I always view MrSmith as a less funny davidtaylforth

I have just re read the Op’s Brief so Edinburgh is out (Drac will be pleased)

Hahaha it’s my opinion many people seem to like it.

London

Cardiff has a few things going for it:

– Far more facilities and amenities than most cities/towns of its size, because the hinterland is really big (i.e. the Valleys) and the city draws a lot of people in.

– It has loads of cultural things going on, because much of the Welsh National this and that is here. There are two theatres I know of, two posh venues for ballets, operas and the like, there’s also one chav-tastic cheap venue, and the stadium too for.. er.. monster truck displays… 🙂

– The riding’s good, far better than Bristol which seems to have one overcrowded tiny bit of woodland full of angry trail users and bike thieves as far as I can tell. The trails start just outside the city (and are accessible off-road from the centre) and continue all the way to the North Wales coast. You can ride to Cwmcarn on good trails and even the Beacons and theoretially Afan if you have the time and legs. No car required. There’s also a rail network in amongst the trails – you can get a train to Cwmcarn in about 20 mins from Cardiff Central.

– The town centre’s lovely. Castle, park and river are all right next to the shops, and the bay is not far away as an alternative for eating out. Loads of new development, big fancy shops as well as small independents still right in town.

– Traffic isn’t really bad when driving, except for a few hotspots at rush hour but even that’s not as bad as most cities. It’s only about 5 miles from the very edge of the City to the centre, and the back roads are quiet. Cycling is a breeze.

Just to be contrarian I’m going to say Chester. Handy for North and Mid Wales, close to bigger cities for culchah, good for mways for trips back up norf. Nice place, too.

Normally I’d just say Manchester too, though.

Bath Bath ???? have you all gone mad, traffic nightmares and stupidly expensive.

There is only one answer and that is Newport an unrelenting crap hole but its cheap and the riding is superb.

Bath is not really comparable to the likes of Bristol, Cardiff etc is it, it’s bloody tiny.

Anyway, OP has not given enough information. Buying or renting? How much $$$? Do you want bang central or suburbs? Kids/schools or not? What about your work + commuting?

(edit) Newport …. lol

Just to be contrarian I’m going to say Chester. Handy for North and Mid Wales, close to bigger cities for culchah, good for mways for trips back up norf. Nice place, too.

Normally I’d just say Manchester too, though.

I work in Manchester but live in Chester for the above reasons plus I don’t like Manchester- its just a sprawl with no character and the traffic is worse than London I reckon. I’d prefer Liverpool to Manchester any day.

Glasgow, although kind of similar to Manchester, I much prefer as it has more character and of course in 30 mins you can be in the Highlands.

When we lived down south we frequented Bristol a fair bit. Great city especially the centre, docks and Clifton areas. Bristol is always mentioned in threads like this for good reason.

Manchester city center is a shit hole always has been always will be I’ve lived here most of my life.

It has two great theaters + Lowery (Salford) but apart from that I hate going into town (I live and work in Sale. )The city center is just a dump.

Hereford would get my vote as I’ve lived there and feels more like a rural small town than a city.

Chichester

Seeing as how the OP thinks Aberdeen is a bit small, let’s narrow the list down a bit…

City Population
London 7.2 Million
Birmingham 992000
Leeds 720000
Glasgow 560000
Sheffield 512000
Bradford 467000
Edinburgh 450000
Liverpool 440000
Manchester 420000
Bristol 380000
Wakefield 316000
Cardiff 310000
Coventry 305000
Nottingham 285000
Leicester 280000
Sunderland 280000
Belfast 280000
Newcastle upon Tyne 259000
Brighton 248000
Hull 240000
Plymouth 240000
Stoke-on-Trent 239000
Wolverhampton 239000
Derby 230000
Swansea 225000
Southampton 220000
Salford 215000
Aberdeen 215000

Anywhere there not got a mention yet?

Why did Bradford get dismissed out of hand? We’ll have a shopping center soon, honest!

Also – Truro?

Chichester +1

Sheffield and Bradford are more populous than Manchester? 😯

molgrips

The riding’s good, far better than Bristol which seems to have one overcrowded tiny bit of woodland full of angry trail users and bike thieves as far as I can tell

That’s the great thing about the new trails. Some people do actually believe that. Overcrowding isn’t an issue that I’ve experienced. There’s tons of trails that are less well known and tbh I can’t recall ever meeting anyone on the trails (new or old) who was angry. Maybe they’re scared of me.

Bike theft is a problem in Bristol, same as many places. The perception of the problem is far worse than the reality as usual though.

It’s always interesting who feels the need to denigrate other places rather than just explain why their place is good…

FWIW, to the OP, Bristol is a great place to live. I moved back here (having previously been at Uni in Bristol) over 10 years ago for no other reason than it’s a great place to live. Certainly haven’t ever regretted it.

Greater Manchester is more like a million people IIRC. No way is Leeds bigger than Manchester or Glasgow.

Greater Manchester is more like a million people IIRC. No way is Leeds bigger than Manhester and Glasgow.

S’all about how you divvy up the metropolitan areas, init. Most of greater manchester isn’t actually manchester – far more so than in West Yorkshire. This might be a fairer list in terms of size of the urban area overall:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_areas_in_the_United_Kingdom

Greater Manchester Built-up area 2,553,379
West Yorkshire Built-up area 1,777,934

Must be the metropolitan borough of Manchester that has 420,000 – there’s something like 2.5 million people inside the M60.

Manchester is bit bland but it’s sprawl does create plenty of nice places to live outside of the city centre.
Central Liverpool, say, is grand and beautiful in a similar way to Edinburgh – which is appealing. But the inner city still has a long, long way to go – years of regeneration needed, esp at the north end.

