Living In An Idyllic Resort Town Might Sound Picture-Perfect, But She’s Sharing The Downsides Of Dwelling In A Tourist Hotspot Year-Round

Emily Chan |

Oct 31, 2023

luengo_ua - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

In the United States, there is no shortage of stunning cities to visit. For most people, calling a vacation destination their home is the dream. After all, who doesn’t want to live in a charming seaside community or be surrounded by towering, majestic mountains every day? However, there are actually a lot of downsides to living in an area that attracts hordes of tourists.

A TikTok user named Callie Justine (@calliejustinewrites) is explaining why she’s moving from the cozy mountain town of Breckenridge, Colorado, and returning to her hometown of Chicago. In her video, she reveals all the negative sides of living in a resort town. Let’s just say that the resort lifestyle is not as picture-perfect as it seems.

After four years of living in Breckenridge, here’s what she learned. First of all, real estate prices are exceptionally high, and the cost of living in general is expensive.

“So I’ve always wanted to own a house. I don’t need anything big; I don’t need anything fancy. I just like a little bit of space in the yard,” said Callie. “And just to get into that, in the town of Breckenridge and surrounding areas, you’re looking at a million dollars.”

She added that she worked in the ski industry and didn’t make enough money to afford to buy a house. The bulk of jobs available in the city were service-related, and there weren’t many opportunities for career advancement.

The next thing she learned was that the idea of living in your dream vacation spot is all based on fantasy, so when you do move there, reality will come crashing down, and it’ll be nothing like how you imagined it.

“What you’re actually envisioning is a more chill lifestyle and being on vacation 24/7 where you don’t actually have responsibility,” said Callie.

Unfortunately, life is full of responsibilities, and it becomes harder to cope with that fact when you can see all the tourists around you skiing, biking, and having fun while you’re working all day long. Plus, there are the daily chores of cooking, cleaning, paying bills, running errands, and grocery shopping, which other people on vacation aren’t doing.

Another con to living in a resort town is how difficult it is to find friends. She points out that many people don’t stick around town for very long and are from all different walks of life.

luengo_ua – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

“So since it’s an expensive place, and there are a lot of seasonal jobs, so just for ski season or just for biking and hiking season, they’ll hire people, and then they usually leave after that because it’s too expensive to stay or there’s not a lot of housing,” explained Callie.

Breckenridge also has a huge retirement community and lots of wealthy families. As a result, it has been a challenge for her to find people like herself—a woman in her early thirties with no kids and working a full-time job.

Several TikTok users relayed their own experiences with living in vacation destinations in the comments section, and most agreed with Callie’s take.

“We worked in Aspen but had to live over an hour away to afford to buy a house- the commute about killed me,” commented one user.

“Sounds exactly like my experience in Pacific Beach, San Diego, in the early 2000s. Friends were temporary, and the cost of living was insane,” shared another.

“Yeah, I just moved back from Hawaii, and being on vacation vs. living there is so different. I had no idea,” added a third.

Would you want to live in a resort town?

@callie.justine

Breckenridge ?? Chicago #moving #mountaintown #breckenridge #skitok #resorttown #mountaintownliving

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