Moving out of London

Cardiff is an awesome city, bit of a battlefield when the rugby is a home game.

We moved out to Chester last month from the delights of SW9 and the only thing that's been odd is (1) how friendly people are compared to London and (2) how quiet it is in the evenings without the police helicopter and sirens going Brixton Road.

On the numbers we have a place 3 times the size we had at the same price as a 2 bed flat.

What about Oxford? Or Cheltenham? Oxford 1hr15 from
Marylebone or 1hr from Paddington, plus regular busses all year round (last train can be a bit early if you stay in town late). Countryside is nice, green and pleasant but no mountains. Cheltenham cycling is good, being at the edge of the Cotswolds. Walking is pretty good to, but town maybe a little quiet compared to oxford/London/Cardiff?

Went to uni in Cardiff and been back a few times for the rugby. Seems to have changed a lot, in the past 5 years especially! The area around the Bay is nice, Penarth, Llandaff also quite charming. Cycling is excellent, really enjoyed cycling round South Wales.

Cardiff is a lovely city.

If you’re going to go and have a look around, check out Canton. Really nice area, pubs restaurants and a wonderful cinema/arts centre. Close to the city centre and train station.

I live there and like it. Here are some random pros and cons:

1. Decent parks right in the middle of the city
   
2. Good cycling a short distance away
   
3. Excellent cycling a medium distance away
   
4. Cheap compared with London and Bristol, although obviously not the cheapest part of the UK to live
   
5. Progressive council who are making lots of good noises about home building/metro/cycling projects
   
6. Less dog shit on the pavements than Bristol!
   
   

Cons:

1. Fairly old housing stock, great if you like Victorian terrace, but there's not much other choice
   
2. Some of the area seem quite cut off, or have some fairly bad social problems: see Butetown/Riverside*
   
3. Having lived in Bristol we don't get as many big gigs coming through, although that's not much of an option at the moment anyway. There's loads of places to eat and drink though, and some good independent cinemas, although we don't have a good local at the moment. Brains pubs dominate which are a bit...meh, but I think they're slowly selling some off.
   
4. It rains... a lot
   
   

*perhaps unfair as I don't live there.

I have a car, but use it a couple of times a week at most, usually for food shopping or if I'm in too much of a hurry to drag the bike through the house. I try and go across to Cowbridge road by bike as it has the best butcher and green grocers and is a nice trip to do. You're better off not driving much because you have to go a long way north/south in order to get from one side of the city to the other because of the way the parks divide the city. There were lots of fuming motorists when they closed Castle Street recently as it's the way through south of the parks, I think they'll probably keep it closed to private vehicles.

Anyway, that's quite rambling, feel free to PM if you want to know anymore specifics.

I lived in Cardiff for 6 years. It’s a brilliant city and I really missed living there for a long time after I left. It’s a capital city stuff happens. It has its own vibe. Good outdoors stuff (I was hiking a lot rather than cycling at the time)
When I moved my options were London or Cardiff...for me Cardiff was the right move.

Also Cardiff here, grew up and came back. Would agree with a lot that's been said so far, I've mostly lived Roath/Cathays/penylan side of the city which is pretty good too, if less trendy than Canton/Pontcanna etc. City is small enough that it sort of doesn't matter where you are, you still get access to the good stuff.

Have looked at moving away for jobs a few times but can't ever make it stack up cost of living wise.

Llandaff, as opposed to Cardiff maybe