[Closed] The Best Outdoorsy Town In The UK?

Bristol.

i'm inclined to suggest Sheffield, but you listed your surf-sports first, so you'd probably need slightly better access to a beach.

mendips, south wales, north devon, and more, all on the doorstep.

the answer is Bristol - they've even got jobs.

Machynlleth

EDIT: oh, right, reasons.

1) mountainbiking in mid/north wales natch
2) hill walking mid wales.
3) near the sea. No idea if there's any surfing.
4) lovely old market town with some proper independant shops, cafes, nice pubs etc.

Not too cut off as you're on a couple of main roads back to civilisation 🙂

San Fran Bristol (assuming 'town' also includes 'city').

Proximity to the south-west for outdoors stuff. Great trails within ten minutes of the city centre. Superb pubs/music/cultural scene. Hideous traffic.

This is the town equivalent of 'moon on a stick' threads. I'm struggling to think of anywhere that fulfills all of your requirements. Shoehorning in the surfing requirement is the biggest problem.

Which of those requirements are the most important, and which the least?

Depending on how important surf is Sheffield.

Decent size city, lots going on, easy to get to Wales Scotland London manchester for hols near and far.

Great mtb and walking and you can ride out to peak off road from town. Plus you have warncliffe if you like loony dh.

Also has a great hospital when stuff goes wrong!!

I would say Aberystwyth but its fairly out of the way.

Surf can be good, either at the harbour trap or Borth/Ynyslas. The walking and riding is great though.

Shoehorning in the surfing requirement is the biggest problem.

no, it's easy.

Bristol.

PJ266, given how close Mach is to Aber I think you get the best of the coast at Mach, but it's a much nicer town.

Well the best outdoorsy town in the UK is clearly Aviemore. The surfing and windsurfing might not be fantastic but the coast isn't that far away.

Bristol's too far from the Surf (for me, no idea about the OP)

Edinburgh if after a big town. Pentlands on the doorstep, easy access to bigger hills north (highlands etc) and south (lake district)

World class riding in Borders, trail centres and natural.

Lots of windsurfing and other wet type stuff in the sea (not an expert here)

Loads of busy clubs and forums

A few jobs kicking around and plenty of 'out of town' options if don't like city living.

and of course, all of the above will be much better, bigger and better when Wee Eck takes full command. 🙄

Skipping the surf Keswick/Cockermouth

I'll give it a stab then - Cardiff

Gower Peninsula/Rest Bay etc for surfing, Gower/Pembroke/S Wales mountain cragging, Hill walking Brecon Beacons. Stacks of good riding. I daresay if you visit the local climbing walls there will be a community of outdoorsy types. Cardiff itself is a reaasonable city, lively, not as bad as Swansea, couple of hours on the train from London.

London. Everyone knows its the absolute centre of ****ing everything 😀

Cardiff is great location wise. It's just that it's, well, y'know, Cardiff.

The Northern Riviera

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Bodmin. 8)

Wick. The Paris of the far north.

Brighton

Llanberis, biking, climbing, whitewater kayaking, sea kayaking, surfing, slate mines, winter mountaineering, hillwalking. Friendly locals!

😉

Llanberis, Friendly locals!

There's an alliance of words I thought I'd never see. 😀

Gibralta

Barnstaple area.

Unfortunately [url= http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/nov/24/aberdeen-happiest-place-scotland ]Aberdeen[/url] is a long way from anywhere. It is supposed to be a happy a place to live, although if you ask a local apparently "It's a' a loada shite"

Well, Binners, as it happens.....

Good riding on your doorstep (Chilterns, Surrey Hills, etc), and access to a variety of airports to take you to lovely shiny places to surf, ride, sail etc.

Of course, you'll need money, but you can just hoover it up off the streets round here. Paved with gold, innit.

🙂

Mach is a good call, actually. Lovely little place. Brizzle/Cheltenham/Bath/Cardiff/Severn borders area also worth a look, as there's lots around and easy access to the water as well.

