Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

Can I just say, as someone who's lived in Oxfordshire and worked in the hospitals for many years now, Oxford is a great place for a young person to live. It has a young, transient population and many internationals. You don't want to need a car though, that's a nightmare. Traffic and parking are hideous, so much so that it negatively affects recruitment to the hospitals in the city.
It's expensive too, a little cheaper to live outside the city. But then if you are only looking after yourself, it's doable. And you'll find many friends in the same boat.
And it's also very beautiful and centrally located. A train to London takes an hour and the bus is also an easy trip straight along one motorway.

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

My 24 year old daughter is moving to the outskirts of Oxford next month. She says she's only going for 6 months but my brain is telling me we won't be seeing her again for a long long time - depending on finances. :( She's going to have a ball. :D I won't :cry_smile:

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

I envy your daughter your attitude.

My parents are gutted we're leaving and my Mother, who happens to be the mothpiece of my parents, is being particularly nasty about it. Now we're running the risk of damaging our relationship irreparably.

My hubby is a Kiwi. I met him when I was working in Auckland and honestly, when we met it was a thunderbolt moment. He moved over here to be with me and it all happened so quickly we had difficulties with parents on both sides.
Now 18 years later we've been offered a fantatic opportunity for 3 years and to say my Mother is not happy would be an understatement

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

We moved over when the girls were 13 and 10. My mother's initial response was 'but I won't see the girls or you' (note the order), to which my eldest said 'but you take no notice of us now'. Out of the mouths of babes... It's taken my daughter a while to get to the point mentally to want and be able to do this so we have to say 'go and have a ball'. My inner self is saying 'please come home and please please don't meet a someone who wants you to stay'.

Deep breath and don't cry until she's gone through passport control and can't see me.

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

FYI, if you edit your profile to indicate that you are female then a little gender symbol appears alongside your name in all your posts so no one should make the same mistake again.

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

I might.

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

Cool 👍

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

True, but buying real estate in Winchester is no joke in terms of price. My sister lives there - I never will :blink:

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

Yeah it doesn't tickle that's for sure. My wife likes it here and I like her (sort of :lol:)

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

Correction noted, thanks. Re-post below. And note the difference in house prices between York and e.g. Winchester. I take the earlier point about not wanting to be in Leeds, but York is not Leeds.

Re-Post:

If you're from near York why would you even consider moving anywhere else?

There's an hourly train, 24/7 from York to Manchester Airport, takes 1hr 38m. Alternatively it is 45 min to Leeds Airport, or 2 hours from London by train or 2+ hours from Edinburgh by train. All the important National Parks are 2 hours drive or less. The natives are friendly. The depth and variety of History is profound. A semi costs 250k or less, detached 300k or so. And it's got a Wall, one first started by the Romans!

I'm retiring from Washington DC, so I'm coming from a country which has a bad case of Wall envy just now. Considerations for somewhere to retire to included: walkability, busability, trainability, near ferryability and airportability; a house made of brick or stone in a community of brick or stone; a sense of pride in the community's History (and it helps that I am connected to that same History).

Almost the entire United States has sprawling suburbs of vinyl sided houses, even the obscenely expensive ones. Very few actual nuclear towns, outside of maybe New England, whose winters are brutal. It's especially difficult if you like multi-modal transport options for getting around, without having to rely on a car for every significant (or insignificant) trip. While in England you can start walking almost anywhere, and take footpaths local and long-distance that are all densely interconnected, everything in the US is a walled garden. Take the Appalachians for example. Well it's a 2 hour drive to get there in the first place: no public transport. one ridge has a footpath and National parks : the Appalachian Trail, and the Shenandoah NP and Smoky Mts NP, which have, I grant you, good trail systems. But every other ridge in the 2000 mile long and 100-300 mile wide Appalachian-Allegheny mountain system is private property, no trespassing, they have guns and they shoot. In the somewhat temperate, pastoral states of Maryland and Pennsylvania, with lots of forest clearance for dairy and arable, you simply cannot go walking on that farmers land: there are no recognized footpaths, and no tradition of walking, since the Algonquian tribes were just about rubbed out 3-400 years ago.

If you want an active life/retirement that includes huge variety of walking, and bike riding, with the ability to plan 'open-jaw' trips completing the circuit by bus or train, accessible and reasonably attractive towns, accommodations and eateries, you cannot beat Europe - and England is still very much Europe. The USA is impossible in this regard.

I want to be able to gracefully separate from the car over the next 20 to 30 years, without limiting my ability to get around. No car in most of the United States, and you might as well be in a prison.

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

One of the reasons I chose my home for retirement on the Isle of Bute. It is easy to live here without a car. Ferry links to rail on mainland. Good bus links on island. Pensioner resident in Scotland get a concessionary travel pass. Say no to Ford and all his works !

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

RLS wrote a poem about that:

"Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
Say, could that lad be oot?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Bute.

Wemyss was astern, Cumbrae to port,
Dunoon on starboard bow;
Glory of youth glowed in his soul;
Where is that glory now?"

That poem is the very definition of nostalgic yearning.

Ferries are one of the most wonderful forms of transport. One of the saving graces of living here in Maryland is that I can take White's Ferry, across the Potomac to Leesburg. I always travel with a sense of hope when I ride a ferry. We're going up to Plymouth, MA for July 4th weekend. To see the Pilgrim history, but also to ride the Plymouth to Provincetown (Cape Cod) ferry. This emulates the trip the Pilgrims took back in 1620, when they anchored the Mayflower near P-town, and sailed the tender across to Plymouth, to alight on the famous "rock".

Cross-country train ride to Wemyss Bay, then ferry to Rothesay is also a pretty sublime trip. Cheers!

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

Just remember

"God made the whole wide world
And all that it contains
Except the Western isles
For they belong MacBrayne's"

David MacBrayne was the ferry company that controlled shipping on the West Coast. They are now part of Caledonian Macbrayne whicjh is publicly owned and controlled by the Scottish Government. We are of course noyt in the Western Isles but afre part of the Clfve Islands (Bute, Araan and Cumbrae)

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

And, for men especially, the beer. York (and Tadcaster) are famous for their beers. Arguably the best in the world.

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

There is even a microbrewery just inside the city wall that is well worth a visit, with optional tour, which I did in 2011.

York Brewery | Yorkshire Breweries | Attractions In York

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

Pensioner resident in England also get a concessionary travel pass.

http://www.tfgm.com/journey_planning...es_over60.aspx

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

Right. I think in England these bus passes are restricted to local use. In Scotland our concessionary travel is for buses throughout Scotland.

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

I thought they could be used all over England. I'm sure someone has mentioned it in the past. Could be talking out of my arse of course.:lol:

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

Not only Men!!! I love British beer - well the real ale mainly. Good breweries are also available in other counties - Harveys is good in Lewes for instance!

I also agree with everything Pimroad said about the difference between England / Europe and America. If I hadn't met my OH, I would never have moved to US. If I ever get a chance to move back, I would!

Having said that though, there are walking cities in US and when I finally move back to Rochester, I will be in easy walking distance of parks, bars, restaurants, theatre etc. So I am looking forward to that! Not sure that the public transport is there though, so it will be walking or driving...

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Englis..._Travel_Scheme

Seems they are valid throughout England.

Re: Nice places to live in the U.K.?
 

Yup, restricted to your county only.