Location, location, location...help me find the perfect one for us!

PasturesNew

There's a website (that I can't quite fathom out) that allows you to set a time from London and it shows you which areas are within X minutes of that spot.

Unfortunately ... I can't remember what the website address is. From memory it was something similar to/meaning "time to commute" or "commute from here".

If you're lucky I might remember the name ... or somebody else might know what I mean.

It's a London thingy ... which is probably why I couldn't actually understand how to use it (as I don't know the area).

dander

If you plan to drive in during the rush hour and want a journey of less than 1.5 hours then most of the places mentioned are way too far out. You don't say where in London you are commuting to because that will make a massive difference to journey times. To get into central London by car in under 1.5 hours, I'd say you need to be looking at a maximum of 30 miles out in most directions.

martindow

PasturesNew wrote: »

There's a website (that I can't quite fathom out) that allows you to set a time from London and it shows you which areas are within X minutes of that spot.

Is it this? This calculates times by train

http://www.commutefrom.com/

If the OP wants to go by car he will probably need to confine himself to looking further out on the same side of London as the position of his work.

BitterAndTwisted

Staplehurst is lovely. I have friends who live there, lucky devils

snapping_crocodile

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Kent. Walmer and Deal in particular. The train service is currently 2 hours but there is a high-speed link being planned and the route connects Charing Cross with Folkestone, Dover and Ramsgate so when that happens it will be much less than 2 hours and prices should rise. *Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside...* Deal has a Georgian conservation area right on the seafront which is lovely but not necessarily ideal for geegees but perhaps a village like Ripple very close by might be.

I am biased cos I grew up there but I have to say Deal is stunning I love it and everyone is so friendly there :T Got such happy memories of living there. I really enjoy visiting when I get the chance to go back

dander

Hmm, that commutefrom site is a great idea, but having a quick look at my commute in and comparing what it says to what I've experienced my advice is this.
Don't just look at the journey duration of the fastest trains - look at the times of all trains, it may be that only one or two trains a day get close to that fastest and the rest are considerably slower.
Look at the gaps between trains, especially outside rush hour - 6 trains an hour can quite easily become 2 trains an hour as soon as you hit 7pm. Also check the distribution - 2 trains an hour doesn't mean 1 train every half hour, they can run within 10 minutes of each other, so you might have to wait 50 minutes for a train.
Check train times for late nights and weekends - if your late night trains are all slow stopping services, that can get leave you getting home really late.
If you're commuting into the big main railway stations, factor in the time it takes just to get off the train - and bear in mind the length of the train and the fact that the carriages closest to the exits will be the most crowded, so you may well be several carriages down. They also like to double stack in busy periods, so you may have to walk the length of two trains just to get off your platform. Getting from train to tube at a big station is a much, much slower process than just changing tubes.
If you're likely to have to drive from home to the nearest station to start your commute, make sure you consider how long it takes to find a space, buy a ticket, get from the car to the platforms.
In general, try to be ultra, ultra realistic over how long the commute will take before you commit to having to do it everyday.

PasturesNew

martindow wrote: »

Is it this? This calculates times by train

http://www.commutefrom.com/

If the OP wants to go by car he will probably need to confine himself to looking further out on the same side of London as the position of his work.

Yes
I either could never get it to work, was asking it the wrong questions, or misinterpreting the results ... I was randomly selecting places/times to see what it did/said ... and that didn't get me anywhere. Or, maybe it didn't like my browser.

Ellie007

Thanks all, some very helpful ideas. I guess we are lucky in that we have few ties and can move pretty much anywhere, work journeys notwithstanding. We both work in construction so can never be too sure where we will be working, although I am definitely in east london for the next two years. So will probably concentrate on Kent, Essex and perhaps Hertfordshire (although very expensive, I believe?)

Will have a look at the commuting website right now!

Many thanks xx

mistrihelen

I currently live in Hertford and it's good for commuting as it has two train stations - one takes you to London Liverpool St and the other goes to King's Cross, so you cover off quite a bit of London with it. A quick look on Rightmove suggests you can get three-beds in your price range, though whether any are detached, I don't know. A colleague at work has horses, so I presume there must be a stables somewhere!

BitterAndTwisted

Herts IS very pricey but there are villages near Bishops Stortford/Hertford where horseys can be stabled and ridden. I know this because I had a work-colleague who kept two very near Bengeo