NEWCASTLE 🙂

MTB trails in all diretions (bit of a drive, granted)great road biking on your doorstep, south, west or north

Tynemouth, whitburn, Berwick for surfing. Duridge bay for windsurfing, there's climbing around, cheviots for hill walking

Seaside towns with a bit of surf and country access?
Scarborough
Bournemouth
Connectedness means you'd choose Bournemouth, there may be some old folk in the region so allow time at those pedestrian crossings.

Sheffield.

If you want to live properly near (i.e. 10 min drive, nip to the beach for lunch type nearby) to great surf then you mostly have to sacrafice your "somewhere that's not too cut off from the rest of the UK" requirement. So either become a surf bum and move to Cornwall or live somewhere that enables you to access the rest of your activities from your door and drive to the surf.

You can drive to the Scarbrough, Robin Hoods Bay area for a day trip from Sheffield for some surfing but everything else you want is on your doorstep (as in walk/ride from your door, no driving at all) and you are bang slap in the middle of the country for when you want to travel further afield.

Swanage/Isle of Purbeck surely has to be in contention?

*Looks out of window*
3 crags, lots of hills and can nearly see the coast, can walk to the train station, with a direct train to London. Its quiet and yet has a very good MTB scene, can ride to my local trail centres.
Where ? well I'm not telling I want to keep it this way dont want any Townies here 😉

Portsmouth

3 crags, lots of hills and can nearly see the coast, can walk to the train station, with a direct train to London. Its quiet and yet has a very good MTB scene, can ride to my local trail centres.
Where ? well I'm not telling I want to keep it this way dont want any Townies here

Is it Slough?

Got to be either the North East England or South Wales, ignoring the South West England for being too remote.

Only problem is the surfing, the north sea is f****** cold and the swell isn't very consistent (but at least the offshore wind is), so it's just a case of waiting for any swell.

What about jobs? Double edged sword that easily transferable skills or undskilled jobs you can move anywhere, but not everywhere has a surplus of those jobs (ruleing out NE england, or S.Wales). Whereas skilled jobs might be limited in the places you can go with them (e.g. engineering in the NE or S.Wales, but not smaller towns) .

Aviemore, you'll rapidly forget about the rest of the UK.

After visiting last year I would nominate Brecon as near the top of the list of places I would happily move to.

So Bristol seems to have featured a bit on here? Must be a reason for that?

Dales_rider - Member

*Looks out of window*
3 crags, lots of hills and can nearly see the coast, can walk to the train station, with a direct train to London. Its quiet and yet has a very good MTB scene, can ride to my local trail centres.
Where ? well I'm not telling I want to keep it this way dont want any Townies here

Come on - spill the beans, or at least a clue?

Barnstaple - anyone live there?

Fort William or Aviemore.

Hebden Bridge innit. That's why I moved there. 🙂

Apart from the surfing and windsurfing bit.

Aviemore is horrible IMO. Keswick is pretty sweet.

Dulverton. Because it is.

Agent 007 its in North Yorkshire bottom end of the Dales national park, though for surfing Scarbourgh/Whitby its a bit of a drive

It's Swansea you are looking for.

Bristol is a nice city if I was looking for a city abode it would be on the list, but for walking climbing it would have to be north east or south west as those area are where the surf is.

Inverness or aviemore..both look horrible but surroundings are superb... Surfing at thurso/wick

Llanberis has the lot. Sorry but Fort William is a dump and Bristol has no mountains so mountain biking is a bit of a problem.

I really like Betws y Coed plenty of pubs for an evening chill and nice village/town green.
Surf (North Wales coast) one way, mountains the other, 🙂
Very close to Llanberis.

No idea how nice it is as a place to live but I always thought Minehead in Somerset has a lot going for it in terms of of adjacent scenery, coast and terrain for all your outdoorsy needs. Is it commutable to Bristol?

Arggh Betws home of over geared hill walkers and goretex lovers. The shops are always heaving on sunny days with people buying stuff instead of out using it. Still nice countryside and good riding on your doorstep.

