DanStoke

Hi All,

New to the forum, and fairly new at starting to make the decision to bring my family across the pond.

I work for a company whos head office is in Carmel IN... I don't really know much about this area and have never visited (all of our meetings have been in Vegas!!!!).

Does anyone have any experience on this area and can offer some general information, good areas to live in and bad areas to avoid?

A bit about me; I'm 29 years old, working in inventory finance - I have a wife and a 4 year old daughter.

I'm navigating the site now, and I suppose that a lot of my general questions are probably answered in various posts so will refrain from getting on anyones nerves


Hope to speak to you all soon.

Cheers

Dan

BritInParis

I have distant cousins who live in Carmel although I have never visited so I can't be of much help. It is however supposed to be one of the best places to live in the US. It also has the highest number of roundabouts of any town in the US so you should feel right at home

DanStoke

Thanks mate, I read that it was a nice place to live.

Jack8602

Welcome.

check out this link for a ton of useful information: Carmel, Indiana

If your company are relocating you, always worth flying out at least a few months in advance to look at areas.

Have your firm given you an offer in writing to move you and your family across? It may be worth making sure you have that eligibility to move to the US first, and then start looking / visiting areas you want to live in.

carcajou

I have a relative who has lived in a nearby suburb to Carmel for about 30 years.

Indianapolis is not the most exciting place, but it is fine.

Like most mid-size US cities that are inland - you can have a very high quality of life on a steady but middle level income. You will cry tears of joy when you see the size and quality of accommodation on offer compared to what you would expect in the UK.

It will be very, very cold in winter, and you will have to adapt quickly to driving in icy conditions.

Chicago is three hours away. On the other side, Kings Island amusement park near Cincinnati is two hours away, and a delightful place for young children.

SarahG

I lived in Carmel for 2 1/2 years before moving down to South Carolina. There are LOADS of Brits in the area. My daughter was 4 and my son was 6 when we moved there.
We lived just off Rangeline near the library and the high school. It's a nice town, at least it was when we lived there. There were no areas I'd say to avoid.The drive down to Indy on Meridian was always fun with all the potholes.
If you haven't already been, I would check out the Kids Museum. We practically lived there. My kids LOVED it. There's loads to do there and you can spend hours there.
It can get VERY cold in Indy. We were there for the ice storm, and not long after that, we moved to SC and now have palms trees and a beach nearby. Let me know if there is anything specific you'd like to know. I can also put you in touch with some expats in town if you're interested.

BritVsRedneck

We've been up to Carmel a couple of times, it seems to be an affluent place compared to some of the Indy suburbs. Like someone said above, they have loads of roundabouts, in quick succession, instead of stop signs. There are a few nice playgrounds up there we like to take the kids to, and there is also a nice rails-to-trails bike path running from Carmel to Indy (Monon trail).

We've lived in Columbus, IN (about an hour south of Indianapolis) for a little over 5 years. Similar to Carmel from what I understand, we live in a nice area with a HOA. The amount of Brits here is high due to the Cummins engines headquarters.

But the nice places are obviously more expensive;
I personally didn't notice the high value for money that others have experienced, as we lived int' North of England before. So we, for example, didn't sell a small flat in London and buy a 6 bed lake front property over here! ha!

Ironically, now we've been here for a while, I've got used to the locals and find I have more US friends and have more in common with them than other rich/snobbish Brits in our HOA! So when the kids are done at our local elementary school we may move out from the HOA to somewhere with a bit of land.

ddsrph

Just returned to Tenn from Indy attending a Navy Dentist reunion. The subject of Carmel came up as my friend has relatives there. It is a very upscale and has 110 traffic circles.