You may want to post on a less travel-orientated forum such as gum tree or lonely planet, thorn tree.

In my opinion, few people on here would have experinece of long-term lifstyle changes. You might get good advice, but its a rare question on here.

There must be somewhere that people from SA get advice as there seem to be about 2 million of you over here now!

Practically anywhere in Surrey would be classed as a good area, and the schools are very good. However, it is also one of the most expensive areas in the country.

I would get in touch with letting agents, estate agents and ask them for advice. They do this for a living. Try www.yell.com

Most towns in Surrey are termed "commuter" belt, as many people get the train into London every day for work, and enjoy the leafy hils and open spaces of Surrey at the weekend. A fast train from Guildford takes less than 30 minutes. Thats why its so expensive.

You can find somewhere cheaper but it will almost certainly be less convenient for commutting, but that might not bother you.

Other towns (and there are scores of villages, too) are Woking, Weybridge, Godalming, Dorking, Leatherhead.

One site that might be useful is www.upmystreet.com to find out about prices, crime (shouldn't be an issue) , schools etc.

You will get a loss less for your money than you can get in South Africa, so be prepared to look around a wider area. have fun

Hello

I live in Guildford. I have had two children who have gone through private schools here. I also have two apartments that I rent in Woking. The agency I use also has short term, but expensive, apartments that you can rent by the day, week or month while you are looking. I can give you lots of information but it is late now and I am off to Paris for the week-end. I will get back to you on Monday. Meanwhile this is their web-site leaders.co.uk/Short-Term-Accommodation.aspx.

Perhaps you can tell me is this a company move, are you looking for private education, do you need to comute to London. The more I know the more I can help.

Judy

Hi thanks for your help. My husband got a transfer to Deloitte in London. The company will pay part of the move, but he will receive this only at the end of his January salary. We are looking at both private and good public schools, depending on what I can find and the pricing. Why I am posting on this site is that I am having difficulty finding weekly accommodation from here. I e-mail 10 people in the UK and receive one reply. And as I will be landing on New Years day with a baby and toddler, I am getting a bit anxious to find somewhere to go from here.

Hi again

Right so our first priority is to find you somewhere for January. Sorry that other link did not work. I have looked at Foxtons www.foxtons.co.uk who do short term lets there is a 2 bedroomed place in Worplesdon which is on the outskirts of Guildford at £461 a week and in Bramley which is a village a few miles away a 3 bedroomed house at £1038. As you have found out short term ltes are not easy out here. The company I rent out through are County Property. They have short term apartments but the ones they had in Guildford have all gone at the moment. They have some in Woking which is about 7 miles away. The train connection from there to London is the best around. I would not recommend it for living witha family for long term but might work while you look. They just told me they have a two bedroomed available for £780 per week. However the contract would have to be signed by a company even if you are not paying. It's all to do with the legal situation here and I would not thing it would be a problem with Deloittes. They must be used to it. Their e-mail is let@countyp.com. Also they are e-mailing the details to me so if you want to drop me an e-mail to judy at thebartletts dot co dot uk I could forward it on to you.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Two more sites to try

guildford.tourist-i.net/listing/index.cfm

that lists all Guildford accomodation including some self-catering. Unfortunately most of the self-catering are outside Guildford.

Also this company seems to be trying to start up so I'm not sure if they have anything www.accommodation-guildford.co.uk

If you go to this site www.theholidaycottages.co.uk and search in Surrey you should find a place called Lavender Cottage. I just walked past to look at it for you. It is new looking so don't be fooled by the word cottage. It is a rather small three storey terraced house, i.e. in the middle of and joined to other buildings. That said it is easy walking distance of town and about 10 minutes downhill to the station. There is a building site about 50 metres further down the road but I do not think that would bother you.

By the way I found your apartment in Leatherhead. It too is a nice town just not quite so much to do there as Guildford. Here is the web-site http://www.visitleatherhead.com

Miekesmom: JBart is doing a good job here, so I can't add to that. Just to say though, that when you start looking at schools, over here 'public schools' ARE the private ones, ie the fee-paying schools! (you also pay for independent schools) The others are called state schools. May have been mentioned before, but do have a look at the school's ofsted reports for official opinions whether it's a good school or not. You may also need to ask around once you're here.

Just realised that my brain was working faster than my fingers with one of my posts. For a short term let with County Property Management the lease would have to be signed by a company even if you were paying for it.

Sorry if I confused you.

Leatherhead is about a 20mins drive from Guildford, the area is fine. The train station is in the town which goes straight to Guildford, takes 25mins. Many trains go from Leatherhead to London, 40mins, should you wan't to do a spot of sightseeing.

There are lots of nice villages inbetween Leatherhead and Guildford you may wan't to look at. Leatherhead itself is also nice. The main M25 motorway is only 5mins away which can be very usefull.

Good luck.