Moving to the country

Bear in mind that bus services keep being cut and so you may need to rely on taxis if you give up driving. This has happened in our area and the last bus out of town is at 2.20pm!

Wobblybits you live in a similar place to me, everything on the doorstep but open countryside all around too.

We live in a large Village, we have almost all the services we could want, however from the centre of the village it is only a 10 minute walk in any direction to open countryside. From our house it is just a few hundred yards. There are many small rural towns and villages that also offer similar convenience yet very close to open fields.

One of the things that defines a small town/village is the community spirit.

Do it.
We put off moving and did more research. Then my husband had an accident which made him disabled.
We moved a couple of years later, but it was never like it would have been.

Once we moved because my husband's company had closed the office he was working in and he had to commute to London, so we found a better place to commute from to his office. Then he got a new job in the place we moved to.

If you want to move, don't put it off, because you never know what's going to happen next.

Small village here, shops, hairdresser, GP. Bus to nearest town. Fields full of wildlife. 10 minutes drive to work. Perfect. Keeping it to myself

An hours commute in a city might only be a few miles, An hours commute from my home would be 60 or so miles. I worked 7 mile from home, 10 minute commute.

Dear all

Thank you so much for your feedback and suggestions. I already commute about 1 hour per day from where Ai live to work so not too concerned about that element. All of your tips gratefully received. Thank you.

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I think the phase moving to the country can mean many different things, and there are many different types of rural location, some totally isolated others more like surbia. I live on top of a hill in a beautiful area, over the last 30 years of living here all the local shops have closed as they were farm shops we do not have a village centre, so doctors, dentists, chemists etc are a drive to nearest towns. There is no public transport. We do mange fine, all the big supermarket deliver and we both still drive, if the hill is covered in snow now we are retired we just stay put. I always have back up long life milk food, candles etc handy in winter.

So good luck OP our commute used to be 45mins to an hour depending on traffic and I used it as a time to unwind and leave work behind me.

We downsized from town to country. I have been suprised by how much we took for granted living in a town such as taxi's, food delivery, shops, library, theatre and restaurants. Now we have to drive everywhere. I suggest you rent first. My absolute ideal would be to live in country with a flat in a town. We aren't moving though as beguiled by the natural wonders we never noticed before. The skies, sunrises, colours and light of changing seasons, animals, birds, trees. Surrounded every day by the most wonderful natural beauty. We are fitter, happier and somehow much freeer. Good luck.

Does it have decent public transport would be my first question. We live in the country but have a brilliant bus service both down to the valley small town and to the local larger French town- with great train connections to both the Swiss/European train services and the French/European/British trains services- and great neighbours- just far away not to be in each other's face all the time- but they can count on us and us on them.

I have lived in the country for decades - far far more isolated than you are describing - and would never want to move to a town.

My only piece of advice would be that you should investigate the social scene and the community feel of the village - what clubs/societies are there?

Ah, no, I have a second piece of advice - you are fit and healthy now, but do not know what is round the corner, so bear in mind the hilliness of the place in case that might trap you in if you were not so mobile.

Good luck - sounds a lovely idea.

WE get Tesco to shop for us and deliver it to the door. When eventually you can't drive, the cost of running a car buys a lot of taxi trips.

A rural village can offer the best solution, a few shops and maybe doctors etc.

Dietdemon i made the move 2 years ago but to a rural village, its the best thing i have every done. Yes the doctors, dentist etc are miles away ( i dont drive) but there are buses and for a real emergencies there are taxi's. You learn to write a list so you dont forget any shopping you need and learn to keep the money for an emergency taxi. Just make sure you can do the commute in the meantime. Bet you wont regret it.

Lots of pros and cons to consider. The travelling could become an issue when the weather is bad. We moved to rural France when we retired and have never regretted it, but during the winter we are thrown very much on our own resources. This is fine for us but not if you are a social person. Think carefully before committing but there are so many good things about living in the country, peaceand quiet ( different noises ) lovely walks, animal and bird watching it's good.

Do consider what life will be like when you can no longer walk the 35 minutes into or drive the 5 minutes into the 'centre'.

Looking to the future, what is the local transport like ? There could be a time when you can no longer drive. How near is the local GP, are there local shops.
Are there country lanes to negotiate in bad weather.
When all that's been considered, I love living in the country

We moved to the country when we got married, I had a 2hr train journey to work (or during the summer a 1.5 hour drive) Found a job locally after a couple of years. never regretted it for one moment. Just driving to work in the morning was a pleasure, open fields and pleasant countryside. Ww did not know anyone at first, but soon made new friends and got involved in village life.

I did similar, found that not living near where you work means you don't get to know local people too much. I just didn't have time to join in much, got shopping on way home or online. I do 1 hour each way by car, on a good day. Would never do by public transport. Don't want to be negative, if you have time and energy to Join some local groups, village Hall or fete committee, would help you integrate. Good luck.

Hi diet I think you'll find that many people share the dream and where you want to go sounds lovely.

For me the clincher would be the commute and how many more years you'd have to do it. "It's only an hour" is a complete misnomer once you factor in travel delays, packed trains (I once stood from Glasgow to Newcastle despite having a booked seat, I simply couldn't get into the carriage), whether any other work travel is involved. My poor daughter commutes to her job for an hour every day and then schleps across London for meetings, she is always tired, and she's a young woman.

So for me, 2 hours (at least) of sitting/standing on a train every day plus whatever time is needed at each end, wouldn't work.

I believe that first prize for quality of life is to work near to where you live.

I'm sure others will be along soon with sound advice, I can't be objective because I hate commuting with a passion.