I'll be moving back soon to the Bristol area.For a few months at least my daughter & I will be on our own -can anyone suggest some nice areas of Bristol or surrounding villages which are likely to be at the safer/friendlier area of the spectrum ?We will have our dogs with us so somewhere that is close to countryside or parks would be good.

Hi there ..... IMHO Hambrook/Frenchay/Stapleton are nice though a little pricey, do you need to be in a certain part of the city for work or schools? On the other side of Brizzle, how about Saltford or parts of Keynsham?

Henleaze is lovely, plus it's near to the Downs so great for dog walking.

Do you have any specific areas in mind, eg Do you want to leave north, east, south or west of the city?

Sue

when my OH was working in Bristol we lived in Cheddar...very pretty and not bothered by the tourists as we didn't live in the Cheddar Gorge part of town but on the outskirts of Cheddar....we had a cocker spaniel and lived in a fab location for kiddies and dogs and for commuting. Some friends still live in Clifton which can be pricey but a good location also.

Most of Bristol is looking pretty dismal these days. Driving around it seems white people are definetly in the minority apart from Clifton/Henleaze area. South Bristol is also more or less uninhabitable.

Chipping Sodbury, Bradley Stoke and Portishead are pleasant enough though.

North Bristol would be good for school reasons.Looking on the map there seem to be villages like Long Ashton/Failand /Leigh Green which also have access to the Clifton 'nice' bit of Bristol & the countryside. Never been to any of them - any thoughts ?

Keynsham (I know - quite on the other side) wouldn't be bad geographically either as I have family in Bath, so that looks near but not too near (don't want to be living on top of them). There are a few houses for rent there,but I know nothing about it at all ?

I think those areas are all pretty much OK ..... you could do a lot worse if you are considering Keynsham it might be worth looking at Bitton & Pensford as they're fairly close to Keynsham & Bath too.

Good luck

What rubbish. Bristol has always been know for its multicultural mix. Bristol is a great city, I live there for 4 years and loved it.

Clifton is nice but pricey and can be a little 'hoorah henry'.

Good areas in the 'uninhabitable' south Bristol are totterdown/ upper knowle areas.

Yes, if you're looking the Keynsham end also have a look at Bitton, Willsbridge, Hanham, Warmley - all good areas. If you are looking at schools Warmley has an excellent primary school, but is very sought after!

Bernard Lovell used to have a bad reputation as a senior school, but that was 5 years back, and may have improved. St Mary Redcliffe is an excellent school if you can get into it.

The Mendip villages always appealed to me - Chew Magna, Nempnett Thrubwell etc - not sure if it was the name or the environment that really caught my attention. Nice places though.

We lived in Kingsdown, right in the centre by the hospitals, looking a bit tatty now but quite expensive real estate and very handy to the uni, town and hospitals, sort of a poor man's Clifton really.

If things haven't changed too much in the last 3yrs Oldfield, Wellsway & Hanham high had pretty good reputations .......... http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/ is worth a look at too

I lived in Totterdown for 20 years before moving to Canada.

If I was looking at the city I'd be inclined to go for Horfield if I couldn't afford Clifton. Out of town, maybe Stoke Gifford. An easy drive into town, near the motorway and Bristol Parkway station if you can afford the train.

If I remember rightly in the statistics Bristol schools usually prop up the bottom of the league tables.

One of the reasons for this is Bristol has a high proportion of private schools.

Can't speak for now, but the best areas of Bristol in the 80s were, The Granary, Roxy's and The Mardyke at Hotwells, summer nights sat on the pavement with a brewski and looking at all the bikes (I was with the sportsbike crowd, my sister was with the fantasy book reading, custom crowd.) I can't even begin to tell you how good it was, not only having those places to go, but being able to share those times with my sister. She really became my nest friend, and Mrs Triboy aside, still is. She lived in Bristol, I used to visit on weekends from Wells, and we'd all go out on huge rideouts. I still visit Fowlers everytime I'm home.

Listening to Journey 'Don't stop Believing' at the moment. Ahh, the memories

I wrote a long email to my sister about 2mths ago, basically saying. You've got your life, I've got mine, we are a long way apart, but the times we had in Bristol were very special and we were lucky to have them as brothers and sisters rarely share good times like that. and I said to her, no matter what we do in the future, we were cool once

I'm all teary now