Where would you live, if cycling wasn’t the main object.

Probably France if my French was better.

Thought about Australia at one point, but it rains quite a bit in Sydney in the winter, even more in Melbourne.

South west Ireland. On the coast. In the winter Spain.

If no thought for MTB (or money)...

Edinburgh
Stockholm
Sennen Cove
Oban
Wells-Next-The-Sea
Keswick
Somewhere in New Zealand

Probably where i live in Oz now to be honest. When I moved here i wasn't into cycling. It just happens that all the things I like to live near are conducive to cycling too.

I did actually get this as a question in an informal job interview for a sales position for a brewery once. What a question! What's the correct answer supposed to be?

Me & the Mrs Egf are currently in Andalusia. Been here for a month on holiday. We live in North Yorkshire, mid way between the NYM National Park & the Yorkshire Dales National Park, 1/2 a mile from the A1M with the obvious links to the rest of the UK.
...
Politics/cost of living aside, where would you choose?

Your gaff. How long have I got to break in and change the locks before you get back?

Sydney. Was there on holiday recently and it just felt like "home". Settled in straight away, found my way around easily. Loved it. It is quite a long way from anywhere though...

I did actually get this as a question in an informal job interview for a sales position for a brewery once. What a question! What’s the correct answer supposed to be?

They're not looking for a "correct" answer, they're looking at how and why you come to the conclusion you do and how you're "selling" that place to them in your description of it.

Me & the Mrs Egf are currently in Andalusia.

HAving spent time in Orgiva... yeah where you are would suit me just nicely thanks.

the MTBing may be 'different' to what you/we know, but it's just good fun days out.

Somewhere quiet near Oban or in Plockton in the summer and New Zealand for winter. The air travel might not exactly help the climate.
Otherwise just Somewhere on west coast of Scotland.

A warm island, with outdoor space and a pool in a quiet area where community, a few restaurants and walks are available year round.

Becuase the Caribbean (we have family there) is too far away for the kids to visit regularly I’d fallen for the cliche villa on a Spanish island.

However, Mrs K likes her North London roots and cultural accessibility so it’ll be a quiet Essex / Herts house most likely.

i have a different outlook on life to a lot of people i think.
as most people get older they want peace and quiet, in a nice rural setting it seems.
as i age and move into more senior years, i want to live in a nice city, surrounded by everything i need.
shops, food places, bars and pubs. no need for a car. a good bus service and trains.
and when i want space and quiet, i can take days out of the city.

so a nice city or town for me. Oslo would be on the list.

Rovinj, Croatia, on the Istrian Peninsular or one of the Canary Islands.

Dunno, Sweden is pretty perfect for the stuff I want to do and doe s not have the obvious drawbacks that Australia has (sun+++, all animals trying to kill you, etc). Maybe the Alps, maybe. Maybe not.

Nijemagen would be close to top.

Or maybe somewhere on the Bay of biscay

I’d be @Bruce’s neighbour in Oban

I live where my OH loves living, the fact I can MTB out of the door is a benefit 🙂

Only thing we lack is summer heat.

#ScottishBorders

Freiburg, Aix-en-Provence, San Sebastian, Annecy although they would all also be pretty good for outdoor activity I just can't imagine a life where I wouldn't at least want to get out to at least walk in nature.

Moved to Tobermory on the Isle of Mull just over a year ago and can’t see any reason to want to live anywhere else. Fortunate that we built our dream home in a great location plus the nature on our doorstep is astounding.
Less than 3,000 people on the whole island means there’s a real sense of community and crime rates are negligible.
We go to Oban for our monthly shopping trip and it feels a completely different pace of life, too busy and impersonal - returning home is a delight not a chore.
Downsides are that food here isn’t cheap, many businesses close down for the winter from November to Easter and tourists’ attitudes that we’re actors in some sort of theme park for their benefit - somehow it’s the locals fault that we can’t pony-up an 🦅 or an 🦦 as soon as they get out their cars.

somehow it’s the locals fault that we can’t pony-up an 🦅 or an 🦦 as soon as they get out their cars.

I’ll remember that when we come to Tobermory for a week next May. 😜

Sydney. Was there on holiday recently and it just felt like “home”. Settled in straight away, found my way around easily. Loved it. It is quite a long way from anywhere though…

My mate out there has pretty much lived on Zwift for the last three years because the weather has been so bad. I lived there for a couple of years in the 90s. Loved the winters, but was too hot for me in summer. Walking to work at 7.30am in 42c was no fun.

