Hahndorf - is this nice?

[Guest Lisado]

Hi all

 

We have been looking at Port Noarlunga since the minute we decided to come over to SA but now I think I am changing my mind. I have stumbled across Hahndorf and fallen in love with some of the houses here . Can someone tell me what the area is like - the photos we have found seem olde world - and we love that

 

Many thanks, Lisa

[Guest cazzie]

Hi Lisa,

Hahndorf is indeed lovely. We went there in November and it was absolutely gorgeous. Flowers in full bloom and very picturesque. There are plenty of pub/cafes and lots of little shops. Lots of cottage style houses. Yes, a lovely little place up in the hills. Good luck with choosing your area to settle.

[Guest Lisado]

Hi Cazzie

 

I'm gutted as we had school sorted for Noarlunga and suddenly I feel like I dont want to go there anymore (as you can imagine I am very popular in the house at the moment!!!) but looking at Hahndorf I feel drawn to it - dunno what to do as visa should be coming very soon and now at last minute I am changing my mind

 

We have never been to SA and reccie is out so hard just judging via the Internet

 

Lisa

[Guest LOOBYLOO]

Hi

We visited Hahndorf yesterday. It is lovely but very touristy (being a German style village) and way up in the hills. Also a bity cheesy - we were in a hotel for lunch and a man came in wearing lederhosen playing an accordian (which is a common site I was told). We lived in Germany for 5 years and this only happend at bierfests etc.

[jomark]

Hi all

 

We have been looking at Port Noarlunga since the minute we decided to come over to SA but now I think I am changing my mind. I have stumbled across Hahndorf and fallen in love with some of the houses here . Can someone tell me what the area is like - the photos we have found seem olde world - and we love that

 

Many thanks, Lisa

 

 

It all depends on what you want, they are totally different places...hahndorf in the hills 40mins to the beach or Port Noarlunga beach on your doorstep....we started off in mount barker (loved it)but when the time came to buy we moved to port noarlunga, could not stand the drive to the beach every weekend....so what im saying is if the beach is not your thing them hahndorf is lovely...

 

Jo

[Guest Lisado]

Hi Linda

 

That made me laugh. Been trying to get OH in Lederhosen for ages - ha ha

 

Lisa

[Guest Lisado]

Thats the thing - the beach is our thing - we live right next to it here in UK (although its cold!) and I have the kids' name down in school and we all think of noar as a home but then I went looking to see what else is out there - wish I hadnt as made me unsettled

 

The family are now glaring at me and saying noar is the place!!!!

 

Lisa

[Anne B]

Hahndorf is a nice spot, a small community in a pretty part of the hills and just off the freeway so it's quite easy to get to. There is a long tree-lined straight main street and the central part is lined with gift shops, craft shops and cafes so it gets quite busy there, especially on a Sunday afternoon. A lot of the sightseeing tours from the Adelaide hotels go there, so it is quite touristy. There are several motels and a couple of nice pubs (The German Arms used to remind me of a British pub), good for Sunday lunch. The town was settled by early German (Prussian) settlers so there are lots of German style cottages, German cake shops and butchers selling decent sausages and german salami. By South Australian standards it is very historic.

 

It has much more of a European feel to it and beyond the tourist strip there are some lovely properties. We used to go up there just for a weekend away, and once a year to an Easter family BBQ at some distant cousins house. We've stayed at the Hahndorf Resort a few times, which is in a beautiful setting, but you can hear the trucks on the freeway in the distance (something to be aware of). It would be totally different from living by the beach, and not really an easy decision to make from the UK without seeing both places. When I lived in Adelaide I lived by the beach but missed the countryside and trees so Hahndorf was a nice place to escape to.

[Anne B]

whoops it all went funny on me !!!!!!!! ignore this one...

 

Personally I would rather live in Port Noarlunga and just go to Hahndorf for the weekend., but that is just my opinion...

[jomark]

Thats the thing - the beach is our thing - we live right next to it here in UK (although its cold!) and I have the kids' name down in school and we all think of noar as a home but then I went looking to see what else is out there - wish I hadnt as made me unsettled

 

The family are now glaring at me and saying noar is the place!!!!

 

Lisa

 

Which school did you pick? if you love the beach you will soon get P"""ed off with driving down the freeway every weekend.....theres plenty of other suburbs you could look at and not be so far from the beach...blackwood, coromondal (spl?) valley, belair are still in the hills but only a short drive to the beach????

