Advice sought about reccies

[Guest AndrewS21]

Hi everyone, been reading a while but first post. If possible, would like to garner some feedback on 'reccies'.

We're a family of five with PR (yet to validate visas) and haven't decided where we want to settle yet. Obviously the ideal situation is to come and and do a reccie, but for a family of five, the cost would put a serious dint in our savings given that we'd probably need to travel round internally and the length of time we'd need to be here to make it a worthwhile trip. So basically just interested in what others have done, is anyone happily settled who never did a reccie / anyone done a reccie but thought it was unneccessary and ended up settling somewhere they hadn't reccied etc.

Cheers

Andy

 

 

 

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Andy, Cath & 3 rugrats

[guspjmh]

I wasn't going to do a reccie, but due to a number of factors ended up bringing family out in MArch for just under 3 weeks.

 

It was the best thing we could have done, we got to explore dozens of suburbs to see which ones we liked, and got a real feel for the City and it's surroundings. I'd certainly recommend a reccie and it can be done for not a huge amount of money (flights is the dearest bit). I cannot now in hindsight imagine how hard it would have been to explore whilst also trying to get settled on a permanent move.

[Ktee]

Hi Andy

Welcome to the forum. Like yourselves we are a family of 5 and we couldn't afford a reccie. My oh had been before but I had never been, we relied on forums like this to guide us on suburbs, schools etc and it gave us a good starting point. I have to admit though the suburbs we thought we would settle from the list I had made we didn't choose any of them.

To be honest I think even if we had come out on a reccie it wouldn't have helped us, so don't worry too much about it.

I suppose the main thing is being close to work, what do you do for a living?

[zebedee]

We did a fast 10 day reccie and left the 3 children with relatives. In terms of usefulness - 50/50 - very useful for meeting recruitment agencies up front and making contacts, but we came in winter and Adelaide wasn't at it's best. It didn't put us off but I think we were already determined to come anyway (always wanted to live out here after coming out on holiday 10 years earlier - not too Adelaide though).

[snifter]

Hello and welcome

 

I think zebedee has a good compromise there. A reccie for either one parent or both and leave the children at home. Even if its a short week trip. And remember don't let the season put you off if you reccie in the winter months.

 

I think you can probably do some great research online and get a good idea of what is what but as to if you'll find Adelaide or wherever you end up a palatable place for yourselves, hard to know if you haven't seen it first. I've moved overseas without a visit first, never did me any harm but then I was on my own. Saying that, some places I moved to I knew within days of arriving it wasn't for me and looked to doing my stint there before moving on. Others I got there and loved it more than I thought I could or would and stayed years.

 

Personally, I liked Adelaide long before we ever made a decision to move back there. I'd already stayed with there a while with hubby when we were dating and before he moved to the UK and have holidayed there since then. So for me I already did my reccie but not, as wasn't visiting with a critical eye so to speak. But I like it. It isn't fast paced and is more like large town living over city living given how the suburbs sprawl and so on, but it has a nice feel, at least to me.

 

If you can I think at least one of you should go (if you've older kids this might be a key thing to ensure you could see them there). If they are all under school age or just starting, its perhaps different again. Not so critical for schools and they usually adapt well at a younger age. Our son has moved house 3 times in his 5 years and coped well each time. He knows all about our move to Aus and is really excited and looking forward to it.

[kadina]

Yes definitely recommend a reccie of some sort, and leaving kids with a relative would be great if you can (obviously not always possible) but the idea of just one going over if you can is recommended, if you have never been before it can be quite an eye opener the different culture its not for everyone, we absolutely love it but would never have considered going without seeing it first each one to their own but I would have to do a reccie, we holiday 3 times before moving over, thats why we decided to live there, once you are actually living there for a period you will know if you are gonna want to live there, as expensive as it may be, it will be a lot cheaper than getting there and discovering you don't like it, believe me (and I am a expert lol) its not cheap moving backwards and forwards to Australia !! theres a lot of good deals on flights you just need to find the right date/ time of year it varies a lot good luck with it all, but if its Adelaide you are wanting to go to I highly recommend it we love Adelaide pm for any advice on an area you might have in mind if I can help I will