moving to UK (employment in Milton park, Oxfordshire)

[Annevenk]

Hello there,
This is Anne. I got an employment opportunity in Milton park, Oxfordshire and I am planning to move to UK from Australia. I am planning to use public transport to commute to Milton park. I prefer to stay close to Milton park. What are my options to find a flat to stay? Milton or Didcot or any other areas? Please provide your expert advice.
Thanks, Anne

Didcot is fine and you can get quite a lot for your money. There is a handy train station and shops. It is a bit soulless and ugly though. If you are looking for somewhere a bit prettier, the market town of Abingdon is worth a look. It has a nice town centre and a park right on the river. Good luck!

I'd rent in Didcot to begin with and then you can look around and decide how long you want to spend on the bus every day and whether you would prefer Didcot, Abingdon, Wantage or Oxford. The new housing development on that side of Didcot would be a short cycle on the cycle path

Abingdon is worth a look. It's a pretty little town on the Thames 20 minutes bus ride from Milton Park & half an hour from Oxford. Didcot itself has great rail links to Oxford and Reading, but it's not the most inspiring place to live in itself. But it is cheap and a good option with no car.

@dinkydino123

Didcot is fine and you can get quite a lot for your money. There is a handy train station and shops. It is a bit soulless and ugly though. If you are looking for somewhere a bit prettier, the market town of Abingdon is worth a look. It has a nice town centre and a park right on the river. Good luck!

Thank you. Much appreciated your response. Can I commute from Didcot to Milton park by bus? or do I need to use the train service? What is the recommendation? Thank you. Anne

@CMOTDibbler

I'd rent in Didcot to begin with and then you can look around and decide how long you want to spend on the bus every day and whether you would prefer Didcot, Abingdon, Wantage or Oxford. The new housing development on that side of Didcot would be a short cycle on the cycle path

Thanks a lot for taking your time to respond. Anne

@Floofsquidge

Abingdon is worth a look. It's a pretty little town on the Thames 20 minutes bus ride from Milton Park & half an hour from Oxford. Didcot itself has great rail links to Oxford and Reading, but it's not the most inspiring place to live in itself. But it is cheap and a good option with no car.

Thank you very much. Greatly appreciated your response. Anne

You can absolutely get the bus from Didcot to Milton or even cycle, it’s not that far at all! There’s regular buses.
The train will take you into Oxford or London, it’s really convenient.

You can get a bus from both Oxford and Abingdon to Milton Park. I'd avoid actually living in Didcot if you can avoid it

Didcot to Milton Park is super easy - a walk, cycle, or bus (busses run from centre of town, train station, or Great Western Park development). I'd advise moving and renting a flat in Didcot first, then seeing if you'd like to stay here or move further afield to Abingdon, Wallingford, etc. While Great Western Park is ideal for your easy commute and you will easily find a flat, I'd actually consider looking on Ladygrove, an older part of Didcot, because it's much nicer in terms of green space and still very close to town/train station. Please don't be too put off by people who say that they don't like Didcot. Didcot is a highly underrated town in my opinion. People think that just because it's pretty normal, that it's awful - it isn't. There are loads of really nice people around, it's international (lots of expats working in milton park and the university of oxford), it's got a lot of countryside on your doorstep (walking to east and west hagbourne, or the wittenham clumps). It's cheap, totally commutable to oxford and london, and given all those things - a pretty good place to live. I don't get the Didcot hate. I mean, sure loads of other great places around too, but you could do WAY worse than Didcot. Enjoy your move!

I lived in Oxford for 15 years. It's a lovely place and there are direct buses to Milton Park (or you can get a train to Didcot and pick up a bus from the station there). Much, much more going on there than in Didcot socially/culturally IMO but it is a very expensive place to live.

Abingdon is also lovely, much nicer than Didot IMO, and cheaper than Oxford while being an easy & quick bus ride to both.

OP - what do you like to do outside of work, and how old are you if you don't mind me asking?

Thank you. Your responses are super helpful. At this point of time, I am not moving with my family. I will be highly engaged with my work during weekdays as I am specialized in research and development. I prefer to travel in the nearby areas during the weekends. I do not own a car and depend on the public transport.

Anne

Thank you very much. Your suggestion of staying initially in Didcot makes a lot of sense. I am very much grateful to all of you taking your time to provide a detailed response to my queries. I am very much looking forward to be in there soon.
Anne.

If you want to see what the public transport is like, you can use the journey planner at traveline.info to see what the commuting options are from where you are thinking of living.

Didcot is a perfectly OK place to live. Abingdon is prettier but the traffic and parking are terrible. Lots of people from Abingdon go to Didcot to shop. There are buses from Abingdon to Milton Park, but they're slow.
Milton Park itself seems like a great place to work. Well done!