Swansea would be my choice, I'd be back there in a heartbeat if I could find a job.

Great climbing on the shower & down the road in Pembrokeshire, Surfing within a 10 minute drive, beacons less than half an hour away for walking & biking and some exceptional WW kayaking too. Shame Swansea is a bit of a crime hotspot but hey ho.

not Leeds...... 😆

I would love to live in Keswick.

IMO Best location (south of Scotland) for those sports is North Wales. As far as I'm concerned there are only two realistic locations to consider with quality Rock climbing/ mountaineering /hill walking, Lakes and North Wales. However, of the two, surfing is better off North Welsh coast ie Hell's Mouth. If Llanberis or Betws are not groovy enough or close enough to civilisation, maybe consider Chester. the A55 will have you in Snowdonia or surf areas within an hour.

the outstanding location is rochdale..

the great outdoors on the edge of the pennines, barely more than a league or two from the home of stw, plenty of rocky things to climb and lamp posts, plenty of walking canals moors plenty of bikey stuff MTL pennine bridleway ( regular reports in observer on stolen bikes for the twilight hours

and the icing on the cake.. an alfresco beach type experience beside the newly developed river through the town centre, sandy beaches and a ready rip ( although presently a covered sewer) the council believe that the alfresco beach style enviroment will encourage tourism and bring 50 000 a year to the 'attraction' from where you ll be able to see a first hand the new council offices that cost 55m last year but are now only worth 20m and are only half full as they council laid off so many staff.. they can also visit the new libary ( housed in some of the empty space in the new council offices) its only 100m from the old libary but cost 14 quid a book to move there ( 80000 books!) oh and that was after they had to pay off the remainder of the 1000 year lease they took on the building it used to be in..

Seriously though the answers Liverpool. Snowdon, Lakes and Peak all 2 hour drive. Clwyd's 45 mins, great climbing 20 mins away if you like hard sandstone routes. Good sea kayaking round the coast, windsurfing off West Kirby. Close to good airports for Alps, Norway, Spain. Its ****in boss lad!

Oh yeah cheap housing, good music scene and the birds like to dress up!

Sheerness

Possibly Swansea? If you live on the Gower you can surf and climb both within a few miles 🙂 Riding from your door is harder from that side, but from other parts of Swansea you've got proper Welsh riding from your door. And just up the road is, well.. Wales, which is all good biking 🙂

Reeth except for the the surf, climbing and almost everything else you greedy git 🙂

Shrewsbury - outdoor/bike shops, close to Mid/North Wales, great riding on the doorstep, good pubs and restaurants, 1 1/2 horns to the coast, bike shop organised ride outs,.

Lol.. He wanted coast, someone suggests a place that's about as far from the sea as is possible in the UK 🙂 classic STW for you

the outstanding location is rochdale..

They get more daylight in the arctic circle in winter (and less rain)!

Ft William, surfing's not quite on the doorstep, but if you want hills
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If it's surfing first, probaby Oban, more water oriented, great sailing and kayaking with the awesome surf of Tiree a short(ish) ferry trip away.
Both towns served by trains

*Looks out of window*
3 crags, lots of hills and can nearly see the coast, can walk to the train station, with a direct train to London. Its quiet and yet has a very good MTB scene, can ride to my local trail centres.
Where ? well I'm not telling I want to keep it this way dont want any Townies here

Am I right?

I only moved to Skipton because I'd heard about the surf scene on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Some of the bigger boats throw up some killer wakes.

Barnstaple - anyone live there?

Yep - wouldn't say its particularly outdoorsy but for walking & riding Exmoor is only a ten minute drive, Dartmoor & Quantocks less than 40 miles away.
The South west coast path is a great place & very popular for walking.
Surfing - Croyde & Putsborough 10 minutes drive this time of year (wouldn't try it in summer)
Riding from the door - nothing special but we manage to put a few good loops together taking in the best bridleways etc.

