IvanM

Canberra coffee is awful. I was a federal public servant for a year. 8 trips to Canberra later and I hope never again.

The place is so horribly public service and blandly average in a way that only public servants could conceive. There is not much wrong but so little right about the place. I reckon there must be a seriously seedy side to somewhere like Canberra but I never found it. Not sure if it is sado masochism, swinging or speedo lovin.

Budawang

There's plenty of good coffee these days and it's not hard to find. Lots of good restaurants too, bike paths everywhere and a couple of lakes and rivers. I can hop on my bike and ride the National Gallery, with its world class exhibitions, or visit nearby vineyards and truffle farms. This is the view from behind my house.

chris955

I think that is it, blandly average and full of public servants. My brother lives near by and says it literally has nothing to recommend it. I liken it to Milton Keynes

IvanM

Bland, average and good for an APS.

paulry

A good pic complete with another approaching storm cloud. And didn't it rain buckets a few hours ago! I can't work out your location even with the tower as a landmark. I'm probably way off but are you in Tuggeranong?

For what it's worth I think it's great here. The coffee bars are a tad expensive though. Make that: everything's a tad expensive

harrip

More than 85 per cent of Australians live within 50 kilometres of the coast for a reason. Canberra is more than 50 KM from the beach.

quoll

Thank goodness, seen one beach seen them all IMHO.

Anyway, who said there was nothing in Canberra - there were diving pigs this weekend http://the-riotact.com/diving-pigs-at-the-show/66383

I am always bemused by the "bland" bit - what has to happen for it not to be bland? traffic jams? (check), ghettos? (we have them), coffee shops? (yup, and contrary to assertions above, some very good ones), nice restaurants? (yup, you could dine out at a different one every night and still not get through them), hoons? (yup, you dont have to go too far to find them), graffiti (yup, not too far for that either), shopping centres? (plenty of them), interest groups (lots of them).

So, because it takes you just over an hour to get to a nice surf beach (and if you lived in Dandenong it would take you the same time!) it is bland? Is that it?

If you have to live at the ar$e end of the universe then Canberra is as good a place as any to live in! Having recently been to MK I can testify that Canberra is nothing like MK - apart from some of the "artwork" AND MK has an Ikea which Canberra doesnt!!!!

Budawang

I'm in Hackett in the inner North. Close to the Federal Highway so I can easily escape to Sydney.

Some nice places I go to within two hours of Canberra (Canberra is great if you like the outdoors).

paulry

I'm in the next suburb to you, and so near to Northbourne that we can hear the traffic.

Nice photos. The beach looks like one we visited a couple of years ago during our validation trip, certainly a beautiful one.

The snow scene were hoping to see lots of this winter now that we're settled here and can afford more day trips. In fact we're hoping to take the boys ski-ing if we can.

Here in Canberra wifey and I believe we mostly have the best of all worlds. Sydney when we want it, low congestion, ease to get to the coast, good schools for the kids, good infrastructure (though the internet could be better ). The only real gripes we have is the difficulty we had to get our first jobs and the transient nature of the population here meaning that our kids: just when they look to be developing friendships (a much harder job for my sociable, sporty, fun loving boys than we expected), their parents up sticks and move on. And havent seen any of the previously talked-about drugs culture since we got here - which is a relief.

paulry

Thank God for that!

quoll

Ah, quite a few of us Inner Northers then - our place is in Ainslie!

commonwealth

Is there a Starbucks in Canberra???

Budawang

There used to be but Starbucks pretty much went out of business because they couldn't compete with the great local coffee shops. Americans selling coffee to the rest of the world? How was that ever going to work?

Budawang

Welcome to the inner north!

While I like Canberra, I do find the locals are hard to get to know. I guess it's a combination of the transience, the fact that it is magnet for young and ambitious public servants who want to get ahead (you'd be surprised how work obsessed some of them are) and perhaps the general public service culture which is a bit dysfunctional. I think Canberra would be better if it had some light industry and more regular people.

canadaeh

I moved to Canberra for work - and then became a student again and Partner also moved with work.

We are in our late 20's and love Canberra, don't know why everyone goes on about it being bland.

I'm currently living in Europe until August this year and have been here since June last year, while I'm in the heart of central Europe I still miss Canberra and I'm looking forward to returning, I was there for a few weeks at Christmas to see the other half and loved it again. People here (the ones who know what Canberra is) make fun of it, without having ever been to Canberra, or in many cases Australia, and while it's great here, I still think sometimes it felt like Canberra has more going on.

I think Canberra has something for everyone, I find the night life decent, there is always something on, no matter what you are into, every week my partner is texting about going to some festival, concert, party, exhibition etc... it's always been like that, and I have never been bored in Canberra.

You have to remember, Canberra has a lot of young people, you have all the new APS workers, the students for ANU, UC, CSU, ADF and that catholic uni, you have all the recruits for the AFP Academy, ASIS and ASIO graduates, the new Defence Force cadets, these people don't like to be "bored" or "bland" so there is always something happening, also find the night life safe and everything close.

We have the highest wages, the best education, a clean city, it's small but has everything that a big city has, not too far from the beach (but living 5 years in Sydney we probably only went to the beach 2 times - had and have a pool). Not far from the snow, and if I really need a big city feel just head to Sydney for the day or weekend. As for the coffee... well I'm a hot chocolate person, so plenty of cafes around, and with the amount of restaurants I find I eat out a lot more in Canberra than I did in Sydney.

Someone said Canberra doesn't have a soul, I think it does, it has a special feeling about it, and it also has a full 4 seasons, Autumn in Canberra is fantastic.

Personally, for me Canberra has the best of everything, we have all the best parts of a big city, without the not so best parts.

Looking forward to returning.

Only place I ever got bored in my life was Perth.