When looking to relocate how do you find the area you know you’d be happy?

[WildFlowerBees]

We are looking at moving from our current area to perhaps Gloucestershire or Somerset. We are somewhat familiar with both areas but other than driving around to various villages is there a better way to find an area you feel might suit?

Just dh and I so no kids or school, in fact I’d prefer an older community than a young one. Not in a town but not so far it takes ages to drive. We like semi rural/peace and quiet.

Go for holiday there? DF did that and they've now lived there (yorkshire) for over a decade.

Me and DH moved from the south to Leeds for work. We'd moved so frequently that I didn't want to rent in Leeds while looking for a place. I couldn't handle two house moves. I said we needed to buy before we moved.
So we stayed in Leeds for trn days and just spent time in each neighbourhood, hanging out, wondering around, talking to people. We felt very comfortable in one particular neighbourhood so bought a house there. It was the right decision. We're still there 14 years later!

We located in a few years ago, DH did a lot of desk top research, things like sunshine hours, crime stats, property prices, narrowed down areas to visit. Our kids were out of education by this point. We then booked Airbnb accommodation for a few days. Once we decided where we liked, we got our house ready to put on the market, and moved, without doubt the best decision we made. Good luck OP.

We drove round the areas, then narrowed it down and walked round the two villages we liked a couple of times, we checked out the amenities, drove to have a look at local parks, playgrounds, supermarkets, we checked out local transport etc. Luckily we had family live close by (reason for move) who knew plenty of people who lived in the villages we were looking at. Everyone said it was amazing, they loved it etc. I joined the local Facebook group and read the local magazine to see what was going on in the area. We got a good feel for it when walking around and really tried to imagine our new life there and what day to day would look like. We chose the village with the best amenities, schooling and housing options for us. We are in the process of buying a house there now having never stayed a night there before. Maybe we are mad, I guess we’ll find out soon enough!

We spent many years taking weekend breaks in potential areas, lots of time talking to locals in pubs/cafes when we did so. Slowly narrowing down the possibilites to a dozen specific villages. In the end we found the perfect area (and house) for us and have no regrets at all!

Main takeaway, do chat to the locals as you get a real feeling on how things are rather than how they look.