That's one of the great things about California, it's a large and diverse state with plenty of options where to live. You only need to decide what things are important to you and what you're willing to compromise on. (i.e. housing cost, weather, entertainment, etc.) Every place you can decide to live has its pros and cons.

I grew up in Tulare and we would always drive down the road to our neighbor city for more amenities and shopping. Lots of good memories there and happy to see you share your experiences there. As with other San Joaquin Valley towns it’s been depressing seeing some of the social struggles and slow deterioration of things, despite rising population. The always increasing summer temps and bad air quality is what kills me now when going back to visit. But when it’s timed right, the air is clear and you can see the snow-capped Sierras, it’s a beautiful place.

I was in Visalia last year and you're right, the downtown is very nice! I couldn't live in the Central Valley because of the heat. The people there say 'But it's only for three or four months a year!' But I was expecting a smaller version of Fresno and Visalia is MUCH nicer.

Drove through Visalia in Feb from L.A to San Francisco. Definitely underrated.

I live about 20 mins away from Visalia. It’s crazy to see Visalia getting talked about on KZfaq😅

i moved from Visalia California to St. Louis Missouri 7 years ago, and i miss it so much!

"They shouldn't have, the beer is not that good" -- Kyle LOL

From NJ, south Jersey, and visited Visalia back in July. I was visiting some farms out that way. I really enjoyed myself there and thought if I ever moved to California, considering costs, crime, and all that it was a very nice area to consider. I stayed at the Marriot near Main st, walked to that Starbucks often, it's a good walking town. Overall I loved it; great food, awesome weather (we don't get that kind of heat without humidity in NJ), and a lot of things to see.

Hey Visalia ..greetings from Kingsburg we're just up the road north on hwy 99 on the county lines of both Fresno and Tulare...Kingsburg pop. (13,500) is a very small version of Visalia in cleaniness..nice older home neighborhoods good schools nice place to live....Visalia is our role model.

Hey! I grew up in Hanford. It's growing but I always wanted to move to Visalia when I was younger. Really cool to see it featured in a video.

I live up the road in Fresno but have to travel the 45 minutes down to Visalia for work quite often and can say with some authority that for a small, but growing city in more ways than one, Visalia with its 130K pop. has alot more going for it than Fresno with its 500K pop.

I live in Fresno and I’ve made several little day trips over to Visalia before, it’s really a pretty nice town. They have an impressive mall for a town of that size as well.

I grew up in pixley. Went to high school in Tulare (tulare western). I lived in visalia for a few years while attending COS. Now I live in east texas. I remember how nice visalia is, tulare County in general is a nice place (pixley is a backwater tbh). The summers were pure hell. Summer is one of the few things about the San Joaquin Valley that I don't miss. Tule fog is pretty bad too. 🤷🏽

It’s going to be difficult but I’m going to watch a video about potentially retiring to CA with an open mind- thanks for posting 👍

As a Visalia native I can confirm Orangeworks is very good. Also I’d recommend Taylor’s hotdogs

Gonna disagree with you on the food scene. I'm not saying it's world-class, but you passed by an Indian, Italian, Quesadilla-specialty and New American restaurant without mentioning it. On top of that there's local pop-ups and restaurants that serve Jamaican, Lebanese, Taquerias, Laotian, Vietnamese, Sushi Kuu and many fusion foods. That courthouse turned apartments is actually a boutique hotel with a rooftop restaurant and craft cocktails which was recently named the Hottest 20 hotels in the world by Trip Advisor.

Noooo! Visalia is supposed to be our best kept secret!!! Speaking as a San Diego transplant who moved to the area in 2019😂

oh wow! Was just in Visalia last weekend to visit my cousin who just moved out there from the LA area and found it to be a charming city. Being originally from the Bay Area and now living in the LA area, would see signs for Visalia while driving along the 99 but always thought there was nothing there but a small airport and a Holiday Inn, since the actual city is tucked away a few miles east from the freeway. Last weekend was the first time I actually went inside the city and was surprised to see it was much bigger than I thought. And then to find out the good ol Geography King is originally from there!!! That is awesome!!

