My name's Charlotte and I have a passion for travelling and documenting my adventures through writing and photography. Having lived in several countries and visited 30, I've seen a lot of the world, but still have much more left to explore! Here on this blog, I do full recaps of all my trips - big and small - and write about a range of travel-related topics. Hope you enjoy and find plenty of travel inspiration!
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Sunday, 21 July 2024
My Year of Adventurous Travel
Sunday, 30 June 2024
Travel Tips: The Best Destinations to Live in - Part One
So far on this blog, and particularly with my Travel Tips series, I've written a lot about the best destinations to visit from a tourism perspective. But in this post and my next one, I want to write about something a bit different - the best destinations to actually live in!
The best destinations to visit on holiday are not always the best places to live, and vice versa. And while it's easy enough to find somewhere great for a trip away, there are a lot more factors that go into choosing somewhere to live, particularly if you're planning to settle there permanently.
This is a topic I've been thinking about a lot lately, as my partner Claudio and I have been deciding where we'd like to settle down, and have finally come to something of a decision over the last few months.
So far in my life, I've been lucky enough to have lived in several different places and even in a few different countries, each with their own pros and cons! And in this post, I'll be writing about my experiences in each of these places.
Later on, I'll also be writing about my dream places to live, and looking at the cities that have been selected as the most liveable in the world.
Let's dive in!
Places I've Lived
A small village in Wiltshire, UK
(By the way, the picture is Easton Grey - not the village where I actually live, but close by and also in Wiltshire!)
Pros
- Quiet and peaceful
- Close to picturesque areas like the Cotswolds and Avebury
- Conveniently located right between London and Cardiff
Cons
- Little to no public transport - you really have to be able to drive and have your own car if you want an independent life
- You have to travel at least 10 or 15 minutes by car to buy anything (to be fair, there's now a little community shop in my village, but it's not open every day, and when I was growing up, there were no shops at all.)
My Experiences Living Here
I've lived in the same village the vast majority of my life, but not really by choice! My parents moved here in the 80s, and so I grew up here and didn't leave until I went to university. After university, I moved back in order to get the next stage of my life sorted out, but just when I was preparing to move out again, the pandemic hit, and I ended up stuck here for another two years. I then lived in other places for the best part of two years, but moved back here after Christmas, in order to again, try to get the next stage of my life sorted out. Hopefully, I'll be moving out for good in the very near future!
To be honest, while I do like being here in the short term, I don't especially like living here in the long term. During the times when I was living in not-so-nice accommodation in Nottingham and Bristol, coming here for weekends and holidays felt like coming to a fairytale village, but I always found that after a month here, I'd get fed up with the lack of freedom and feel ready to go again.
Generally, I haven't had access to a car while living here, which has made things much more difficult. But overall, I definitely feel that I'm a city person at heart, despite growing up in the country, and I don't ever see myself living somewhere so remote by choice.
Would I Recommend It?
If you like quiet places and don't mind having to drive everywhere, then living somewhere like this is a good choice. Otherwise, it isn't.
Nottingham/Beeston, UK
Feldkirchen in Kärnten, Austria
Pros
- High standard of living
- Easy to travel to several other countries by train
Cons
- Feldkirchen is a fairly sleepy, quiet sort of place, and the region of Kärnten is quite rural with no big cities
- Very cold in winter (but snowy, which is nice!)
My Experience Living Here
They say that your life begins at university, but for me, it began with my Year Abroad! I spent four months of the year teaching English at two secondary schools in Feldkirchen, and had a great time. I travelled so much, both around Austria and to nearby countries, and I still miss being able to travel abroad with such ease.
Would I Recommend It?
Absolutely! While I don't see myself ever living somewhere like Feldkirchen in the long-term - I'd prefer a big, international city like Vienna - I think Austria is undoubtedly one of the best countries in the world to live in.
Pros
- The Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains are both short distances away, meaning there are loads of great day trips you can take - in the winter, you can even go skiing!
- Chile is a beautiful country with almost every landscape you can imagine, and it's all either a short flight or a long road trip away
- Long, hot summers and mild winters (though lack of central heating can make winter difficult)
- Low cost of living compared to the UK (though it has greatly increased in recent years)
Cons
- Limited job opportunities compared to Europe
- High crime rate
- Very unequal society - the difference between the west and the east of the city is extreme
- Much more expensive than other Latin American countries, especially since 2020
- Very bureaucratic - you have to spend entire mornings waiting in line to complete processes that we can easily do online in the UK
- Very difficult to rent a decent apartment if you aren't an employee - I was classed as self-employed during my second time living in Chile, and we had to actually rent our apartment in Claudio's mum's name
My Experiences Living Here
My first time living in Santiago was when I did a semester there as part of my Year Abroad.
