Bristol or Edinburgh to live...?

Fysh

Train from Waverley to Kings Cross is at least 4.5 hours.

A flight might be a little over an hour, but it's still about the same travel time overall when you take into account that you have to get out to the airport with enough time to get through security, then get back into London from whichever airport you arrive at. And while there are express routes in from the London airports that reduce the travel time a bit, they can end up pushing your travel cost up enough that you may as well have caught the train. Plus the train is generally less cramped.

I'm not saying you can't do it, but I reckon the amount of travel involved in a day trip from Edinburgh to London would be absolutely knackering and leave you in no fit state to do anything the next day

jimmii

The train is down to 4 hours now but not sure why anyone would do that when flying is quicker and cheaper! As long as you're not far from Edinburgh it's not a very taxing journey it sometimes takes longer to get to Dundee than London!

Hopefully the route will get some of those crazy high speed future pods and it'll be half an hour from wavereley to Kings Cross could pop down for dinner then!

HarborcOat

Yep, the fastest train of the day is the 'Flying Scotsman', at 4 hours.

It's like Fysh says; I'm ten minutes walk from Waverley, so for anyone like me going from centre to centre the train is far more convenient. For all the time spent travelling out to the airport, standing in queues through security and then sitting around waiting for the flight - not to mention travelling at the other end - I could have been sat at a window seat watching the world go by with a few beers. It's cheap too, if you book far enough ahead; I've just got a return for £35. But it's true that walk up fares are extortionate.

The Sleeper is great if it's quiet and you're lucky to get a compartment to yourself!

Rodin

brideygreen wrote: »

Having lived in Edinburgh for a year, and the UK for 7, I have visited Bristol a lot as I have a lot of friends there, my preference would definitely be Bristol. In 2015 it won the green capital of Europe (the year previously was Copenhagen) as it has a fantastic quality of life there. If you are interested in sustainable living, food, local brewing, vibrant music scene, art and culture, Bristol really trumps Edinburgh. While edinburgh is classically and architecturally beautiful, it really lacks the progressive vibrance of Bristol, and is a bit more stuffy, and posh!!! It is also much less socially diverse than Bristol. In Edinburgh most of the poorer housing areas have been pushed outside the city, whereas Bristol has a really diverse social urban environment, which is fantastic, and many of the areas which were quite rough in the 90's have been really revitalised because of the arts scene.

Edinburgh is a fantastic city also, but a lot more conservative, and full of tourists in the summertime. Its also quite cold and dark there in the winter, it is considerably milder and brighter down south!

Bristol has a really progressive mayor at the moment, and as a city it really promotes independent businesses, it also attracts a lot of university graduates to stay there because the quality of life is so good. It's also not too far from Devon, if you are into surfing etc, and Bristol has a large surf community.

I would highly recommend visiting both to get a feel for the places before you choose! Let me know if you have anymore questions.

Having the poorer areas outside of the city is wonderful. Unlike Dublin where you're tripping over druggies in the city centre.

razorblunt

In fairness Edinburgh is known for it's druggies too. In the last few years they seem to have increased an awful lot on George St, Rose St and Princes St.

jimmii

razorblunt wrote: »

In fairness Edinburgh is known for it's druggies too. In the last few years they seem to have increased an awful lot on George St, Rose St and Princes St.

But time. We lived in Edinburgh about five years ago and it's got so much worse now. Not as had as Dublin but still a bit of a surprise. The homeless problem seems to have everything got huge too.

nelsonmf

I enjoyed reading this thread as I have same dilemma.
Lived in Bristol for six months but didn't like only because I was living too far from the city centre. I lived in Filton which is horrid and in Horfield which is horrid too.
Looking now to move back but closer to town. Been comparing sharing prices and they are practically the same as in Edinburgh. But house prices are so much cheaper in Edinburgh and land price is cheaper too. Probably a good investment with all this Brexit thing...
I would say that Bristol has more traffic than Edinburgh but only been in Edinburgh in a Sunday, but even on a sunday Bristol seems to be much worse.
When the sun is out Bristol is amazing but I would guess same happens in Edinburgh but much less often?
Being a vegan I think Edinburgh is much better than Bristol, specially because of all organic markets.
The cold and dark short days really affects so I guess I should choose Bristol over Edinburgh. I would also like one day grow fruit trees and have a veg patch, Edinburgh is too cold to grow fruit I think... Anyway I think no one in here is interested in growing stuff haha
But any more comments are welcome because I am still not 100% decided, it is just easier for me to stay in the south and move to Bristol but not sure is the best decision.

jimmii

Princes St Gardens on a sunny day is a very nice place to be! We get a bit of sun but even on a clear day there's often a fair bit of wind to go along with it. There's actually a lot of allotments in the suburbs so you'd probably find you're not the only one looking to grow things.

nelsonmf

jimmii I meant that not many in this thread would really think about growing things
I heard about the wind from many of my friends, it was a bit windy when I was there but because I was visiting I didn't care too much.

jimmii

Yeh I got what you meant but just thought you would like to know you would be in good company here! It's really is crazy windy but it doesn't rain as much as you would think.