Where to live in the UK?

Where’s the best place to live? It depends on so much - your job, your family, your hobbies and a dash of je ne sais quoi. (I go into more detail about what makes a place feel like home here.)

Sam and I planned a scouting mission for him to go check out a few of our top spots while I stayed home with the kids (lucky me). But then, what’s that quote about god laughing while we make plans? Sam was needed for some family issues, so the itinerary changed a bit.

Here’s how the scouting mission went:

Reading (est. population: 174,000)

• Reading was at the bottom of the list (no offense to the fine people of Reading), so this arm of the journey got cut off at the elbow when Sam needed to rearrange his journey to spend more time with family.

• Instead of staying a couple of days, Sam drove through and stopped for a coffee. And the impression he got was that he was very happy to get back in the car and keep driving. It was kind of grey and there was tons of traffic. Even the nice-sounding town of Caversham was basically one small high street full of traffic. So, that’s okay, cross Reading off the list.

• To recap:

  • Pros: close to London. That’s about it.

  • Cons: expensive, bad traffic, not the prettiest or most exciting city

Bristol (est. population: 467,000)

• We were cautiously excited about Bristol. It’s a bigger city with tons of history. It’s in a different part of the country than we’re familiar with, so it would be a truly fresh start. Sam stayed for a few days in an airbnb (with a wonderful host) on the longest independent shopping street in the UK.

• He walked everywhere, then drove even farther, and met some great people. He even accidentally scrapped the side of someone’s parked car with his car, then made friends with them.

• His takeaway was that Bristol would be great for 20-something us. Hip and trendy and great for young, child-free creative people. Alas, we are older, child-full creative people. He said everything felt very squished and didn’t feel like a great place for kids. That’s probably eight years of living in suburban America talking, but I see what he means. The properties are pretty tiny, and the roads were not made for two-way traffic plus parked cars, so you end up with streets where you scrape people’s cars. (Seriously, he dinged that woman’s car and she was like, “oh, don’t worry, people do that all the time, and they never stop to apologize!”)

• To recap:

  • Pros: cool vibes, great shopping, fun culture, nice people - including lots of transplants from other places

  • Cons: lack of space, small houses, small roads, not enough playgrounds and parks

Countryside between Bristol and Stratford-upon-Avon

• Sam drove through a bunch of places. He would stop and look around, get a coffee, and chat with people - especially people who looked about our age with families. Hey! Hey you, why do you live here? Why are you running away from me?? (I’m guessing it went something like this.)

• He hit up random places like Stroud, Cirencester and Eavesham. Try finding those in your Lonely Planet guide! It was all kind of a bust. Not to sound like Bill Bryson, but there were a lot of deprived areas with sad town centers. He did like Nailsworth (a tiny, impractical village) so I guess it wasn’t all bad.

• Basically, as soon as he crossed over into Warwickshire, Sam said everything looked brighter and nicer. By comparison, the places he’d just driven through felt like poor West Country towns. (Sorry, West Country.)

Stratford-upon-Avon (est. population: 30,000)

• This was Sam’s top pick before visiting, and it more or less lived up to the hype in his head. I was worried about too many tourists, but he said it didn’t feel too touristy at all (but, c’mon, let’s see what it’s like in June).

• He said it felt bigger than he expected, and the town center had a lot to offer. He thought the outskirts of town were cute too, with lots of promising looking areas for wholesome family life.

• Recap:

  • Pros: great schools, nice town center, good transport connections

  • Cons: tourists, since it’s a smallish town it might be hard to find a house

Royal Leamington Spa (est. population: 50,000)

• This was my top pick before Sam’s visit, and it became his top pick after his visit. The architecture is beautiful; it’s like the grand buildings you see in West London but in the Midlands. It’s a bigger city than Stratford, which means a bigger town center and more bustling atmosphere.

• Based on no hard evidence, he said it felt more affordable than Stratford and grittier (i.e., more of a city feel - more garbage, more people, more traffic, more stuff to do, etc.). The population is deceptive - it’s basically combined with the neighboring city of Warwick, so the population is more like double what’s listed.

• Recap:

  • Pros: beautiful architecture, direct train links to London, range of amenities

  • Cons: not much I can think of, I guess there are some less desirable parts of town?

Other Warwickshire towns

• Sam wandered around a few other places like Warwick (which is basically part of Leamington Spa but more boring) and Kenilworth (sad), but nothing else was as appealing as Stratford and Leamington.

So we have our top picks!

It comes down to Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa. We’re going to do a family visit next year, sort of a mini test drive to see what we like the most. We’ll have to decide if we want a quieter, quainter life in Stratford or a slightly bigger city adventure in Leamington. Or if we change our minds completely and head for, like, Bolton.

It’s weird and fun to figure out where to live. You get to imagine what your life might be like and explore all these potential paths and next chapters of your life. You also feel kind of naive - you never know what a place is really like until you live there, and each person’s experience is going to be different too. It truly is a leap of faith.

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