My mom grew up in Visalia, and her parents lived there my whole life. We didn't go down that often. Too hot in the summer, and the tule fog in the winter.

I drive from Columbus Ohio to and stay downtown in Visalia every year for a convention.... Visalia situated in the middle and center of California !!!

Loved this more “vlog” type of video. Hopefully there’ll be more in the future!

I was born in Visalia. Had great childhood there. I'm 66 now and haven't been back for a few years. I loved Moonies Grove Park! But mostly what remember we're the peacocks and oak trees. Both were protected. Against the law to cut down an oak tree. There's a house there with an oak tree in the center of it. They built the house around it. And the peacocks we're everywhere!

This is where my grandma is from. She moved to LA in her 20's and never went back but I wana visit one day just to see what she saw

Went through Visalia recently on the way to Sequoia and Kings Canyon. Loved it

Visalia: halfway between the Sierra and the sea, halfway between LA and San Francisco and halfway between heaven and earth.

Good to see you back in the hometown! Big love to the family! Your cousin, Jenny

When adjusting for average salary, Tulare county is actually one of the least affordable counties in the state. It only looks affordable because 70% of the people there are poor hispanics making 30k a year. So a 450k home that looks cheap to bay area people is actually very unaffordable locally.

Visalia is a small suburban city of 140k population. Not a town like the others around of 50k or less population .. But it def could use some more modern restaurant's like BJs or Ruthc Chris or Yardhouse. .

I CAN'T BELIEVE GEOGRAPHY KING IS FROM HERE!! I am moving in November and can't wait! The woman got a great job in town. Gonna be all over the National Parks! Groovy Cali baby!

I'm retirement shopping. I want lots of parks and public spaces. Bike and walking paths and plazas and open markets. These have become my priorities. Great content as is usual.

Visalia native here, great to see this video.

I miss visalia. Grew up in the 80's and 90's. Haven't been back in 25 years. Hopefully this year 2022.

I am a Visalia Native. Our downtown is pretty special and I love how close we are to the Giant Redwood Trees. Every time I walk through them I feel like I am riding a speeder bike from Star Wars. Pismo is a great beach town for sure. It is super hot in the summer for about 4-6 weeks. We get into the triple digits I believe it was around 114 this June…but just an hour drive and the weather drops to the 70s either in the mountains or at the coast. Tule fog has not been an issue for 3 years, but it is quite the weather phenomenon. You literally cannot see the house across the street…but everyone drives the normal speed limit and are not phased by it…Brewbakers is one of my favorite restaurants ever (I recommend the Rueben sandwich with potato wedges and a Honey wheat beer).

What type of outdoor activities are available there?

So great to see some love for Visalia online. I feel my hometown has the opportunity to be one of the best little cities in the state. Hopefully we will get more love from out of staters and tourists not just Bay Area and LA developers/renters.

I was just sat minding my own business when something just clicked. Somehow I KNEW the king had returned, and sure enough, I found this video

California is cheap any where except the Bay Area, LA/OC and San Diego. Basically all major cities. Towns like visilia, Tulare, Bakersfield and Victorville are very affordable.

Just moved to Visalia last year and I love it here!

I think Visalia is one of the nicest cities/towns in the San Joaquin Valley. I grew up 20 miles west of Visalia in Hanford, CA and went to COS during my first 2 years of college back in the early 80's. I learned a lot about geography and physical geography from a really great teacher at COS at that time named Mr. James Scofield. To this day, 40 years later, I'm surprised at how much I remember from his classes, particularly regarding physical geography now that I live in Las Vegas and am surrounded by land and rock formations that remind me of what I learned in his classes at COS.

