Inspired by the chat in the Breaking News thread (Breaking News Thread - #3937 by dalglish), where would everyone live if they had a choice, and why? I can’t say I know for sure where I would live, but I’d want somewhere with easy access to the outdoors and mountains, easily walkable and cyclable, with lots of snow days and mild summers, and good internet access. Not sure where that would be though…
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Crescent Beach near White Rock BC. Was a picture perfect town to live in as a kid. Went back with Mrs about 20 years ago, hadn’t changed. Kids tombstoning off the pier at bang on sunset, like being in Stand By Me.
Tuscany because it looks like Tuscany and sunny days with cheese, meats, bread, wines and a pool.
Durango, if you’ve been you know.
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The one place that I absolutely adored and could have seen myself living in was Orkney. However, the people who lived there always warned that the winters were brutal, relying on ferries for access to the mainland was not always fun, and some essential local services, for example the hospital, were pretty basic.
I’ve actually lived in a couple of places that are where many people go on holiday. Access to the outdoors and so on is brilliant, but when you want to see a concert or major cultural event, it’s an overnight stay in another city.
Thinking of major cities I’ve lived in, Glasgow and Liverpool aren’t bad ones. They are major cultural centres, local transport is pretty decent, and they aren’t far from some serious countryside in terms of North Wales/Eryri and Loch Lomond. It does help if you are wealthy enough to live in the nice bits.
Where we live in Germany is fairly rural and it is somewhere that people will go on holiday. The nearest major town has a decent sized exhibition centre (we have had the likes of Sting and Deep Purple playing there recently) and the usual selection of theatre/cinema/restaurants and so on. However, there aren’t any opera houses and the like. The nearest 1. Bundesliga teams are in Dortmund and Bremen and they are both a fair trek away. Having said that, we live in a forest and being able to leave the house and wander by myself amongst the trees for several hours does have its appeal.
I think, in short, that there is no one place that is perfect all the time. However, there are some places that are better than others. It all comes down to whether you can afford to live there.
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What you’re describing, @redalways, is my home village ten years ago (minus the good Internet access, unfortunately, we’re never going to have that). Until ten years ago, we had a lot of snow days and that snow would last for months. When I was a kid, snowfall would usually be around 80-100 centimeters and it severely affected our power lines, we’d sometimes be out of power for three or four weeks.
If I could move my entire family, it would probably be Northern Europe but I could never pick one country. Everyone speaks English, nature is beautiful, they take care of their environment, the standard of living is pretty high and I would likely find a job easily.
All have a great taste in music, though Swedes take the cake because I listen to a lot of their bands and there’s something about their musical education that makes me green with envy. Norway has fjords, Finland has the lakes. Northern lights would probably be visible from all three of them, so I could send “ha, ha” messages to @Magnus. 
That said, Switzerland is also a place I’d give serious consideration to. Very similar to Northern Europe in terms I mentioned above, though there are no Northern lights there. @Hope.in.your.heart used to send some pics from where he lived and they looked like they were taken in one of my visions of Heaven - all that was missing was a stage where Type O Negative were playing.
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Central Italy, or SE London.
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Any of the Azores Islands or on the coast of Brittany
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Good shout on Switzerland but don’t you have to own a small nuclear arsenal and practice shooting people who hang their washing out on Sundays? Interlaken, Grindelwald and Wengen are achingly pretty. Every tie we’ve been I’ve wanted to go up to the top but the weather’s always been shit. When you realise that the cows do have bells, the whole place looks like a biscuit tin lid and the air is fresher than a face full of dry ice you know you’re close to heaven. With a cupboard full of assault rifles.
Unlike you, I could comfort myself with the Lucerne Festival…
SE London? Tongue in cheek I know.
I travelled monthly to a client’s factory for 15 years and stayed the week. Belvedere if you know it. That area is the pits. I rarely left my hotel in the evening.
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I was today years old when I learned there is a place in London named Belvedere.
And you call yourself a Londoner?
I had to stay overnight in Thamesmead once. That’s SE London, isn’t it? The guy I was meeting said that A Clockwork Orange was filmed there. It looked much nicer in the film to be honest.
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Some place less crowded.
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I used to want go live in NZ when I was younger but in the last decade, with the amount of travelling for work, the more I go overseas, the more I appreciate Singapore. And now, with all the turmoils, division and violence ,I would not contemplate leaving my own little haven. For all the things Singapore does not have, it has what I need.
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Haha @Nikola
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Only the second part is correct. 
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right up my street. Wife and I mini-mooned in Tuscany. Loved it.
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In terms of the UK, I’d happily move back to Newcastle or around there. Loads to do in the City, close to national parks, coastline, cheaper cost of living, vibrant city. Just shit weather really. My family and closest friends are there too.
I’m a big fan of Iceland and Italy.
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On a serious note:
Bucegi Mountains, Romania.
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