If work/family allowed, I’d be back home to Newcastle in a heartbeat. A bit similar to Manchester as a City but less threatening and fewer Liam/Ian Brown wannabes with a simian swagger and misplaced confidence/chips on shoulders. It’s got a brick viaduct though 😉

Greater Manchester’s population is 2,500,000. It is a huge urban sprawl.

Bike theft is a problem in Bristol, same as many places. The perception of the problem is far worse than the reality as usual though.

I’ve never been followed home from the trails by a car load of criminals, I must say. Which has been mentioned here a few times. I do not know Bristol trails very well, but I’d be keen to visit them since I’m not far away. Every time I ask on here they say ‘well there’s.. Ashton Court and Leigh Woods.. And Wales isn’t far away on the M4’

It’s always interesting who feels the need to denigrate other places rather than just explain why their place is good.

Did you not see my big list of good stuff about Cardiff I posted?

Bangor.
You want good riding, Cyb,Marin, Llandegla, Antur,Revolution,Llangollen all within 1 hour.
Snowdon 20 minutes.
And its a nice chilled out place to be.
End of thread

Of course you did and I could have posted my stereotypical or more real-world negative impressions of many places mentioned positively on this thread but I didn’t.

AC and LW are the two most popular places for a reason – they’re decent riding that many people can get to in 10-20 minutes by bike from living in a major city. Not many cities have that. Over the suspension bridge where the two of those are, is largely rural and there are loads of other trails (including in LW in particular) that are less well known – but they’re not marked which is why people can’t really direct you to them.

In addition, the Mendips are about 20-30 mins away by car (if you feel the need) and the Quantocks and various other locations in Wales within an hour.

No one is suggesting that Bristol’s local trails are as good as the best of the Lakes/Peaks/Various Welsh riding locations but then they are much more accessible for most from a major city with plenty of employment, etc.

Given that most people work and I expect many on here lead fairly busy lives, the opportunity to have the practical option of going out for an hour door to door and get a nice spin in is a pretty good selling point.

My experience of riding in Bangor is that there’s not much to be done from the door that isn’t a huge epic with 30+ miles of road in it.

If you’re in Bangor take up climbing or road riding 🙂

One great thing about Brizzle is that mol doesn’t like it so one is unlikely to bump into him here.

And the Watershed.

(And the Cube, in case noteef is reading.)

One great thing about Brizzle is that mol doesn’t like it so one is unlikely to bump into him here.

If Bristol is so great why don’t you live there?

er…

Mind you, you do run the risk of bumping into the silver fox in Bristol (though amazingly it hasn’t happened yet…)

😆

er…
Mind you, you do run the risk of bumping into the silver fox in Bristol (though amazingly it hasn’t happened yet…)

That’s because he wants to claim the glamour of big city living and doesn’t want to admit that he lives in a bland suburban satellite town semi-nearby. It’s like when Ryan Air fly to ‘Berlin’.

Oh it’s all unravelling now…

I’ll be needing a third log-in soon. 😐

Bangor 😆 either full of stoodents or a ghost town.

Despite the disappointing revelation you still won me over with your dreamy eyes and tasty pizza.

Heh.. my favourite thing about Bristol is that its inhabitants are easy to goad on STW 🙂

In reality I’m sure it has good points that I don’t see, and the bad points are the things I have seen.

doesn’t want to admit that he lives in a bland suburban satellite town

Seriously though, I’ve always found it interesting how separate Cardiff and Bristol are despite being quite close. Bristol is emphatically part of the West Country, and Cardiff very Welsh, and there’s not much mixing either in terms of people or attitudes. It seems the border is more than simply political. Of course, the border was in fact quite a long way from Cardiff until the 60s.

For what my opnion is worth, I thought Manchester was an utter s**hole when I lived there. But I agree with Sheffield, lovely place and easy to ride out of town into great riding. Good tram system too for gettign around (although not as good as the buses were before they were deregulated.

eh? Bristol is bloody full of Welshies! 🙂

Seriously though, I’ve always found it interesting how separate Cardiff and Bristol are despite being quite close. Bristol is emphatically part of the West Country, and Cardiff very Welsh, and there’s not much mixing either in terms of people or attitudes

In the 20+ years I’ve lived in Bristol I’ve met loads of people from South Wales who now live in Bristol, and plenty of people who live in Wales and commute into Bristol. I think there’s more overlap than you imagine.

Personally I think Cardiff is a great place, and the renewal of the Docks has created a fabulous area to visit. It certainly is less congested than Bristol.

When I’ve worked in Bristol in three different places I’ve only met one or two people who commute from Cardiff. I’ve also not met anyone from Bristol in Cardiff, having lived here for 10 odd years and worked for 4.

Cardiff is a better bet than Bristol for riding and culture IMO.

Manchester is grotty and not somewhere I’d want to stay long.

It would be helpful however, if the OP could give more information on what they want in terms of job, accommodation etc. and expand on why Aberdeen is so bad?

Glasgow (even though I’ve just moved away from it). The West End is really very nice, plenty of shops/clubs/bars, excellent riding from the door step. Does rain A LOT though.

Bristol is awesome! It’s pretty diverse and each area has it’s own feel. Hippy st werberghs with eco houses and a farm. Posh clifton, Stokes croft, easton, st pauls.

I’ve ridden leigh woods and ashton court loads. It’s great finishing work and riding up from the cycle track, quick blast then a pint in clifton or hotwells on the grain barge

Never been followed (not that i know of)

As clubber said Mendips is not far away and hop over the bridge to cwm carn now and again