Most Mustachian location in England / Europe

[mubington]

I'm after tips on where to look for LCOL areas to in UK / Europe. I work online.

[nrsr]

Basically you are very flexible regarding your living conditions (weather etc.) so what about travelling for a while and finding a place you love ?

If you want a great place and low cost of living, the outskirts of Berlin might be a nice choice.

[iamlindoro]

Or even overseas eg Spain. I like Barcelona a lot but wary of high purchase costs, language barriers and friction.

Nothing a good water-based lubricant can't sort out.  ;)

Is actual fiber essential, or do you just want moderately high speed?  The only places I know of in Europe with widely deployed residential fiber are the scandinavian countries, which while bleak and English-friendly, are probably not particularly easy to set up a mustachian lifestyle.

Speaking for myself (an American with a French mother) I love the more rural spots in the south of France which are quite affordable, much of small town Italy, and particularly Croatia.  In at least France you can get 25-100 Mbit ADSL or Fiber internet in many/most locations.  I suspect consistency of broadband diminishes slightly as you head south and east, but weather and affordability may improve somewhat too.  Plus, if you're not married to that bleak weather, you get 300+ days of sun a year and access to some of the best beaches in the world :)

[worms]

From the perspective of someone living in northern Scotland, I'd say that it is much more costly to live where weather is bleak! You need to heat the house, you are much less inclined to bike or walk and coffee shops are much more of a temptation when you want to warm up and get out of the rain!

Head South! Rural Provence?

[Bumfluff]

In the UK, check out Newcastle Upon Tyne and the beautiful surrounding countryside of Northumberland. Newcastle is an really vibrant city with lots of galleries, great restaurants and bars. The shopping is good, Georgian architecture beautiful and the locals friendly. Northumberland is stunning with wild countryside, the Roman Wall (and various Roman settlements) and miles of golden sand beaches and it has more castles than any other county in England. Red squirrels still abound and there is a great deal of birdlife if you're interested in that sort of thing. Definitely a place to indulge in outdoor pursuits. The various market towns and villages dotted throughout are worth consideration too.

Overseas I'd be looking at France - probably the Languedoc-Roussillon region. Vineyards, Medieval and Roman architecture, Mediterranean coast, really beautiful towns like Carcassonne and Montpellier and an interesting city Toulouse. Cheaper than Provence etc. but still culturally rich, sunny and a wonderful place to retire in my humble opinion.

[Silvie]

Come live in the Netherlands!

We have a lot of beautiful nature
We have very nice and diverse cities and everything is close :) For instance, I live in the 4th biggest city in the country and it only has 300,000 inhabitants. I'm half an hour away from Amsterdam.
We have very good public transportation.
We ride bikes a lot :)
The weather isn't great but you said you didn't mind.
We have good internet. In fact, the % of people who have (access to) internet is the highest in Europe here.
You don't have to speak Dutch as most Dutch people speak English.

[kt]

i like manchester so i'd recommend the areas around there, north-west of are probably the cheapest areas rather than south. lots of very affordable terraces and small semi-detached properties to keep heating bills in check. maybe look at the main train lines out of whatever city your interested in and then look at times/prices to various places.

this allows you to check for virgin fibre optic: http://store.virginmedia.com/broadband.html

[markbrynn]

If you want to be able to spend a lot less money, then I would look to Eastern Europe. There are loads of really nice places that range from much lower COL to slightly lower than what you'd find in the UK or Western Europe.

Places I've spent at least a little time: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia
Positives for some of the above:
Great nature which is much more unspoilt than in the west
Variety of weather options
Various food/culture options
Potentially massive COL reduction

Downsides
Language barriers
Cultural barriers (some of those are not used to as many foreigners, especially away from the big cities), language would no doubt help to minimise this as an issue
Internet - no idea whether they'd have the bandwidth/reliability you seem to need

If you're not up for quite that big a step, then I agree with many of the places mentioned in Western Europe. Expect costs to be much higher though.