Nice places to live within 2 hours of London

[susan198130]

I currently live in Kent, just outside of South East London, but I really want to move away, but all my family are here (plus my mum and dad who are both in their 70s), so I don't really want to live more than a couple of hours drive outside of London really.

We ideally want to be mortgage free, which means our top budget would be £300k and need at least 3 bedrooms.

I'd just like to live in a nice village somewhere. Does anyone have any recommendations of nice places to live so I can try and narrow my search down? I've had a look on Rightmove and have been looking at Suffolk and Norfolk and also Sussex.

You could get a 3 bed house around Eastbourne / Hailsham / Polegate / Hastings way for about 300k. And being in Sussex you wouldn't be too far from family.

I can only speak for Sussex, but village houses around here cost a lot, as everyone wants to live in nice little villages. I can't think of anywhere in Sussex to be honest where you would get a 3-bed village house for £300k or less.

I would try and avoid any commute to your parents/London which uses too much M25 driving.
Folkestone is really nice, and affordable, very easy to get to your parents (Kent motorways are very quiet compared to most)

Thank you. I'm really keen on Bexhill, but haven't found the right property yet for the right price, although hoping things might pick up again soon with the property market.

And yes, we have put a lot of thought into moving towards Suffolk/Norfolk, but I totally agree, the thought of having to use the M25 to get back to see my parents is definitely not appealing!

Didn't think of Folkestone. I thought it had gone downhill a bit, but will take a look.

Stroud! It's 1hr 30mins by direct train. Gloucestershire. Absolutely fab town, really up and coming. And we have the best farmers market. Edge of the Cotswolds so beautiful surroundings. Close to Cheltenham, Bristol and Gloucester for anything you might need. An hour from the Forest of Dean and an hour and a bit to Cardiff!

Where in Kent are you now? I'm in Kent in a lovely little village, love it here! I've heard good things about Folkestone on mumsnet!

Alton, Hampshire

Down from London to Folkestone-r here. We absolutely love it. Have posted on a few threads now. I visited once about ten years ago and thought it was a complete dump, but an estate agent we know told us how it was improving when we were looking to relocate from overseas and had searched all over Sussex and Kent and couldn’t find anything we liked. Anyway, long story story short we thought it had the best of all worlds here - beautiful beaches, stunning countryside, high speed to London, channel tunnel for European mini breaks. Schools are great. All the little independent cafes and restaurants are as good if not better than those we had in Crouch End and East Dulwich. That was two years ago and cannot think of anywhere in the world I would rather live now. It’s brilliant!

Bristol is within 2 hours of London. We can do Bristol to Rainham, Kent (where I have extended family) within 3 hours with the wind behind us. We do try and avoid most of the M25 through and go down past Bracknell and pick up the M3 to miss out the Heathrow M4/M25 interchange.

I think it’s lovely around Folkestone. There are a few nice villages, Hythe is very cute etc. Definitely worth checking out.

I think I'm really going to have to reassess Folkestone as I've always thought it was a bit run down. Having said that, I've only been a couple of times in the past few years, and only round the beach area.

I absolutely adore the Cotswolds. Thank you everyone, I will have a look at these and see what's there.

I live in Welling, just on the outskirts of South East London

York, 1hr50 on train

We’ve got family and friends around Folkestone and from what I know Folkestone itself, it’s nice on the west side and then progressively gets worse as you go East. But then you’ve also got lovely villages to choose from and Hythe is very pretty.

We are originally from Bexley waves with lots of family and friends in Welling. There are quite a few of us that have made the move down here from that area...have met about ten now in the past few years we’ve been here!