Where is nice to live in North Wales?

[Largepiecesofcrookedwood]

I've been idly musing about a move to Wales, and this evening spent a pleasant couple of hours mooching the Internet.

I was amazed firstly by how cheap houses are, secondly how surprisingly little I actually know about Wales and thirdly that I would have to learn to speak Welsh (its been quite the night of discoveries!)
DS is just starting yr10 so our theoretical move wouldn't be for four years, but I wouldn't mind suggestions for nice rural areas within no more than 30-40 minutes drive of St Asaph to keep me going for now

I live in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

We live on the border. There are lots of jobs in Wrexham and some nice villages nearby - Hanmer, Bangor on Dee, Overton, Froncysyllte. Does it need to be St Asaph? Welsh is beneficial but not a requirement.

In Wrexham area not a requirement even. My children learn Welsh but not taught in Welsh.

I live in gwynedd, Bethesda actually. My dh works in Conwy county and doesn't speak Welsh so I wouldn't worry too much about it. We are actually planning on moving to Conwy soon, rhos on sea is nice, there are some nice small villages just outside of Conwy. In my experience the more rural and closer to gwynedd you get the more Welsh it is. If you are used to rural you will be fine, I moved from the outskirts of a bigish city and it was a bit of a culture shock tbh.

By Welsh I mean Welsh speaking

Yes hairy, potentially outing but the job is based at St Asaph and nowhere else
I'm happy with a commute of 30-40 minutes but no more really as I'm aware I would need to factor in extra time during bad weather or peak holiday season.

You could probably just about make Minera/Coedpoeth/Llandegla in 40 minutes. All lovely places to live. Not a particularly Welsh speaking area, but Coedpoeth tends to have evening Welsh classes (as does Wrexham which would only be a short drive away).
Coedpoeth and Minera have gas and decent internet (in the main) if either are important to you!

Most of North Wales is fab. Lots of pretty villages near Mold. Good luck.

Avoid South Gwynedd like the plague. Beautiful area but stuck in the 1960s, unless you were born and went to school there, don't expect to ever be accepted.

I moved to south Gwynedd, didn't go to school here and am not from here. It's the friendliest and most accepting place I have ever lived.

The great thing about learning Welsh is that it's a really good way of making friends and becoming part of your community. Of course, no-one has to speak Welsh, but it will really extend your social circle and experiences if you do. (Google Say Something In Welsh for a great online resource).

All around St Asaph is nice. I've been tryig to get Dh to move. We are up the Conwy Valley, small village and work near Llandudno. I'd like to go to the outskirts of Abergele, somewhere like Betws yn Rhos. But then again I like Penrhyn Bay too and would like to be there near the beach.

Coedpoeth is very high and exposed. You will use a lot of that gas!!

I was going to suggest Bwlchgwyn and Gwynfryn until gas was mentioned, and they don't have it up there. Parts of Minera higher up are oil powered as well. Also nice around there are Ffrith and Cymau.

Nice areas in and around Wrexham include Holt, Worthenbury, Overton, Penley and Hanmer is gorgeous but very affluent and expensive.

Ruthin

I want to talk my dh into moving to north Wales.
my ancestors are from here, can't find the mountain they pitched on though

Pidlan I learnt Welsh, my DC went through the schools system and are all fluent. My experience is after 20+ years living in a small-ish village that resented 'incomers' trying to do anything. Village clean-ups, community events, first aid training, you name it, we did it but the born and bred locals wouldn't take part and complained bitterly at us trying to take over. Nothing to do with being Welsh or knowing the language IMHO, just a backward way of thinking that's still prevalent in some communities, particularly South Meirionydd.

Coedpoeth is lovely (but always gets the snow first!), Rhos On Sea is nice too. Have you considered South Wales, Carmarthen is quite a large centre for public services and there are some lovely places with no requirements to learn Welsh if that's an issue.

not having mains gas is not an issue, you have oil central heating and lpg if you want a gas hob. Oil has been cheaper per unit heat than gas for years and still is.

Gas not a problem as we don't have gas in our current property (even though DH is a gas engineer)
Broadband would be slightly more problematic, but we are looking at 4 years in the future and a lot could change in that time.
Thanks for all the suggestions, I've had enormous fun so far though DH is fed up of the constant stream of emails I keep sending him of houses for sale!

If you do need to learn Welsh. Then don't be intimidated, it is actuality an easy language to learn as it is very regular and pronounced the way it is written and you will have lots of opportunities to practice it

If gas isn't an issue, then also check out Gwynfryn/Bwlchgwyn.