I might be inclined to visit either Pismo Beach or Visalia since they're only 3 hours away from where I'm at (I'm a Bay Area native). I'm not gonna be in California if what I'm planning goes through successfully as I'll be going to school in North Carolina but I do wanna visit back every summer since it's my home state after all. Love your content Kyle.

I have been up the sequoia nat park. Beautiful . Stopped in Visalia to gear up for camping . Nice town. Thought it was cool. The drive from so cal is quite a distance on the 99 and not … too scenic but nice when you get to Visalia . Good vid .

Thanks for posting this as it brought back a flood of mostly good memories for me. I lived in Visalia for 15 years from 1985 until 2000. I truly enjoyed my time there but I moved away for two reasons you forgot to mention in your video. That is the foggy season from October to March. Going without seeing the sun for days (even weeks) on end really can mess with your mind as it did me. The foggy season always brought on a deep & dark depression for me. I hated it! Second was the disease, Valley Fever. Since Visalia & the surrounding area is mainly farmland, the spores that cause this disease are common in the soil & are dispersed when farmers till the soil. Sadly, both my parents caught it & both nearly died. That's when I decided to move to another part of California.

It's good to know that people know so much about this town.

Another great video, I wish I could be on the road every time you upload lol but if I ever end up in Southern California again I'll remember this one. It's pretty cool to see your hometown after hearing about it in your previous videos

The Darling (old former courthouse) is not a apartment complex. It’s a upscale hotel. As I said it’s called, the darling. They have a rooftop bar for hotel stayers. And there are no skyscrapers in Visalia. Those are called mid rises.

If you're a foodie, there's several places to check out: Glicks, Bistro di Bufala, Quesadilla Gorilla, Brewbakers, Davorn's, Marriott Lounge, Amigos, Thai Basil, Shanghai, just to name a few. Local, high quality stuff.

I was intrigued by the title, I didn't think the worlds low-cost and California go together

Wasn’t expecting to see a video about my hometown on my recommendations😂

Very relevant video, GK. My antenna went up b4 when u mentioned ur hometown & I looked at Zillow then/will look at again. The one thing that turned us off about California the last time we were there in 2019 was the haze from the wildfires that spread across a good chunk of the northern half of the state including the Central Valley, and the forced brownouts - it was dystopian. If Visalia is not prone to that, I’m all the more interested. You do a great job - a GoPro camera will help with your stabilization while you walk and talk & it has good audio pickup as well.

I lived in Visalia for 9 months in 1980. I worked at Lyons Restaurant on the corner of Caldwell and Mooney. That was the last part of town until you got to 137 in Tulare (besides Mooney Grove and K-JUG Radio station). I lived in some cra**y apartments on Walnut nick named “sin city” for 3 months then moved into a trailer park around the corner on Divisadero. I wonder if that trailer park is still there. The mangers of it were named Cubby and Betty. There was only about 40K people back then but I found Visalia to be a nice clean small town. Very thing you needed was on Mooney Blvd and really no need to go into “town”. I remember getting drunk at Flintstones and almost getting into a fight…lol. Lover Ln was WAY out of town and 198 was a two lane road out to 99. The Holiday Inn out there was pretty cool inside too. Found memories of 93277

Nice video. I drove through Visalia on the way to Sequoia National Park. Pretty area and more low key than other parts of CA. Fresno is also relatively affordable by CA standards and not a dump. Thanks for the video Kyle. Safe travels.

Good info! I just got a Job and will be moving to Fresno soon, super excited!! I will be sure to check out Visalia too!

I'm in Southern Cali & Visalia is about 5 hours from here. The small surrounding towns remind me of the midwest, it's a very cute area. We usually will visit Visalia when we stay in Three Rivers near Sequoia National Park.

Visalia was talked about a lot prior to the 2008 mortgage recession. I remember being a kid and listening to my uncles talk about moving to either Visalia or Bakersfield. Most of the people I know moved to Bakersfield, and so did around 100,000 folks based on city-data statistics 😂.

