Canberra Travel Forum

Hi,

My boyfriend and I are about to move to Canberra. I have been there once in year 6 so we really have no idea about the city.

I was wondering if anyone could suggest some good suburbs to live in. We will be working in the city, so would like somewhere in the city or reasonable close with good public transport. We also want to be close to restaurants shops, pubs and general entertainment areas, or at least close to public transport.

Can you also give me an idea of how much we should expect to pay for a place; we will be renting and would like 2 bedrooms.

Thanks

Broadly, Canberra is divided into a series of areas - inner Canberra (north and south), Woden Valley, Weston Creek, Belconnen and Tuggeranong - each with various suburbs. As you're going to be working in the city area, I'd suggest one of the less distant areas to minimise travel and also bus changing - there are interchanges at Belconnen and Tuggeranong town centres. I think your preference for somewhere with restaurants, nightlife etc also fits with that - so rule out Gungahlin, southern Tuggeranong (Kambah at northern Tuggeranong almost counts as 'inner') or the outer parts of Belconnen. Kingston, Ainslie, Dickson might be good choices within differing price ranges. NB that Canberra has fairly few 'pubs', the nightlife tends to be in clubs. I can't help much with rental prices, but look at www.realestate.com.au and you'll get some idea (from memory it also has maps). Hope this helps.