Things you like about Adelaide

[soo_the_panda]

Things I love:

-The festivals! I love Fringe festival, Adelaide festival, all the film festivals, Feast (gay/lesbian) festival, cheese fest, cellar door (wine) festival...

- The wine regions and wine culture here - driving round for days wine tasting, beautiful countryside, gorgeous spots to have lunch whether a fancy restaurant or a picnic

- Great restaurants. There is so much less 'average' here and fine dining is more affordable

- Food culture. The brilliant Central Markets and farmers markets and drive to eat local

- The beaches. Winter beach walks with a hot chocolate. Summer swims straight after work to cool down. Autumn and Spring sitting on the beach/overlooking the beach reading a book

- Swimming outside either in the sea or a pool

- BBQs! and the great public BBQs that are everywhere - and always free and clean (this amazes family when they visit that they aren't vandalised)

- Camping and being able to camp almost all year round without having to fold up a soaking wet tent at the end of it

- Some of the countryside - so different from many other places. My first 'wow' moment was hiking at Alligator Gorge in the Southern Flinders Ranges

- How big the sky seems... especially on a sunny day, or starry night whilst camping away from the city

- That most people are friendly, welcoming and will go out of their way to help you

- The fact that customer service staff smile, say hello and are generally about 1000 times chirpier than the sullen staff at checkouts, in restaurants etc in the UK (this one REALLY irks me when I go back to the UK on holidays now). When my brother came here for six months last year he was so shocked at how friendly the bus drivers were - he said he got on with a $50 note and the driver just let him on for free, said 'no worries mate' and chatted about where my brother was from when he heard his accent... he said in the UK he'd be told to 'F*** off' and would have to walk 2 miles to the nearest petrol station to change anything bigger than a five pound note

- The fact there are well maintained playgrounds everywhere

- THE WEATHER!! I love the hot summer days, gorgeous spring and autumn (that feels like UK summer) and the short but 'proper' winter where you can still enjoy red wine and hearty food by an open fire and feel like you've 'had' a proper winter.. but it's all over within two months

- Parrots and 'tropical' birds are 'normal' birds here - love seeing rosellas fly past my office window all day

- The fact that emigrating now is so different to even ten years ago - I talk to my mum and close friends most days for free via Viber, facetime and skype - so whilst I really miss people, it's very easy and inexpensive to keep in touch

 

Things I don't like/miss:

- Lack of competition means pretty average supermarket shopping. Seven years in, I still miss Waitrose... or even Tesco!

- Attitudes, whilst generally more laid back, also seem a bit more racist/sexist/homophobic in my experience compared with the UK. It feels like going back 20 years at times.

- Being so far from other countries - no quick and inexpensive weekends to Paris/other European destinations etc - even a week 'overseas' seems a push

- The fact that - as someone else pointed out - there's no choice of towns and cities to live in outside of Adelaide - so house prices are dictated by how far you are from the CBD... so unless you're happy to live way out, housing is expensive

- The fact that people seem to 'hibernate' here in the winter - the city can feel dead on a week night in winter especially. Also in summer I feel people go out far less than in the UK - instead social life seems to revolve around BBQs in people's back gardens... which can be nice - but not exclusively!

- Lack of industry to work in compared to other Australian cities. Eg in marketing in Adelaide I can pretty much choose from not for profit, local government or a university as there's no head offices here.

- Flies and mosquitoes in summer - they drive me mad!

- The Advertiser (local newspaper). Urgh.

- People that comment on stories from the Advertiser either on their digital edition or on facebook. It makes me want to seriously question the IQ of the average Adelaidian.

- The fact that mainstream culture is SO sports heavy. To me it seems AFL culture especially is prized above everything else - eg when people ask which team I go for, and I say I don't, they react like I have three heads. I realise sport is big in lots of places - but here it seems pretty extreme. I imagine that especially as a young male growing up in Adelaide, if you weren't seen to be really into AFL, you'd feel pretty marginalised.

 

 

Overall I agree with a lot of the sentiment above - Australia isn't about 'living the dream'. It's just a country where you choose whatever life you want, as you would elsewhere. Day to day life is similar to how I imagine it would be if I was still in the UK - working in a similar field, socialising with friends at home, in restaurants and in pubs, going for walks or bike rides, doing the hoovering, changing the kitty litter etc. That stuff doesn't change whichever side of the world you're on.

 

I would be cautious though as a new migrant that Adelaide definitely doesn't have the 3 bed houses just outside the CDB for under $400k that it seems were available not that long ago - nor is everywhere 'just' 20 minutes drive from everywhere else.

[Guest Sarah Bradley]

I love the weather (generally warmer) and getting outside more (less days I stay inside because of bad weather).

Adelaide is a laid back little town (in my opinion) so if you want hustle and bustle and like busy city stuff this really not the place for you, that carries over into getting stuff done at speed and the job market choices.

Rush hour is actually an hour!

Almost everyone sticks to the speed limits (the fines are huge and there are lots of mobile cameras!) so much less stress than driving in the UK.

Beach and scenery easy to get to.

Wineries (lots of them!).

Everyone knows someone you know! Don't dis anyone at a party you might be talking to their best friend!!

Safer, cheaper and more reliable public transport.

Loads of opportunities (if you go looking) for work and play.

School choices good and less stressed education system.

I do a very similar job here but my work life balance is much better and generally the bills are less (motor, house and food) and petrol is lot cheaper.

Living the dream? Well I have managed to up my standard of living and reduce my stress so win win for me.

If you are thinking of moving here come for a visit, you will either love it or not.