Thanks for telling me stuff about my own state I didn't even know. Guess that's why you're the Geography King!

Your my favorite KZfaqr and your from my hometown I just think that's really amazing

Nice video covering this area. The Darling is actually a hotel. It has a rooftop bar and restaurant.

Not even 30 seconds into the video I swear and I ain’t going to lie tears came out I moved away from Visalia in 2015 born there as well and haven’t been back since seeing this is on some other lvl nostalgia type shit

Man! Kyle I literally went right through there last month. Live in Ga but went from San Diego all the way to Fortuna making rounds. Love your part of the state

Really enjoyable vlog style video, cool to mix it up!

Well if I ever find myself wanting to live in California but I want a cheaper version of it, I'll live in Visalia.

Coming from Pittsburgh, I can't imagine living somewhere that small yet relatively expensive (except the property taxes). I sometimes don't realize how good we have it here. Thanks for showing us your hometown!

I'm surprised you didn't mention the Visalia Rawhide, the Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate, who play at Recreation Park. I haven't been there in years, but it's my understanding that the O'Malley family has improved the park.

Remember seeing Frank Black(of Pixies) play in Visalia at the Cellar Door.

Nice work, Geography King Live on assignment. I already have a family vacation plan to visit Monterey-Hearst Castle-Steinbeck Museum-SLO. I’ll add Pismo Beach to the list. Maybe I’ll just move there in retirement.

Grew up in Reedley in the ‘80s. Spent my summers packing fruit and floating the Kings River. Used to cruise Mooney on Saturday nights. Left to go to college and get a career.

This is also my home town, I haven't been back in years but miss it

You can drive from Visalia for 3 hours north south east west and be in some of the most beautiful places in California... amazing low-cost location as compared to the rest of the state ! Amazing fruit and vegetables at Side Road stands and farmers markets... the best in the country... snow skiing 2 hours away China Peak

I liked living there except for the smelly fog, which is just about every day. Not to mention Valley Fever, Wearing a mask there is almost a must, even without the Pandemic

Stayed in Visalia for 2 nights in July 2010. Don't recall it being blistering hot, but must have been pretty warm, being July. Visited Kings Canyon National Park and loved it (visited Sequoia National Park 2 years earlier-didn't go to Kings Canyon also despite them being right next to each other because the day I went to Sequoia I had car troubles and just relaxed by the pool of my hotel in Porterville the next day, but I digress). I recall eating out at a Sizzler in Visalia (don't chastise me for not eating at a local joint Kyle!) and noticed that a large majority of the other patrons were latinos (I'm white). Very family oriented and civil group of patrons. No complaints here. Being in town only briefly, I didn't go out and about since I spent the entire 1 full day I had at KC NP. I've taken a number of cross country road trips (not as many as you though, Kyle), mainly to go to as many national parks and national monuments that can be accessed easily by car and are also a reasonable distance from hotels. Sorry, but the air quality, heat and fog make Visalia a nice place to visit but not to live in, for me. Great channel.

I live in Kings county so Visalia is only about a 30 minute drive. Do prefer to go there over Fresno for things like shopping and food. Closer and just less people so less annoyances.

I've only heard of Visalia from the movie Moneyball where they mention their farm team the Visalia Oaks a few times.

Part of me Still Misses the Small Town Atmosphere of Visalia,

The guy who owns the record shop is weird, is very normal.

I moved from the Bay Area (Oakland) back in 2008, I was able to Buy a Property for only 100K My Nephew just bought a House in Oakland for 800k, Love Visalia, Miss my Family but the cost of living is Outrageous!

Interesting to hear about lesser-known parts of the state.

It is a cow and farm town. Make sure to mention that. Lots of cows around the area. Visalia born and raised. And if you have asthma beware the air quality of anywhere in the valley. It’s a beautiful town though. We love it.

