TikToker lived in nine cities in nine months before choosing Charlotte

That question inspired Mikayla Marchuk and her older sister Alyssa Marchuk to leave Chicago and travel across the country in search of a new city to call home.

What’s happening: After setting out in May 2021 to explore eight cities in eight months they chose Charlotte, and they used TikTok to look back on their time in each city. They didn’t expect it to take off to the tune of 55.2K followers.

• “We were just going in with a blank slate of, ‘could we see ourselves living here? Do we fit in not only doing the fun touristy things?'” Mikayla told me.

Flashback: They traveled to Raleigh, Charlotte, Nashville, Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego and Scottsdale, Arizona.

Yes, but: Fate, and perhaps Cupid, had other plans for Mikayla, who added an extra month and city to her list, before deciding on Charlotte. In January she went to Indianapolis for a month to spend time with someone she met on TikTok.

How it works: The sisters came up with a system to rate each city. They considered the cost of living, traffic, restaurants, things to do and safety. They also had a “fun” category, for ranking things like each city’s dating scene.

• Speaking of the dating scene, Mikayla is 26 years old and Alyssa is 28, so their respective dating pools overlapped a little bit, like when they ended up matching with and talking to the same guy in Raleigh.
• Clearly, Charlotte scored higher than Raleigh. Mikayla gave Charlotte an 83 out of 100 and Alyssa gave it an 86. Charlotte lost points for cost of living, traffic, safety, and Mikayla said gluten-free options were hard to find.

The sisters had fully remote positions prior to the pandemic, which allowed them to go on this adventure. Mikayla works in data science for a healthcare company, and Alyssa is in digital marketing.

• They packed their work-from-home gear— including monitors, laptops, and keyboards, which took up a lot of space in the car.
• “One of the hardest things was knowing what to pack because once we left Chicago, we weren’t coming back,” Mikayla said.
• They stayed in AirBnBs in each city, which sometimes meant not having the same comforts of home, like oven-mitts to take hot pizza out of the oven.

Some of Mikayla’s Charlotte favorites include:

• The U.S. National Whitewater Center. Seeing the river dyed green spoke to her Chicago heart.
• Bars and restaurants in South End, particularly Flower Child. Her go-to order is their “forbidden” rice bowl.
• Sports ー so far she’s been to Charlotte Checkers, Charlotte Knights and Charlotte FC games.

What’s next: Mikayla has a one-year lease in South End, and she plans to spend that time determining if she likes the area enough to buy property in Charlotte.