Amazingstoke. (Basingstoke in General)

Member Name: Bex28band

Product:	Basingstoke in General
Date:	02/04/09 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lots of leisure activities, great shopping, good nightlife, lots going on

Disadvantages: rough areas

Basingstoke often gets a lot of stick for being a dump. A couple of years back it got voted 15th worst place in the UK!!! I've lived in Basingstoke for many years now and personally dont see what all the fuss is about. Of coursed like any place there are rough parts but generally i think the town has a lot to offer.

Basingstoke is huge, the size of a small city, and is an over spill for London. It has easy access to the M3 and A30. Reading in a 20min drive or train ride away and London takes 50mins by train.

Festival Place is the new shopping centre which was built about 8 years ago now. Modern in looks it offers a great day out shopping with the old part of town and new part offering loads of different shops. There are also loads of places to eat in town from italian, steaks, chinease, spanish...the list goes on. There is also a huge well kept Vue cinema.

In terms of nightlife in Basingtoke there is a Liquid nightclub which can be a bit rough sometimes but is allright and good priced for a night out. There are plenty of pubs in all the areas of Basingstoke each with a local pub offering quiz nights, kareoke and some with pool tables.

There is a large leisure centre witch offers bowling, ice skating, cinema, pizza place, swimming (inc. slides and flunes) and bingo. Next to the leisure centre is a golf park and holiday inn.

Basingstoke offers everything you would need. It has a nightlife, great shopping and plenty of leisure activities. There are a wide range of junior schools and secondary schools so it is a great place to raise children. There are plenty of parks and greens such as the war memorial and Eastrop Park (which has a paddling pool, boating lake and adventure playground). Basingtoke also hosts plenty of events such as a music festival in summer, a kite party and Balloons over Basingstoke where lots of hot air balloons take flight from the war memorial.

Summary: a great all round place to live.