[Closed] Best place to live near the coast for riding in the UK?

You've definitely rejected Italy, France, Spain and Croatia, right?

Bits of south Cumbria, maybe, not so sure about West - the best riding looks close, but is a fair drive through the centre or round the bottom.

Consider somewhere like Arnside - on the Lancashire coast, but there is riding from the door, plus S Lakes and Dales are very handy, and you are close to the M6 for other trips. Not as expensive as nearby places like the Cartmel peninsula.

Aside from that, I'd probably pick somewhere on the Welsh coast - maybe Barmouth, or Gower Peninsula maybe. I think there is good riding on the S Coast, perhaps somewhere like Swanage, but others will have a better view on that.

I think any recommendations could be cost sensitive. Do you have an approx budget? With covid restrictions and limited opportunities for foreign holidays, the price of property/land/do'er uppers has risen considerably, especially near the coast.

Aberdyfi would be my choice. A lively little town on the estuary, great for windsurfing either straight from the car park or round the corner in the waves and just a few miles from Machynlleth and the Dyfi mountain biking area.

You’ve definitely rejected Italy, France, Spain and Croatia, right?

Yeah, this. Also gives you a chance to generate income from MTB guiding in the winter, something I'm pretty sure you'll be hard pushed to do in Wales or Cumbria.

West Wales for me too. Great biking, miles of open countryside, nice bits of coastline and generally pretty affordable. Lots of interesting semi derelict places dotted around for an interesting project.

Arran. Surrounded by sea has A mountain.

I currently live in Norway but I’m originally from Northumberland and I have a Swedish girlfriend

Show off.

I came here to say Arran but was beaten to it.

NW Scotland

North Wales Somewhere near Conway

SE Scotland

Lakes coast line maybe

North East Wales coast is good too, Will.

I would say anywhere from Llandudno around the coast to Fairbourne is worth a look. Then up the dyfi estuary into southern Snowdonia.

Feel free to email me for more info.

Christian

Saltburn, lovely little Victorian seaside resort, great surfing, on the edge of N Yorks moors, mtb’ing in nearby Guisborough is good, not as good as the lakes but gets much less rain and very accessible to lakes and Borders.

Welll we have been looking into offering trips to Croatia during the winter, that was supposed to start this winter we're in now until the pandemic came around. So maybe that'll come once the pandemic dies down and people can travel again.

Thing with going to France, Italy, Croatia is that it is all a bit of an unknown and neither of us have family there. We've visited but don't know what it would be like to live there.

This could maybe work if we were to turn our season around in a couple of years to be winter based trips rather than summer. That would still mean buying a place in the UK as a base then run Norway trips for several more years and slowly transition to Croatia trips during the winter and spend the summer in the UK. It's an option.

Are you want to still have a guiding business in the UK or just ride for personal fun?

For actual mountains then really it's Cumbria or Wales.

But mountain biking opens up a lot more options

North Yorshire Moors

Dorset

Exmoor

Possibly South Devon. Live on the coast drive to Dartmoor for biking

Even Sussex

But season is crucial. You wouldn't base yourself in Sussex to ride in the winter

Consider somewhere like Arnside

Good to see a recommendation for where we've just (fingers crossed!) bought a house 🙂

The North of the UK can cop some cold weather. Our street has been white and frozen most of the last month.
If you want to escape the snow and ice, be near the sea, and have hills for good riding, I think there's a lot better than the UK... Alp Maritime, North West Italy, Lots of Spain and Portugal, Croatia etc...

I'll just say that to get the UK thing. For one if you at leastv it's culturally and language wise home

I'm not into "proper" mountains, so I'd be looking at Dumfries and Galloway or North York Moors. Probably not suitable if you like your hills bigger and more rugged

My experience of Swedish / Norwegian coast is either rocky or golden sand. Could your girlfriend cope with the tidal mudflats of South Cumbria?

The North of the UK can cop some cold weather

North Devon would probably be a decent balance of less severe winter weather, coast and riding (quantocks and Exmoor) but it's not the place if you want mountains, plus it'd be spendy to buy/build there.

