Relocating to/near the coast

El_W

Anyone ever done it? What's the cost of living like in comparison? Looking to rent as a trial but not sure where. Left side ideally

HB58

In our area, at least, the houses directly near the coast are, comparatively, more expensive than others. However, the actual figures will depend on exactly where you want to be - 'the left' takes in Cornwall, through Wales and all the way up to the top of Scotland!

Cakeguts

Blackpool?

Contessa

El_W wrote: »

Anyone ever done it? What's the cost of living like in comparison? Looking to rent as a trial but not sure where. Left side ideally

Don't want to be a pedant but which way are you facing when you say "left"?

Do you men the East or West coast?

macman

In comparison to what? In the absence of a crystal ball, how about telling us where you live now? Without that info, I was going to suggest Sandbanks, if Blackpool does not appeal?
PS: it's at the bottom.

El_W

Contessa wrote: »

Don't want to be a pedant but which way are you facing when you say "left"?

Do you men the East or West coast?

Sorry, I'm in an idiot - I typed in a hurry.

I mean West coast ideally. I live Herefordshire so ideally still close-ish to home, and I usually take a trip or 2 to Cornwall a year which is another place I love.

AdrianC

El_W wrote: »

I mean West coast ideally. I live Herefordshire so ideally still close-ish to home

So you'd be looking at the Severn estuary, South Wales, Pembrokeshire up towards Aberystwyth?

By "coast", I'm presuming you're thinking fairly rural? So that rules out quite a bit of the upper Severn, both sides.

Contessa

Cornwall is a great choice. Over the years we've lived in many different parts of the country-mainly coastal areas apart from London.

Now we've returned to Cornwall. It can be wetter in winter than one may expect. Job opportunities are fewer and travel links are more difficult (that's the bad part over)

Coastal areas are expensive but slightly inland more industrial places like Redruth/Camborne are a lot cheaper but less desirable. Cornwall is a narrow county so nowhere is very far from the sea.

We feel much fitter, healthier, happier and more relaxed down here.

sugar-walsh

Cornwall, Devon or Lytham st Annes, or Silverdale would all be on my hit list. We live about 3 miles from the sea (Morecambe). Not familiar with Wales to comment.

Depends on what you want really. Rural? Easy access to the rest of the country? City access? Cheap and cheerful?

I hope you find somewhere

Davesnave

Coastal areas on the left side vary a lot in their expensiveness, with trendy towns, like St Ives and surfing locations, like Rock or Croyde being particularly dear to rent in.

Anywhere with a pretty or sheltered harbour for launching a boat is bound to be pricey too, close to the waterfront.

That still leaves many 'ordinary' locations which are seaside, although that still means great diversity. Somewhere like Weston-Super-Mare, for example, is pretty much like a 'normal' town in most of its parts, but with the added influx of tourists every weekend in summer, it's not a convenient place to get in and out of, or relaxing, unless you enjoy throngs of people and yelling kids. Sometimes, you actually see the sea there, though, and I can recommend Papas fish & chips.

There are loads of smaller, ordinary places near the sea without actually being beside it, and to my mind these offer good value and convenience, and without being blasted by Atlantic gales either. In Devon, where I live, it's possible to be on a beach in 10 minutes, yet still have the convenience of chain stores and very few annoying tourists clogging-up your roads. It's just a matter ofselecting carefully.

Me, I live in the middle, which has one great advantage seaside places don't have; the ability to go north, south east and west, so shopping can be in any one of around 8 towns. OK they're a long way away, but getting to them is never boring....different route every week. Try that in Aberystwyth!

moneyistooshorttomention

West Wales is also rainier (and windier) than one might expect. The weather here is still a bit of a "shock to the system" to me and I do long for "normal" weather sometimes (ie what I personally am used to).

If you move to an area with worse weather than you're used to (ie the thought of what the weather is doing never crosses your mind before you decide what you're going to do) then it comes as a surprise to find YOU adapting to the weather.....

Cue me standing there this morning in the chaos of the redecoration of my new kitchen being completed and deciding "I'll have another room redecorated next winter...then I'll have another one redecorated the following winter.....etc". I wouldnt dream of thinking like that in my own area - but here I've had to spend so much time cooped up indoors over the winter that I'm not going to waste a scrap of summer doing any indoors jobs. It's all that sort of thing - ie a way of thinking that goes "I'll major on tedious stuff in the winter and do what I want in the summer" that occurs to you if you move to worse weather.

There must be plenty of retirees moving here from England though - which is just as well from my pov (ie as I can readily move in circles where English is the default language and am just unable to go to specific "Welsh cultural things - eg eisteddfod type things" as the default language at those is Welsh and so I can't join in). Memories of going to one and the only people I could talk to were my English friends I'd gone with and the man on the right that translated the most important comments for me.

My decorator tells me that it's us English that keep him going for work here - as he doesnt get that much from "locals". I gather the other workmen round here are pretty much the same and it's the talk of the better workmen here as to how busy they are - and I see loads of their vans etc racing round from house to house here and there is obviously a lot of work being done on houses here. So it seems quite a few of us are moving here.