If you retired this week where would you move to in the UK (South maybe).

[MonumentalLentil]

Would you want peace and quiet? Coast? Busy town?
North, South?
I am particularly interested in places which are quiet, but with shops, vets etc. but if you have any better suggestions please go ahead and suggest.

No schools needed - unlike most of the where shall I live threads on here.

(I am not actually retiring this week but wishful thinking and looking ahead with hope, and South would be easier and closer to family).

@GinIronic

Stay where you are when you retire. Why would you want somewhere new? If you hate where you live - move now whilst you’re still young enough to enjoy it.

I don't get people moving when they retire either. As a few people have said, stay with your support network and near everyone you know. Obviously if you have no-one and very little support network, then I guess that changes things a bit. But surely people have a few friends, and a familiar GP, and dentist, and neighbours they know etc.

I never 'get' people swanning off to Spain and France etc, or even further away. Actually out of the country. Rarely see their (adult) children, rarely see their grandchildren (grandchildren don't even know them!) and leave their friends behind, and everything they know. They move to somewhere strange and faraway at a time when they need those closest to them - (and the people closest to them need them too.) I don't get it at all.

I know several couples who moved to Barmouth (from Staffordshire/ Shropshire/ West Midlands area,) and they have regretted it, as it's such a ball-ache to travel to see people in Wolverhampton and Birmingham and Stafford and Cannock. Takes 3 hours sometimes. They are also 2 hours from a normal hospital (with an A & E department.) Came as a shock to them when they first needed a hospital.

I was there recently. The demographic seems to be mostly older people who are very wealthy. I found it rather twee and it is very expensive.

Where about sun W Sussex can I ask? I have been considering moving there .

If you get cancer and live on the Isle of Wight you have to go to the mainland for chemo, slight discount on hovercraft. If there is a major trauma you may have to get helicoptered to the mainland. Many shops don’t deliver there and many things have a premium price. Most of my family still live there. Enjoy paying £26 to cross 7 miles of water one way on the hovercraft, that’s what I paid last week. we also paid 150 pounds for the car ferry, round trip this year as and it was only that cheap because I had a voucher.

I would move near Bath or to the Stroud area.
I am living in a city with lots of interesting things to do but the traffic and the pollution is really stressing me out. I think being close to good transport links and hospitals etc is very important . I have one adult child nearby I see little of, and no real friends. My other children are miles away and I would like to be closer to them.
Being close to family and friends as well as facilities matters a lot.

And if you hate where you are? What then?
If you are near retiring and want to move you don't have much option to move before you get that old or retire early.

More and more built up, developed, noisy, GP's overwhelmed and always refer you somewhere else where you can't get an appointment anyway, assuming you actually manage to speak to a GP, can't get a blood test without fighting various systems that don't work, so end up going private.

No vet close by. Shops closing down, no DIY shop any more, no pet shop, no health food shop, no supermarket, no bank or building society any more, moved here for those, plus garden centre, which is also gone.

People so invested in their little cliques that there are few people that fit in and those that are friendly keep dying or, guess what - moving away.

Noisy, selfish, inconsiderate...it wasn't like this before. People buy a nice house, knock it down and put something hideous up, creating 2 years of noise per house, endless water leaks and drain problems, and cut all the trees down, then complain their garden is flooded. Build a barn thing at the end of the garden and shout and scream until late. Set fire to crap and wood chips so you have to shut the windows in order to breathe. Blast out thumping music every morning with the doors open, presumably to excercise, let put some other noise on for the children to scream to. Never any peace in the garden at any time of day, and if it goes quiet for a few minutes someone will set fire to something rancid.

If anyone lives somewhere that isn't like this please, please tell me where it is before I top myself. If you want a house in this kind of area please also let me know.

I also said South would be closer to family, so do have reason to move - near support network not away from.

Suffolk, in the area around Dennington. It’s beautiful around this part of Suffolk with endless countryside and very pretty villages. It’s also not far from the sea.

I’d go North - I live in Cambridgeshire at the moment. Ideally Newcastle/Northumberland but I’m waiting for my kids to finish secondary education.

We moved to a small town in Perthshire. Can see the mountains from our house

The town has a thriving high street: great cafes and restaurants, the best general practice I've ever known, dentists, hairdressers, greengrocers, ironmonger etc, a bus services for the years to come, and a train station 3 miles away with free parking. The vet is a short drive away, but other than that, we'd have no need to leave here if we didn't want to!

There are also many community groups and clubs to join. It's pretty perfect really.

Another vote for Cirencester. Lovely town - big enough to have lots going on, small enough to be able to walk to most places (if you live fairly centrally).

Don't like Stroud at all. Don't get the MN love for Stroud at all. I personally find it quite run down.

If I were going further south, I like Ringwood and Chichester.

I personally like market town size places, rather than cities.

I’d retire to St Albans, easy access to London, plenty going on with the Theatre etc… rather pretty in places and imo very overlooked. Grew up there and have travelled the world and still think it’s a pretty awesome place to live.

I'm happy where I am and not likely to retire until I get too ill to work, but I did move somewhere for retirement it would probably be London because of ease of international travel and because I have a lot of friends there or else Edinburgh or Glasgow because Scotland seems like quite a nice place these days. Or possibly Hebden Bridge or Todmorden but I think I'd like easy public transport to a big hospital in my old age, which makes cities more appealing.