Relocating to the south west, Bristol or Cardiff?

[413x]

So ,an important one.

Planning to move job and home to the southwest with intention of buying a house.
I don't know either area well personally but want more outdoors /ocean /river stuff for hobbies like kayaking and also access to Cornwall/North Wales.

Moving from Lincolnshire which I have no love for.

Cardiff sounds ideal if I can get a job, Bristol I can definitely get a job soon ish
Cardiff is much much cheaper to live. And I assume beaches are better.

My heart says Cardiff but would be great to get some first hand views.

I would expect my salary to be 35-40 in both locations.

Any help would be great

 

[ikillbears]

going by your first paragraph, Cardiff. But personally I think Bristol is a way cooler place

 

[28swphotography]

So ,an important one.

Planning to move job and home to the southwest with intention of buying a house.
I don't know either area well personally but want more outdoors /ocean /river stuff for hobbies like kayaking and also access to Cornwall/North Wales.

Moving from Lincolnshire which I have no love for.

Cardiff sounds ideal if I can get a job, Bristol I can definitely get a job soon ish
Cardiff is much much cheaper to live. And I assume beaches are better.

My heart says Cardiff but would be great to get some first hand views.

I would expect my salary to be 35-40 in both locations.

Any help would be great

As much as the south west is rather nice, the North Coast, of Cymru, is delightful.

 

[Lord-Jaffa]

Bristol is a great town.

Both towns have hideous areas though!

 

[Nitefly]

Bristol is brilliant - I’ve lived here 10 years and I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

The only thing going for Cardiff over Bristol is that it’s substantially cheaper when it comes to house prices. Cardiff is still nice though.

 

[Uther]

Affordability comes in to it, Bristol is hideously expensive, especially after Lincolnshire.

 

[azazl187]

Cardiff seems like it's slowly dying to me as u have to regularly visit with work. Bristol on the other hand seems to be getting better and better. Stay away from St Pauls though... Nasty.

 

[Brizzles]

I'm biased

 

[Nitefly]

Cardiff seems like it's slowly dying to me as u have to regularly visit with work. Bristol on the other hand seems to be getting better and better. Stay away from St Pauls though... Nasty.

Give it 5 years and it will be fully gentrified, IMO.

The slightly iffy areas are, I think, areas of Knowle West (some nice bits, mind) and parts of Lawrence Hill.

 

[Semple]

Quite a few blokes in our Bristol office live in Cardiff and commute in, takes them about an hour.

Bristol is a great city, but suffers with horrendous traffic problems. The council never properly invested in public transport systems, instead they just prefer to have thousands of buses.

 

[Brizzles]

Stay away from St Pauls though... Nasty.

You could include many other areas of Bristol in the 'nasty' catagory, as you can with many other large cities.

St.Pauls has improved over the total no-go area of the early 80' , but i still wouldn't live there.

Cardiff went through a bit of a re-gen and last time i visited was ok, but again it will have 'less desirable areas'

Ultimately, i would rather not cripple myself financially by choosing Bristol over Cardiff - they seem much the same.

 

[Nitefly]

Quite a few blokes in our Bristol office live in Cardiff and commute in, takes them about an hour.

Bristol is a great city, but suffers with horrendous traffic problems. The council never properly invested in public transport systems, instead they just prefer to have thousands of buses.

It is loopy that the major routes in from Bath and east Bristol converge into a single lane of traffic before temple meads. But I suppose.... then everything else would clog up.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

The last time I went to Bristol, the yokels were barking at the moon and setting fire to themselves to 'cleanse their soul containers'.

Maybe it was a public holiday or something?

 

[Semple]

It is loopy that the major routes in from Bath and east Bristol converge into a single lane of traffic before temple meads. But I suppose.... then everything else would clog up.

Thankfully I never have to entertain driving into or around the centre. Our office is in North Bristol on the UWE campus, and the North side has become awful for traffic over the last few years. It used to take me an hours commute to travel 40 miles, 30 mins to do the 38 miles on the motorway, and the other 30 mins to finish the last 2 miles.

 

[Dublove]

I've moved over the bridge so to speak. Bristol to halfway between Cardiff & Newport. Still working in Bristol though.

Cardiff is definitely more happening these days that Bristol: Bigger music scene, more stuff on. Really impressed. Welsh people are generally more lively!
I might be a bit biased having grown up in Bristol but I'd say Bristols stagnated somewhat!

 

[Zefan]

Just go full min/max and plunder the M4 corridor from Swindon. It's an island of affordability

 

[cainer]

Free prescriptions if you live over the bridge in Wales, comes in handy as you get older

 

[Brizzles]

Just go full min/max and plunder the M4 corridor from Swindon. It's an island of affordability

In a modern, civilised society, no-one should have to live in Swindon

 

[cheesyboy]

Bristol's wonderful.

I grew up in a small town in Gloucestershire, and am now back in a small village there, but lived in Bristol for about 6 years. People there are noticeably more friendly, and the city is great for the arts.

 

[SlyReaper]

Bristol is a fantastic place to live. I don't know much about Cardiff, but if you end up picking Bristol, I don't think you'll regret it.

You know, unless you end up in St Pauls.