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???

Raglan or Usk? Or chepstow (not a village I know but has good facilities and well located).

I live 20 mins from Cardiff center that easily take over an hour in peak time hell. Consider the transport links and traffic chaos does not necessarily mean you can commute easily to Cardiff from some of these places

I think - realistically we want a train station that can get us to Cardiff. We’re from London so train riders through and through despite driving now!

If your budget is that good I would look somewhere in Cardiff north itself, as to be honest the traffic is bad enough (I live 5 miles from work and it takes 30-40 minutes drive!).

As mentioned Rhiwbina, Whitchurch and the Heath are all lovely areas and for the £400k mark you could get a lovely property. The transport links are excellent.

Also the train links are diabolical in places. Dh is a Londoner, still works in London. Transport links in Wales just aren’t comparable

The A470 in rush hour is hellish.

Chepstow is too far from Brecon. Does raglan have train links?

If you had the budget I would look Around roath park, but that would mean alternative childcare arrangements for you to have to use

If your budget is that good I would look somewhere in Cardiff north itself,

Radyr, Tongwynlais, Pentyrch etc are north Cardiff.

We drive to Cardiff airport in the morning the other day - it’s what made me realise I can’t commute from here!
We were on southern trains when we moved to Sussex, we’re used to c* service! Haha

No raglan is a bus to Newport then train. Would take you about 1.5 hours minimum

Henllys is probably the only area I would consider in Cwmbran, some not so nice areas, probably more than your average but lots of facilities and a great Sainsbury's which I miss so much! It is a new town, so nicely set up for road and rail links. Having put it down though I miss living there, some of the friendliest locals I've lived amongst and my neighbours were the best.

Haha!! Arriva are a delight but I hear marginally better than southern trains. If you can actually get on one 😂

We’be moved so my mum can be her career whilst I’m working, for her sake as much as mine, so that defintely has to work!

Radyr sounds like it’s defintely worth looking at if it had the train links too.

Radyr is alright, parts of Caerphilly aswell are lovely. Tbh that’s probably as far up as you could go to make the commute viable

Caerleon or Usk. Both lovely. Plus the villages in between. I moved here 10 years ago from London and I love it.

I was thinking about Caerphilly but no one has mentioned it - does it have a bad rep?

Do Caerlon or Usk have direct trains to Cardiff?

My parents just moved there from England to be closer to me. They absolutely love it. Their house is stunning and they are mortgage free coz it’s cheap compared to where they were. They have a huge garden and can walk up their street to the mountain and down the street to the town center. They love it and I’ve spent more time in Caerphilly with them and it’s nice. It isn’t a pretty little villiage mind but pretty little villages in wales are often a buggEr to commute from. Worth a look for sure

Good to know thank you! Towns are fine, we just want some green and a safe neighbourhood really, chocolate box village is a big bonus but practicality is more important really

Ah sorry I thought you meant 40 minutes driving. In that case i would definitely look at abergavenny.

No worries, hope you find somewhere. croeso y cymru

Abergavenny is lovely! Go for afternoon tea in the angel hotel whilst your looking

Sorry if I'm being stupid but surely if your mum is looking after your DC while you work and she's in Brecon then you're looking at going from wherever you live to Brecon to drop off your DC and then to Cardiff?

So there's no way that can be a 40min commute. If I'm right with that then you'd be best off living in Brecon too.

Or are you planning on your mother coming to your house and then you leaving for work? So you need to think about the journey for her as well as for you?

Tbh if you're not living in Cardiff itself or west to Cowbridge etc then I'd stick with Brecon/near there anyway and just suck up the commute, much nicer than any of the valley towns.

Mum is going to be coming to look after her from Brecon, but expecting her to drive more than an hour is pushing it.

I think we would consider 40 min drive and did originally mean that but after all your suggestions and thinking about options a train is a necessity for us, especially as I’ve been on the Cardiff ring road at 7.30am - yuck!