We (my girlfriend and me) arranged our accommodation from Spain trough the web First Step in UK. And we didn’t make a mistake. Find an accommodation for a couple in a shared house (or similar) can be pretty tricky in this city (I guess it must be the same in others), that’s what made us take the decision of contract the services of this company and honestly, we hit the nail on the head.
The house where we are living is the result of put together two Victorian houses, turn the most of the rooms in bedrooms and build the enough number of WC’s and kitchens so that there’s one of them per each three bedrooms. Among all the rooms ours is the best (I reckon). Facing South and with a huge window, warm and bright, large, recently painted and with the fridge (yes a fridge in the bedroom) and bed brand new. I call it affectionately “our suitte”.
If you want to share a house or rent a flat, the usual web is Gumtree. Others like Easyroommates and Flatroomshare are very good as well. Of course try to find non-Spanish-speaking housemates. In Bristol you will meet a massive amount of Spanish people, that’s something good and that makes you feel at home, but if what you want is practice English (that is one of the reasons cause we are here, isn’t it?) is very important sharing the house with non-Spanish-speaking and if they are English, much better.
About the neighbourhoods, the first advice you will hear is: “scape from the saints”, in relation to St. Paul which can be a bit “problematic”. In my opinion what you should do is to visit as houses as you can and focus in how is your room, your future housemates, and it not to be out in the sticks.
The matter of the distances deserves an own chapter. I apply the relativity theory. Bristol is a city with a lot of uphills, and the far or near that your house is, will depend on how steep the street that leads you home.
