Best places to live within 35mins of Gatwick (train or drive)

[beebusy]

Asking for my auntie who needs to move out of London to be somewhere safe with a train line plus some nice restaurants and pubs.

It would help focus our search to know some of the best areas within 35mins (train or car) to Gatwick.

Please feel free to tell me places to avoid as well.

Thanks for your input xx

Horsham

Horsham is the natural.choice here, but can be pretty pricey depending on what you are looking at.

Personally, I would avoid Crawley, but thatbis because I intensely dislike the place rather than anything else (it has good transport links, though)

Along the coast on either side of Brighton.

reigate is ok, redhill, and Horsham is nice. Avoid Crawley. 3 bridges is ok too.

Depends on budget and type of property. Hove is ideal, west Hove, has all you ask and the seaside too, or Portslade, Southwick, Shoreham even though that's more like 40-45 mins.

Haywards Heath and the surrounding villages. Sorry but Horsham is a dump and only slightly better than Crawley. Haywards Heath has some new housing areas and if you are feeling rich beautiful village's. All 30 mins from Gatwick and one/ two stops on the train. The town centre is disappointing but being so near to Brighton that really doesn't matter .

We loved living in East Grinstead

Budget is always going to be an issue in that area, but depends very much on her age and interests.

Horsham
Horley
Redhill
Three Bridges
Finden
Worthing
East Grinstead

Does she need to get to Gatwick for work?

Not Redhill (shudder)

East Grinstead is a nice market town. Enough going on for all ages (according to friends who live there). Trains to London are unreliable but probably no worse than elsewhere.

I live in Crawley and it has a reputation but it's a really nice place to live . Great train and transport links , it's safer than people make out and greener than a lot of Horsham ( where I grew up and there is more crime there than anyone talks about !)

House budget completely relevant here. Each area has its own character and the prices vary quite a bit from town to town. Horsham is expensive, HH about mid range, Burgess Hill cheaper.

Horsham is lovely. Very vibrant town centre with good shops and a lovely twice weekly market. Lots of lovely restaurants and cafes. Lots going on in the area. Feels very safe.

I have no idea how anyone could consider it a dump, particularly if they've visited in the last few years. Compared to most town centres it is really thriving.

I can comment well having lived all over London and Brighton too. Can confirm Worthing is a great place if you want:
-A lovely quiet beach
-Beautiful countryside and walking nearby
-Friendly safe community, quite diverse and queer friendly
Very good cafes restaurants pubs and bars (both traditional and also natural wines bars and small plates etc, craft breweries for Brighton vibes)
-Good schools
-Leafy parks
-Decent town centre with walkable shops
Three train stations(!) and an easy enough commute straight to Victoria/East Croydon/Clapham, and Brighton of course
-Decent parking (especially compared to Brighton)
And affordable homes! I bought my three bedroom house in a good area for only 30k more than my one bedroom flat in Brighton- and for the price of a one bedroom flat in Zone 3 London.
For us it's been a no brainer and we love it, we're in our 30s and lots of our friends are following suit.
-Best areas: Check it out in person. Personally we're near the station on a leafy nice street, Tarring (West) is also desirable. But the best way to ascertain is to go and walk around.

I can comment well having lived all over London and Brighton too. Can confirm Worthing is a great place if you want:
-A lovely quiet beach
-Beautiful countryside and walking nearby
-Friendly safe community, quite diverse and queer friendly
Very good cafes restaurants pubs and bars (both traditional and also natural wines bars and small plates etc, craft breweries for Brighton vibes)
-Good schools
-Leafy parks
-Decent town centre with walkable shops
Three train stations(!) and an easy enough commute straight to Victoria/East Croydon/Clapham, and Brighton of course
-Decent parking (especially compared to Brighton)
And affordable homes! I bought my three bedroom house in a good area for only 30k more than my one bedroom flat in Brighton- and for the price of a one bedroom flat in Zone 3 London.
For us it's been a no brainer and we love it, we're in our 30s and lots of our friends are following suit.
-Best areas: Check it out in person. Personally we're near the station on a leafy nice street, Tarring (West) is also desirable. But the best way to ascertain is to go and walk around.