Portugal?

Whitehaven?

Plymouth?

Perpignan?

(Threw a few Euro spots in just in case)

You seem to have the flexibility and perhaps options (finances, passports) to establish yourself in places like Croatia and you are thinking about moving to the UK? Are you insane?

The only possible reason I can think of such a compromise is ageing parents needing care.

Tarifa, with the Sierra Nevada just up the road. And some great riding just inland.
And under an hour to Morocco.
Edit. Bugger just saw the UK bit in the op. Seduced by all the overseas locations in other posts.

Don't get me wrong: despite living in Madrid, I do love the UK and assuming you avoid the (usually massively signposted) shitholes most of it is great, with some lovely countryside and people. Even in the North 🙂

But if I were looking for somewhere to live in the winter there's no way I'd consider the UK: even in the south east it's too dark and too wet. Granted I'm biased, but I'd be looking at one of the less well-known areas of Spain: maybe Asturias, Cantabria (although they're wet too), Valencia, Cadiz... Close to the sea, mountains just inland, and a lot less dreary than the UK in winter.

Gibraltar

Tenerife?

North Wales coast to east of Caernarfon, or between Porthmadog and Aberdyfi?

The Welsh coast is great, it would be even better with Canary Isles weather all year round!

Anglesey
Great sea kayakng and north Wales close by.

Rhyl. Some good biking in Snowdonia. House bargains thin on the ground but my folks bagged a bungalow nearby for not so much.

For actual mountains then really it’s Cumbria or Wales.

Aye, that's pretty much it. Scotland is flat as ****.

Snowdonia or close-by would seem the obvious choice. I often stay at Porthmadog or up near Llandudno.

I also often visit west Cumbria - and I would be prepared to live there myself as the riding is great and I have good friends there - but the coast is a bit drab TBH.

Scotland - the North West is the most beautiful place in the UK, but just being there in the winter may be sub-optimal.

Surprised nobody has mentioned the Black Isle given your priorities. Nice enough coast (if unspectacular compared to the west), some good riding on your doorstep, access to Cairngorms, Torridon etc all reasonably easy drive/train away. Inverness close at hand for useful things and seems to have a decent riding/outdoorsy scene nowadays. Have had several Swedes impressed with it when visiting with them - landscape has a fairly Swedish vibe in some way that might be worth a look (topography, mix of farming and forest...).

Obviously you could pretty much stick a pin in the map anywhere on the West Coast from Argyll up and round to Tongue and tick most of your boxes but there are relatively few places with a big diversity of riding without a lot of travel (Kinlochleven and Fort William being obvious areas for established good riding). But the wet weather, lack of many usable amenities within sensible distances and ratio of holiday homes: actual people living in half the places are amongst the reasons it might not be as straightforwardly obvious to go there.

Surprised nobody has mentioned the Black Isle given your priorities. Nice enough coast (if unspectacular compared to the west), some good riding on your doorstep, access to Cairngorms, Torridon etc all reasonably easy drive/train away. Inverness close at hand for useful things and seems to have a decent riding/outdoorsy scene nowadays.

I'd have suggested Moray but I didn't think anywhere in Scotland qualified under the "getting away from the Winter" bit.

Would your Swedish girl friend be allowed to live in the UK without regular job and income?
I have spent 20 years in the UK, but now that I am back in the south of France, no way I am going back.
Rode in shorts today...

For Wales and England this would be worth buying

But buy from this site

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/095591910X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_WXP5SJBQ36QWXSVVV3Q9

Rostrevor.

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paton
Free Member

Rostrevor

That’d been one of my thoughts but only visited so not sure what it’s like to live in. Newcastle, down the road not geordies, always looked nice. But, being awkward I’d suggest Kerry for mountains and sea or Spain if you’re actually after a break from winter.

Id say somwewhere around aberystwyth. Lively little town, lovely coastline and some of the best riding in the UK in remote mid wales.

