Is Poole Nice?

[TheQuirkyDeer]

a

No, it's a kip. I visited a few years ago, drove in past high end car dealerships galore, had expectations it would be lovely. The town centre was grim: main shopping street nothing but charity shops, vape shops and bookies. Lovely buildings when you looked up, but street level miserable.

The nice bits are very nice, the town centre is not. The same as anywhere where there's a big gulf between rich and poor.

Depends where you are and what your budget is. If you're looking at Sandbanks or Turlin Moor...

Shit hole, but places around it seem lovely.

Parts of it are nice like Sandbanks but Turlin Moor, Hamworthy, and the Town centre are shitholes

Better than Bournemouth

The town centre is similar to many other small towns, a bit run down and boring as many retailers have left. It is actually better than Bournemouth now which has gone truly downhill in many ways.

Nice residential areas of Poole - Lower Parkstone, Lilliput, Branksome Park, Sandbanks, Canford Cliffs. Broadstone also nice.

I worked in Poole for years. It is variable like most places. Lots of nice suburbs and close to lovely beaches and countryside. Some not so nice social housing estates where (as anywhere) doubtless most people are fine but some definitely aren’t. Plus millionaires row which is Sandbanks.
Nearby Studland is one of my favourite places in the world. Go across on the chain ferry from Poole and then drive up to Corfe to the castle, ride on the steam railway to Swanage and back. My top day out ever.

I didn't like it when I worked there.

If you're lucky, you'll bump into Gazza pissed up in the street

No

As pp have said, depends which part, so depends on your budget. That aside, the beach and the harbour are free to visit and the beautiful countryside around it is pretty accessible so I’d say it’s nicer than at least half of the rest of the country. If you like sailing/ windsurfing/ kite surfing etc it couldn’t be better. People are generally pretty friendly. Schools are ok and for secondary it still has grammars. Interestingly a lot of people shit on Turlin Moor but when people ask about it on the local FB group, people who actually live there think the community is great so I think it’s not all bad. Honestly I think it’s quite a nice place to live.

Pa I’ve never seen Gazza despite living quite close to him. I do see Harry Redknapp quite often though!

It's a bit tired in places.