We're looking to relocate to the UK after many years overseas. We have previously lived in London (pre-kids) but don't want to move back there, for a number of reasons.
We've looked into a number of 'commuter towns' but without wanting to offend anyone who lives in some of these places, we've found most of them to be fairly uninspiring. We currently live in a city and we're used to having amenities/activities/nature on our doorstep.
We're looking for somewhere with some kind of 'buzz' to it. Somewhere with easy access to the countryside/coast. Somewhere with a lovely town centre, interesting, historic buildings, and a low-ish crime rate. Basically Edinburgh or Bath, I suppose, but we can't move to either (Edinburgh too far from family, Bath too long of a commute). Our eldest DC is a tween and youngest is 4 so we need good primary and secondary schools, and enough activities to keep the kids occupied through reception-teenage years.
We've spent some time in St Albans (quite liked it but the central areas are not in the good school catchment zones), still considering Winchester but there are no private day school options for boys, and we're going to look at Tunbridge Wells (it ticks some boxes but we've heard mixed things about living there). Brighton is out. We like Windsor but DH is very noise sensitive so anywhere with that much flight noise won't work. We might have a look at Cambridge, too.
We're leaving somewhere with a perfect climate and lots of activities and to make the repatriation successful we need to find somewhere where we will all be happy. I know it sounds as though we're super fussy but the last thing I want is to move and then, after the trauma of a major international move, have to uproot them again because we chose the 'wrong' place.
We're here for a few more days and this will be our last chance to recce before the repatriation in a few months' time. Is there anywhere else we should consider?