zhaosfamily

Dear all,

I am new to this forum. I just registered to get your advice on several places since we are considering to come to UK to settle for both business (self-employed) and family.

We are having a 19-month old now and plan to come and settle in UK around May 2014. We visited many difference places in UK last month (Oct 13) and want to move to a seaside place with relatively more sunshile, nice people, good nursary.

Eastbourne is one of our options. We visited there last month and like this place. Seems it's much quieter compared with Brighton and rental more reasonable. But in the short visit, it is very difficult for us to tell how suitable the place is in terms of the local people (we noticed the high proportion of old people there)- if they are friendly to migrants, if it's easy to make friends, if a retirement place is good for kid etc., weather compared with others and nursary.

I would like to seek input from those who live there or used to live in Eastbourne so that we could have a better understanding of the place before we move.

Our initial plan is to rent for 12-24 months before buying a property.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Sally Redux

My Mum lives there, and there are a lot of old people, but I think it's a lovely place and quite suitable for young families as well. The demographic is not that diverse but I don't think migrants would have any problems.

zhaosfamily

Thank you Sally. Really appreciate your advice.

luvwelly

Eastbourne gets better weather than Plymouth if that helps.

Chortlepuss

Eastbourne is a lovely place with excellent rail links to London and Brighton. Beach, proximity to lovely countryside and good shopping (Brighton for excellent shopping!) I lived near there for most of my life prior to coming to Oz. it does have a high proportion of elderly folk, but pretty family friendly. Not much going in terms of night life but good theatre & cinemas. For the SE it has fairly reasonable accommodation prices as well,

zhaosfamily

Thanks a lot, luvwelly.

It's really good to have some good weather as well as good people.

zhaosfamily

Thank you so much Chortlepuss.

The information you provided is really helpful.

Sally Redux

Apparently it has a few nightclubs, which I didn't realize until chatting to a taxi driver

Bud the Wiser

I was in Eastbourne a couple of years ago. Very impressed and not as full of 'oldies' as I was led to believe., in fact the nightlife in town was quite buzzing. Great countryside as people have mentioned.

Bud the Wiser

I noticed you asked the same question about Plymouth.

What do you consider to be the requirements that would suit a family with a two year old?

zhaosfamily

I reckon good neighbours / local people and education (good nursery) and hopefully relatively better weather / sunshine.

Thanks.

christmasoompa

If you want good neighbours etc (and presumably therefore a real community spirit), personally I wouldn't go to a city. Not saying that it can't be found there, but it would be much harder than in a village usually.

Good luck.

Sally Redux

I'm not sure. Some villages can be funny about outsiders.

NiHao

I have found this website to be very useful for info on schools (including Nursery) when looking at different locations in the UK.

http://www.locrating.com/

christmasoompa

Although I wouldn't rely on it too much, I've just done a search out of interest, and the info for the school that my children go to is completely wrong!