1

Hi - and welcome to Thorn Tree.

Does the company you're looking at arrange all the required paperwork, to allow you to work in The UK?

2

hi hi,

I'm a UK resident, been here 24 years and live in Central London.

I'd recommend somewhere by the sea if I were you. Bournemouth is a great city and will give you the best weather. It will also give you great access to the Dorset coastline which is spectacular. And slightly in-land is the amazing quintessentially British countryside and you're not far from The New Forest which is a great spot to visit.

Its also only just over an hour on the train to london for day/ weekend trips.

Brighton is also another great option, again by the sea, great vibe and lots of students and shops etc...

Hope this helps

3

Oh - right. You didn't mention that in your opener.
My suggestion would be to start in a bigger city (including London), maybe Manchester, Edinburgh etc.
Then see if you can get an internal transfer to elsewhere. Get a feel for the company first.
Best of luck with everything.

4

battybilly - not sure what you're talking about? That wasn't me that posted about being a UK resident. :)

I'm from New Zealand and yes, the company helps sort out working visas. I can work there for 2 years.

5

Haha not a problem. And thanks a lot micadam, looking into those places now :)

6

It really depends what you want out of the trip, your interests etc. If you want to be around students and other travellers then obviously the bigger cities are better options; Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Bristol.

If you want to be near London then perhaps an option in one of the counties around London near a main line station may be an option?

7

Thank you for the suggestions! Have looked up the descriptions of those places on here and they seem to be what I'm looking for. I really just want somewhere that is quite a large place with a good night life and a lot of under 30 year olds I guess.

8

If you want the real UK experience, definitely get out of London as the others suggest. London is a great place, but possibly a bit too great - a few times I've met Kiwis who spent 2 entire years inside the M25 (London's orbital ring road) and never ventured outside of it, not even for a weekend on the Eurostar to Paris or a Ryanair special to Barcelona. That's like living in Auckland but not even making it as far as Hamilton, and (IMO) that's just a waste of your visa and the chance it gives you to explore another part of the world.

Note that live in pub jobs require you to work a hell of a lot of hours for usually the minimum wage, or not much above it. You'd get more an hour if you worked in an office. Given that you want quite a large place with a good night life, Bournemouth might not suit as it may not be big enough for your tastes.

9

Thanks a lot for the advice Fwoggie.

Will definitely go for outside London, it doesn't seem to be that hard to get into London to have a look around anyway.

I think that I'm going to start with some type of live in job (pub/hotel/restaurant) as then I don't have to worry about finding somewhere to live, and it will also help with the meeting people. Have decided to do it myself though rather than go through places you have to pay such as the London Pub Company, as I've heard it's a waste of money and it's easy enough to find yourself. Have heard that Dee Cooper and KH Recruitment are people who will help you with finding a job for free. Once I've done this I'll then try to find a better job, but just think it would be easier to start with.

Thanks again, if anyone else has any tips for me about where to work and places I should see than please let me know. I will buy an England travel guide from here though to see where I'd like to go!

10

Well, if you're into surfing then far SW England is the place to go. It's on the annual world surfing tours. However, there's no big cities down there.

If you'd like to be close to a decent airport so you can go explore Europe too from time to time courtesy of all the budget airlines we have, then Birmingham (which has 2 airports within 40 miles) or Manchester (another 2), Edinburgh or Glasgow (in Scotland, not England) would suit.

For hiking and general outdoorsy expeditions, the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Peak District, Dartmoor would all suit in England, in Wales there's Snowdonia Park and in Scotland there's, well, most of Scotland would suit.

I'd personally go for Brum (Birmingham) or Manchester, cos they're central to the UK, so weekend expeditions are easy in all directions + they have the airports for further afield + they're big cities. Manchester edges it in terms of airport connections (it has directs both to the USA and to SEA), but it does rain a fair bit in Manchester, even by UK standards.

11

Is it easy enough to commute to a city with a decent airport if I'm not in those areas?

12

Also, have just had a look at the Ryanair site, 16 pounds for a flight pretty much anywhere in Europe? What's the catch?

13

#12 Usually yes. Public transport in rural Wales and Scotland can suck. http://www.transportdirect.com will figure out how badly they suck.

#13 The catch with Ryanair is as follows:-

1) Usually those flights are at annoying times of the week, like Tuesday lunchtime. This is no problem for you.

2) They have zero tolerance on straying from their rules. In particular this means printing out your own boarding passes + carryon luggage dimensions + carryon luggage weight. Failure to comply = high penalties, payable on the spot otherwise you don't fly.

3) They often fly to airports that are nowhere near the cities they serve. Particular examples include Oslo Torp, Barcelona Girona and Frankfurt Hahn. By nowhere I mean it could be anything up to an hour or more by bus to the city they supposedly are serving. By the time you've accounted for the time and money to trek to/from these airports, regular airlines (BA, Lufthansa etc) can often be cheaper.

4) They are not well known for adhering themselves to EU passenger rights. For example if you get stranded for a while due to a broken plane, there are rules defining what you are entitled to, dependent on time of delay. This can include free phone calls, meals, or even overnight accommodation, but Ryanair ain't great at that sorta thing.

5) £16 is highly unlikely to include their add ons which include things such as wheelchair levys, landing tax, credit card handling fees, baggage fees, etc. Try booking a flight all the way through to actually entering your credit card information and see what the real price is.

Refer also to http://www.skyscanner.net and http://www.expedia.com to see what the alternatives are. If based out of Manchester or near London in particular, you may be plesantly surprised.

I'm not saying don't use Ryanair, but make sure you do the maths first in full, checking exactly where the airports are, and how you get from them to your final destination.

14

Hey hayley!

Im in a similar position to you, im 21 and looking to go more then likely at the end of april and am going to be doing live in pub work before traveling the rest of europe. Also looking to possibly go somewhere other then London but would love somewhere with a good nightlife. Manchester is probably at the top of my list at the moment.

Anyway shoot us a message if you find any real good places :)