Perth

Pete, weren't you one who wanted to do without a car, or was it only robin123? And if so, did you manage without one?

fulwood

I just looked and it's a lovely property.. I expect difficulties when I move back as have 2 dogs - 1 is 35lbs and the other is 55lbs..

Pistolpete2

When we used to visit the UK we sometimes rented a car and sometimes just 'trained it' so I thought it at least feasible to go without a car, plus use my bus pass (buses are expensive without one) as and when.

The key is to do research ahead of time for your perceived desired area and if there is good access to public transportation one could probably fairly easily dispense with a car. A lot of the motivation was the expense (about 10 pounds a day on average), the stress of driving on congested roads, and the parking hassle. Also now, I've realised that I missed an awful lot of the pleasure of seeing the beautiful countryside while stuck behind the wheel.

I absolutely do not miss having a car. We were just in France for a month and again only used public transport (buses in the main) and it was actually far more reasonable and civilised (clean, peaceful and comfortable) than here. BUT you have to choose somewhere where public transport is easily accessible.

We might move up to settle in Somerset next year and are planning to move to somewhere that has good rail links to Devon and Cornwall, plus fast service to London and Bristol, plus decent local bus services for those things that we cannot get on our doorstep and to get into other parts of the countryside as required. I can't see the need for a car then apart from very rarely.

Cornwall has reasonable bus services now which they never had back in the olden days and in spite of the demise of Western Greyhound. I explored the western end of Pembrokeshire a few years back out of season with only public transport in mind and it worked fine if I worked the schedules. In mid-Wales coastal areas there is decent rail service from Shrewsbury and Birmingham as is there from Swansea through the Heart of Wales to Manchester.

Pistolpete2

I really think the typical Summer-type vacation areas are turning out to be the spots where winter lets are available. I did a search on 20 mile radius from Stow-on-the-wold and found just two furnished properties under 900 pounds to be rented short-term. The problem with the Cotswolds is that they are more popular, as more accessible, year-round so there is no need to do a winter let.

I will say in passing that in my experience a lot of potential landlords are now considering getting into holiday lets as opposed to traditional rentals, in the West Country in particular. There are tax advantages in going that route and potentially better returns if properly managed. In addition, it can offer flexibility to landlords that want to spend some time in the property themselves, particularly to fill in the gaps in the slower season but the property must be available for 30 weeks a year for letting purposes to get the full tax advantages.

Just to put things in perspective, holiday let properties can let for up to 950 pounds a week but when offered as a winter let those same properties can go for around 680 - 700 per month in our area of Dorset. This implies that there is a huge summer surge when folks pay a big premium for seaside holidays, when a family of six could be paying 200 pounds a day in a b&b, and then the bottom completely drops out over the winter period, apart from Christmas and New Year's, and then comes just Easter.

robin1234

However good bus services are, you have to radically adapt behaviour & expectations to make it work. One of the most serious limitations is that typically there are often no services in the evening. This is OK if your plans for the day just involve one bus round trip from home, or even better, a one way bus at 9:30am then hike home after looking around the church or stately home or whatever.

But if you have to rely on your return bus trip from home, to get you to a transport entrepôt where you then get a further bus or train, then you sometimes have to start planning a return trip around two in the afternoon or so, to be sure of catching the last bus home at 5:30 or whenever it is....

Often there's one late night bus, hours later, 9:30 or so, but I just wish there'd be at least a skeleton service through the evening..

Perth

Thank you, robin and pete! Sorry for the endless questions. I fear I may not be done yet, but you've given me some great information to be getting on with

Perth

Robin (if you are still here) would you mind sharing information on your holiday let flat in Aylsham? OH, having finally done his own research, has actually come up with some good reasons to revisit Norwich as a place to settle. We plan on going over in Sept-Oct of next year, so looking for a winter let in the northern outlaying areas. Any assistance appreciated.