Location, location, location

[VectraMan]

Currently I live quite central(London and Bristol are both commutable).

Swindon? Living there is an obvious downside.

[bogeyman]

What?

Quite.

I read SuperZ's post a couple of times but still couldn't determine what he was asking, specifically.

'non-obvious downsides'?

[swamp]

What?

[SuperZ]

Are there any non-obvious downsides to living away from what we consider prime areas for contracting? Currently I live quite central(London and Bristol are both commutable). Earlier in the year I was temped to go permie so that I could relocate to a part of the country I prefer. The plan was to settle down for a few years then return to contracting.
Where I currently live, I only moved there because it was close to my first permie job in IT. It`s a small town miles from any decent sized city. When I went contracting I just ended up staying there.

I didn`t take the permie job but I`m now thinking "hang on a minute, have the best of both worlds, relocate now and just stay contracting". So I can have a better quality of personal life as well as keeping the income and work lifestyle I still enjoy. Even where I live now, I end up most of the time working somewhere I either need to rent a place near or or stay in a B&B.

The most notable downsides I think are.
1. Travel costs higher Mond and Fri.
2. Will likely always have to B&B it or rent a place next to client co.
3. agencies/clients could be put off by my far away location although i could work around that I`m sure.
Anyone else done such a thing and had negativve or positive experiences? I don`t want to move somewhere like cornwall and realise some things I hadn`t realised before and regretting it.

Cheers
SuperZ