I love Asheville but it’s too much of a city for me, I like the country! I don’t know Seneca but recommend that you check out Brevard, which is about 90 minutes from Asheville. Very green, beautiful waterfalls - awesome small town with great cafes. Nice mix of people, there is a university there…
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I was just going to suggest Brevard. A good friend just retired there and are loving it.
Re Asheville and Austin, if you took all the tech and UT and the capital out of Austin and shrunk it by 90% down to wealthy people, hippies & hipsters, Congress St, etc, you might start to come close to Asheville’s vibe. Tourism is the basis of Asheville’s economy. Asheville gets compared to Portland OR a lot. I love Asheville and think it is great, but you choosing between Seneca SC and Asheville NC is like choosing between pecan pie and a craft sour beer. They are just really nothing alike.
“Asheville” doesn’t really work as placeholder for the region. If you want you could say Western North Carolina or WNC or the mountains of NC, but Asheville is just Asheville and even Buncombe County is ≠ Asheville. Asheville coopted Austin’s “Keep Asheville Weird” slogan for a little while. It is also sometimes jokingly known as the “Cesspool of Sin” for something a dumb politician said once.
So sounds to me like Asheville would not be a good fit if you didn’t know any of this. The liberal rep and hip culture as well as the natural beauty is what draws a lot of people to Asheville. If you want to be in the NC mountains you might look around Hendersonville NC. It’s very popular with retirees and a bit milder in vibe.
Brevard is a cool place too (with white squirrels), but it does rain a lot there. Gorges State Park in Transylvania County is actually considered a temperate rainforest. It’s 20 miles away from Brevard.
SC, like TX, is very red politically. If that is your view too SC could be a good fit. Check out Greenville SC.
NC is very purple — really polka dotted — with some exceptionally blue places like Asheville, Chapel Hill, Durham, and some pretty red places, too.
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Also familiar with both and agree with @mell99. Completely different vibes.
There is not much “to do” in Seneca, but there are beautiful lake properties if you don’t mind a bit more isolated location. It’s a fairly short drive to Clemson, which has a nice small college town vibe. Depending where you are near Seneca, I’d guess it’s 45 min-1 hour to Greenville, which is one of my favorite small cities and has lots of dining and shopping options.
Personally I love Asheville because I like having access to both mountains and water (lakes, creeks, rivers, waterfalls are all nearby). It’s a vibrant area. There are many places out from Asheville that would be worth considering.
I like the suggestion of Brevard. Highlands is very nice but also expensive. Someone suggested Boone, which is another area we enjoy.
I hope you’ll share your journey! Definitely agree with the plan to spend a month at each location you’re seriously considering.
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Thanks to all for the great feedback. Keep it coming.
The title of this thread may be throwing off it’s intention. I really don’t want to live in a city or town. I want to live outside a city/town so I have access to shopping etc. I think that Asheville has a population ~90k so it’s actually pretty small. I’ve lived and had great times in the following cities: Austin TX, Dallas TX, Sacramento CA, Portland OR, and Scottsdale AZ. So quite varied . What we’re looking for is a home with some land, great views, and near a city for shopping etc. We also want to be “relatively” near an airport as we (now) typically travel 3 months per per year.
As far as politics goes (I’ve kind of "out grown politics actually lol), as long as store proprietors do not require voter registration cards to make purchases I’m OK - hippies sometimes make a good cups of coffee 
Here is the area I’m monitoring in NC, it has many of the area you and others have mentioned so I think I’m on a good track…
I would move it North to include Boone…north of Hickory.
You are getting close to Winston Salem too.
Define close to city, airport and shopping. 15 mins? 45 mins ??
I’ve adjusted the search area to include Boone. Thanks, a few nice properties popped up!
For us, a key thing is access to an airport. So, we’d like to be with a 1 - 1.5 hr drive to an airport. Less is better.
Charlotte’s airport is a major hub. You could map from there your 1hr to 1.5 hr out. Greenville-Spartanburg airport is decently sized. Asheville airport is small.
And it’s by far the biggest city in WNC.
Make sure you get actual drive times. In the Carolinas I’ve been places where the last 10 miles takes 30 min to drive because of winding roads. Or the house is up a mountain creating an extra 15 min climb. On a map it all looks super close. Just saying. Consider distance to decent medical care also. And roads can be DARK. Make no assumptions from looking at a map.
