Where to retire to?

[GranEl]

Hello,

DH and I currently live in Newcastle and have both recently retired. We are seeking a much slower pace of life. DHs daughter lives in London so we would like to be within a couple of hours of her, ideally by a good train link. Neither DH or I are from the North East so we aren't attached and are happy to go wherever.

We'd like somewhere either rural or costal, a nice place for our granddaughter to come visit us and have fun. We want 3-4 bedrooms, good sized garden. Small town or village with a shop/cafe etc.
DH plays bowls so a good bowls club would be needed. I want to get involved in the community so volunteering opportunities.

We have around 750/800k to spend and have considered

• Norfolk
• Cotswolds
• Isle of Wight
• Dorset or Devon

Historically we wanted to retire in the Lake District but Euston station is the worst London station in our opinion and the travel time would be longer.

So any ideas that might suit?

I put up a thread about retiring to a city a while back and Newcastle was suggested!

Cambridge and surrounding villages?

And given Lakes was of interest, are you walkers or outdoorsy?

Have you thought about the New Forest? Lovely area, lots to do, easy access to Bournemouth, Southampton, Portsmouth, Salisbury and the right distance for you to get to London

The downside is the traffic in summer . . . .

Is your daughter north or south London? My dad is up north and it takes me an hour to get to the bottom of the M1 (if I’m lucky and leave at 5am) from south London. Suggest looking at train routes out from their nearest mainline station. If it’s Waterloo or Victoria think Sussex or Hants. If its London Bridge, Kent etc.

Suffolk. The suffolk coast is lovely. We moved here 18 months ago. We're both still working, but there's loads to do if you're retired. There's a bowls club 5 minutes walk from our house and another one within a 10 minute walk.

Try looking at Felixstowe and Woodbridge. Both have stations with good access to London (Liverpool St) via Ipswich. Your budget would get you a reasonable house