Ely Versus St Ives - Cambridgeshire - your opinions please!

I once met a man on the way to St Ives. Think he was a polygamist.

Erm I guess if you live in St Ives you would head to Huntingdon for shopping etc (not that St Ives is bad for shopping)

The guided Bus is naff and rubbish and will only be on guided tracks for a small way the rest of the time it will be on the roads not solving any issues in Cambridge - they should have used the exisiting railway line and added a station at the Science Park!

Ely hmmmmm yes well (ok its quaint and small and has a cathedral) but I wouldn't live there. Not that it is Horrible but I prefer to be closer to Cambridge.

Thanks MBK, good advice as always. I was hopeful about the guided bus, but that's good to know!

Have you looked at the Villages - Swavesey and Over?

Close enought to St Ives not too far from Cambridge and I think the bus service is pretty good.

My parents live near St Ives, and I reckon it's a LOVELY little town! Has a market a few days in the week, etc etc.

Obviously I've not been in Ely, apart from one night many moons ago, and I didn't really think that much of it.

However, in terms of transport, I'm not sure about Ely-->Cambridge apart from the obvious which is train, but St Ives has a fair few bus companies going to it, such as the 553, 554, 555 and then no. 5 and no. 1 and 1A.. The traffic from St Ives is a b@:stard, though!

Lets make no bones about it Traffic round here is a nightmare there is no getting round it.

eggzackerly - i have been fondly remembering my time in cambs since rah has been posting about it and i have to say it brings back many memories of improbably large, long traffic jams for no apparent reason all the time everywhere - it is very crapola

i would go for st ives over ely - ely is a bit 'meh' to me

traffic notwithstanding i am rather jealous of you rah - i loved it round there - and norwich too - but mr j cant 'do' flat landscapes

?Thanks again. I can see traffic is going to be an issue, so in that sense Ely would be better in terms of the train etc.

I have looked into Over, and the other villages people suggested, but there's not much on the market at the moment, plus being a bit of a townie, I'm a bit afriad of villages, the thought of being isolated scares me a bit, but we're still keeping an eye on the market.

You were right about Willingham, those that said it wasn't great, we visited on Saturday and it's not for us. We liked Waterbeach and Godmanchester, but at the moment I think it's between Ely and St Ives, especially since we are keen on 1 house in each place.

I'll keep you updated, we're taking my parents to both houses on Saturday in the hope they'll help us to make a decision and hope to put an offer in ASAP!

Good Luck!

Thanks we'll need it I think.

I'm got a PhD thesis to write in the meantime so better get on with that I guess..............gah looking for a house is much more fun!