North Berwick - do you live there?

[Carowe]

Basically I am sick of living in my ugly London commuter town.

Dh and I met at Edinburgh university and both enjoyed North Berwick day trips. Does anyone have experience living there with young kids? Looking on rightmove and may have spotted my dream house. North Berwick St is only 4 miles away so not overly rural.

DH is a pilot so would commute to Edinburgh Airport. I can wfh. I like the idea of being able to hit the beach at the weekend with kids/dogs or catch the train into Edinburgh.

We make friends easily enough but aren’t overly social. Enjoy a meal out per week with friends but that’s about it - not constantly entertaining. I would have kids that were slightly dependent for lifts etc but don’t mind dropping them off at a St and having themselves out when they are old enough.

Any experience? Not sure why dh and I killing ourselves to live such a blah lifestyle in an ugly semi when we could have a lovely farmhouse with land nearish North Berwick station.

There is no way it’s 40 mins from NB to the airport - that’s probably only possible late at night with no traffic! I live 10 mins from the airport and that can take 20 in traffic or if there is an incident.

Ahh this is a fear. Dh has to navigate the M25 right now and the unpredictability means he gives himself plenty of time. Which from a family perspective can be very annoying as I can feel like I’m doing more than my fair share.

Remember the Education system is very different here. The legal system too. You will pay more tax. It's cold.

I agree that living on completely the wrong side of town for the airport seems unnecessarily painful. I’d look at Cramond maybe?

PP's are right that 40 minutes to the airport is crazy ambitious. The time on Google Maps right now is 1 hour 1 minute. The roads can be very unpredictable if there's an accident/breakdown/big event going on.

BIL lives in North Berwick - I've been there a couple times and love the quaintness of it.

BIL has two young boys and apparently plenty do them to do!

There's no way that's a 40minute commute to EDI, I live 6 miles from EDI in the city and it takes 30minutes during the day, 20minutes in the dead of night. It's 35 miles and a part of that isn't on the bypass / dual carriageway so there's no way you'd do it in 40 minutes even with no traffic on the road.
NB is a nice place for a day out but personally i think i'd get cabin fever if I lived there. It's quite small and feels tantalisingly close to Edinburgh but without actually being Edinburgh, and it pretty much carries Edinburgh house prices. The train service isn't the most frequent and for connections to the east coast mainline to London you have to backtrack on yourself into Edinburgh or drive to Dunbar but very few trains stop there.

Another one saying that Airport to NB in 40 minutes, is NEVER going to happen. It is a long slog.

South Queensferry and Cramond are lovely, but CRAZY expensive.

If you go over the bridge into Fife (takes one minute!), house prices fall off a cliff, and you are still very close to the airport. Beautiful homes with sea views.

What is your budget for a house? I'm guessing quite healthy if you're in London. To tickle your taste buds, looks at these 2 streets on Rightmove :

Carlingnose Point in North Queensferry
Donibristle Gardens in Dalgety Bay

Enormous houses with sea views. Some with swimming pools.

OP portobello or Joppa might be a good option and less of a commute. espc.com/property/20-esplanade-terrace-joppa-edinburgh-eh15-2es/36243058

£850k is absolute max. Ideally less.

Thanks for suggestions. Will check out when we go up later in the year.

Thanks! Will check out. Seems NB is off the list

We're not far from NB (45 min perhaps) and to be honest I'd go for it. During Covid we holidayed there and the town is lovely. We talked about moving there at one point but it's a bit pricey for us and both of us need to be in an office in Edinburgh a few times a week and all the logistics wouldn't really work, adding in school runs. Your budget is good and I think you'd work out the commute. The bypass is unpredictable. From where I live it can vary from 20 min drive to my office using the bypass to an hour depending on traffic.
The weather is worse and we pay more tax though.

North Berwick is expensive (but by London terms) and posh. There's very little diversity if that's important to you. Linlithgow has a very similar vibe, but not by the sea. I was also going to suggest South Queensferry if that's the kind of the plsce you're looking for. They're all much the same.

NB is the wrong side of the city for the airport, 40 minutes would be quick, if you get stuck on the bypass you could be anywhere between 1 and 2 hours. Occasionally more there's a big issue - recent flooding people were on the bypass for 5hrs! Honestly I would consider more to the west of Edinburgh if the airport is what you need.

Yeah.... You will NEVER do NB to Edinburgh airport in 45 mins. Unless you've got a helicopter. The road isn't amazing to the A1, and then the bypass is hell to get all the way around, unless it's 3.30am, of course. I used to drive from Fife to NB twice a week for work, and it took at least 1.5 hours, usually.

My sister lives in NB, and I love it there. (She is one of the local primary teachers.) They wouldn't be able to afford the house they have now, but they live quite centrally. It's a great place, but over-run in the summer. Parking is awful, and the beaches do get busy. Still wouldn't put me off, but I wouldn't be buying somewhere, thinking it's all gravy for getting to and from the airport.

I live in Fife, and would also recommend. Aberdour is lovely (and very desireable), and easier access to the airport, I'd wager.

@Carowe I think to make life simpler you would be much better finding a house on the west side of the airport than the east side. Linlithgow or Polmont would be good and you would find a lovely house within your budget. Linlithgow is a lovely town and sounds like the type of place you perhaps are looking for Polmont maybe less so but still nice. You could even venture away (Falkirk, Larbert,for example) as the M9 provides good links.

Linlithgow is lovely and has what you sound like you're looking for, although not the coast. It's a lovely place. I live ten minutes from the bypass (sheriffhall roundabout junction) and honestly it's a huge ballache. Some days I sail down, others you get there and there's been an incident meaning you add at least 30 minutes to the journey. You could look at Colinton area or similar? Lots of lovely areas around the Pentlands. Airport easy reach.