Locations in England

[_prayforrain_]

I am a very indecisive person and cannot for anything decide on a place I want to live in England from April to September. I am doing BUNAC this April and the only thing I've narrowed down is that I am going somewhere in England instead of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. My problem is that I would love to live in London and I think it would

Comments

[scunnerred]

London will be expensive but fun. Liverpool is European City of Culture this year so there's a buzz to it. York is lovely and has good train connections. Kendal is close to the great outdoors. Avoid the rest of your list. They're mainly concrete jungles.

[_prayforrain_]

That really cuts it down, I appreciate you getting right to it. Thanks!

[dativesingular]

I was going to suggest York or Liverpool myself. London is fun, but expensive.

[perrie]

I'm from Colchester, and whilst it's a very pretty, historic town, and both Essex and Suffolk have beautiful countryside, Colchester isn't in the best of shape at the moment - the council tend to make a pigs ear of the place and not fix their mistakes. It has an enormous park with lots of summer events in, a wonderful historic castle and a reasonably busy nightlife - but I would recommend other towns above it. Travelling around the area by bus isn't terribly easy either, as they tend to be infrequent and expensive. It's definately worth a daytrip, though I think a few months might be pushing it a bit. (:

Have you looked at Brighton at all? It's a seaside town, but fairly big, great high street shopping as well as loads of little private shops so plenty of chances for employment. Other people will be able to tell you more about it, but I've spent a month living there and loved it. Definately worth a look.

[_prayforrain_]

That is very helpful. I wasn't sure what Colchester had to offer but read mostly good and kept it on my list. I'll definitely keep it in mind for a daytrip instead. I haven't really looked at Brighton but I should and will. Thank you!

[perrie]

O rly? Cool! I grew up in Mersea, but I had a couple of friends in Frinton. Which side of the gates were you on? ;) And which school? I was at the Girls High - la dee da jolly hockey sticks and all that jazz.

[atomic_joe2]

Well I live in Harlow, 20 miles north of London, and as I always say to visitors in my joyous and ultra-sarcastic way: "Welcome to Harlow...and you are QUITE welcome to it!!"

[staceyaerosol]

leeds. live it. love it.

[_prayforrain_]

really? i had a friend who studied there and didn't much like it. in particular, what do you like about it?

[dativesingular]

It's a short train ride from York and much, much cheaper to live in. Nicely located for trains--if you can't get to wherever you want to from Leeds, you probably can from Manchester, which isn't all that far by train. Good shopping, not too difficult to get around the city.

Of course, I'm biased as I lived there. ;)

[eofs]

I think I'm right in saying that York has better rail connections than Leeds for long distance, but Leeds is excellent for all the smaller bits around Yorkshire. Which, of course, will take you to pretty little Yorkshire towns and villages and through the countryside and ooooh. However York (or Sheffield) is then an easy connection away, or even you could use Brum - the edge York has is mostly because it has two X-Country trains an hour rather than just the one, and thus you can get to a much more varied range of places on the south coast. But if you're going all that way you could always just hop on the one that does exist in Leeds and change in Brum, by which point you have an exceptional range of connections

[_prayforrain_]

That has been suggested but I guess I didn't look into it very seriously. I have another look though. Thank you :)

Nottingham

[busy_body]

I'll second that...big university city so masses of student nightlife and reasonable accomodation. On the rail network (2 hrs to london), good bus service, handy for the Peak district if you're the outdoors type. City centre is attractive and the countryside is easy to get to.

Only reason not to come...if you like surfing...it's the city that's furthest from the sea, although bizarrely it also apparently has the biggest surf shop in the country???

Re: Nottingham

[_prayforrain_]

ah, that's not a problem! i've never been surfing before, but i will keep in mind that Nottingham has the biggest surf shop in case i have an urge to pick up surfing and need to buy all the gear. ;P