So, further to my earlier thread about TEFL in Korea I’ve found some jobs I like the look of in Wales, namely one of the above places. I lived in Newport for a while and loved it, but have little experience of either of these… Apart from one very hazy, drunken excursion to Pembokeshire.

Anyone local? What’s the riding like? I guess Merthyr would be better for biking being on the edge of the Beacons, and a bit more central too.

um…have you been to Merthyr??

No, that’s why I was asking! I have heard, erm, less than positive things about it.

**edit** I should probably point out that I live in Hull too 😉

Merthyr is HIDEOUS I would do my best to NOT live there! Pembrokeshire is lovely you should have loads of riding there, but I haven’t actually ridden there. If I had the choice I’d move to Pembrokeshire in a flash.

Deffo near Merthyr for riding. I live close: I see the Black Mountains and Beacons out of my back window. I can’t imagine a better place to live.

Parts of Merthyr are bit ropey like many places, but the people are warm and genuine. It is surrounded by small towns and villages and green, mountainous countryside so you have many options.

The European Regional Development Fund will provide a total of £4,978,020 to create a purpose-built mountain bike centre at Gethin, Merthyr Tydfil . . .

Pembrokeshire has lots of people from Merthyr driving around ripping of cars parked for surfing and biking……….alledgedly

is it TEFL in south Wales? 😉

Merthyr is a bit rough, it suffers very much from its industrial legacy. But there are some nice bits and you can ride out of you door into the Beacons so it isn’t all bad.
But working in Merthyr doesn’t mean you have to live there 😀 From N.Cardiff its only 20min drive, dual carrigway all the way up.

You’ll have allot better riding more locally from Merthyr. there isn’t lots of good riding in Pembs unless its been bone dry for ages, then theres some.
As a place to live Pembs is lovely, beautiful coast, people are dead canny, good surfing. Lots of nice places within reach of Merthyr too + people I’ve met from up there have been sound.

Nope, not for TEFL… It’s working for Sustrans, promoting cycling to schools.

I must admit to loving Pembrokeshire when I visited, definitely up there with the friendliest places I’ve visited, but it would be nice to have good riding out the door – in fact it’s pretty high on my list of desires for relocation.

It did cross my mind that commuting from Cardiff would be a possibility, but I’d quite like to remain carless, especially given the nature of the job which I guess would make it quite tricky. I think I need to visit Merthyr and the area really!

CArdiff is awesome place to live (but I’m biased as I grew up there and would LOVE to move back). Have you considered some where other than Merthyr but isn’t quite as far as CArdiff? Just another thought. Train lines from Cardif to Merthyr are quite good not sure on costings as a daily commute mind.

merthyr has a large sourounding area which is nice.

i have spent a lot of time in pembrokeshire and find it pretty boring compared to south/east wales. plus plenty more riding south/east and the people are more friendly this way too.

i would say pembroke is a place you would retire too.

look at places close to merthyr like pontypridd,blackwood,aberdare,caerphilly,machen, tredegar a good estate agent is peter alan.

Reverse commuting direction to most people Cardiff – Merthyr makes that better, train from Cardiff to Merthyr is time consuming 55 minutes but fine and cheaper than other train journeys of that duration. Living in Radyr or Taff’s Well would take 15 minutes off that and put you around the best of the Cardiff riding but linked to Merthyr and Cardiff by frequent train service. Pontypridd would put you half way between both but hardly an uplifting place either.

If working for Sustrans it is pretty much company policy that you would be on a Brompton 😉 so no trouble taking that on the train.

I don’t think driving from anywhere south of the M4 to Merthyr in 20 minutes is possible (legally).

I’m saying nothing workshop is a couple of miles south east of Merthyr, and what Cube said, Machen is nice

Where in Pembrokeshire? Most of it is very nice, but the riding is sparse.
Merthyr would have more riding options.

The taff trail runs right through Merthyr. Find somewhere nice along there and have a traffic free commute. As above, excellent riding right from the door. Pembrokeshire is lovely, not sure I’d want to live there as its a bit remote (some people like that), in Merthyr you’ll be close enough for weekends away.

see in theory Merthyr makes a lot of sense…but within 1 week of visiting local schools you’ll know you have made the wrong choice

Where in Pembrokeshire? Most of it is very nice, but the riding is sparse.

