which southshore (MA)town has the coolest downtown?

[BirthMatters]

That sounds a bit strange, but I am looking for sort of a quaint and/or hip downtown or main st. on the southshore. I have some friends who are checking out the area and they are interested in which towns have alot of shops/restaurants/coffee hangouts. They are coming from Portland, Or which is a city of course and it's very progressive, trendy, organic, etc.
My friend is looking on the southshor bc that is where her work will be. I'd love to be able to direct them when they come to check things out.

[lach]

I'm not really sure I'd use "hip" about any of the downtowns along the south shore, and certainly not by Portland standards, but Hingham and Scituate both have very quaint little downtowns with some interesting stores and plenty of restaurants.

What town will she be working in, and any idea of general price range? Price is the biggest issue when moving to the Boston area.

[Helensmom]

Plymouth is nice too--lots of shops and restaurants, a bit touristy in the summertime.

[grumpyshoegirl]

Another vote for Plymouth, here. You get a lot more house for your dollar in Plymouth, and there's a well-organized group of like-minded moms in the area. There's a Waldorf school on the Cape, a chapter of Holistic Moms for the whole South Shore-Cape area, a South Shore homeschooling group, several great CSAs (I think all my mom friends belong to different ones!) and an AMAZING farmers' market that runs weekly in season and monthly in the off-season. There are several cafes right on Main Street/Court Street in Plymouth. About the only thing I find sorely lacking is a good independent book store. There's West Winds in Duxbury, but it's pretty small. Once Upon a Time (also in Duxbury) and a bookstore whose name I forget in the Merchant's Row mall in Hanover are two good children's book/toy stores, but it'd be REALLY nice to have that right in Plymouth.

Politically, most of the exurbs in the Boston area tend to run a bit more conservative than the immediate metro area, or western Massachusetts, for a variety of reasons. But there are progressives out there if that's their persuasion.

Scituate and Cohasset are great, too, but both are hard to get to from other places and Cohasset is VERY expensive.

[jessjgh1]

Just wanted to mention that the Waldorf School will be moving to Cotuit in February (good news for Cape families).