Got to confess I love it here on the Sussex coast at the foot of the Downs. Just wish the inhabitants of the country weren't so hell bent on buggering it up.

obvious drawbacks that Australia has (sun+++, all animals trying to kill you, etc).

That’s a myth we peddle to try and stop you from coming over here 😏

The trouble is wherever you go there will always be arseholes. They are unavoidable, but it just so happens that they seem to have proliferated in this country over the past few years. Or maybe they are just more noticeable now.

Anyway, I'd gladly move to the South of France, ideally coastal but not in a city or town. Easy drive to northern Spain and Italy. Rest of Europe not too far behind.

Have lived in villages, towns and cities in the UK and Aus. I'd want a left-voting city with easy access to the country for biking, walking, climbing. Also walkable to independent shops, real ale, choice of eateries, good cinemas, a university or two to diversify the population, supermarkets, unspoilt (Victorian?) architecture, friendly locals and civilised driving habits. Somewhere people feel free to do their own thing.

Where would you live, if cycling wasn’t the main object.
........Or climbing/water sports/wingsuit BASE jumping etc.

Does not compute - that's like asking a foodie where they would eat if they didn't care about food. Or an academic where they would study if they didn't care about the university. Outdoor stuff (not just mtb, but all outdoor stuff, even if that means drinking a coffee on your doorself looking at the view) is so entrenched into my very being that I can't quantify thinking where I'd live and remove those factors. It would be an entirely different person making a decision.

Definitely with you there on the town & no car front @ton but I'm afraid Bergen beats Oslo hands down for me, although I'm not sure I'd enjoy the winters.

If it hadn't been for Brexit we would have bought the in-laws place in Corsica & spent 9 months of the year there, renting it out and traveling in the summer when it's unbearably busy and hot ☹️

Would you still choose it if the food was rubbish and it rained all the time? It's a bit of a weird question as 'cycling Or climbing/water sports/wingsuit BASE jumping etc' covers a lot of leisure activities, and reasons to choose an area.

Bergen beats Oslo hands down

Yep.

Although we may end up moving back to York. Its a great place to live.

There are a small number of places that are on my list:
Christchurch, NZ, or maybe Wanaka.
San Diego. About the only city in America that I liked.
Ibiza. Somewhere in the north of the island with access to the hills and the beaches as required.

Would you still choose it if the food was rubbish and it rained all the time? It’s a bit of a weird question as ‘cycling Or climbing/water sports/wingsuit BASE jumping etc’ covers a lot of leisure activities, and reasons to choose an area.

Agreed, if the criteria is 'where would you live if you had zero interests of hobbies', surely that just leaves family, friends and work?

In general I've always quite liked the idea of northern California, Washington or Oregon? Seems a good compromise of being politically liberal/non-conservative, not overcrowded, nice climate.

Somewhere warm, on the coast, with sea views one side and mountains or hills the other. It'd need to have a few nice bars and restaurants within walking distance. I don't want to have to drive to shop either.

Probably France, Med side of the pyrenees, Collioure/Banyuls-sur-mer area or just over the Spanish border as theres nice fast trains round there as well.....

Or NZ, or Vancouver...

If money no object then Vancouver. I have family there and [bad thoughts] I’m just waiting for one of the oldies to leave their house to me in their will [\bad thoughts]

Christchurch. Loved living there but no chance of a visa now.
Bergen is great worked there a lot.
Lived near Oban but the weather absolutely sucks and is depressing after a few winters.
Andalusia probably next up in the Sierra Nevada, great riding, good culture, reasonable prices. Just waiting on a useful passport to arrive.

Oslo. But with the bank balance to support a modest life. Spent quite a bit of time there recently and whilst not perfect (where is…?) it struck me as a place that would be pretty much bang on if you were designing a new city from scratch. In fact you can extrapolate that the the whole country. A lot of this comes from the national psyche which is incomparable to the uk. Great place.

BillMC
Full Member
Have lived in villages, towns and cities in the UK and Aus. I’d want a left-voting city with easy access to the country for biking, walking, climbing. Also walkable to independent shops, real ale, choice of eateries, good cinemas, a university or two to diversify the population, supermarkets, unspoilt (Victorian?) architecture, friendly locals and civilised driving habits. Somewhere people feel free to do their own thing.

Posted 2 hours ago

Look at Bristol. Not sure about "civilised driking habits" with "a university or two" is really that compatible...

Have lived in villages, towns and cities in the UK and Aus. I’d want a left-voting city with easy access to the country for biking, walking, climbing. Also walkable to independent shops, real ale, choice of eateries, good cinemas, a university or two to diversify the population, supermarkets, unspoilt (Victorian?) architecture, friendly locals and civilised driving habits. Somewhere people feel free to do their own thing.

