What's life like in Wales?

[MadameSzyszkoBohusz]

Yes, I know it's a whole country and the answer will vary depending on whereabouts you are, but if you are Welsh or live in Wales, would you mind indulging my curiosity?

I'm asking because the current thread what do you wish you had within walking distance of you, and the most popular answer being "a beach/the sea" had me googling places to live on the coast, and noticing how stunning the Welsh coast seems.

I've never been to Wales, and now I'm wondering what life is like there. I've no plans to move, btw, we're very settled where we are, but I'm just interested to know.

Because I bought a beautiful house on a street that looks a million miles from Merthyr. Two parks on the same road, and a bowling green and tennis courts opposite my house. My partner and his family are here. We don’t really use the town centre at all as we both work in Cardiff, so beyond that we have everything we need here.

The unemployment rate doesn’t have much bearing on my day to day life!

I grew up in North Pembrokeshire OP. I still have family there.
It’s beautiful and I love going back. Gets VERY busy in the summer. I left because of lack of graduate jobs. I’d like to retire there if the house prices hasn’t gone too crazy.
Then again, the healthcare is poor.

Ok ok, we've obviously misunderstood each other. You'd replied to a poster who I think said they live in South Wales saying you were 'curious' they worked in the public sector without speaking Welsh as even the police have to speak Welsh now. So I thought you were referring to the whole of Wales. I did say some areas might say Welsh essential due to local demand, which is the case with the adverts you mentioned. I just didn't want posters outside Wales to have the impression all public sector jobs were Welsh essential everywhere.

Same with the schools. You implied the Welsh language act meant people had to go on Welsh medium, which I said was not the case, but agreed that in some areas the might have to due to availability. I'm not an expert in the act, but surely it doesn't say those on north Wales have to buy those in South Wales don't? Isn't it just a matter of local demand? In Cardiff everyone has a catchment Welsh medium and a catchment English medium to choose from, so we are obviously lucky.

Anyway, I'm not actually the pp who you said 'must not live very far north ' but you are right, am In South Wales as I think is the poster you were replying to.

It just goes to show as I replied originally, you can't really generalise about Wales and south and north might as well be different countries!

North Wales ...I hated it. Nothing to do , little investment, drunk scousers visiting every weekend .
It was a boring place to live

Well, about three days was the limit for Jonah. 🐳

She's already listed loads of reasons she would live there! How are places ever supposed to get out of being deprived if no one can see any good in them at all and avoid them like the plague based on reputation? Everywhere has good points and bad points.

Lol, i deliberately didn't mention I live in Merthyr because I didn't want to hear people's outdated opinions of it.

Anyway...waves to @SquashPenguin over the other side of the valley.

Where I am it varies from saturated to damp most of the time.

I love it.

I love it but it feels backward now. The M4 into South Wales is a compete nightmare. There is no new road building. We have an airport but access is poor and there are very few useful flights.

Having said that, it is stunningly beautiful and there is a great deal of pride in the language, culture and history.

I can be in Barry in 40 mins (underrated place Imo) and Penarth is close too (but more stately).

I live in Swansea. A city centre which isn't the best shop wise, an indoor market which is the best. Very diverse so you won't hear the Welsh language spoken that much although there are Welsh schools. Lovely parks and green spaces. It's on the seafront, and a few miles away the Gower beaches, countryside and woods.

Unfortunately in my opinion the council love new shiny projects whilst allow some places to deteriorate. Always some big scale building work going on.

Museums, Plantasia in the city centre. Egyptian Museum in the University campus, Grand Theatre, Brangwyn Hall, Taliesin Arts Centre, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, The Arena.

Deprived and rich areas.

Joe's Ice cream.

Don’t if you have health problems. We abandoned our retirement plans to move to Wales because of dh’s multiple health issues. The logistics were impossible as there was a very high likelihood he’d be under at least 4 different hospitals depending on which condition was dealt with where! Hospitals as far apart as Cardiff, Swansea, Chester and Birmingham. Utterly ridiculous.

Hello! I know people have an assumption that everyone in Merthyr lives in the Gurnos and has never worked a day in their life! I only ever wanted a quiet life, I’m not an overly social person, I don’t go out partying. I just wanted to live in a nice house and take my dog to the beacons at weekends and I got all of that right here!

I can’t comment on north Wales - I am a Londoner living in a city on the south coast that isn’t Cardiff (I suspect I’m in the same place as @GoodbyeMrChips ). Much as I love London, I love it here more, and wouldn’t move back for anything. Tried not to be too ‘rose-tinted’ with my post though.

The (massive) positives are that it fits the 15 minute city idea - a proper neighbourhood, great schools, GP and dentist, good range of local shops, gyms and swimming pool, a rapidly developing cycle network throughout the city, 10 mins to stunning beaches (via parks). Have theatres, concert venues, quite a bit of cultural activity. Fantastic sporting facilities too. Loads of activities for the kids that weren’t possible when we were in London are on the doorstep here.

Short drives (~30 mins) to wild beaches and dunes, waterfalls, mountains, forest, marshes. I’m outdoorsy so this is my priority.

V busy and touristy in the summer but doesn’t really bother me - we are all tourists somewhere, and we have the place to ourselves for most of the year.

