Abergavenny, England

Imagine the thrill of explaining to your friends that you are moving to a place with ancient castles, lush verdant hills, and snow-capped mountains – a town called Abergavenny in the county of Monmouthshire, which is nestled in the valley of the River Usk. They'll think you're relocating right into a Harry Potter book!

Abergavenny (as the name may suggest) is in the south of Wales on the Welsh/English border. Here, the hills really are alive – with the sound of hikers, climbers, hang-gliders, and paragliders. When it comes to outdoor activities, locals have a wide choice of terrain: the Monmouthshire/Brecon canal is excellent for hiking and walking; the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons provide a greater challenge for climbers and are excellent for gliding; and the nearby Llangatock area has some of Europe's foremost cave systems for climbing and caving. And Abergavenny is the gateway to the Brecon Beacon National Park, one of the most famous and spectacular parks in Britain. Covering an area of 1,347 square kilometers (520 square miles), its landscape consists of moorland, forests, valleys, waterfalls, lakes, caves, and gorges.

But the beauty of Wales is not found only in its landscape – it is found also in its history and culture, which you can find plenty of by visiting the surrounding castles (Abergavenny, Grosmont, and Skenfrith, to name a few), the Abergavenny Museum, or the Town and Market Hall (which houses daily indoor markets and dates back to 1807). Settlers have lived in this area since Neolithic times; the Romans had a fort here; and the Normans built a castle here. Now a market town, Abergavenny has developed plenty of character throughout the centuries and is a great place for adults and kids to explore the past.

You may not learn to speak Welsh, if you move to Wales, but one passion you will pick up is rugby – it's the country's national game and Cardiff's state-of-the-art Millennium Stadium is the best place to watch it. Speaking of Cardiff, if you need some nightlife or a shopping fix, this is the place to do it and the big city is less than a hour away by train (an efficient and commonly used form of transportation in the UK). Or for an even bigger city experience, London is only two-and-a-half-hours away, by express train. Abergavenny's central locale also makes this small town an excellent launch point from which to travel around the UK and to Europe.

No doubt you will become tongue-tied by the Welsh names, but the beauty of a move to Wales is that you'll learn about a new culture without losing the comforting familiarities of your own.

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