Priced out of McLean and DC, would you live in Vienna or Great Falls?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown Pike from GF to the beltway is a nightmare almost always, especially once people go back to the office. Vienna has amazing restaurant options. We live in McLean and find ourselves in Vienna a lot. Only in GF to L'Auberge Chez Francois.

So from the GF neighborhood I posted upthread, you don’t have to take GTP to 495 — you can take Rt 7, and from this neighborhood, Rt 7 to Tyson’s has always been 10 minutes (even pre-COVID). It takes 10 minutes to get to the Rt 7 toll road entrance that takes you to 495 (cost is $3.25) or 15 minutes to the Spring Hill entrance to the toll road to 495 ($1.50) or 15 minutes to the 495 entrance further down on Rt 7 (free). You can also take Old Dominion to 123 or GTP if it’s early. That’s why I like this neighborhood — I have lots of options when I need to go in that direction.

Lots of Vienna posts about a community/neighborhood feel. Could you speak to that GF neighborhood’s community feel? Any young families?

We were choosing between GF and Herndon and largely chose the latter based on community feel (we are a family of 2 young kids).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vienna has lots of great restaurants, but unfortunately it has lots of traffic (every hour of every day).

If you can afford Great Falls, that should be your choice.

There are lots of arteries in Vienna other than the main street district on Route 123. So this is not accurate. Great Falls is way out in boonies. It has very few stores. Vienna has all the convenience of billion shops in downtown Vienna, plus next to Tysons. Personally, geographically, I'd prefer the part of Vienna near Gallows Road. To completely avoid 123.

+1. I live off 123 but closer to the Tyson's side. I can get to Giant, the pediatrician, dentist, nail salon, hair salon, dry cleaners, the elementary school, lots of restaurants, and the gas station in about 5-6 minutes any time of the day. If you are tied 123 daily and are going from Oakton side to Tyson's side then that is a pain, but getting around Vienna in general is not that hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown Pike from GF to the beltway is a nightmare almost always, especially once people go back to the office. Vienna has amazing restaurant options. We live in McLean and find ourselves in Vienna a lot. Only in GF to L'Auberge Chez Francois.

So from the GF neighborhood I posted upthread, you don’t have to take GTP to 495 — you can take Rt 7, and from this neighborhood, Rt 7 to Tyson’s has always been 10 minutes (even pre-COVID). It takes 10 minutes to get to the Rt 7 toll road entrance that takes you to 495 (cost is $3.25) or 15 minutes to the Spring Hill entrance to the toll road to 495 ($1.50) or 15 minutes to the 495 entrance further down on Rt 7 (free). You can also take Old Dominion to 123 or GTP if it’s early. That’s why I like this neighborhood — I have lots of options when I need to go in that direction.

Lots of Vienna posts about a community/neighborhood feel. Could you speak to that GF neighborhood’s community feel? Any young families?

There are many families with young kids that have moved to GF over the past year. We moved here last Spring and making friends (both for us and our kids) was easy due to the number of other families that had just recently moved here. For reference, I believe that GFES is one of only a handful of FCPS elementary schools with a higher enrollment today than pre-Covid. (Note, however, that the house PP is referring to goes to Colvin Run.)

I can't speak to that one neighborhood's feel, but GF has a great sense of community overall. The Celebrate Great Falls website (https://celebrategreatfalls.org/) has a good overview of the many organized community events -- weekly summer concerts on the Green, holiday festivals, etc. All of those events draw tons of familes with younger kids. There are also good GF-based youth sports programs -- perhaps not as comprehensive as Vienna, but also less competitive (in a good way) -- and because it's a smaller community, your kids will always have neighborhood or school friends on their team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vienna has lots of great restaurants, but unfortunately it has lots of traffic (every hour of every day).

If you can afford Great Falls, that should be your choice.

There are lots of arteries in Vienna other than the main street district on Route 123. So this is not accurate. Great Falls is way out in boonies. It has very few stores. Vienna has all the convenience of billion shops in downtown Vienna, plus next to Tysons. Personally, geographically, I'd prefer the part of Vienna near Gallows Road. To completely avoid 123.

That's an interesting definition of the boonies. But I think most of us who live in GF love that it feels like you live in the countryside . . . even though Tysons, Reston, etc. are only ~15 minutes away. We also see the "very few stores" as a positive -- you always run into neighbors/friends at the Safeway or the Starbucks (or Katie's) or the Brogue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown Pike from GF to the beltway is a nightmare almost always, especially once people go back to the office. Vienna has amazing restaurant options. We live in McLean and find ourselves in Vienna a lot. Only in GF to L'Auberge Chez Francois.

So from the GF neighborhood I posted upthread, you don’t have to take GTP to 495 — you can take Rt 7, and from this neighborhood, Rt 7 to Tyson’s has always been 10 minutes (even pre-COVID). It takes 10 minutes to get to the Rt 7 toll road entrance that takes you to 495 (cost is $3.25) or 15 minutes to the Spring Hill entrance to the toll road to 495 ($1.50) or 15 minutes to the 495 entrance further down on Rt 7 (free). You can also take Old Dominion to 123 or GTP if it’s early. That’s why I like this neighborhood — I have lots of options when I need to go in that direction.