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These are excellent points. Our family has a cabin near Sylva (western part of the area in consideration). It is a 15 minute drive off the main road on a dark and winding road with no guard rails. That comes into consideration when planning things as simple as a grocery run. It’s a getaway for us so the pros way outweigh the cons of that inconvenience, but it’s something to consider if one isn’t familiar with the area.
Good to know. I’ll put on our checklist.
Especially as we get older and are more prone to accidents, conditions, etc, handy access to excellent medical care becomes increasingly important.
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I stayed in Weaverville when visiting Asheville. That may be close to what you describe. I really enjoyed it.
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I live on Lake Keowee. People move here to escape the cities and politics, so they tend to want calm and peace. The biggest discussions this week are the bears, wild boar and fiberoptic internet that’s coming soon 
Many of the people in our neighborhood are from Chicago, NY, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Greenville is a great medium size city; it’s about a 45 minute drive from our house. It’s a foodie town with a vibrant downtown and has just about everything you could want. Oconee Memorial has been good for outpatient procedures; we’ve used Greenville Memorial for major surgeries. They’re the teaching hospital for MUSC. I see several specialists and have been able to find them in the area. Obviously, it’s more rural here; if you’re looking for an upbeat city with lots of shopping, this isn’t going to be that area. It’s like being on vacation; it may not always have exactly what we want, but it has everything we need.
We moved here for the beauty and calm. It’s so quiet at night, and I can lay in my driveway and watch the milky way and meteor showers without light pollution. We have over 100 waterfalls in the county and we’re 30 minutes from the mountains, so there’s a lot of hiking and sightseeing; Cashiers is about 40 minutes and Asheville is about an hour and a half away. We’ve flown out of GSP, Asheville and Charlotte; I don’t recommend flying out of Atlanta because it’s on the southwest side of town. We go to Greenville for touring productions/ Broadway shows. DD and I went to Atlanta last night for a show; it was about 2 hours each way. DH and I grew up in the northeast and did stints in Philly, Baltimore, Charlotte, etc.; after driving into Atlanta yesterday, I can honestly say I don’t miss living in a city. We occasionally go to Charlotte or Atlanta and it’s great when we want to do bigger city things, but i don’t personally miss the day-to-day hustle and bustle. We have several small towns within 30-45 minutes. DH and I like going to the antique shops, boutiques, mom and pop restaurants and coffee joints; it’s like going back in time with festivals and parades. Clemson is close by if you enjoy big school sporting events; DH went there, so he likes to go to it all. DD and I could take or leave it; she and I are more into the art/film scene. I think we’re only one of 3 families on our street who are connected to the University. Obviously, the lake is the biggest draw to the area; crystal clear blue-green water with mountains, hard to beat the views.
SC is “interesting” with zoning, so you definitely want to check the areas around a neighborhood. Let me know if you have any questions.
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Great information! Would it be ok if I PM you?
Absolutely 
Bears can be the “extra” neighbor you might not consider. I have friends who live in a neighborhood up a mountain ridge. Gorgeous spot but the trash cans go out 10 min before the garbage truck and brought in immediately afterwards… They said it’s a great way to meet the neighbors as everyone races out to drag the cans back into the garage.
When they bought the house the realtor asked political affiliation–the Dems are on one ridge and the Rep on another. Funny to think but the realtor was serious.
I’ve got friends in north GA, SC and NC. Mostly vacation homes but a few have moved there. One thing that always comes up is driving at night (which I mentioned) so basically they just are “home before dark”, the time it takes to go anywhere (not distance necessarily), and how hard it is to get repair work done. The harder or longer it takes to get to your home from town the less anybody wants to bother to fix things. And if someone is able to take care of things more locally they are slammed with work. Just more considerations before you fall in love with the perfect place with a great view at a good price up the mountain road. Just think “if I had a heart attack at 2am could anyone even get to me?”
Oh and about internet and cable…
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Food for thought. Thanks.
I recently talked with a woman who moved about 10 years ago after many years in San Francisco to Asheville and loves it. Very much an aging hippy. I know another couple who thought about moving to Asheville from a tony Boston exurb, spent some time in Asheville, and concluded it wasn’t for them. I was never sure what criteria they applied.
We like living in the country in an exurb of a big city. I’m looking out on the river in our backyard and have seen a blue heron, muscovy and other ducks, geese, a gorgeous red cardinal, and a muskrat (I think). I’ve seen a bald eagle, hawks, foxes, a fisher, coyotes (heard rather than seen), beavers, deer, every kind of bird, etc. Very calming.
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Sounds like a great area. Currently looking for a less hippy area to add to search list.