Nice Place To Visit, Living Here? Not So Much... (Bournemouth in General)

Member Name: AllyPally1991

Product:	Bournemouth in General
Date:	27/07/09 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: beautiful town

Disadvantages: gets stale very quickly

I've lived here most of my life, so I suppose its time to write a little ol' review on my home town!

Bournemouth is a seaside town, situated on the south coast of the United Kingdom. It's supposedly the happiest town in England (survey courtesy of First Direct) and has the lowest levels of crime in England and Wales. Its about 2 hours outside of London, and is situated in East Dorset.

I would imagine Bournemouth's a pretty nice place to come for the occasional holiday or for university. There's quite a few reasons people are attracted to Bournemouth for both work and play, and I can understand why.

Bournemouth has a pretty good night life, with quite a few large nightclubs situated within about a mile of one another. There's plenty of bars and restaurants, plus parks and places of interest, whilst you have the Jurassic coast less than 40 minutes away by car and Henigstbury head an hour's walk away from the centre.

However, if you're interested in music, then you're best getting the train over to neighbouring Southampton or Portsmouth. A few large bands play the BIC, and there's usually some comedy gigs there, but the majority of bands play the arenas in Hampshire instead. The train journey's only 30 minutes for southampton and an hour for Portsmouth, so if you're into your music its well worth it.

Business wise, if you work for a corporate bank in Bournemouth, chances are its going to be JP Morgan, as its European Headquarters are based in the city. Bournemouth is the UK's first Fibrecity, though I've yet to reap the benefits of this scheme, as I'm BH8, not BH10 or 11. To be honest, if you asked anyone on the street about this new internet scheme, I'm willing to bet 2/3 wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about.

Sights you should see;
-- Bournemouth gardens are really pretty in the summer, and on wednesday nights there's an opportunity to light candles throughout the park, which is quite fun if you have 8-13 year olds.
-- Henigstbury Head is one of the more historical beaches in the area, plus you're allowed to take dogs and kites down there. I haven't trekked up to the top of the head since I was in junior school, but I seem to remember that being quite fun as well, though beware the school groups that are permanently up there!
-- If you're over at the end of August, you might witness the Bournemouth Air Festival. It usually runs around the 22nd of August, and heavily features the red arrows, who do shows around the Bournemouth area throughout the year.
-- Brownsea Island is pretty close, and one of the few areas left in the world where you can see red squirrels. The national trust runs workshops where you can help make the island more squirrel-friendly throughout the year, and they're always quite fun.
-- Castlepoint is the new shopping centre in Bournemouth, opened in 2007. Its not got the same range of shops that the town centre has, but it has much larger stores, and all the basics are still there.

However, I will say that if you spend more than 3 years in the city, you will begin to tire of it. It is not really a city, more a large town, and as such if you're used to living in a larger area you will become very very bored. Schooling wise, the Bournemouth college has a bad reputation at the moment; you're better off going to Brockenhurst college, and the university is okay. The arts institute has a good reputation, as do the grammar schools, though it must be noted that parkstone grammar usually gets higher marks than Bournemouth school for girls.

Summary: Lovely holiday town, but not much more unfortunately.