 

Hope this help or am i just fuelling the fire

 

Jo

[Guest Guest75]

Thats the thing - the beach is our thing - we live right next to it here in UK (although its cold!) and I have the kids' name down in school and we all think of noar as a home but then I went looking to see what else is out there - wish I hadnt as made me unsettled

 

The family are now glaring at me and saying noar is the place!!!!

 

Lisa

 

It is tough deciding from the other side of the world.

 

You really cannot make the decision until you get here.

 

Write a list of what you REALLY want and then match a few suburbs up to it.

 

Hahndorf is completely different to Pt Noarlunga - poles apart.

There are some good suburbs surrounding Pt Noarlunga as well.

 

Don't beat yourself up about it.

[Guest paddyhaha]

Hi all

 

We have been looking at Port Noarlunga since the minute we decided to come over to SA but now I think I am changing my mind. I have stumbled across Hahndorf and fallen in love with some of the houses here . Can someone tell me what the area is like - the photos we have found seem olde world - and we love that

 

Many thanks, Lisa

 

Hi lisa,

 

we live in the hills at the moment and very beautiful it is not far from hahndorf 15 mins in car and we are seriously considering moving to the south beachs as it gets so isolated up here away from all the town life. we thought country life was what we wanted but the reality bit hard that we need to access people and normal day to day stuff like shops without sitting in a car for 45mins - 1 hou:)r just to get there.

Thats just our story so far good luck with your choice

 

paddyhaha

[Guest Martin and Val]

It really is nice up there but as said before its different and you can't compare to two places.

I would suggest that you go ahead with your plans for now, wait until you get here and then decide as you look around these places. Yes you may have to move the children's school again but kids adjust and will again make friends.

There are many great places to live and they are not all everyone's cup of tea, you have many things to consider such as distance to work etc.

Wait to you get here as you have your whole new lives ahead of you yet.

Good luck with what ever you decide, it will be right for you.

Martin

[Guest stufi1997]

I think it's great that you're looking at all the possibilities before you come out, we kinda did the same and we were really drawn to mount gambier for a while, we didn't go as far as that when we actually got here mind you....only victor harbor, but even that feels quite isolated from the action now. We chose it cos we wanted out of Adelaide....we're not city people. However we find ourselves up in aldinga, seaford and noarlunga quite a lot. (it's heaps cooler in Victor Harbor and the sea is cold here)

We visited Mount Gambier a few weeks ago and feel happy that we didn't make the move down there...don't get me wrong it's lovely and a great place to visit, but everything in SA seems to revolve around Adelaide so bear in mind that it may turn into a bit of a commute if your job is in the city. Hahndorf is one of my fav places but don't know if I could live and work there. My advice would be if you can wait til you get here, do that before making any concrete decisions

[foxychick]

I imagine living in the country here has a different feel and meaning to living in the country in the UK.

 

I would really wait till you arrive and take your first couple of weeks looking around the places you fancy before making your decision.

 

Have you been to Port Noarlunga and visited the school? I would want to be looking around first. The kids don't have to jump straight into school - take your time with it.

[Moosh]

Personally I would rather live in Port Noarlunga and just go to Hahndorf for the weekend., but that is just my opinion...

 

I agree with Anne. Hahndorf is a touristy village which is great to visit but wouldn't want to live there. Also being in the hills it is a little cooler temperature wise.

 

My advice is to stick with your initial decision, rent somewhere in Port Noarlunga and explore all the other suburbs when you get here.

[Guest mubley]

I am totally biased and have been in “trouble” on this before - but I think of Hahndorf as a lovely place you visit on a Sunday and/or take your guests to.

Port Noarlunga is one of a series of beautiful beaches that stretch down the Fleurieu Peninsula.

A few links for you:

http://www.fleurieu-peninsula-australia.com.au/

http://www.southaustralia.com/FleurieuPeninsula.aspx

http://www.onkaparingacity.com/web/page/home.html

http://www.onkaparingacity.com/web/page?pg=1362&stypen=html

 

http://www.adhills.com.au/tourism/towns/hahndorf/

[Guest nishman]

We decided we wanted to be in the Modbury / NE area before we arrived and the reccie trip told us that this was where we wanted to be. However, after a few months in Golden Grove, we decided we wanted to be nearer the beaches and eventually ended up in Seaford Rise.