I lived in a shared apartment in a student residence located in the city centre - this is one of the few nice places to rent that doesn't require loads of documents, and so there were several other international students from my university living there. I had my own en suite room with a desk and shared with one other girl. Again, sharing was a bit of a challenge at times, as I am not the sort of person who appreciates being woken up at 5am on a weeknight to the sounds of a house party going on outside my door, and then emerging the next morning to find the place trashed!
But it was definitely the biggest and one of the nicest apartments I've ever lived in - I can't imagine ever living somewhere as spacious and modern in the UK. Having said that, I'm not quite sure about the standards to which the building was constructed. At one point, a pipe from my flatmate's bathroom started leaking into my wardrobe, causing a mould problem, which meant that I actually moved to a different apartment in the same building for my last month there.
In terms of the neighbourhood, Santiago Centro is considered to be one of the areas of the city with the highest crime rates, and certain parts of it are very run down, which is a shame, as it's the area with the most historic buildings and monuments. Despite its problems, I actually really liked living there and walking past the old churches, colonial houses and grand palaces on my way to the metro station or the supermarket. But having said that, Santiago Centro is definitely less safe now than it was in 2018, so I wouldn't live there now.
Then in 2022, I moved back to Santiago, this time to work as an English teacher. After about six weeks living in a youth hostel and then with Claudio's family, we moved into our first apartment together in the Ñuñoa area, which is one of the safer parts of the city.
Would I Recommend It?
Chile is a beautiful country to visit, and there's a lot to love about the lifestyle in Santiago: sunny weather most of the year, lots of beautiful parks to hang out in, nearby mountains for hiking and skiing, and stunning beaches within a couple of hours. And there's also the food and drink: completos italianos, sopaipillas con pebre, alfajores, mote con huesillos and pisco sour, to name a few!
I think it's a great place to spend a few months or a semester abroad.
But if you fancy going out there for longer, to teach English for example, I wouldn't recommend it, just because of the sheer costs involved. If you're interested in TEFL, East and Southeast Asia generally offer far better job opportunities - some even pay for your visa and your flights, and set you up in your own apartment. And if you really want to go out to South America, countries like Peru, Ecuador and Colombia offer interesting volunteer opportunities in TEFL and other areas, and have a far lower cost of living then Chile does.
Having said that though, I really did love our life in Chile, and haven't been happier anywhere else!
Pros
- Lots of beaches
- Amazing historical cities, buildings and monuments
- Good job opportunities
- Cheaper cost of living than in the UK
- Pay around 17€ to get (mostly) free public transport for life, if you have an address in Malta
Cons
- Over populated and over touristed
- Insufficient infrastructure, e.g., near-constant power outages during heatwaves and rubbish not being regularly collected
- Overly built up
- Terrible traffic as the narrow twisty roads are not designed for the volume of vehicles using them
- Buses are generally unreliable and overcrowded, and there is no other public transport
My Experience Living Here
Last summer, I spent three months in Malta completing an internship in digital marketing. The internship was organised by the UK government, which meant that flights, accommodation, travel insurance and a monthly stipend were all provided. I went out there with 11 other interns and we were put up in a rather run-down hostel on the border of the towns of Gżira and Msida.
The swimming pool was definitely the best thing about it! To be honest, I was quite lucky with my room, as I was one of the few of us who didn't have problems with cockroaches. The worst I had to deal with was a persistent mould problem in my bathroom.
The accommodation wasn't the best, but on the plus side, my internship was the best job I've ever had. I worked for one of the top marketing agencies in the country, and took on a lot of the copywriting tasks, which I really enjoyed. I hope to have a job like that again at some point in the future!
There were definitely things about Malta that made life a pain at times, such as the unreliable and crowded buses, and the heatwaves - there was a week in July where the temperature was passing 40 degrees every day, and the hostel was without power (and therefore air conditioning) for pretty much all of that time, which was not easy to deal with! But there was also a lot that I liked about life there. I got on really well with the other interns, and we spent a lot of evenings hanging out by the pool or in local bars. I also really enjoyed popping into Valletta after work on a regular basis, and spending evenings and weekends visiting beaches and historic sites.
Would I Recommend It?
A big reason that I applied for the internship in Malta is because my mum and uncle lived there as children in the 1960s and absolutely loved it. The idea of living on a Mediterranean island is very enticing, and I wanted to experience it for myself!
However, Malta has changed a lot in the last few decades, and not necessarily for the better. There are plenty of other islands, such as Gozo, which are a lot more unspoilt and peaceful.
But overall, I had a really memorable and fun time out there, and while I wouldn't choose to live there again, I'd definitely go back there on holiday.
Bristol, UK
Pros
- Near to attractive parts of the UK, like Bath, the Cotswolds and Wales
- Alternative/rave culture, if you're into that kind of thing (I'm really not, haha!)