Lots of Vienna posts about a community/neighborhood feel. Could you speak to that GF neighborhood’s community feel? Any young families?

This particular neighborhood (that I referenced above) does have a good community feel, though probably not like you would get in Vienna. We have a neighborhood list serve and there are weekly happy hours in the summer (a different family hosts each week). As the older residents move on, young families are moving in. There are a lot of kids at the bus stops for elementary. I don’t have young kids anymore — and I’m an introvert — so it’s hard for me to measure what is/is not a community feel, but people are friendly, lots of people walk the neighborhood, there are a lot of pets, etc. I will say there is no drama, really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown Pike from GF to the beltway is a nightmare almost always, especially once people go back to the office. Vienna has amazing restaurant options. We live in McLean and find ourselves in Vienna a lot. Only in GF to L'Auberge Chez Francois.

So from the GF neighborhood I posted upthread, you don’t have to take GTP to 495 — you can take Rt 7, and from this neighborhood, Rt 7 to Tyson’s has always been 10 minutes (even pre-COVID). It takes 10 minutes to get to the Rt 7 toll road entrance that takes you to 495 (cost is $3.25) or 15 minutes to the Spring Hill entrance to the toll road to 495 ($1.50) or 15 minutes to the 495 entrance further down on Rt 7 (free). You can also take Old Dominion to 123 or GTP if it’s early. That’s why I like this neighborhood — I have lots of options when I need to go in that direction.

Lots of Vienna posts about a community/neighborhood feel. Could you speak to that GF neighborhood’s community feel? Any young families?

We were choosing between GF and Herndon and largely chose the latter based on community feel (we are a family of 2 young kids).

Herndon is not a good school pyramid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown Pike from GF to the beltway is a nightmare almost always, especially once people go back to the office. Vienna has amazing restaurant options. We live in McLean and find ourselves in Vienna a lot. Only in GF to L'Auberge Chez Francois.

So from the GF neighborhood I posted upthread, you don’t have to take GTP to 495 — you can take Rt 7, and from this neighborhood, Rt 7 to Tyson’s has always been 10 minutes (even pre-COVID). It takes 10 minutes to get to the Rt 7 toll road entrance that takes you to 495 (cost is $3.25) or 15 minutes to the Spring Hill entrance to the toll road to 495 ($1.50) or 15 minutes to the 495 entrance further down on Rt 7 (free). You can also take Old Dominion to 123 or GTP if it’s early. That’s why I like this neighborhood — I have lots of options when I need to go in that direction.

Lots of Vienna posts about a community/neighborhood feel. Could you speak to that GF neighborhood’s community feel? Any young families?

We were choosing between GF and Herndon and largely chose the latter based on community feel (we are a family of 2 young kids).

Herndon is not a good school pyramid

We're not in Herndon ES/MS/HS.

[Anonymous]

Keeping on track - what about this, OP?

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Dunn-Loring/2175-Harithy-Dr-22027/home/9833783

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keeping on track - what about this, OP?

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Dunn-Loring/2175-Harithy-Dr-22027/home/9833783

This is a nice neighborhood. I used to live near it. No yard and these are classed as "executive townhomes." If you look at the street view you see that the garage of this house connects to the house next door.

You're right off Gallows, so close to everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keeping on track - what about this, OP?

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Dunn-Loring/2175-Harithy-Dr-22027/home/9833783

This is a nice neighborhood. I used to live near it. No yard and these are classed as "executive townhomes." If you look at the street view you see that the garage of this house connects to the house next door.

You're right off Gallows, so close to everything.

This is a meh area near a fire station and a busy stretch of Gallows where Tysons business park starts to merge into Dunn Loring residential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keeping on track - what about this, OP?

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Dunn-Loring/2175-Harithy-Dr-22027/home/9833783

This is a nice neighborhood. I used to live near it. No yard and these are classed as "executive townhomes." If you look at the street view you see that the garage of this house connects to the house next door.

You're right off Gallows, so close to everything.

This is a meh area near a fire station and a busy stretch of Gallows where Tysons business park starts to merge into Dunn Loring residential.

Not the best area but a nice house. Dunn Loring woods or Vienna Woods would be better for the neighborhood feel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keeping on track - what about this, OP?

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Dunn-Loring/2175-Harithy-Dr-22027/home/9833783

This is a nice neighborhood. I used to live near it. No yard and these are classed as "executive townhomes." If you look at the street view you see that the garage of this house connects to the house next door.

You're right off Gallows, so close to everything.

This is a meh area near a fire station and a busy stretch of Gallows where Tysons business park starts to merge into Dunn Loring residential.

Not the best area but a nice house. Dunn Loring woods or Vienna Woods would be better for the neighborhood feel.

+1

All of those houses sandwiched between 495 and Gallows feel really isolated.

[Anonymous]

This is a really weird choice. Both suck though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a really weird choice. Both suck though.

Not at all, and neither sucks. But there are nicer areas of Vienna and Dunn Loring than right off Gallows near Tysons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a really weird choice. Both suck though.

Is it weird though? McLean, Langley and Madison/Marshall/Oakton are some of the best school districts so no surprise why OP is looking there