It's pretty hard to get a handle on where you want to settle until you see it in the flesh, and even then until you start to loose the "holiday mode" glasses you won't truely be in the place you want to call home.

As others have said, you might be better go with a gut feeling of where you want to be and start there, but go and explore other areas and avoid trying to put down roots too early. You'll know when it feels right.

Sandy beaches or indeed treelined hills may seem like eutopia until you've lived there for a while and gotten to grips with the everyday practicalities of commutes/schooling/extreme weather...

I must still have my rose tinted specs though, cos after 2 years I still round trip commute 75kms a day to live with sea views of Moana - but it feels right for us

[ShaunWilson]

Hahndorf, nice for visit and sunday lunches. But nothing really happens there and life is a really slow (although idylic) pace. As everyone has said, chalk and cheese. If i HAD to choose, i would go with Noar, as you still have reliable transport links etc to the city. And beach on your doorstep as has been said before.

[Guest Zippy]

G'day,

 

Hahndorf: Quite touristy, especially in 'high' seasons, quite a bit quieter for children, fewer social and youth activities in the area.

 

I would take a holiday there rather than setting up residence. Or as someone else suggested, if you want a mix of beach and 'hills' then maybe go for a suburb more like Belair.

[Guest ReadyPenny]

Before we did our reccie I was dead set on Glenelg. During the reccie I realised that this wasnt for me and it wasnt because of the slightly higher rental prices etc, it was because it was too "touristy" reminded me of a little Blackpool. After driving around the burbs for days on end we decided on the hills ourselves, but the beach is only a short drive from Eden Hills and a short drive the other way to Mount Barker etc so happy medium.

 

Been to Hahndorf, as others have said, really lovely but only for a day out. Personally I would get bored living up there, especially soon after arrival, I think you will need people around you somewhat.

 

Hope you make the right choice for your family Lisa

Mandy

[Guest Lisado]

Hi all

 

Thanks for your really helpful comments. I have made my decision to stick with the original plan of Noar and take it from there. We have never been to OZ - so we are judging on research and what friends have told us. I think we will stick with it as well as the kids have it in their heads where we want to go and as you have suggested - start looking once we get there.

 

I just go through phases of panic and feel like I need things straight in my head here before I can think of moving - if you know what I mean.

 

I will still try and get the OH into Lederhosen though - watch this space

 

Lisa

[Guest David Brown]

Hi Lisa, David here again, paying my rent every day in the tower of song! We are indeed renting but starting to have the discussion about do we want hills or beach, esp some of the hills regions are a bit of a fire risk which is of course on people's minds, though I can't speak for Hahndorf in that respect, its quite close to the expressway which is a good thing. I went to Hahndorf for a night in winter when I came for my job interview, because like you I liked the sound of it, German heritage, bit of history, bit of country etc. Have been back there since a few times over the last month or so.

 

I would agree with the people who say there are lots of nice places, near beaches, but still in hills/bush, and the Hills villages apart from Hahndorf are very nice. I find Hahndorf too touristy and expensive, and not very authentic, and also when I stayed in winter it was a bit of a ghost town and little was open in the evenings (there were quite a few vacant commercial units too), though I'm told that Hills towns are a real neighbourly spirit. Lobethal has a German history, I believe, and seems more of a normal place. People are worried about the fires though in the hills. We went to Tanunda in the Barossa last weekend and it had some really cute cottages and houses and had a good country town feel, but its way out over an hour away from cbd.

 

What does cheer me up is that there are lots of nice areas to live around Adelaide, and I wouldnt even think about making decisions about Hahndorf vs Noarlunga until you've had a chance to look around a bit more once you get here- I know that its important to get some certainty esp with kids, but short term renting at least gives you a chance to get your bearings.

 

Which school did you pick? if you love the beach you will soon get P"""ed off with driving down the freeway every weekend.....theres plenty of other suburbs you could look at and not be so far from the beach...blackwood, coromondal (spl?) valley, belair are still in the hills but only a short drive to the beach????

 

Hope this help or am i just fuelling the fire

 

Jo

[Guest Lisado]

Hi David

 

Do Da Dum Dum De do da dum!!

 

We have decided to go to Noar and then take it from there. Hubby came in wtih map of mount lofty region but told him we look at in when we in oz - I have made my mind up now ( I think!!)

 

Ta, Lisa