Cons
- Very poor quality housing
- Very poor public transport for a city of its size
- Lots of drugs and social issues
- Some very grim areas
My Experience Living Here
I only spent three months living in Bristol, but that was more than enough for me. My time there was one of the most depressing periods of my life, and it's definitely my least favourite place that I've lived in.
After my internship in Malta, I'd hoped to be offered a similar role somewhere like Vienna or Barcelona, but I wasn't lucky with my job search. After a few months of job hunting, I was eventually offered my current role and was given the choice of working in London or Bristol. Although I much preferred the idea of living and working in London, the infamous cost of living there scared me a lot, and so I opted for Bristol, naïvely believing that I'd have a much better quality of life there.
I just wish I'd researched the situation better beforehand, because the truth is, it's significantly cheaper to live just on the outskirts or just outside of Greater London then it is to live in Bristol. And of course, London is London, so it's worth paying a bit more to live there! Whereas Bristol has no business being as expensive as it is.
Shortly after I accepted my job, my parents heard about a room becoming available to rent in a flat in the Redlands area, and although I'd vowed never again to live in shared housing, I decided to take it, as Claudio was working in Chile at the time, and I thought it would be a good place for me to get started in the city before finding somewhere we could live together on our own.
But I was miserable there. The flat had a problem with damp and mould (which I now know is very common in Bristol housing), and the kitchen and bathroom were in such a grim state I could hardly bring myself to use them.
Also, in terms of my personal situation, having spent the previous 18 months living abroad, it felt like a bit of a failure to end up in a provincial city so close to where I grew up.
I'd known when accepting the job in Bristol that it wasn't my dream city, but I expected to like living there a lot more than I did.
Would I Recommend It?
Absolutely not. I know some people love Bristol, but no matter how much you like it, it's just not worth the cost, unless you're earning a very good salary.
Out of all the cities I've lived in, Nottingham is the most obvious comparison, and even though I never exactly loved it, it beats Bristol hands down in pretty much every category: cost of living, quality of housing and public transport.
To sum up, there are plenty of cheaper and nicer places to live in the UK.
Bonuses
I've written about my experiences living in Austria and Chile during my Year Abroad, but as I also spent part of the year in France, I want to write about my experiences there too. The French part of my Year Abroad was a bit chaotic to say the least, and I actually spent my 11 weeks there in 5 different places all over the country. But the vast majority of those weeks were spent in two cities: one in the south and one in the north. I didn't spend long enough in either place to say that I've "lived" there, but as I was either working or studying and staying with host families rather than in hotels, I can't really say I was on holiday either. So I think they deserve their bonus spot on this list!
Pros
- Mediterranean climate
- Very close to the beach
- Good public transport
- Off the mass tourism trail, so not crowded, and has a relaxed vibe
- All of the weather, food and culture of the south of France, without the tackiness and extravagant shows of wealth of the Côte d'Azur
- Unique Occitan culture with a strong Spanish influence
Cons
- Honestly, I'm sure there must be some, but I can't think of any!
My Experience There
I spent a few weeks in Montpellier in summer 2017, doing a French course at a language school in the historic centre, and I stayed with a lovely lady and her adorable cat in a beautiful apartment within walking distance of the school.
Lessons were only in the morning, so I had afternoons to go sightseeing, do activities organised by the school, go jogging in the park, or relax. At the weekends and some afternoons, I also went on several trips to beautiful places around the south of France.
It was definitely one of the best parts of my Year Abroad, and I'd love to go back or even live there someday in the future!
Rouen, France
I hadn't wanted to spend any of my Year Abroad in this area of northern France - Paris and the south were my first choices, but being somewhere like the Alps or Alsace or Flanders or the Loire Valley would have also felt more exotic. I feel like Normandy and Brittany are quite similar to South West England, in that they have lots of farms, rain and cider - so not really a change of scenery for me.
But things didn't work out with my French Year Abroad placements, and so my parents quickly booked me in for two short work experience placements and a language course in Rouen, so I could tick off my required weeks in France.
To be honest, I wasn't that enthusiastic about spending most of my summer there - I wished I could have stayed on longer in South America, and although I couldn't avoid having to complete the French part of my Year Abroad, I would have much preferred to spend those weeks in Paris or the south.
I was in Rouen for about a month in total, and although I tried to make the best of it, I was relieved when it was over. I was placed with two host families during my time there, and didn't feel as relaxed with either as I had done with the nice lady and her cat in Montpellier. But my work placements and language courses were quite enjoyable on the whole, and I visited lots of nice places around the region, so I definitely got something out of the experience. Plus, my French improved a lot!
It's a nice city in many ways, and I'd say probably a good place to live, but I don't have any real desire to return there.
Looking back at all the places I've lived, none of them have been perfect (nowhere is), but I've liked things about each of them. I'd say the "best" place objectively was Feldkirchen, but the place where I was happiest was Santiago.
Coming next, I'll be writing about my dream destinations to live in!
Check out the rest of my travel tips here!