The Best Outdoorsy Town In The UK?

Okay, I’m looking for the best outdoor town in the UK. Somewhere with an outdoorsy outlook, where there’s good surfing, windsurfing, mountain biking, climbing, hill walking etc close by. Somewhere with lots of outdoor’s type people and a vibrant and friendly outdoor community/scene. But, somewhere that’s not too cut off from the rest of the UK.

Need your suggestions please, backed up with solid reasons why your suggestion could be the best.

So then, fire away . . . .

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

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 Aberdeen 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.