Where's the best 'sporty' town to live in the UK?

timpop

I'm thinking of the full package; good mountain biking, climbing etc. with a lot of people with a common interest in free sports and healthy living. Somewhere that pushes the sport and has a strong community.
I'm from BC, Canada so when thinking internationally I will always think of places like Whistler/Squamish and Chamonix.
Without being biased what do you guys think, where’s the best place in the UK?

benpinnick

Sheffield maybe?

cooldad

Rhyl

craker

Cardiff

supersonic

Definitely Sheffield. Sports capital of the UK.

welshkev

bettws y coed, north wales

t0pc4t

Bracknell innit

JonnyN

Guildford

Raymondavalon

cooldad wrote:

Rhyl

For me, Brizzle.. or Bristo' as they pronounce it there

Ryan Jones

One magazine claimed Bristol was the cycling capital, then again thats like Liverpool being the capital of culture not long back

Cannock, simply by the number of people who ride there !

Raymondavalon

+1 on Cannock for riding, but there is more to sport than riding...





..........................or is there?

mattrixdesign2

JonnyN wrote:

Guildford

chiefinspector

Has to be Aviemore in Scotland. Located right on the edge of the Caingorm mountain range (best scenery in the UK) where numerous outdoor activities take place (mountain biking, Climbing Skiing etc). Fort Bill & Laggan are just down the road and for some reason it seems to have it's own micro climate. Fantastic place to be if you like your outdoor sports.

mikeyj28

ooohhhh probably Cardiff with easy access to the Beacons and mid Wales. The again i'm probably biased!!

Anonymous

Dinorwig Village in North wales seems to exclusively house the kind of people that look like hardcore climbers, who also like doing some triathlons to chill out

unixnerd

Has to be Aviemore in Scotland.

Best thing I ever did was moving to Aviemore ten years ago. Great mountain and road biking, skiing, hill walking, rock climbing, kayaking, etc. Three bike shops in our small town!

It's not unusual for me to get the shopping in winter by cross country skiing down the main street. Biggest downer for bikers is that in the winter there can be months a time when the trails are covered in several inches of compacted snow and ice. So skiing is a must to keep fit.

There's a fairly recent statue in the village square to mark the fact that the Spey Valley has more olympic athletes per head of population than anywhere else in the UK.

estampida

aberdeen, 1hr drive to the slopes & the big air ramp, skating in the evening afterwards

biking of course...... plenty of forest

plenty of pint lifting and bedroom golf as well, and cant forget the wind up toy times in clubs

there was no real point aspiring to play football there anyway....

paul.skibum

somewhere like Bideford for surfing, riding (exmoor, dartmoor, quantocks all close), generally being outdoors - no climbing but I dont climb so meh.

Pembrokeshire for similar reasons.

poppit

Been told to say Derby, my partner's head of sport there!

Anonymous

Ryan Jones wrote:

One magazine claimed Bristol was the cycling capital

Isn't that because it has the most bike thieves living there?


My answer though is I don't know where's best. If you want a mix of MTB and climbing then perhaps best anywhere there are big hills. Wales or Scotland. If you want facilities as well that you don't have to travel for hours to get to, and some form of civilisation, then have to pick a good big town or city near them. Cardiff is nice. Pleasant city, near to plenty of stuff in South Wales.

Surrey is pretty good compromise for me though. Might think it's flat but Surrey Hills are round the corner which are reasonable size with some of the best MTB in southern England and Swinley as a kind of trail centre nearby plus plenty of other local riding opportunities. Seem to be a lot of like minded people about, even if most of them are weekend warriors.

Near to London but not in London (those bits of Surrey that aren't in London that is ), easy access down the motorway to South Wales, Heathrow and Gatwick very close making it easy to get to the Alps and just about anywhere in the world (other airports in the UK offer limited destinations). Loads of facilities (not specifically bike related) and for me plenty of work as a software developer which pays the bills and supplies the bikes.

Not sure about climbing though. Guess you could climb a tower block in London

singlespeedexplosif

Yup, Aviemore. Cracking place.
Sheffield's good for sport, if you can get round the fact that it's a dump.

rural

Kendal - Lake District on your doorstep and M6/west coast mainline nearby so good access for work. Nice little market town with its own ski slope http://www.kendalski.co.uk/and climbing wall http://www.kendalwall.co.uk/

Home of http://www.mountainfest.co.uk/index.cfm

poppit

I know its boring and not quite what the OP was asking but the data says that London has the highest percentage of sporty people. Still wouldn't want to live there though.

pioneer68

Bristols' not bad, with the Chilterns or South Wales a stones throw away, or York, which is a great city, with plenty of places on the doorstep, as well.

kdawg74

Just moved to Exeter and finding it quite cool, dartmoor and lots of countryside and woods nearby lots of mini DH i keep hearing, Blanford bike park only about 50 miles away.
Very hilly too so plenty of scope for finding trails and a bike friendly city to boot,

paul.skibum

poppit wrote:

I know its boring and not quite what the OP was asking but the data says that London has the highest percentage of sporty people. Still wouldn't want to live there though.

I suspect this is distorted data affected by lots of people saying they run or cycle regularly when in reality they dont do either that often or dont do it as a sport. Or alternatively it is distorted by people who work there but dont live there being asked!

And I dont want to live there either!

blablablacksheep

the lakes or wales cant go wrong there.

cooldad

I think the Welsh might be a bit narked about their whole country being called a town.

poppit

paul.skibum wrote:

poppit wrote:

I know its boring and not quite what the OP was asking but the data says that London has the highest percentage of sporty people. Still wouldn't want to live there though.

I suspect this is distorted data affected by lots of people saying they run or cycle regularly when in reality they dont do either that often or dont do it as a sport. Or alternatively it is distorted by people who work there but dont live there being asked!

And I dont want to live there either!

It's a national survey thats been done for the last 4 years so pretty statistically valid.

Zziplex

poppit wrote:

I know its boring and not quite what the OP was asking but the data says that London has the highest percentage of sporty people. Still wouldn't want to live there though.

Is stabbing now classed as a sport???

Anonymous

deadkenny wrote:

If you want facilities as well that you don't have to travel for hours to get to, and some form of civilisation, then have to pick a good big town or city near them. Cardiff is nice.

Cardiff would be horrible for an outdoorsy nut. Somewhere near Llanberis would be far better, since you really aren't that far from towns and cities, and you're actually smack bang in the middle of the mountains.