Decide where I should move to. The country is my oyster...

[Ab31]

We (DP, DD and I) desperately want to move out of our one bed, rented flat in scummy bit of London to the countryside. We are not tied to anywhere but would like peace, space, not too far from a nice town but not in it.
Where should we go?????

How about south Wales, perhaps near Swansea?

got to fly a flag for scotland here!!!

yep, another one for Scotland!!! am really off to bed now!

There is a lot of nice countryside around Winchester, and its still close enough to London if you want to visit family, friends etc?

Where do you need to be for work? Do you need to get into London? There's a book, Commuterland, which shows where is commutable to Londno, what lines etc. Otherwise you need to think about schools, what's important to you etc. What are your criteria?

France

OHH I'd like somewhere in Pembrokshire or in scotland...

darn dh and his job. I quite like where I live but long long long long for the country.

I would recommend East Anglia - Norfolk and Suffolk are beautiful counties, lovely coastlines etc.

But in your shoes I would hotfoot it to Devon asap. I spent some of my teenage years there - it has such a range of countryside, wonderful people etc etc.

oh oh go on that programme escape to the country and nosey in lots of nice houses at the beeb's expense lol

And do yourself a HUGE favour and try not to romanticise the countryside.

I know that's difficult if you're in overcrowded housing in a big city, but I strongly advise you to consider moving to a smaller city, or on the outskirts of one first, and test the waters.

I'd go to France because it's not difficult to get to London from there, it's cheaper than the UK and the quality of life is better on the whole.

east anglia toooo flat.

Oh god... I said the country was my oyster but that's not entirely true. I had 3 hours sleep last night due to wakeful DD and have no working brain today!
We were all set to move to northern Spain but sudden regular, freelance, work, stuff means DH has to be able to get to london fairly easily. Not on a daily basis so doesn't have to be commuter land but we need to be within 3 hours ish travel.
Sorry Scotland...

east anglia then...its not that bad and there was lots of snow yesterdasy

France

ah boo

france then lol

Berkhamsted. It's lovely. It's a little town in Hertfordshire and has trains running directly to London - 40 min journey. I'd love to live there.

Devon is v expensive in housing terms.
Which side of London suits you? Do you have family anywhere who you want to be nearby?

expat makes sense too, we live in a village where we can get to city centre in 10 mins drive one way and forest/beach in 10 minutes other way

nice but not too isolated when used to living in city centres

Somewhere in the Vale of Glamorgan?

Dinas Powys, Penarth, Sully, Cowbridge?

Warwick to London: 93 minutes

Bristol would be my choice.

Also like Hampshire and Dorset

coventry?

erm near london but not in it?
brightonesque south coast? south downs

What do you want?
Village?
Near the sea?
No shops and peace or at least a supermarket and a pub?
Do you want to buy and if so do you have an idea how much you have to spend? (you don't have to tell us!)
Or do you want to rent and if so look at how much house/flat you get for the smae money as you're paying now (that'll be cheering! We had a large 3 bed in Devon for £600 a month - couldn't have afforded to buy it though at the time)
Do you need a mainline station or are you ok driving to one? Prices are lower where there is no station