I have lived in Tallahassee for most of my life. Tallahassee is between a city and a town to be honest.... you can drive from one side of town to the other in about 30 minutes but it is still pretty big. Around campus is very lively. Actually, the whole city is pretty lively. It is fairly safe.... there are problems like anywhere, but avoiding the bad areas and drug use (hate to be obvious) will keep you safe. The average rent for 2 br apartment/condo/townhouse is probably $750/month. Very reasonable. There are several gyms in town.... Golds Gym has 3 locations, we have 3 YMCAs, a couple of You Fits, there are several Anytime Fitness. The biggest one in town is Premier and it is awesome (and fairly expensive). Most of the apartment complexes have gyms and as a student, you would get free access to the schools gym. There are apartments "downtown" although our downtown has mostly state office buildings. There is an area of town thats close to downtown and is a pretty neat place... its called midtown. Lots of small homes and apartments everywhere. Close to nice, hip restaurants and bars. A lot of grad students live in that area.... move a little further away from Campus and the crazy party life. Also, anything on the NE or NW side of town is good. SW is a little iffy and SE is half iffy half way too expensive for its own good (Southwood). There are a few farmers markets... one in downtown every Saturday, one on the NE side of town every Saturday and one a little north of downtown at a place called Lake Ella. This town is also very active... if you are a runner there are several groups you could join. I love it here. It does get hot and humid in the summer and allergy season can be pretty killer, but it is beautiful. Let me know if you have anymore questions and I would be happy to answer them.