Inverness Travel Forum

HI, i know this forum is for people needing travel info rather than info about moving to a place but i can't find the info i need anywhere else.
Anyway as my name suggest, i live in London and after 11 years of a crazy life here i need to settle down and i want to stop the rat race. I need somewhere quiet and a lot cheaper than London. However i am gay and although i am not looking for a gay scene (been there done that), i still want a place where i could be safe and accepted. I considered moving to Glasgow as accomodation is dirt cheap compared to London but i have been advised again because of the violence issue.

So my question are: What is Invrness like ? What is the job situation? Is it a safe city with a very good quality of life as i ve ben told? Would i get bored or is there enuff stuff to do to get busy and have a good social life?
Is it true the people are friendly and welcome (dont answer this one if u are a local lol!) ?

Many thanks.

Violence? its Glasgow not Gazza!
Have no idea about Inverness but Glasgow and Edinburgh would both fit the bill.

A tourism book on Glasgow warns that you should never discuss football in Glasgow because if you say you support the wrong team, trouble could ensue. I don't know if that was excessively paranoid advice or if there is truth to it.

Certainly we here in Canada feel passionate about our version of football but we give fans from other cities a hard time in good fun. I know English football is another matter entirely.

I get the impression Edinburgh is very safe but alas I do not get that impression about Glasgow at all. I would love to be wrong on the issue as I hope to visit it at some point (perhaps even this year).

My partner and I had a great time gay clubbing in Glasgow in '05. There didn't seem to be an overtly 'gay village' although the clubs/pubs were openly gay and jammed. Lots of fun, met some great people. Sorry I can't comment on Inverness, but I would recommend a holiday in both places and see what you think.

A quick google on gay friendly inverness:
http://www.friendly-places.com/categories/gay-friendly/gay-friendly.asp?Location=Inverness-shire

http://www.purpleroofs.com/europe/uk/ukhighlands.html

Glasgow LBGT: http://www.glgbt.org.uk/

Jim, Edinburgh is wonderful and the centre is perfectly safe but there are estates tourists never see and which rake up the bad statistics for drugs and such (there is a grain of truth to the Ian Rankin novels). But as I said, you quickly learn which places to avoid and otherwise Edinburgh is a fantastic place and I have met quite a few gays there compared to elsewhere actually.

Not being gay myself I don't know where is best amongst Britain's cheaper cities but have you seen this site:

http://www.gaytravel.co.uk/

Neither Edinburgh or Glasgow has a specific "gay quarter" but both have areas which seem to have a fairly large cluster of gay pubs: the merchant city in Glasgow and Broughton Street in Edinburgh.

Glasgow is a perfectly safe place in town,like any city (Inverness included) there are place to avoid. If you decided to move here and adopt one of the local teams and then decided for some bizarre reason to wander round some pubs frequented by the opposition fans then yes you are bound to run into a bit trouble, thats not a Glasgow thing its a UK thing.

night life of Inverness consists of getting absolutely legless - no place with decent music to dance - busiest bars are Hootanannys (accordian and fiddle nearly every night) or johnny Foxes (country and western and karaoke) So if you like that kind of thing you will enjoy Inverness
However, if you like to dance forget it- you will have to go to Edinburgh or Glasgow
Are the people friendly? The locals are quite reserved until you get to know them (takes a few years) but Inverness is now full of 'foreigners' (anyone from outside of Inverness) who are very social and friendly
For me the best part of living in Inverness is its proximity to the mountains and hills .... I love dancing too but you really have to go further south for that
hope this helps
Fee

I live in Inverness, and there is a gay scene. You should do ok, theres is not much unemployment either. Im straight, dont really mind the gays....more women for us straight guys!