Costa del Moray has managed to avoid the worst of the ice this winter, where here in Angus we've had frozen ground throughout the whole of January. I've pals up in Moray who've been out packing and bivvying lots lately. Better option I'd have thought than many sites in wetter Cumbria or Wales. Have a look at climate stats for somewhere like Findhorn to get a feel for what's on offer. Agree with the suggestion of the Black Isle too; benefits from the same general dry climate and spring / autumn sunshine record. There's a reason all those string of RAF training bases were built up there in WW2; the climate gave the new pilots a better chance of surviving their basic training.
Surfing, kayaking, dolphins, coastal rides, mountains nearby and access to Easter Ross, Torridon, Cairngorms circuits, Speyside....

Some great suggestions to look in to, thanks! I'll do some research.

The location doesn't need to allow us to offer guiding in the UK in the winter. More of an investment for the future and somewhere to stay when we are here in the winter (if we continue to spend much of the winters here). I think we'll eventually live here later in life anyway.

Although, the temptation to go for a place around Mediterranean...Cote D'Azur, Liguria or Croatia is certainly big and I think I wouldn't need much persuading but. It does worry me a little about the unknown of moving to a foreign country and buying a house in a place I don't know too much about. I've visited various locations around Liguria, Cote D'Azur, Slovenia, Croatia and they're great places when I've visited and on paper but what if we move there and invest a load of time, money and work into a project and it turns out we don't like it? Plus it's far from either family but I don't think that bothers me too much, my girlfriend would like to be closer to family though.

This kind of question seems a lot less of an issue to me in the UK as there's a lot more things we know or are used to.

If only it was easy enough to keep a place in Norway, a place in the UK and a place somewhere in the mediterranean...

I grew up in Rostrevor but live in Belfast for work
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rostrevor
I would move back tomorrow.

Newcastle is bigger:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle,_County_Down

The wiki page & photos don’t do either justice.

@donncha
Mrs kilo did the Race across Ireland adventure race a few times and it finished in Newcastle having been through Rostrevor (hours spent standing around waiting for her to reach transition). Newcastle was great the times we stayed there, at the big hotel near the front.

The Slieve Donard is some spot!
https://www.hastingshotels.com/slieve-donard-resort-and-spa/

If it were me, I'd think about getting a tricked out campervan and travelling for the period you are away from Norway. Go wherever you like then. Stay at her parents or your parents when you need a break from van life.
It would allow you to get to know the Med destinations then too so you can make a better informed decision for the longterm.
I know how cold and dark the Nordic countries get in the winter but honestly, winter in the UK is not much fun. Especially if you're thinking of the north west. I'm just north of Cumbria and this winter has not been so bad but we pretty much had six of constant rain last winter. It was horrific.
For the investment side of things, you could either buy an easily lettable house/flat. Let it out and it's always there for you if/when you do come back.
Or go for a place with an annexe or somewhere with the potential for an annexe. Let out the main house and you've got a base for when you want a break from the campervan.

Silloth

I hate Uk winter - sloppy muddfest. If I had an option I'd live closer to the beach, south for a bit more daylight/warmth and hopefully have some elevation that drains well.Probably puts me past Bristol (Quantocks/ Exmoor) but never spent much time there.Perhaps when I retire.

ThePilot, funny you say that. We're currently at my mum's in Northumberland building this exact thing from scratch! We're making ourselves an XLWB Ducato camper that we can travel about in.

AnyExcuseToRide, sounds fab! Can I request you build an extra single bed and invite me along for the trip too? 😉

Somewhere near St Jean De Luz probably, for surf between Atlantic blasts. Ah, UK? Whitby and around is nice. Great coast, villages, NY Moors national park, good riding - road, MTB, gravel - not hard to get to cities. Bit of everything really and Yorkshire too...

(Nah. St Jean De Luz...)

For coastline that is also good for / fairly close to good riding I would suggest the far north east of England (north of Bamburgh) and the south east of Scotland (between Edinburgh and the border). As said already though, much as I like Britain it isn't somewhere that I would choose to get away from miserable winters. Gale force wind and rain is the default winter weather condition where I am on the east coast!