Moving from north west london to Hertfordshire

[SamiUso]

Hi all,

Hope alls well.

I wanted to call on the MN hive mind for some major advice.

Myself and my Mrs are looking to move to Herts, to somewhere with good schools, green spaces, hopefully somewhere quite safe, and without much crime.

We have a two year old and six year old. Naturally anxious and guilty about taking my eldest out of school and leaving behind close friends.

Our budget is around £950K.

Have had suggestions to look at Kings Langley, Harpenden, Tring, Rickmansworth Bovingdon stc but have no clue where to even begin!

Advice and suggestions most appreciated.

Harpenden picks all your boxes and all the schools are excellent so you don’t have to obsess about catchment areas like you would in - say - St Albans. It’s pretty and a good size in that it has all you need but not too big. But it’s also full of a certain type of people, so depends who you are looking for as well as what.

Ticks, not picks, obviously

Thanks so much, have been considering Harpenden.

Well it depends on your commute? My friends have great experience with schools in Chorleywood (on border of Bucks) but the catchment for St Clement Dane's is quite tight. I have experience of Watford/Bushey. We started looking in 1999 with St Albans and that was already mega expensive and competitive then!

Harpenden is lovely and has everything you wanted. However, you don't get as much for your money there due to that.

I would move to St Albans if could afford it.