Aviemore. By the height of a Munro.
World class walking, climbing, biking and paddling. Skiing, all but 'in' town.
coast and sailing not that far away (west as well as east) and the rest if the Highlands just a shrt drive away.
Having lived in Sheffield, it doesn't even come close.

Keswick for me, hands down.

^ I like Keswick, but by heck it is busy....and so are the hills....and you can't ski so easily....and the rivers are not so long or plentiful.

Sorry matt_outandabout but you are 100% wrong on this one.

Aviemore is a village, not a town.

Aviemore/keswick. If you want surf go Newquay.

Keswick is tranquil compared to Leeds, which is a hellhole for cycling.

Apart from Jam Bo saying Bodmin (are we related - lol)and he has a good point. I can not believe no one has mentioned Plymouth!

Very local surf spots include Wembury, Fort Bovisand and Whitsand Bay. Bantham is about 45mins drive away and the North Coast of Cornwall is about an hour.

Then as far as cycling goes, Plymouth has a great scene, for XC (all the races at Newnham) DH (Gawton) and there is a good road scene. Then you can include some great Dartmoor trails in a day ride from the city centre.

Swansea - I live at the bottom of the Swansea Valley, great cycle routes (sustrans for getting about) Beacons 20 mins up the road, climbing wall 5 mins away, Gower for cycling, climbing and surfing, trail centres nearby and Swans for footy, never had a problem with crime - wouldn't want to live anywhere else save for perhaps the Lakes.

dozy bunch!
Llanberis. best climbing in the UK, great cycling, both MTB and the proper stuff. You can check the local surf from just up the road. Canoeing all round, ditto sailing.
Plenty of places to stay at all prices. enough food and beer.
Thankfully not a city although Bangor has plenty of female students 😆

Depends where you need to be close to.

Isle of Wight ticks a load of boxes and reasonably quick to London...when the surfs not up.

I've lived in... Bangor, Caernarfon, Cardiff, Perth and now just outside of Peebles.

It all depends on what you want. North Wales was excellent for hill walking and climbing. However, its small. I'd walked every hill in the national park, and climbed pretty much everything I was able yo climb, without putting in a stupid amount of effort. So got bored. It also sucks in the wet. Nearest cinema was 45 minutes away for example.

South Wales was amazing for riding, walking was boring as hell. Plus my bikes kept getting stolen, so rubbish because of that.

Perth is beautiful. Really beautiful. Walking is superb, but different to north Wales. The highlands is also a lot more scary when things go wrong, like a total whiteout in the Cairngorms at the weekend, with no discernable way markers to map a route from. Ridings great, but muddy as hell at the moment, and trail centres are 1.5 hours away.

Peebles. Peebles.... Well, its very close to glentress and inners, pentlands on the doorstep, ochils close by, and the Trossachs not too far. Other stanes are 1.5 hours away too.

So far Peebles is looking great for what I want.

I don't think I could live in the lakes or peak, due to the amount of people and tourists.

Apart from Jam Bo saying Bodmin (are we related - lol)and he has a good point. I can not believe no one has mentioned Plymouth!

I was joking about Bodmin, I meant Camborne...

fort william or aviemore, probably fort william, for easier acess to surfing spots on the west coast i'd imagine(I know nothing about surfing.)

StefMcDef - Member
No idea how nice it is as a place to live but I always thought Minehead in Somerset has a lot going for it in terms of of adjacent scenery, coast and terrain for all your outdoorsy needs. Is it commutable to Bristol?

POSTED 4 HOURS AGO #

No. Out of rush hour it'll take you 1hr 40m ish to get from Minehead to Bristol, way longer in rush hour. The A 39 to Bridgewater is very slow with nowhere to overtake.

Another vote for Brizzle here 🙂

The Northern Riviera

there is a rumour that a break works at Fleetwood

[img] http://surfnation.typepad.com/.a/6a00e553c82f3b883301310f93f6e1970c-pi [/img]

Just move to Hawaii or Northern California and have done with it.