gt1

After growing weary of the South Yarra crowd, I decided to head east to Kew for a change up and here's my two cents worth about this leafy suburb.

Pros:
- The suburb is very safe and quiet at night.
- There are plenty of parks and the streets are very leafy
- Apparently schools are also quite decent here if you have kids
- Rentals are cheaper here compared to most other inner east/south east areas

Cons:
- Public transport is very poor throughout Kew as there are no trains and only two tram lines (48 and 109). The 40min commute to the city everyday eventually got to me and decided to move.
- Not much really happens in Kew, its a very 9-5 office type of suburb

All in all, Kew seems like a great place for a family looking for a safe suburb with well established schools, however is quite boring otherwise.

I lived in South Yarra for a period when I first relocated to Melbourne from Perth. It really is a great location to stay if you have just settled into Melbourne and are looking for a convenient location that's in the thick of things. South Yarra, off course has a few famous shopping streets, is close to the botanical gardens, yarra river and the beach. It is also only 4km from the city.

The only things I would say are negative about South Yarra are:
- at times I felt a bit claustrophobic - i guess being in the thick of things has its drawbacks, however this is probably just a personal preference plus I was living off Toorak Rd at the time.
- There's no real sense of community and people can be quite pretentious
- Pollution along Toorak Rd from all the cars can be quite bad at times - we had to continuously clean soot off our window sills.
- Theres a ton of apartments popping up that feel more like hotels than they do places you can call home.

After living in various share homes in St Kilda, South Yarra and Kew, I decided to make the move west to Kensington and haven't looked back! For me, Kensington is the perfect blend of convenience, being only 2 train stations or 20min away from the CBD whilst offering a quiet village like vibe one would expect from a rural town. I have spoken to all my neighbours and they have lived in the area for 10-20yrs...it definitely has a more laid back vibe to the hustle and bustle of South Yarra and St Kilda, although is not as boring or sterile as Kew.