Moving to Melbourne Australia or San Francisco? Need advice (Los Angeles: apartment, living)

[Kristen9457]

I am currently living and working in the US and lived in the past in Melbourne Australia for 4 years. We are looking at relocating to San Francisco or go back to Melbourne ( since we are truly missing it). We would have the she jobs and would be able to afford the expensive rent.
How is San Francisco in comparison to Melbourne? We've been to San Francisco before ( for 3 days) but it's not enough to be able to get a good feel of the city and visiting is always different than actually living there. We love the fact that people are not on top of each other in Melbourne due to the many city parks (eg. Albert park, vic gardens etc) Any people out there who have lived in both cities and what is your opinion?

[beb0p]

Never been to Melbourne but if you truly miss it then that's where you should go. No place in the world can beat the place that you are missing. Even if you are in the most awesome city in the entire world; chances are, you are stilling going to complain that it isn't Melbourne.
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[JohnS_15]

Agree - go back to Melbourne. I love Melbourne. The bay area is great but it's definitely feeling more crowded in the last few years. There's still plenty of opportunity to get outside but trying to get to those open spaces can be pretty frustrating during the popular times to be on the road (commute times on week days and pretty much all afternoon on the weekends).


If you have the option to go back to the city you love then you should do it.

[bmw335xi]

I only spent a few days in Melbourne back when I lived in Australia (Gold Coast). I would recommend Melbourne. San Francisco is good for a temporary move, like 1-2 years, but a good amount of people end up moving out looking back positively as a good experience, but not somewhere to start or raise a family or retire. It's good for young professionals that don't mind having room mates and spending more time in the city than in their apartment.

[Chava61]

I spent 6 months in Melbourne many years ago. Melbourne compares to Los Angeles better than to San Francisco.

[johnharlin]

There is an old movie of around the 1960s where I think Gregory Peck is a commander of a submarine and while they are deep at sea somewhere they find out that the world had a nuclear war and the first place they come back to is San Francisco and there is no one left. Then they go to Melbourne thinking it must have been spared being so far away but there is no one left there either. Well, you can compare the cities from this movie. In some ways the movie is kind of a classic. Classic Nightmare. The cities seem somewhat similar and some people have said that Melbourne is the closest city to San Francisco.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by johnharlin

There is an old movie of around the 1960s where I think Gregory Peck is a commander of a submarine and while they are deep at sea somewhere they find out that the world had a nuclear war and the first place they come back to is San Francisco and there is no one left. Then they go to Melbourne thinking it must have been spared being so far away but there is no one left there either. Well, you can compare the cities from this movie. In some ways the movie is kind of a classic. Classic Nightmare. The cities seem somewhat similar and some people have said that Melbourne is the closest city to San Francisco.

Really? I've long thought and heard that Sydney was/is more comparable to San Francisco. SYD is a bit faster paced than Melbourne. And sadly, like SF, Sydney has an outrageous cost of living.