Moving to Bavaria and choosing where to live

Hello. This is my first time using this site. Me and my girlfriend being sick of recession and non-stop rain here in Ireland want to move to South Bavaria. We have 5 cities in mind (Augsburg, Ingolstadt, Landshut, Rosenheim, Freising). Which of these cities would you say is the best? We want to learn German from a good school/teacher. Irish/American/English bar/restaurant would be helpful. Good sports facilities outdoor or indoor. As we have never been to these cities any advice would be very helpful.

Any advise on moving to Bavaria would be very helpful

Kind of humorous, that is, after the monsoon of the hour just passed by in Munich.

I can recommend Munich as a great place to live but have no experience living in the towns you mentioned. They are all lovely.

Sick of the non-stop rain? Then maybe Bavaria isn't the place to be looking. Check out the weather forcast for this area or read the threads on here about the weather.

Munich gets more rain than London!!
The big difference, though, is that *apparently* Munich has heavier rainstorms whereas it rains more frequently and lighter in London. However it's been pretty dry here for the past year or so.
At least Bavaria is less windy than Ireland (I presume).

I lived in Ingolstadt for 10 months and it's quite nice, but no one here will be able to tell you whats right for you. I suggest taking a little trip to visit each city and decide for yourselves which is best. If you want a list of things to look into before you visit that's the sort of advice you could gather off this board.

As far as what you did mention I can speak only for Ingolstadt. There is an Irish pub here but most people don't speak english. There's a great community of international students, but they are in their early 20s so I suppose it would depend on your age. There's an older group of british expats that frequent this board that live there and are married/have children/etc.

I took german classes from the VHS in town. Depends on your teacher if you're getting what you pay for. I know there's several other options including a Berlitz school.

There are several indoor/outdoor pools in town and although I've never frequented one, several friends of mine attend a gym. There are soccer fields everywhere and I was part of a club. They also have plenty of tennis if that's your thing.

I don't think any of those places have an English or American bar. Of the five places you mention, Freising probably has the largest number of English speakers and Landshut the fewest, and from Freising you've got Munich just down the road.

Thank you very much for your replies.

Believe me, the weather is better anywhere rather then here. Today it's 15C degrees, grey sky and raining. But at least we are in the middle of the summer...

How hard is it to get started in Germany (finding an apartment, turn on electric, gas, phone, broadband etc.) with no German?

We're thinking of visiting these towns in autumn, is there anywhere else that you would reccommend? Is there anything else we should be checking out while we are there?

Again, any advise would be very much appreciated.

I'm curious, how did you come to consider living in the five cities you named?

To be honest we just picked it out of a map.

We wanted cities close to the airport, over 50,000 and under 200,000 people. We figured it would be much cheaper in Munich to start with.

We heard Munich is expensive for apartments and if we don't like Germany we'll not stay.

Living outside of Munich can be affordable. I checked out a few places off the S-bahn lines and although they are a bit far, you're still directly connected to Munich at reasonable prices. My boyfriend and I looked at a great, big, clean, and furnished 1 bedroom apartment in Neufahren, but it was in a tiny village and about a half an hour train ride away from the Munich city center. However, it sounds like it might be right for you. Oberschleißheim was another nice village outside of Munich. With no German knowledge Munich could possibly be your best bet.

What do you plan to do for work? That could perhaps be the most important factor while looking for a new city.

The only other thing I could suggest is buying a Bayern ticket for the train when you get here and have a look around.

Thanks for replies.

Angelamia: I deal in buying and selling scrap metals: copper, brass, aluminum etc.

My partner wants to set up a shop selling products for babies (mostly clothes).

Do you think these 2 businesses are possible in Bavaria? And how hard would it be for outsider to get started?

No idea about the former but the latter should be a goer. However, a good knowledge of the German language is essential for dealing both with bureaucracy and with customers.

Rosenheim has McGoverns , a real Irish pub , with the best guinness this side of the Liffey!! So good i named myself after it!!!

Good luck , especially with your chosen careers , Germany has very strict recycling laws , which relate to dealing scrap , a the lowest birth rate in Europe which isn´t really a plus for your partner!!!

Rosenheim is a great place to live and rent is cheaper than Munich , unemployment around 4.5% . Weather isn´t too grand at the moment , normally winters are cold ( freezing f§%%king cold! ) and summers hot ( sweltering ) and humid , spring and autumn dont really exist , maybe 3 weeks in october and 3 weeks in april!

Thanks Small Town Boy. The city that you're living in is one of the cities that we were consider moving to. Would you recommend it or would you recommend one of the other cities that we mentioned? What benefits are there in your city compared to the other ones?