+1, get a road bike, ride cheeky, or bit of both + surfing FTW

Pembs is a great place to live…there is lots going on socially once you get to know some places and people, but it’s never going to compete with any urban area for choices of pubs/places to eat/cinemas etc if that is what you want.
There is a severe lack of decent off road riding, even the cheeky stuff is poor when it’s wet, which is a lot of the time! But other activities like climbing/surfing/swimming/seakayaking make up for it…

Saying that there is also the chance for the whole place to blow up occasionally…

Your giving away our secrets Matt! If we tell them how nice it is they’ll all want to live here.

It really is a great place if you like the general outdoors as well as biking, and Brechfa is only 45 mins away.

Did you hear a bang earlier Matt? Seems something’s gone a bit wrong on the site.

Merthyr isn’t as bad as a lot of people make out, there are far worse places to live. There are good areas and bad areas which can generally be said of most places in the UK and beyond.

As mentioned above there is some great riding from areas around Merthyr particulary to the north and there is also the prospect of a gravity bike park coming soon.

Did you hear a bang earlier Matt? Seems something’s gone a bit wrong on the site.

I’m too far away to hear it, but I guess you must be fairly close.
Doesn’t sound too good.

I was born in Merthyr and lived there till I was about 20 and often come back to visit my folks and mates. I live in New Zealand now but still miss lovely Merthyr, it’s seriously underrated! I was visiting home last month and couldn’t get over how friendly and warm everyone is. Oh and valley girls 🙂

There are some dodgy parts (you want to avoid the gurnos for starters!) but also some nice areas and like you say you don’t have to live in Merthyr itself, plenty of the adjacent valleys are nice too and very cheap housing compared to the rest of the country. You could also look at living on the edge of the national park and commuting in.

There’s awesome riding all over the valleys without needing to drive anywhere. The trail centres are all close (CwmCarn/Afan, Brechfa, Nant y Arian/Cwm Rhaeder are driveable), some great DH tracks (gethin/taff buggy/mountain ash/rheola and loads of shonky secret local stuff) and if BikePark Wales takes off I’m sure everyone will be changing their tune 🙂 There’s miles of XC stuff in the beacons and the colliery spoils in the valleys make for epic tip surfing on your bike.

grew up in pembrokeshire and now live in Taffs Well 😀

id say pembs is a great place to visit but its a bit quiet for anyone under the age of 30. it is very nice tho and as people have said, great for surf etc.

but for biking Id say go for merthyr. but id live outside and commute. taff valley would be best because you can easily and quickly reach cardiff and still be in touch with loads of riding. maybe me being a bit biased tho.

A job in Merthyr? Surely no such thing exists! Lol

The riding around Merthyr is good, living there not so much :p Parents still live there (well in Cefn Coed anyhow) and I lived there for a while, the town centre itself is a bit of a mess and the night life is an acquired taste (although if watching women fight outside kebab places is your thing I can highly recommend it). It also has a brilliant LBS (Taff Vale Cycles).

tbh if i was under 60 i would live in the merthyr area, i could see me ever wanting to live in little england (pembrokeshire) nant and brecfa is the closest trails centres with a 1hr 1/2 drive to the 7 bridge and 1hr drive to cardiff airport!!

Come and live in Cardiff matie , after 20 years in London I’m back and smiling.

I could quite happily live in Cardiff. Spent three years in Newport as a student and loved every minute of it, and saw an awful lot of Cardiff then. Reminds me a bit of Leeds, in a good way.

In honesty I’m not too bothered about nightlife, I rarely do the whole going out drinking thing. The odd bevvy in the pub post ride along with trips to gigs, fillums, that kind of thing is more me. So being in / near Cardiff would be grand. And as I said earlier, good riding / walking / general adventuring as close to straight out the door as possible is a must. Looks like Merthyr it is then…

Also, I bloody LOVE the Valleys accent.