Shopping is pretty dire but can get to Cardiff (1 hour), Bristol (<2 hours) or London (<3 hours) via a v regular train service. This is enough for me to get my city fix.

Public transport in the city is a bit crap and quite expensive - this would be the main thing I would improve. It does mean that there is a lot of car dependence here at the moment. Also there are issues with drugs and poverty - but not unique to here. Saw similar in London and English south coast.

Welsh language schools are available but these are in addition to catchment schools. Welsh language usually ‘desirable’ at most on JDs - have seen a few jobs with ‘essential’ but these are for posts involving work in Welsh-speaking areas. Not sure why the negativity towards Welsh - it is the national language.

I didn't want to mention anywhere, because every place has fab and less fab going on! We looked along the heads of the valleys rd and decided that it was a bit too hard to find what we're looking for. So we're looking more at the Abergavenny end.
We were looking at Barry too, at one time. I'm still on the Rhoos FB page to find out how much disruption the airport causes- the coast is amazing along there.

@TroysMammy can't believe I forgot to mention the market and Joe's!

@TroysMammy @CatnipInTheRye yes same area! Such an underrated (small) city. I was eating cockles and vinegar at the indoor market yesterday!

What you are missing is an understanding of what being Welsh is? it’s a unique feeling and not remotely similar to what feeling English is.
It’s wonderful to feel Welsh, language, culture, history, topography…
Go and visit and appreciate Welshness! xx

My family all live in Porthcawl so I visit a lot (parents are from there but I didn't grow up there).

I don't like it much. I find it parochial and small minded. People seem to try to boast and one up one another all the time.

The beach was tarmacced for ages although they've sorted that now.

Rains a lot, really windy on the seafront half the year.

I live very north. But north east, which is a very different place to north west. I know lots of people who work in public services who don't speak Welsh. My kids have been doing Welsh in school since they were 4 and have barely progressed beyond sentence level. But they still have to do it at gcse. I dropped it at 14 and still know more than them. It feels like such a wasted opportunity to learn a language for 12 years and still not speak it, whereas I did French from 11 and then to a level and was fluent. I wonder if Welsh needs to be taught from the grammar up, like at a level.

Waves to @CatnipInTheRye and @GoodbyeMrChips.

Best custard slices, stall by Primark entrance, faggots from Mair Harris, opposite the Welsh cake lady and a Swansea loaf from the tiny bread stall. Sausages from well I could go on about the market but I'm sure you both know about Swansea's jewel. We are lucky we have that.

I love it OP! I live within ten minutes of the beach/sea and within half an hour of the Brecon Beacons...so a mix of both! :-) not that I make the most of it...this thread has reminded me that I should!

"am I making any sense?"
NO! Because you've just acknowledged that 3 different places in England have completely different "vibes" to each other while still expecting all of Wales to have a "general" vibe.
The "vibe" in Cardiff will be very different to that in Wrexham. Come to that, within Cardiff, the vibe in Pontcanna is very different to Adamsdown! The vibe in Machynlleth/Tenby will be completely different again.

Having lived in both, I suppose the only main differences to England is the fact that in some communities it is very normal for Welsh to be the primary language and even where the primary language is English all signs, train announcements etc are bilingual. I don't know if that gives any sort of 'vibe' though - some like it, some find it unwelcoming.

The only thing I can say that's generally different to Wales is there doesn't seem to be the same focus on classism - I assume this is because the average population is poorer generally but also because we haven't had grammar schools for about 50 years and there are very very few private schools, so lots of counties don't have any - so you don't get the sort of loaded 'where did you go to school...what do your parents do...' sort of class establisher questions you get when speaking to people sometimes in England - because 99% of children in a local area just go to their local comprehensive.

Obviously there are richer/poorer people in Wales like there are anywhere else but all these conversations on MN about 'upper middle/lower middle...' etc. or having a horse being an indicator of class were very confusing to me when I went to uni in England!

We love it. We are in rural mid-Wales and it’s glorious but isolated. We can walk for miles from the house, we’re half an hour from the Brecon Beacons and an hour from Snowdonia. No big towns/cities/real tourist attractions/days out within an hours drive though - no NT cream teas or adventure parks for children. I think if we’d known more when we moved here we’d have gone for somewhere slightly less isolated but the pace of life is deliciously slow and when we go back to England we wonder how we ever lived at that speed. Also hospital provision is a bit sketchy - it’s just over an hour to a hospital which can be a pain. Strong community and breathtaking landscapes. Quite often in the winter my drive to the supermarket involves views of the Brecon Beacons covered in snow. And the beaches - yes, wow.

And also this - it is sooo different to being in England. I was born in England but am a Celt by blood and I feel so much more at home in Wales.

I live in rural mid Wales. Not brought up here but lived hear for nearly half my life now. It's a lovely small knit community with people from all walk of live. Anout half and half when it comes to Welsh speakers. Almost most people speak a little bit. Surrounded by mountains and half an hour from the coast, its pretty. However it is very remote, you can't get your take away delivered round here. There are a few takeways though and a good amenities for such a small place due tonit being remote. It also has a very low crime rate.

You have to travel a long way for the big shops and th only cinemas are small local ones about half an hour. There is a small general hospital 18 miles away but you often have to go further for specific services. I like it though and am not in a hurry to move.