How to choose where to live?

My husband and I are moving to the UK in January.  We are moving because of his work.  The fun thing is we get to choose where we want to live.  As of now he has visited a few towns/cities during his last trip.  He really liked Cirencester.  He also visited Swindon, Bath, Winchester, Bristol, and Bournemouth.

  What I'm asking is, do any of you that are currently living in the UK could have any
  experience or thoughts about some good places to live?

A little more about us:  We are a newly married, early 30's, couple.  We don't have kids.  We do have a beautiful dog (who is coming with us).  We need to have relatively easy access to public transportation and London, seeing as my husband will be traveling a lot for work.  We will have a car.  I would like to find a job.

Thank you.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Hi,

This is a very open ended type question as there's potentially hundreds of towns or villages you could decide to live at.

I'd say to start off with the basics which is to look at the salary level your better half will get and then look at sites such as rightmove.co.uk to evaluate how much you can realistically afford to rent/buy a property for. If you also look at the relevant housing and money matters sections on this forum, there's many other threads which are similar and plenty of responses for examples of costs and considerations. From there you can get a shortlist of potential places

From all of that, only you and your husband can decide where your shortlist of potential places will be based on your lifestyles, choices, requirements etc etc. Many people do commute to London from places further out, I used to know a guy who'd come in from Bristol to Ealing each day for instance on the train.

Good luck and welcome!

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Will he be commuting into London daily or on occasion? That definitely widens your options, and rail season tickets can be really expensive - but it sounds like if he travels for work, his work will be taking care of his travel? Definitely take a look at the rail companies for the areas you are thinking of.

Here's something to think about when you are looking: Maybe you can find a place that gets you access to the things you love to do on the weekends. What are your favourite things? Are you a city or seaside person? Do you need to be near major airports (for all those weekends abroad, of course!)? Are you outdoorsy walking and cycling types? Love to be surrounded by history and classic architecture? Foodies? If I had the freedom to chose, I'd make a check list of all the thing I want and do the research on which place ticks most of the boxes in my budget.

He really liked Cirencester.  He also visited Swindon, Bath, Winchester, Bristol, and Bournemouth.

I'm going to assume that your husband won't be commuting into London every day, or you likely wouldnt have mentioned these towns. Cirencester is really lovely, but I think the real magic of the Cotswolds are the smaller villages - if this area does end up on your short list, I'd really suggest renting a car maybe not limiting your search to only Cirencester.  We spend a lot of weekends in the Cotswolds with our dog. Your dog would love living anywhere in the area!   

I personally wouldnt live in Winchester or Bath because they really bring in the tourists in droves. I always feel like there are more groups of European students in Winchester than premanent residents!