Edinburgh and Bristol

[socialworker]

Bristol is great! Best place to live in Bristol is Bath.

Commuting Bath to Bristol by car is a pig, 17 miles of traffic jam apart from the Keynsham bypass. Depending on what part of Bath you live, getting across town in the morning is pretty bad. By train may be ok.
Ive never lived in Bristol but have various friends who live there and love it. Good art and music scenes, lots of alternative type stuff if that's your bag . You could even live on a houseboat in the docks. Lots of ppl complain about traffic and the mayor is anti car. Bedminster is up and coming. Portishead may be worth a look and is a commuter dorm for Brizzle, esp if you like water.

[Avalonia]

Edinburgh - Cold/Dry
Bristol - Warm/Wet

[Zero Liability]

Well the Sunday Times profiled Britain's cities as part of its Best Places to Live report and Bristol came top.

Edinburgh also ranks pretty high, though. Bristol is close enough to London to be commutable. I'm considering both for a move atm. The fact that Edinburgh is in Scotland does take points off. They both sound like spiffy places to live, however from what I have seen of Bristol's rental market, it is not cheap.

[Avalonia]

Bristol to London on a regular basis ? Have a look at 'FGW' tweets for an idea of the service

[NickNick]

Whilst I've lived in Bristol for decades, I've not worked there for the last 10 or 12 years, so I can't really comment on that side of things. However I can echo most of what others have said. WRT schools, I think you'll find that Primary schools across Bristol are mostly excellent but the secondary ones vary greatly. This comes out of a time when there were loads and loads of cheap fee paying schools and lost of the middle class parents sent thier kids there, taking this batch of kids out of the state school system and therefore having an effect on it.
These days most of the fee paying schools have closed or converted so some of the newer state secondaries have picked up the kids that would previously gone to them. Schools like the Free School and Redland Green have benefitted the most from this in my opinion. Both schools can add a lot to the cost of a house in the catchment area. And catchment areas to matter in Bristol. For example, my kids were the farthest away from their school in that intake at 400metres. The scondary near by only tends to take kids from within 1000metres.
This ties in with what an other poster was saying about the density of housing here. Within the City proper houses are very closely packed and with the universities upping their intake year on year, many of them are converitng to multiple occupancy, along with all the issues that may bring.

[rich2476]

I used to work in Bristol for many years then a stint in oz and now working in Edinburgh.
I like both cities and both different pro's and con's. Bristol can be a nightmare for traffic so I would advise either live close to the city or near work. Also in Bristol you have a few options for contracts - Newport / Cardiff / Swindon etc

[rich2476]

mayor is anti car - The one that was caught for speeding?

Bristol mayor George Ferguson mocked on Top Gear for being caught speeding in a 30mph zone | Bristol Post

[Underscore Pt2]

Bristol people talk funny and are anti scottish. HTH.

[BA to the Stars]

[QUOTE=Hardgrafter;2061761]I too have lived in both Edinburgh & Bristol & think both cities are great.

Bristol cons

• A fair trek to the sea, no beaches etc. Within a two hour drive.
  

What about Weston-Super-Mare. It's only a couple of junctions down the M5 (no more than 20 miles away)

[GrumpyContractor]

Based on a direct comparison to things you like about Edinburgh, in my personal opinion Bristol offers:

- The contract market is fair and there are several close contracting hotspots (Cardiff, Swindon)
- Major traffic issues, see my previous post about cycling / motorcycling in Briz.
- Its safe outside the ropey parts, stay north of the river and west of Easton.
- (City Centre) is compact and easy to walk around
- A and green space (Clifton Down)
- No end of things to do (Providing you like music and people with a penchant for red trousers)
- Cannot get a 4-5 bed family home for about 400k in a nice area a few miles from the High Street (Bristol, particularly Clifton and Redland prices will soon skyrocket when / if a high speed rail network is granted for Bristol – London)