Why not make your future journeys to your family, long meandering journeys that take in all different areas of country between your respective homes. Stay the night in Britstol, if family cannot put you up book into a Premier Inn, and meander back gently the next day.
Once you have a short list of areas/places you like. Go there for a long weekend. Include Friday or Monday so that you can go into shops, inspect leaisure centres and anything else that shuts at weekends. Check where surgeries, shops, buses, trains etc are.
Go online to check whether there are groups that reflect your interests, so that you can join things when you get there to make friends and contacts in the area. Check rightmove that the area has plenty of housing of the type you are looking for at a price that yu can afford.
Do the above and you will discover where you know you want to live without even trying.