SE England or SW England......
 

DH and I were talking over the weekend. When & if the economy starts recovering in a year or so, we hope to sell up and buy a flat along the coast somewhere in England. The biggest question is where? We would really prefer a coastal village and we want good rail conections so we can get to Gatwick relatively easily for flights to Europe. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

We've just been checking out the SW. There are trains that link to Heathrow through a bus from Reading. That line runs down to Exeter and on to Exmouth, and another branch to Dawlish, Teignmouth and Torbay. East of Exmouth there are no trains to the coast for quite a while. There are also trains into Cornwall, to Penzance and Falmouth.

Don't know what you'd consider a village. I think the population of Dawlish is about 14,000. Lyme Regis is about 3,000. From there, the nearest train is Axminster. Bournmouth has an airport and, I think, a train.

Exeter airport has quite a few flights to Europe. Unfortunately it doesn't have any connectors to the London airports.

Bev

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

I don't know if you watched the program on Rain a few days ago (fascinating!), but the SE gets a lot less rainfall than the west side of the country.

Aw shucks, I forgot you live in the Valleys, you must be impervious to the wet stuff ... :rofl:

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

OK, I guess I should also post a serious reply. During my time in S. Wales, I helped a friend in Somerset drive around for two days, meeting up with estate agents at various properties (she was selling up and buying). I was gobsmacked at just how many beautiful villages there were in Somerset, and also how reasonably priced many of the houses were.

My brother is considering the SW (Devon) when he returns from Dubai so I'll be doing some house-hunting with him in the summer. I think my main reservations would be (a) distance from London airports, and lack of easy/regular public transport to airports (I'm assuming this, please correct me if I'm wrong, anyone), and (b) the mad traffic situation I hear happens every summer. Dang tourists! :curse:

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

I am pretty sure we would only want villages that have rail service to London so that we can get to Gatwick or Heathrow (and I personally prefer Gatwick since the airport is smaller and easy to manage). I don't care much for buses to the airports since I'm 5'11" and no coach I have ever been on has enough leg room for me:D.

I have been browsing around on line a bit but I am hoping someoe here can give some hints for some really great places. We had planed to drive over to Cornwall this past weekend and nose about but we were both mucky with colds and I was afraid I'd have a coughing fit while crossing the Severn Bridge:blink:

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

Quick and easy links to Gatwick would be in the south Surrey and East and (some of) West Sussex corridors; look at villages within striking distance of the A23, M23 and A22, right down to the coast from Brighton and Hove round to Eastbourne and Bexhill. Any further east or west in either direction would mean a change on trains, but that is not too much of a hardship if it's just occasionally. :)

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

my parents live in Braunton, North Devon....gorgeous place but a pain in the back side to get to.
My Aunt lives in Bexhill, not such a gorgeous place but a lot easier to get to.

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

I wouldn't go to Devon, its a bloody hell hole, its full of tourists, bugger all else to look at really and it rains almost every day, horrible place.....................

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

My Mum lives in Eastbourne and I think it's lovely round there, it has become much more modern over the years and the trains have improved.

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

Tourists, sheep, sheep farmers or grockle boxes.
They all look lovely in the rain:D

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Horrible place, I personally think everyone should stay away from here, oops sorry, I mean there, bloody horrible place......................

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

I have to agree, the beer is horrid !

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

Cider is filth too.........

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

God, you certainly know how to drag up the old public health and safety prosecutions. !

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

There are some nice villages in Hampshire - you can get to heathrow - in less than 1 hour and Gatwick in 1.5 hours by car - trains into London in about 1hr - would need to change to get to Heathrow/gatwick though

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

There can be only one choice - Bognor Regis!

Actually, you could worse than taking a road trip between Portsmouth and Brighton and dropping into all the coastal villages. What sort of size population are you thinking off and how much cash do you have?

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

I lived in Swindon and surrounds and Bournemouth and surrounds and went farther west to Devon and Cornwall many times when in the UK.

If transpot out of the UK is important and I seriously consider how many times a year you will go, then you are writing off Luton, City and Stanstead airports immediately for your cheap flights.

Gatwick is south and Heathrow west of London and both reasonabily ok for access.

If you travel once a month then location relative to the airports is a consideration but if you only travel once a year then it is not. Moving to Devon would make a journey into London a nightmare in itself unless you ca get to the line which runs through Bath and Swindon to Paddington.

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

Devon is lovely but I'm not sure it would qualify for easy access to Gatwick or Heathrow. How about Kent? I don't know about transport links but I know people commute into London. Perhaps someone else can help on that one. I can vouch for East Surrey near where I live. Nice areas to live and extremely easy to the airports, although housing is expensive., and of course it is not near the coast.

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

We took the bus/train to Devon from Heathrow, changing at Reading, and it worked fine. It goes to Exeter, Dawlish, Teignmouth, and down to Paignton, I think. Away from the coast you'd change at Exeter I think.

Longer than most places in the south east, of course, but doable.

Bev

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

Look no further than the New Forest in Hampshire - Lymington, Lyndhurst etc. 10 minutes on the M27 and straight up the M3, piece of cake.

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

errr, yeah...me too...terrible hell hole of a place ;)

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p.s....wot you doing here then? Thought you were still over there?

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

We are on the Moor, been here for a month or so now and ABSOLUTELY loving it!



But its bloody horrible, people should stay the hell away, they would hate it, absolutely hate it.................. miserable place!

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

i think you should stick to the south east............otherwise you might start talking with a fuuny accent if you go too far west........as nice as the west is,they dont half talk funny!Good luck wherever you choose,at the end of the day,its all England!

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I much prefer the west country accent to the Sarf East.

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

Not to be too rude, how old r u guys?

My Mum in Law will be moving back to Folkestone. I am in my late 30's and love Folkestone and Dover.

Folkestone - property price are really reasonable. You are near the ferries to france, the eurostar and Car train as Ashford and easy to get to London !

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

I come from Eastbourne - lived there nearly all of my life. Some very nice areas both in Eastbourne and in the surrounding villages but these would depend on the OP's budget and size of village. Arlington is nice and has a few good pubs as does Wilmington and surrounds.

Trains to Gatwick and London are reasonably frequent - they used to be once an hour and more often during commuter times.

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

Definately the SW ,but then I'm biased.We came from Dorset,lovely countryside & beaches & not far to Bristol or Bournemouth airports that go all over the world.The people are friendly if you can find a local & not an outsider from london.We miss it & are hoping to go back just to make sure it's the best place to be.

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

Considering I'm an American from the southern part of the US, married to an English guy and currently living in SE Wales........I honestly don't think my accent could get any more confusing:lol:

Re: SE England or SW England......
 

Check the line from Plymouth to London Some nice places en-route.