Cheltenham sits just a few miles to the East of Gloucester. Cheltenham is surrounded by hills on three sides; these hills are known as the Cotswolds. From a rail commuters point of view Cheltenham sits 1 hour from Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham and Swindon. 2 Hours from Bath, Derby, and London. And 3 Hours from Manchester, Darlington, York and Exeter. For those wishing to commute a lesser distance by rail Gloucester is just a 6 minute train ride away. But my most important question is why do you need to commute? Cheltenham is a completely self sufficient town with its own massive retail interests, government related centres, and industry. On top of that 22% of Cheltenham is noted as having natural beauty and 17% of the town is green belt land. But stop! I'll address all these issues one by one.

Cheltenham has a massive employment shortfall; but not in the way you may think. 25% of the population of Cheltenham are temporary residents, here for placements or learning opportunities. So unlike the rest of the midlands Cheltenham always has more vacancies than people to fill them. In a 24 hour period an average of 127 job vacancies will appear; this ranges from skilled to unskilled.
Cheltenham has a massive retail market; in 2005 Cheltenham was voted as a favourite shopping location in the UK in an online poll (the reason for this I'll talk about later) as a result the Retail employment opportunities are drastic, as I write this a new retail site has been acquired that will hold 76 new major retail outlets.
19% of the employment sector of Cheltenham is in industry whether it be building or production of glass. So skilled persons are always welcome here.
A massive 49% of the employment population are based in government related posts; whether it be education, medical or most impressively in GCHQ. The governments' communication headquarters are based in Cheltenham. The work carried out in GCHQ is essential to the operation of MI5 and MI6. GCHQ has an employment workforce of 9700 give or take a few.

Cheltenham offers a unique variety of shopping; the town is split up into different sections Town Centre, The promenade, Montpellier, and Tewkesbury Road Retail.

The town centre itself offers the same sort of offerings as most town centres its key stores are Next, Debenhams, Marks & Spencer, BHS, Wilkinsons and House Of Fraser. The House Of Fraser store is the largest in the UK, and offers a variety of additional products not available in most House Of Frasers. Obviously there are smaller retailers the likes of Game, Argos, Burtons, Thorntons etc. In total 211 Town centre units are filled with national retailers with a further 24 by local businesses. There are two shopping centres in the Town Centre The Beachwood Arcade, and The Regent Arcade which features the famous Fishing Wishing Clock.

The only way to describe The Promenade as that it's a taste of London, without actually being there. Most of The Promenade is allocated to big designers with the likes of Waterstones (there Cheltenham store is the largest in the UK) and Habitat sneaking in. The area is very leafy with wide streets; scattered through the area are various European eateries featuring outdoor eating. There are 43 retail units in The Promenade.

This is the really posh bit of town, the sort of place that you could get arrested for looking at the price tags on items. However sitting amongst these stores sits some lovely bars. There are 28 Retail Units here all of which are very high end; and no major retailers feature here.

This area consists of a long road stretching over 2 miles. It begins with local based shops before spreading into larger Retail: Home Depot, Staples, Sainsbury's, M & S Simply Food, Next, SCS and PC world to name a hand full. There are 62 large retail units along this stretch of road. As well as dozens of smaller independent retailers. This is also to be the location for the new out of town shopping centre.

Socialising

Leisure time

Residential

Everything I missed

TV show Butterflies and the movie Vanity Fair (2004) were filmed here.

Pittville Pump House is an ideal location for concerts artists that have performed here include Skunk Anansie (most of whom lived here), George Michael, Toyah, Midge Ure, U2 and even Olivia Newton John.