# Moving with kids to Windsor- advice?



## 4kids4us (Apr 10, 2009)

We are moving this summer to the Windsor area (for 2 years) with 4 kids ages 2-10. Can anyone recommend a good location to live? Is a car necessary? If so- what do people with more than 3 kids drive over there? (I have a giant SUV in the US- gas guzzler!) Are some areas better than others for schools or raising kids? ANY advice would be so helpful. Do people there walk to the grocery store and carry things home or is a car better for that? Is there an IKEA or Costco near Windsor? Thanks!


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## kath65 (Mar 13, 2009)

4kids4us said:


> We are moving this summer to the Windsor area (for 2 years) with 4 kids ages 2-10. Can anyone recommend a good location to live? Is a car necessary? If so- what do people with more than 3 kids drive over there? (I have a giant SUV in the US- gas guzzler!) Are some areas better than others for schools or raising kids? ANY advice would be so helpful. Do people there walk to the grocery store and carry things home or is a car better for that? Is there an IKEA or Costco near Windsor? Thanks!



Hello, be very careful, as you do not want to move anywhere near Slough, which borders Windsor, and is very often sold as Windsor. Many mid range Hotels market themselves as Windsor ones, when in fact they are in Slough, which is rough and very Asian in many places.
But Windsor itself is lovely, and yes, you have Ikea in London (about 30 mins from Windsor depending on traffic) and a Costco in Reading (20 mins on the M4 westbound ..M4 being your nearest motorway). And no, people do not really walk here...everyone seems to have 2 cars. You do get good people carrier type cars ..Toyota as well as Renault do them at a decent price I believe....
Good luck with you move. We came 6 years ago ..and found it hard..but it is a great place to live after all....


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## jlms (May 15, 2008)

If you live out of big urban centres you will need a car, no question about it. You will rarely find all the things you need walking distance.

WIndsor is very nice, it has OKish rail links to London and has several children friendly attractions close by (Legoland for example).

As somebody mentioned you want to make sure you are in the right area (to say something is "too Asian" is just stupid, you want a place where you feel safe, irrespective of the ethnicity of the people around you, I have lived in several places in the UK and what mattered more to me was the socio-economic level of the community I was moving to, the ethnicity was frankly of no interest to me, and I think time proved my correct in this matter since you could choose a very "unasian" neighbourhood that is plagued by social problems ).


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## Suki (Jan 23, 2008)

4kids4us said:


> We are moving this summer to the Windsor area (for 2 years) with 4 kids ages 2-10. Can anyone recommend a good location to live? Is a car necessary? If so- what do people with more than 3 kids drive over there? (I have a giant SUV in the US- gas guzzler!) Are some areas better than others for schools or raising kids? ANY advice would be so helpful. Do people there walk to the grocery store and carry things home or is a car better for that? Is there an IKEA or Costco near Windsor? Thanks!


Windsor is a lovely town, however when there is an easterly wind flights into Heathrow fly directly overhead, quite low, every 90 seconds from 6am until 12pm - on average about 2 times per week. And although you get used to it the noise is really quite dreadful. If it is possible I would suggest you look for a home either to the south-west of Windsor to avoid the landing path or north of Slough as there the planes are high enough not to be too much of a bother.


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## EP GAZZ (Aug 26, 2008)

Windsor is nice you would not be the only one with an Escalade but there are not many Guzzlers and ith traffic on M25 and M3 etc nearby you will not want one.

Although I am from South Coast originally I worked in this area for a few years and the comments are correct on location, Slough is nearby and a dump frankly.
Windsor is very nice as are some of the other nearby areas.

Schooling depends you are well sitauted for Eton
However if you want state schools you should contact local education authority which will be Berkshire and they will point you in right direction for education depending on your kids grade.Remember the system is different and we start school earlier in UK in the year you are 5 and that is not K or pre k it is school.

You are certainly going to a great part of the UK and sure you will enjoy it.


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## King Silk (Feb 25, 2009)

Lot of good advice here. Listen to it Buddy!


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## katgirl (Jun 13, 2009)

Hi - I have recently moved to Dubai having left a lovely village near Windsor called Wooburn Green. I can highly recommend Beaconsfield, Wooburn Green, Bourne End, Marlow as great places to live with young kids. Beaconsfield has a direct train to London Marylebone. Maidenhead (not as nice) has a direct train line to London Paddington. Windsor is on the flight path so you might want to consider one of the above towns. Happy to give more info if needed


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## 4kids4us (Apr 10, 2009)

*great advice...*



katgirl said:


> Hi - I have recently moved to Dubai having left a lovely village near Windsor called Wooburn Green. I can highly recommend Beaconsfield, Wooburn Green, Bourne End, Marlow as great places to live with young kids. Beaconsfield has a direct train to London Marylebone. Maidenhead (not as nice) has a direct train line to London Paddington. Windsor is on the flight path so you might want to consider one of the above towns. Happy to give more info if needed


THANK YOU for the great advice...as chance would have it- we have actually moved our search to the Maidenhead area since our 3 older kids will be going to school there. I did a 2 day search and did not find a house I loked yet; thank you so much for the advice!! I will use it for sure!:


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## katgirl (Jun 13, 2009)

4kids4us said:


> THANK YOU for the great advice...as chance would have it- we have actually moved our search to the Maidenhead area since our 3 older kids will be going to school there. I did a 2 day search and did not find a house I loked yet; thank you so much for the advice!! I will use it for sure!:


Try estate agents - Andrew Milsom & Partners or Crendon House. In answer to your other questions - most supermarkets do online shopping and delivery - Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose (through Ocado) and the nearest Ikea is on the outskirts of London near Wembley. Good luck with your move.


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