georgia mountains.

Want a high-end dinner in a skyscraper? We’ll just head on down to the city and enjoy dinner at the Sun Dial, or maybe you want a more relaxed day- take a drive up north for a winery tour at Yonah Mountain Vineyards or you can go hiking in Dahlonega. Or- my favorite, head east to Athens on a Saturday and you can cheer on the Dogs. In pretty much an hour in any direction, you can be in a totally different environment than where we are right now with a new adventure to enjoy.

4. Downtown Gainesville

If you love small town charm while being close to the big city, you’re absolutely going to love downtown Gainesville and fall in love with it, just like I did. One of my absolute favorite seasons here in Hall County is the fall. We have beautiful fall foliage- the trees turn a mix of red orange and yellow, and there’s practically a fall festival every single weekend somewhere nearby.

The biggest festival happens on the second weekend in October every year, called Mule Camp and it takes place downtown on the Square in Gainesville and draws huge crowds. We have over 75,000 people over the course of three days that come and enjoy this annual festival- that makes it the single largest held event annually in Hall County! Arts and crafts vendors from all over the state head to the square.

We got live music and great food, and even a petting zoo and tons of other activities for kids. Even with this amazing festival is not going on, the Square is an awesome place to be to enjoy a variety of restaurants. There’s boutiques, shopping and coffee shops that you can enjoy.

5. Small town feel, big city luxuries

Another favorite thing about Gainesville is the small town feel with the luxuries of a big city.  Probably my favorite part about living in Gainesville is the feel of being in a city with the perks of smaller town living.

We have big name stores like Target and TJ Maxx, but there are tons of small businesses and boutiques that give it charm and a small town feel, and we have two outlet centers that are within a 30 minute drive of us.

You can still head to the farmers market for your fresh produce or you can even go to the many big box stores that we have that might better suit your needs. I love that I can go out for a day or night experience and experience the city, but I get to come home to my quiet house with a big backyard.

Con: Lack of public transportation

So what are the cons? One of the downsides of living in Gainesville is the lack of public transportation. If you’ve never lived in another area or a country that has amazing public transportation, you might not even know what you’re missing.

However, if you have lived in places like New York City, Seattle, or even Washington DC, you know how lacking the public transportation in Hall County is. There’s no subways, trains, buses or anything to get you from  point A to point B, or even down to the MARTA station closer to Atlanta without having to drive yourself.

If you’ve ever been exposed to these luxuries, you know how convenient and affordable these transportation options are. Since most smaller towns in the US do not have public transportation though, this is probably something that most of us are unphased by.

Con: Traffic around town

With that being said, getting around town can also present a challenge, similar to the lack of transportation and getting around Hall County can be challenging at times. You can expect some heavy traffic all over town during rush hour and you can always count on some form of construction or road work to slow things down.

It can also take much longer than imagined to get just a few miles down the road because of the lack of connectors on some of our major roadways here in Hall County. 

Con: Our mall stinks

Although Gainesville has many great small boutiques and shopping options, there is no true mall in Hall County with the exception of Lake Shore Mall in Gainesville, which mostly sits vacant.

The options for shopping are very limited with only 33 stores at the mall, compared to 196 at the Mall of Georgia in Buford or 250 stores located at the Lennox Mall in Buckhead. Luckily, we have many stand alone stores that are not too far of a drive from shopping, and if you wanna head to those bigger malls, they’re just a short drive away.

There you have it, pros and cons to living in the Gainesville - Hall County area. In my opinion, the pros far outweigh the bad!

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