 

The previous comments are all true but no place is without some issues. For me the benefits outweigh the issues by quite a way

[Guest Mrs Bon Jovi]

Almost everyone sticks to the speed limits (the fines are huge and there are lots of mobile cameras!) so much less stress than driving in the UK.

 

Really? I find driving way more stressful over here!! The roads seem to be full of idiots :arghh:

As high as the fines may be, the amount of people that seem to fly by me when I'm doing the speed limit is ridiculous.

[Guest Sarah Bradley]

I guess it depends on where you were from in the UK. I lived near Oxford next to the busiest piece of dual carriageway in the country (A34 approx one major accident a week on our stretch) . And our town/village had 3 traffic jams a day at least. 7 - 9:30am 3-4pm and 5 - 7pm. I guess Scotland must have been a bit quieter.

[Guest Claire-n-tel]

The roads seem to be full of idiots

 

Agreed!....and we lived just north of London and often drove through the city and never saw such a high percentage of cr*p drivers as we see here!

[jim and adel]

Agreed!....and we lived just north of London and often drove through the city and never saw such a high percentage of cr*p drivers as we see here!

 

Same here. I use the freeway twice daily and within minutes lose count of the idiots driving less than a car's length behind the vehicle in front.

[Mazza227]

Thanks everyone for your reviews! I guess it depends on what we are used to before moving. For us, we would love the fact we can be outdoors a lot more, even when it's cold in winter, it would be warmer than here and wouldn't stop us heading for the beach with a flask of hot chocolate to keep us warm!

[Karthik]

Hi Mazza227, Do you like to read out a comparison between Adelaide and UK or general views of Adelaide ?

[Mazza227]

Hi Mazza227, Do you like to read out a comparison between Adelaide and UK or general views of Adelaide ?

 

I was just wondering what people prefer about living in Adelaide to UK, or preferred about UK that they miss in Adelaide.

[Jessica Berry]

For us, we would love the fact we can be outdoors a lot more

 

Interestingly many Australians are deficient in vitamin D because they don't go outdoors, due to the heat, harsh UV/sun, concerns about skin cancer etc! It is often the opposite to the UK, so if it is too cold in the UK people will stay inside whereas over here if it is too hot people are advised to stay inside. The Government will issue warnings advising people to stay inside - cinemas, libraries and indoor shopping centres will be choc a block as people are trying to stay inside and keep cool and use someone else's air conditioning so they are not paying for it ha ha!

 

What can start out as a novelty, for some people can then become an issue. Some of our friends returned to the UK after living in Australia for 6 years and while I wouldn't say the weather was the main reason for returning, it did add to their reasons to return.

 

Everything comes down to personal taste/choice - what suits one person doesn't suit another.

Edited November 14, 2014 by Jessica Berry

[Jessica Berry]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for all the reply's. I'm sorry if I got anybody's back up it wasn't my intention.

Moving to Adelaide for us is the dream of a better life. I know it won't be easy we have researched a lot about it, and have found this site an invaluable source of information. When we were there on our reccie we absolutely loved it and thought Adelaide would be a great place for our kids to have a better life than they have here with better job prospects. We're unfortunate to come from the economic black spot in the uk. All our families and friends kids move in the search of jobs as soon as they are finished uni. A lot end up in Australia. We know that the job market is very challenging in Adelaide at the minute and that there's no guarantee the kids will stay there but think it's good to give them that opportunity to choose.

 

Thanks again for all the replies

 

 

We have lived in Adelaide for coming up to 8 years now. Our visa entitled us to settle anywhere in Australia without any restrictions. We sold up in the UK (house and all its contents, car etc) and we arrived without any jobs, nowhere to live, not knowing anyone in Adelaide and carrying a couple of suitcases and holdalls with mainly clothes in and we got stuck in with starting our new life. I had previously travelled/lived around Australia coming over on a working holiday visa (although it was 10 years later when we emigrated) and thought Adelaide would suit us as a couple the best, my OH had never been to Australia until we arrived and trusted my judgement. We are both glad we chose Adelaide and we have established a good life for ourselves. It is an easy city to live in and we have a higher standard of living here than we did in the UK. Of course this will not be the case for everyone, everyone is different.

 

I am not sure if you watch 'Wanted Down Under' but when we returned to the UK for a holiday earlier this year, we watched the episodes from Adelaide that my parents had recorded for us. At the start of every episode we watched Nicki Chapman says something along the lines of a third will return to the UK and basically it isn't what people think it is going to be. In the time we have been here, I have seen many migrants come and go. My personal feeling is a lot comes down to peoples attitude and approach, their expectations and how adaptable and resilient they are. It can take time to re-establish yourselves from scratch (often years) and people need to be honest with themselves and their families if they are up for the challenge (if they need to be).

 

The Adelaide job market has been struggling for the past couple of years, but it depends what work you do, my OH for example has been in demand skills wise since we arrived and that hasn't changed in the last 8 years. I have had to be adaptable in my job search and have worked in industries/job roles that I had never worked in the UK, but I have gained new skills, made quite a few friends through the different workplaces I have been at, I have gained additional Australian qualifications which have helped me secure roles and I have tried to keep myself as employable as possible in a challenging job market.

[Guest lagi70]

I agree with the comments that other people have made. If I had my time again would I migrate here? probably not but I am here now, I have a job, a house, a lifestyle. I have been here since 2001. One makes huge sacrifices coming here, my sister had a baby one month after i left the UK in 2001 and really I have missed her growing up. I have had some stumbles along the way and the grass is always greener. Would I go and live in the UK now? probably not!