Hobart is pretty similar to that. I loved living there but too cold/isolated for the other half.

A similar-ish thread was started on here about 2 yrs ago and, unusually, I took the advice, acted on it and we moved.

The mountains maybe?

Lenzerheide Switszerland was ace for a couple week, but forever?....

I love where my friend owns a top end accommodation in Venosc (Les Deux Alpes), near AdH, Galibier, CdF etc

My wife has a ex-colleague who lives in Grenoble, so has normal jobs and school but at the weekend they head up to the mountains. Sounds pretty good to me.

I do like where I live, traffic locally aside. I live near Hampton Court, it has the river round the corner and 45m to 1h to the Surrey Hills, Swinley the same. I ride the whole year round. My friend who live in Switzerland and French alpes cant do that, since moving their fitness has gone south...

Maybe Wales (my wife is Welsh) if it wasnt for my kids schools.

Where I live is mad expensive, that sucks, but the rest is all good.

I spent most of my life in Bristol and miss it

keithb
Full Member
BillMC
Full Member
Have lived in villages, towns and cities in the UK and Aus. I’d want a left-voting city with easy access to the country for biking, walking, climbing. Also walkable to independent shops, real ale, choice of eateries, good cinemas, a university or two to diversify the population, supermarkets, unspoilt (Victorian?) architecture, friendly locals and civilised driving habits. Somewhere people feel free to do their own thing.

Posted 2 hours ago

Look at Bristol. Not sure about “civilised driking habits” with “a university or two” is really that compatible…

wonder how much of it was a time and that has now passed... I lived in the centre and had no kids, and cycled everywhere. Loved it.

My answer would be the same as if I was choosing for the riding:. In the UK it's Snowdonia or the Brecon Beacons. Outside the UK it would be New Zealand, anywhere outside a city. All of them have great scenery, a chilled pace of life and not too many facilities without being social wastelands.

Politics/cost of living aside, where would you choose?

If I can instantly be transformed into a master of the relevant language then Austria/Switzerland/Italy. Dolomites would do.

Already live in North London, so no need to move. Plenty of cycling that I enjoy, right here. Not a massive fan of being in rural/wilderness places for too long, very much a city boy. The 'outdoors' is somewhere to go for a short break/holiday. If I had to move though, Bristol would be top choice int he UK. Having visited Marseille recently, I think I could be quite happy there; great weather, food, nice people, very mixed, lots do do and see, good links to lots of amazing outdoors. And just a few hours from London. I'm currently badgering my wife to seriously consider getting a place there; a friend is looking to move there anyway, so that could be two birds killed with one stone (she gets a place to live, we get somewhere to go regularly for trips).

Or New York. Because New York. Maybe Amsterdam. Not Warrington.

The Lochindaal Hotel. To be specific in the public bar.

obvious drawbacks that Australia has (sun+++, all animals trying to kill you, etc).

That’s a myth we peddle to try and stop you from coming over here 😏

Hmmm, judging by the number of messages that my brother sends me of huge snakes and spiders on his porch or in his house; or torrential rain causing mudslides blocking his drive home; or having to find a detour to stop being attacked by magpies on his bike; or having to go to bed by 9pm because they need to be up so early in the morning to avoid the heat; or cancelling a kayaking trip because of sal****er crocs; or bunny-hopping the most venomous snake in Oz..... well, I'm glad it's all a myth. 😀

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere that still got supermarket and Amazon deliveries, along with reasonable landline and mobile broadband. A lot of 10-20C, very little near 0C and it only rains infrequently when I'm at work. 😉

Bergen is now on my list to visit after the recs on here.

my list of places i dont want to go to or to live is pretty big.
top of the list is australia, followed by dubai and thirded by anything remotely USA.
oh and cruises also. i will save those until i am unable to walk more than 5 yards,

I'm another that dislikes Australia – most of what I have seen of it (from Sydney to Airlie Beach, Queensland) smacks of America trying to be British or Britain trying to be American. Soulless for the most part, very weird weather, all the murderous wildlife and the weirdest bit (we spent most of our time in Surfer's Paradise) was the daylight hours – I suppose you must adjust, but having a sunset at 6.30pm even on the longest days is just plain weird. Give me the UK summers and winters - lovely cold, dark and log fire weather in winter and (mostly) mild/warm summers with long nights out in the garden in pleasant evening sunshine.

