Bristol?

Hmmm, think you'll have to give more info on what you want (access to mountains?) and what level of city living you enjoy/tolerate before it's easy to advise whereabouts you might like. Also, whether you have your own transport or rely on public services?

Overall, Bristol is a pretty good destination, but some residential areas are, erm, interesting

They talk funny up there.

Not necessarily a vote for living there, but it's a major hub and got great communication routes for travelling to other places.

 Quite lively, lots of shops if that floats your boat, close to climbing at Clifton, Cheddar, Wye Valley.Beaches and surfing N. Devon.  couple of crap football teams and close to Bath for decent rugby.  I've never lived there but visited and stayed frequently with my old job.  Oh the airport is pretty good too.

I love Bristol and have long considered it to be the perfect size for a city - not too big and not too small. However when I lived there (about 10 to 15 years ago) it was getting increasingly gentrified. I would imagine that the process has continued and will have pushed up the rents in all the more 'desireable' areas. Filton may have escaped this being somewhat out of the centre, but the flip side is that suburbia can be the 'worst of both worlds'. Back then the central St Pauls area had a remarkably bad reputation (maybe due some err... riots) but, along with Gloucester road, was actually one of my favorite shopping areas due to the multicultural atmosphere. I have never cycled there but friends who did always complained that for such a flat place there were too many 'hills' to climb. The central shopping area (Broadmead) is pretty much like any generic UK town/city centre and I would personally tend to avoid it. Clifton is somewhat dominated by student from the University of Bristol during term time, so the night life is rather busy - this may or may not suite you... I think Filton has its own student population from the University of the West of England - so I imagine that you would get many of the same issues.

Regarding outdoor activities in Bristol, well basically its a city so options are going to be limited. There is climbing in the Avon gorge (next to the rather posh clifton village area) and there is a park nearby (clifton downs) which hosts an annual hot air balloon festival. On the other side of the gorge (the side away from the city) there is a large park (ashton court) which hosts a 'free' music festival in the summer. Other than that, you are probably best to get on the motorway and check out South Wales or Bristol's neigbouring counties, or the coast.

Wurz wrote (see)

They talk funny up there.

I would say they talk funny down there (surely most places further south than Bristol have similarly interesting accents...), though when I lived there I rarely heard a genuine Bristol accent due to the fact that mostly people I encountered were students (like myself). Strangely enough, didn't the band 'the wurzles' come from that part of the country? Any relation? 

I actually find the bristol accent very easy on the ear (who needs 'T's anyway?), at least when not carried to extremes i.e. 'pirate' style. I was given to understand that the reason why sailors (and pirates) are often portrayed with a west country accent is because Bristol was such a major port back in those days - hence also the expression "ship shape and bristol fashion".

My birth county's accent is associated with farmers and yokels...

edited because lame attempt to insert video didn't work - replaced with link

otaku_steve wrote (see)

Wurz wrote (see)

They talk funny up there.

I would say they talk funny down there

I actually find the bristol accent very easy on the ear (who needs 'T's anyway?)

 I Couldn't agree more, I'm from Plymuff.  The Wurzles are no relation, when I was young and had hair it might have resembled Wurzel Gummidge's and I was on friendly terms with a maid called Sally.

Yate's alright if you want mile after mile of 70's housing. My mum lives there; I'd never move to the bloody place (not 'cos of my mum). Chipping Sodbury (next door to Yate) is OK, with easy access to Bath (for the rugby).

If you're going to work in Filton, Southmead is next door and rather nice; if you seek danger & find it exciting - personally, I'd avoid it like the proverbial plague. Further out, Henleaze is OK, specially nearer to Westbury Park, 'cos it's furthest from Southmead!

If you are a climber (as I once was), there's some good climbing in the Gorge, and an excellent climbing wall at St Werburghs, in the old St Werbergh's church. Worth a visit.

If you're more of a social climber, you'll want Tyndall's Park or Clifton.

I've lived in Bradley Stoke (just north of Filton) for a few years and it is pretty depressing - acre after acre of estate housing.

However, crime seems to be pretty low and the best thing about living there is that it's quite easy to get somewhere much nicer - 2-3 hours to London, 2 hours' drive to Devon, an hour or so to Wales and so on.

The city itself is OK, if you like that sort of thing.  Property prices are very high, however.  You will need to pay more than £500 per month to rent a house in a decent area. 

There a ton of nice places to visit in Wales.

This can help you with planning, it provides brochures and info from the government, it's very easy to use, you don't have to register before ordering and the brochures arrive in a couple of days.  

Wales Brochures

Hope this can help you all!