Originally Posted by Hazelnut

If you want to live rurally the network into Glasgow is good for commuting. There's always loads to do that's cheap or free and it's more child friendly than London. I'd agree with Cyrian about the areas. I'd avoid Govan. As an incomer I also found Renton and Alexandria off putting but we rented in Paisley for a while and it was OK.

If you want to be right in the city I love the West End and it's as safe as anywhere but it some areas can be noisy as there's lots of university students. The more expensive the housing the better the area usually.

If you've never lived in Scotland before I'm only half joking when I advise buying a dictionary, there's a lot of old Scots word still in every day usage and the accent and speed of speech can be really scary when you first arrive. Glaswegians are, generally, lovely though. Very friendly and really willing to help.

We rented for nine months while we settled down and spent lots of weekends driving round visiting areas. We then bought a place and have spent a long time renovating it. Housing is lots cheaper as soon as you move a little out the city. I have a large, detached, four bedroom, old stone farmhouse on a ten acre smallholding for the same costs as a three bedroom flat in the West End of the city.

Many of the museums, art galleries and other places are free. The Science Centre is great fun for children and the exhibition centre always has something on. There's lots of multi screen cinemas, endless shopping and the street buskers are always good to watch and listen to. I walk round the city on my own quite happily and feel safer there than I did when living in London. There's some areas you don't go into, especially after dark, but they are pretty obvious if you start straying into them and no different to any other large city in the UK.

Big surprises for me were the weather and the parochialism you sometimes meet. The national religion is football and people can still be prickly about Catholic and Protestant issues although the schools round me are mixed. The weather is pretty dire, summer is usually a few days around May/June. We're at risk of frosts in the garden anytime from August to early June and we normally have 3-5 bouts of snow per winter ranging from an inch to a foot. If you live in the city the snow doesn't fall as often or as thickly. The good thing is that the country is geared up to cope with it as it happens so often. It's windy and very wet. Heating is expensive, especially if you buy an uninsulated property.

Having moaned about the weather the countryside is SPECTACULAR. It never gets old and it's one of the most beautiful countries I've ever lived in. There are heaps of large country parks but it's easy to be out into the lush, green countryside very quickly. Even the city is very green with lots of trees and parks.

Public transport is great, if you live in the city you may not need a car at all. We didn't when we first lived there.

You could look on S1 Rental for places to rent at first.