England, Scotland, Wales, NI, RoI?

[BitterArrowsmith]

If you had your choice to live anywhere in the UK, where would you choose? And why?
We're retired, access to healthcare is important as we age, great walking, would love to be near water for kayaking. Let me know if any other bits of info would help...

I live near Oxford and it's great. Cultural stuff and big hospitals in the city, pretty countryside and nice villages. You can walk in the Cotswolds and Chilterns - and pretty much everywhere else.
The sheer number of rivers does give a bit of a flooding problem in the winter but am sure there will be plenty of kayaking and other water sports the rest of the year.
Great transport links from Oxford and some parts of the county.

Its not near the sea, which is a bit of a shame, but I moved here years ago and have no wish to be anywhere else.

Happy where I am

Roi isn't in the UK! So the title and your question don't really match 🤔

I'll bite - where are you?

Won't say my exact location but a town not too far from Durham

Well no... but I didn't want to get too wordy. But yes, Ireland (both) is a consideration.

Thank you - Durham county is definitely of interest.

Pembrokeshire if all my family would come with us too!

In your position, Aviemore or Grantown on Spey, possibly Inverness, possibly Perth or Stirling area. Houses relatively affordable. Social life is good up here. But if you like nature and outdoors, you really really will love it up here. The quality of greenspace is off the charts, the access is amazing, you will have a huge community of like minded people, but there are all the services you need relatively to hand compared to a lot of Scotland.

Downsides: it is colder, but head east and it is drier and sunnier than you may expect. You do realise how far north of family you are at times. And that is about it.

I am not moving south of the border again.

ROI is a different country. As a UK citizen having never paid tax here you will not have access to any social supports until you have been here for a while. There is no NHS so you will need to take into account medical costs. The political system is completely different so you will need to navigate that. So while you can of course move to the ROI, and you will share the same language (unless you nice to a Gealtacht area), be prepared for it being a bigger cultural adjustment than moving to another part of the UK.

I can't recommend from personal experience, but starting to think about this myself and thinking of Northumberland coast but far enough south to be within reach of hospitals, decent bus route and shops even though intend to spend a lot of time walking and cycling in the countryside in early retirement. I can't afford multiple moves so will need to find somewhere future proof.

Thanks - I am aware RoI is its own country 😊
In the interest of full disclosure, I started a thread a few months ago asking the same question about European countries. We've since decided that we can't cope with learning a new language at our age (62) so are concentrating on the UK (plus Ireland 😉). I was born in England but have never actually lived in the UK, just lots of visits over the years. I'm not comfortable using the NHS as we've never paid into it so it's not really on to expect to use it. We'll likely go with private insurance, as we do in the country we currently live in. Anyway, that was just a long way of saying that the UK isn't my home so is just as unfamiliar as Ireland.

Have you looked at Morpeth? The coast between Newcastle and Berwick seemed pretty cut off from services when I was there last summer.

If you're going to be using private medical care then I'd look at where there's hospitals and clinics as they're few and far between in areas such as the Scottish highlands! I really like the Northumberland coast too but i'd have to live somewhere more suburban such as Whitley Bay or Tynemouth.

Do remember 'the Highlands' covers a huge area, and includes cities such as Inverness, Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee as much as it includes remote places on the west or north coast. All those cities have hospitals, universities etc.

@outdooryone technically most of those places aren't actually in the highlands, they're just "up north"! Scottish Highlands - Wikipedia

I don't think we want to be quite as far north as the Highlands! We love Glasgow, and Largs (though Largs may be a bit far from anywhere). Stirling and Perth are stunning, need to have a look at Dundee. We adore Northumberland (planning on walking Hadrian's Wall this summer) and have spent a lot of time in Tynemouth, though that might be a bit dear for us. Worcester is in top spot at the moment for it's rowing club and proximity to Welsh walks (and on a good rail line).

Then don't lump ROI in with the UK then? You've posted this in UK travel 🤔

I searched all the categories and this one seemed the closest.

If healthcare is important to you, don't come to wales. The NHS is a mess.
My DH and I live near the border and will be moving over to England in the near future to ensure we get better access to healthcare.

Largs is about an hour on the train to Glasgow, less to drive and there's a fairly decent bus service runs along that coast road. Very reasonable housing too!

Yes! We spent nearly a month there this summer and were utterly captivated. We felt like proper hill walkers, tromping up the hills behind the town. And there's even a rowing club...

I'd love to move to somewhere with pretty villages in England but not too rural. i live in a town in NE Scotland and lots of people retire up here.

Did you miss the bit about healthcare?

Private healthcare in the UK isn’t comprehensive.