I live in Harrogate but, when the kids grow up, we are planning on moving to the east cost to somewhere with a sea view.

A good few years ago everywhere we went it was said wouldn't it be great to live here. After a while I came to realise that I actually like living where I do and enjoy visiting other places. I've grown into my locale and my interests and pursuits make the most of what I have on my doorstep. I also like bumping into old pals and colleagues, appreciate many wouldn't though. But in saying all that if I retire, a few months in the south of Spain during the winter wouldn't go amiss.

i’d live somewhere remote. i liked living in whitehorse in the yukon. not the greatest place for mountain biking, great for fat biking, though.

i enjoyed the lack of people and the beauty of the place. i don’t have too much against people, but i prefer space to crowds. the winter is a bit too long.

i was in and around bellingham in washington state recently. it’s quite pleasant down there not busy, sea and mountains. it’s a strange experience going from the very busy greater vancouer area and crossing into the USA and finding yourself amongst so much farmland.

Portuguese coast not far from Lisbon or Sardinia

In another life I'd live here - I could pay off my mortgage and have a tidy bit of savings behind me too.

If I had a lot more money than I do (or will ever have), then I’d live in Manhattan.

Only thing we lack is summer heat.

Not this summer though. Anything above 25 is too hot.

I've just spotted a nice little gaff for sale just down the road.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/127005539#/?channel=RES_BUY

Saunton Sands in a big house overlooking the beach.
Even without the surfing its such an amazing bit of the country.

I live in Harrogate

Unluckeeee!

I live in Boroughbridge but work in/around Arragit.

Caher
Full Member
South west Ireland

What he said, got the house sorted just need to get to live there full time.

Northeastern Germany. Probably somewhere like Rostock or Lübeck.

In. A. Heartbeat.

Ah well @Saxonrider, now you're talking. Lübeck was my Mum's home town. Very pretty old city centre, wonderful marzipan and asparagus.

Swiss alpes. Somewhere close to a nice town but not smack in the middle of a resort, but close to the ski lifts.
Or Bristol, where I am.

If cycling wasn’t the main object, would you really be living at all?

(On holiday, it’s no cheaper here than in the Uk)

TBH isn’t that because you come from oop north 🙂

I’m originally from Bristol and it’s definitely more reasonable where I am which is near Andalusia.

Houses are definitely cheaper and second hand cars not so, the food has gone up and the leccy but my power bills and council taxes are very low compared to the U.K.
(But the private health payments visa requirement until you can get s1 sorted or John the convinio could well be €100+ per person a month for a non retired person)

The £ to € hasn’t been as good as the old days thou.

I’m here and my long term plan is to spend the summers in the U.K. and the rest here once my visas finally sorted.

I’ve not really got into the non biking and really have got into the biking full steam as I’m working so it’s nice rides weekends and days off.

We have a Lunar cable park reasonably local which does all the water skiing and surfing things in a large square pool with cables that looks fun and if I can face the cable lifts there’s skiing available a few hours away.

My next purchase is one of those evil surrons to bumble around on when I’m too lazy to pedal ,sunbathing and Lycra/cycling in the heat don’t really work that well IMHO.

And that’s ignoring the cultural aspects of the country,they do like too party here and it’s very chill.

So for me it’s Bristol and Spain I like them both.

Forbes regularly do best places to live or retire features. I'm at #6 in one of them and happy. Spending six months to a year somewhere else is tempting though. A minor medical hicup yesterday reminded me of the advantages of living somewhere with high taxes and the corresponding public services.

https://www.forbes.com/pictures/gghd45flhl/no-6-pau-france/

I think Pau made it up to #3 in the latest feature but Google is failing me

Haven't been for a long time but Slovenia was pretty damn great last time I went.

When do I leave?
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/127692629?currencyCode=GBP#/?channel=OVERSEAS

No actually I'll have this one

https://www.thinkslovenia.com/properties-for-sale/property-for-sale-lokovec-bovec-soca-valley-slovenia-po1833

Haven’t been for a long time but Slovenia was pretty damn great last time I went.

My friends both say that. I have no idea why they moved to Spain from the UK.

I’ve just spotted a nice little gaff for sale just down the road.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/127005539#/?channel=RES_BUY
/blockquote>

That place is giving me the fear. Running the staff would be more work than my actual job I reckon

(although I suppose you'd have a team to sort that)

 

It rains a lot in Bergen, and that's not an urban myth. Still an easy place to live tho'. Much of northern spain and SE France works pretty well

And they replaced a great fish market with a crappy tourist version but hey ho it's a great city.