HELP Nice villages 40 mins commute to Cardiff?

[1sttimemumma]

Hi all!

Am currently renting in hay on wye, love it but job opportunities just aren’t good enough for me returning to work after LO, low pay and nothing that really allows me to progress.
Looking to move within a 40 min commute of Cardiff city centre or less, mum is in Brecon so want to be north (free childcare is why we’re here haha). Looking for nice green town / village, good schools and transport links. Any suggestions???

Cowbridge :)

I second Cowbridge, although it's more a town than a village. Loads there and a lovely feel to it.

Ah although Cowbridge is West of Cardiff, in the Vale of Glamorgan. I don't know of any villages north of Cardiff, as that's Caerphilly territory, but North Cardiff has some lovely areas - the Heath, Rhiwbina etc.

Llantwit Major? Not sure it’s a village but has a railway station.

Taff's Well?

tonteg/church village?

If you want a village, my friend lives in Llanmaes, which is a pretty village close to Llantwit Major and around 40 minutes by road to Cardiff. I believe her children go to secondary school in Cowbridge and went to primary school in Llantwit Major.

Thanks everyone. Cowbridge is too far west, I need to be able to get to Brecon in under an hour too for granny sitting whilst I’m working

Pontypridd?

Taffs well looks lovely and green, can anyone tell me what it’s like? Friendly? Does anything happen there for kids etc?

Had seen that on a map Pontypridd would make sense - what’s the town itself like? (Obviously we’ll look but god to get peoples views)

Pontypridd isn't nice, sorry.

I know the housing is quite cheap and not to be a ‘snob’ as I know it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not nice! But I did wonder.

Taffs well looks lovely and green, can anyone tell me what it’s like? Friendly? Does anything happen there for kids etc?

Not much. It’s pretty sleepy. I’d go for Tongwynlais personally. Or Radyr. Or Pentyrch. All have very easy access to the A470 and would be around 40 mins in rush hour to Cardiff town centre.

Gwaelod y Garth, Pentyrch, Creigiau. All North, and easy access to A470 to Brecon and M4 to look at of other places!
Also, Whitchurch, Rhiwbina, Tongwynlais.
I would avoid Pontypridd personally.

Have a look at Aberdare. Not as nice as Hay on Wye but midway between Cardiff and Brecon. Nicer than Pontypridd.

I’d say Penyrch, Efail Isaf, Creigiau. Taffs Well has the train station though which will be handy for commute into Cardiff. Any further North and driving into Cardiff in the morning will likely take you over an hour, unless you work outside peak times.

Total name change for this as it's outing but whilst Cwmbran as a whole doesn't have the greatest reputation we used to live in the Henllys area and it was absolutely lovely. Great transport links to Cardiff and also in the right direction for the delights of Abergavenny and the road to Brecon. We lived in a beautiful area, right by the hills and had some of the best neighbours I've ever had.

Some good properties for your money as well.

Henllys on Rightmove

I think your choice of area will depend on your budget and how many bedrooms you want.

I agree though with most of the other posters....Radyr, pentyrch, Gwaelod Y Garth are nice. Creigiau has a lovely community feel to it and a bilingual primary school feeding in to good comps.

Rhiwbina, Whitchurch, llanishen are all nice and easy for the a470.

Abergavenny if you go by train to Cardiff?

Will defintely look into all these - thanks so much everyone. Part of me thinks Abergavenny might be the easy option as I already know it but it might be nice to do something new and it’s still 1hr in min probably at rush hour.
Tongwynlais looks sweet, is there a station? Does radyr have pubs etc? We need a little life we can walk to.
Does Pentyrch have a station? It looks like a sweet town.
I did consider Cwmbran as there was a job on offer there that suited me so I thought it could be an option, I didn’t really know it had a bad rep to the honest! It’s quite a new town isn’t it relatively?

Aberdare agree with Cwtches. Beautiful town. Town centre suffering same fate as many high streets and valley towns but has a sense of prosperity also

We want to rent for a year in an area we like, then we’ll sell up our house in Sussex and buy somewhere (we’re renting it for double the rent we pay in hay) We should get £420000 when we sell so that for most welsh areas seems to be accessible I think? Renting in the short term we would want to spend anywhere up to £1000 a month, for a 3 bed with a garden and parking. Is that do able in all the areas mentioned do you think?

Tongwynlais looks sweet, is there a station?

No. There are 2 or 3 buses which go through the village and the taff trail for walking/cycling. Couple of pubs and cafes though.

Does radyr have pubs etc? We need a little life we can walk to.

Yep. Lovely pub, restaurants and a new tap house too. Plus a station. That’s 4 or 5 stops to central Cardiff.

Does Pentyrch have a station? It looks like a sweet town.

No.

Yep. A characterful 4 bed would be around £320k in most of those areas.