Tell me stuff about Canterbury please!

[Minty82]

DH has just applied for a job there - neither of us has ever been but he has the slightly specialist type of career where you have to pounce on opportunities. We'll go for an explore if he gets shortlisted but meanwhile I'd love any opinions - best/worst things about it? Good place for small DC? Cultural buzz (sadly lacking where we currently are?)

History, plenty of culture, excellent rebuilt theatre, 2 Universities and all the attendant advantages (and disadvantages). City gets very busy, particularly in the summer with overseas visitors but they all add to the buzz.

Lots of European school/student groups year round.

Fairly good for shopping.

Lovely coast and countryside nearby. You could live at the seaside and DH commute in by car or train.

Ooh, that was quick, thank you! Yes, the theatre alone makes me want to move there - I'm a lifelong city person who has somehow been transplanted to a very nice but culturally empty commuter village for the past three years and am desperate not to have to go to London every time I want to switch my brain on.

Anyone else? DC are 3.5 and 18mths so we'd be straight into looking for schools and pre-schools etc too. Is there much of a community vibe to city centre life, or would we be better off looking at surrounding villages? DH works funny hours so we wouldn't want to be too far out.

The villages are quite small, I think, although there's a lot of building going on everywhere. But some parts of Kent can be quite isolated, if you go only a short distance from the major road and rail routes.

You might like to look at the nearby small towns such as Faversham or Whitstable.

Best thing is probably to draw a circle on a map around your maximum distance/commuting time and see what falls inside it.