Shouts out to Visalia and the central valley! I am from Oakland but I've lived and worked in Visalia and Tracy and Lodi and Stockton.

Very nice video, but please quit telling our secrets! I live in the orange groves between Lindsay & Porterville, about 3 miles from the original 'Orange Works Cafe' at the stop light on 65 in Strathmore( there are 2 stoplights in town). Wife and I did shopping and appts. in the Big City - Visalia - today, about 1/2 hr north, Had a good morning and came home to beat the heat. 106 to 110 this last week, cooled down today to 96, heat is promised to be back next mid-week. And yes, 'tis true. Orange Works makes the most marvelous daily homemade ice cream, and a 2nd daily flavor (always as good usually a bit exotic), along w/ a few deli sandwiches. A great place to impress our out-of-town guests visiting the boonies, they can't believe such a marvelous hole in the wall in the middle of orange groves, packing houses, small town Strathmore High. I moved here for the job in '82, expecting to promote and move within a few years. this is such a fine place to raise my family, wife and I stayed on. Kids went to school and careers have scattered them a 1/2 day drive north and south, and I do hate So. Cal. and Bay area traffic, but that,s how it goes

Bro, I live in Dinuba and have been going to Visalia pretty regularly all my life. I had no idea how much of an oasis it is for the Valley.

Great Video, Kyle!

I did a quick street view tour on Google. This Main & Court Sts area has a nice vibe, but the rest looks like Ft. Lauderdale suburbs.

The Darling is a hotel, not an apartment. There hasn’t been a Farmer’s market in downtown Visalia for several years. And Visalia was voted one of the best mid sized city for food by Rand McNally, so yeah he’s way wrong about Visalia not being a foodie town.

Visalia is my hometown I love to go downtown and eat at restaurants if you want somewhere expensive I would recumbent the vintage press I also love the darling I always drive past it wherever I go downtown they have great food great people also there are a lot of other restaurants to go no matter what you like wether it’s Mexican food Italian food and nothing is to expensive and out of budget and a bunch of sites to see and I still live here today and still think the same also if you like sports go to a Visalia rawhide baseball game

Interesting. Isn’t it very hot in the summer? What is the water situation? Thank you.

The way he shouted out orange works ice cream and sandwiches is crazy I go there all the time

You going to come up north and do a video for Fresno?

Dang that’s crazy I’m in Reedley! Even smaller but chill lol. Definitely staying inside when it gets super hot

My sister and brother n law live there. They had a store, watsons nutrition, on main st. They just sold it not long ago.

I think Bakersfield is a great place to live. Yes it’s a farmer and oil area.

I've only heard of Visalia because I was part of an architectural marketing group and one of the three partners lives there. Really interesting video, thanks! I'm not sure why they've come up in my feed but I've also seen some fascinating and scary videos about Salton Sea. I'm willing to bet that makes Barstow look like paradise! And that orange ice cream in the last scene looks really awesome. Being away from the coast and agrarian is the weather is more like the Midwest? Hot summers and colder winters?

Like some other commenters, I am retirement shopping and this helps. Think I've lived on the plains long enough and I'm ready to hit the right coast or the left coast.

there’s a lot to say about this city but i honestly wouldn’t recommend anyone moving here

I love the downtown i live very close so i could recomended for a hang out

if the air quality wasn't so bad I would move back. we are 7 generation Visalians when mooney was orchards. our family had the saloon house on church street for gold rush travellers.

Excellent video Kyle!

I live in visalia but rarely go downtown. And yes it's hot here.

Pretty nice place, and thx for sharing. But I think I'll retire to Hamtramck, MI - it's absolutely amazing.

Visalia is okay.. OK NO A FEW MONTHS AGO SOMEONE DIED BECAUSE THEY PLAYED MUSIC LOUD

I like the Modesto area into the Mother Lode. Tulare County is decent. Same with some parts of Fresno. Central Valley gets it from everyone.