Or why not try somewhere like York or Exeter both are historic cities both are about the same size. York is close to the Dales and moors for rolling hills and Exeter is close to Dartmoor again lots of rolling hills..Exeter is very close to the beaches of south Devon often referred to as the English riviera and York isn't far from the east coast either.

York isn't far from the big cities of Northern England whilst Exeter is close to both Bristol and Plymouth.

Hi! You are pretty much in the situation where we were when we moved to the UK for the first time. Although, we actualy did spend about 3 days in London a couple of years before we made the mve, so we had a very vague idea of what to expect.

My husband used to be a teacher. He applied from South Africa and had a telephonic interview (pre-Skype). This was in 2001 and I'm not sure how easy or difficult it would be nowadays to actually get a teaching post.

Before you decide on an area, you need to look at the TES website. This is where all teaching positions in the UK are advertised. http://www.tes.co.uk/jobs/ Most areas in England is beautiful. I can second what PistolPete had to say about Canterbury. Lovely place to live (been our home for 6 years). But there are many other equally lovely towns and cities. I think, best is to come and ask on here if you notice a job you'd like to apply for. Good luck with your big move!

I think it must be so exciting to have a whole country to choose from, but a bit daunting as there are so many very different, very lovely places in UK. So MagsB's suggestion is very good about looking at jobs and then asking here for advice on an area and she is right about most areas in England being beautiful.

But North is very different from the South, East is different from West and so on. I am biased towards Sussex and Hampshire, having lived most my life in these areas, but most my family come from Kent, so I would certainly agree about Canterbury. But my job in Uk had me driving about 30,000 miles a year, so I have seen so many gorgeous areas.

Also, think about what you want from a place, do you need to live near rivers? By the sea? Do you want to be in a city for work, or in a village in easy commuting distance......

Lots to think about, so best of luck. England certainly is a lovely place to live.

So you recommend living in Guildford, but say the train from Swindon is expensive. The two kind of offset, Guildford is relatively expensive compared to Swindon when it comes to housing, so you pay a little more for your train ticket. .... And I disagree with you saying Swindon is far from London, it'll only take an hour by high speed train, whereas Guildford might be closer, but the train is going to take about 40 minutes into Waterloo. That might be a big deal for a daily commute but IMHO not a big deal for occasional day trips

Nowhere in the UK is far from the coast - according to the Ordnance Survey, the furthest point in the UK from the coast is a farm in Derbyshire, which is only 70 miles from the sea.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...re/3090539.stm

Granted, not all coastlines are equally beautiful, but in practice you should be able to reach "the coast" within 2 hours from almost anywhere in the UK.

The Midlands is not very good for getting to the coast, missed that a bit when living there.

We live about 90 minutes from the nearest coastline and the truth is that's a bit too far if coast is important to you. What you have to remember is that a 90-minute drive to the coast can easily become 2-3 hours if you get stuck behind tractors and lorries, or if it's a summer weekend when everyone wants to go. It's easy to get used to long distances in America where the roads are big and relatively empty but it's different here.

We've been here 9 months and only been to the coast once. We've found our usual limit for days out is about 40 miles unless we're going on motorways.

Wow! 9 months already? Time certainly does fly doesn't it.

I used to go nearly every weekend down to the River Hamble near Southampton and door to door it was 60 miles. Great in the winter, took hardly any time. In summer a very different story, regularly took 3 hours plus, especially coming back on a Sunday when everyone was coming back from the coast. You really can't judge a journey time by the amount of miles in England.

As regards Swindon vs Guildford, yes Guildford would be more expensive property wise. But a friend moved from South London to Herefordshire - BTW another beautiful place, and he missed the cheapness of a day out in London a lot and as the original question stated she wanted to spend a lot of time visiting London, then it has to be factored in.

There are cheaper places around Guildford, but any of the main cities in the South of England will be expensive, especially Surrey....

An interesting article put out by Lloyds Bank ref the relative costs of commuting as opposed to living in London and other major cities:

http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/me...0_Commuter.asp

That is a very interesting article and the cost of housing vs the cost of commuting really needs to be taken into account. But it's a bit black and white. It doesn't include the other things that need to be looked at in commuting, the journey from your house to the train station, the hanging around on cold platforms or at bus stops for the delayed bus or train, the cost of parking at the station, the tube journey once in London, the crowding on the trains etc etc. My best commute was when I could walk to the train station from both the house and the office, but that sort of set up doesn't always happen. And being a teacher, she won't be able to work from home or avoid the rush hour easily, so she will be commuting with all other 9-5ers.

Every teacher I know lives near the school they work in as they sometimes stay late, get in early and also they wanted to get to know the parents and the area, but maybe that is just the few I know - not an expert by any means, only know a few teachers and don't have kids.....

Indeed, there have been OPs on here before, unfamiliar with locations of towns in the South-East, who were looking for spots to settle with certain prerequisites such as time and cost of commute.

At the same time they had NOT pre-established where their actual place of work was going to be in London which the consensus seems to indicate should be isolated FIRST.

Taking Canterbury for example, working locally is just fine for a teacher in terms of transport connections and job possibilities but taking your comments further, where London is the destination, there is a choice of terminus station being Victoria, St Pancras or Charing Cross and the time to terminus, let alone the rest, varies tremendously.

As you state, there are seat/crowding issues and there are horror stories from some outlying areas such as Milton Keynes, Henley and Woking during peak rush-hour. This can be the case even for these relatively long Canterbury trips, particularly leaving London in the evening, but the time taken to transit the terminus station, take a tube or bus and then possibly walk the remaining distance can be a significant add-on. In certain career choices being late for work is simply not on, meaning one might have to over-compensate in terms of home departure time, particularly during the winter months of less reliable train service. This all takes a daily toll and should not be considered lightly in terms of wear and tear let alone the overall cost.

Again, further to your points, it seems key that at the HOME end there is easy access to parking and little that can get in the way of one's rat run to the station if from a distance away. This is one of the obvious reasons that good quality residential areas within easy walking distance of the best commute into London hold their values pretty well. Canterbury is blessed with several near Canterbury West Station*.

*High-Speed Service from Canterbury West to St Pancras (55 mins) makes London readily-commutable, BUT St Pancras is not everybody's ideal entry point, particularly civil servants working in the Westminster/Victoria area. The typical 1h 30-40 mins it takes to get to Victoria from Canterbury East could be too much for most potential commuters. Similar considerations have to be given to other Home points in the south-east, particularly in Kent, if only because it takes virtually nonstop (ex London Bridge and Waterloo East) trains over half an hour to make the twenty-two odd mile journey into Charing Cross or Cannon Street from Sevenoaks due to congestion and slower-speed tracks.

Can I just say, I think it would have been a nightmare for my hubby if he had to live in the same town where he tought. Constantly running into students when shopping or on a Sunday outing is NOT pleasant. A facebook friend recently posted that she was horrified when she found out one of her students had moved into the house next door!! I'm talking secondary school here, maybe it's different for primary school teachers.

I also would advise moving to Brighton. It is a very nice city, not
to big. It is not too far from London, but is situated on the coast. As also
the name says, it is the brightest point of UK and there are several
cultural attractions and activities.

Is Brighton pretty expensive? I have done several searches for properties and only come up with garbage in our price range.... just wondering if it's on the high range?