[pragueexpat]

I'm an American who grew up on the East Coast, went to USC (Los Angeles) for university (left in 1990), later worked for a San Fran company and have been living in Prague for 15 years so I may have some perspective for you. Long story short, LA and San Fran are fantastic for single people or married working couples w/out kids. Once kids enter the equation, your perspective changes. You are not going to find cheap, good schools in those cities. And unlike Prague, will not want your 7 year old to ride the buses/metro alone. LA weather is fantastic, no doubt. Its the thing I miss most. The thing I don't miss is the traffic. Literally bumper to bumper crawling along at a snail's pace will drive you crazy after a while. Farther south in Orange County is an option, but housing is pretty expensive and the traffic is not a whole lot better. San Fran is even more expensive to live plus the weather is not as good as LA. I understand opinions will vary, but as someone with direct experience with all 3 cities you mentioned, there is a reason that I'm still in Prague :)

[blackhaz]

Glad to see fellow Prague expat here! Thanks a lot for the insight. What made you to move to Prague? We go to PBS here, and I've found private schools in LA to be less expensive. So, I guess, this part of the equation is solved, assuming I maintain the income (argh!) although I expect my overall expenses to double in LA with all the taxes, etc. I visited both LA and SF once and found traffic to be manageable in both (stayed in WeHo). We avoided peak hours, though, however, yes, I hear people complain on traffic when they have to drive to work. I've looked at Orange but couldn't find a walkable place. I'd really want to live without a car, so it's all down to walkable parts of LA + relying on Uber (Los Feliz, Venice, etc) or SF/Oakland for us. How is Oakland weather compared to Prague? I'm comparing numerically but always end up with different conclusions depending on what mood I am in.

[pragueexpat]

My kids to go Meridian, which so far has been a fantastic school and is about 1/3 the price of a private school in the U.S. (I see that PBS is almost as expensive as ISP, which is very high). What is your citizenship? Any issues with moving to the U.S.? My advice would be to go for 3 months and try it out (maybe in the summer when the kids are out of school). All I can say is that I loved living in LA, but I would never do it with a family (unless I was a lot more wealthy than I am now). Good luck!