Expat area to live in Gurgaon

places to stay for expats depend on your budget and how much travelling you want to do. Having lived in Gurgaon for two years I know many expats move into The Auralias or
Camellias compounds but we chose to live in the Nirvana Estate, then Laburnum and then the Garden Estate.  These are all gated communities - you just can't walk in for a peek so all you can do is a drive by to see if you like the area. 
Either your work or a real estate agent will organise an appointment for you to inspect a property. If your husband is an oil man you will probably end up in the Auralias but my happiest days  were in my townhouse in Nirvana with parkland outside my door, a friendly neighbourhood and convenient shopping area. We moved out reluctantly as the landlord wanted to sell.
Join Gurgaon Connection to meet other expats who have done it all before you.
Pack your sense of humour
Ioanna

Hi Ioanna,

Thank you so much for your quick reply, which is really helpful !  My husband is an oil man. Is Auralias a place where all the expat oilmen with their families live?  How far is Nirvana Estate from there?  Are these all villas or apartments?  Is there any nice places for infants? We will have three children with us - 15 yo daughter and two new born twin daughters. So, we are really looking for a nice, safe, and clean place to live around expats with good infrastructure and a hassle-free accommodation. Do you mind telling how much were you or your company paying for your accommodation in all the mentioned places? Do you enjoy your new place you are living in now?  And how do I join Gurgaon Connection? Is it an online community or a community in the area?  Do you know of any website where we can look at these estates?
Also, would you recommend  or not to ship our furniture over there?  And we have two small dogs too.. Can you give any advise if it is a good idea or not to bring our dogs with us there? I have heard that once you bring your pets there, it is almost impossible to take them back due to some reasons..
Sorry for a lot of questions It just sounds really scary for us to move over there, especially when you know nothing about the place. We lived in Dubai for many years, where my husband was working, and we were really sad to leave the place, but looks like we have no choice at the moment and have to experience a new place to live in.

Kind regards,
Anna

The Auralias and Camellias are apartment towers set in acreage with golf course and swimming pool and tennis courts. If you like lugging your shopping into an elevator and spending around 4lakhs per month rent alongside other oil people then live there. The place is full of westerners and wealthy Indians.
It is a premier place to stay and people will immediately know what you are worth.
My husband works as an architect in India and being Australian we wanted our own backyard and direct access from the car to the front door so we chose Nirvana. I happened to score fabulous neighbours from Australia Belgium and the USA and they had 15yr olds who hung out together and walked their dogs together of an evening. We have all moved on so I don't know who you will find there now but again, properties there are worth $1 million so Indian residents there are usually educated overseas or well off. 
My neighbours there had a dog they took on to Dubai and the others took their animals back to Belgium with no problem except they cost more to repatriate than the adults.
They keep small dogs in the Auralias
Gurgaon isn't very big but has terrible infrastructure and the roads can be a big mess.
Your biggest challenge will be your 15year old settling in. For around $15-30,000? annually you can enrol her in the American school in the US Consulate compound with loads of potential friends and approx 45-60mins drive to get there from Gurgaon
Gurgaon Connections is online and a closed group on Facebook but you can Google it. It costs 1500 rupees to join.  That is where I first met my Nirvana neighbours. We paid from 80,000 to 1.2 lakh two years ago for our 3 and 4 bedroom townhouses with small front and back yards. Traffic is blah so I enjoyed walking to the local shops.. something you can't do from Auralias...
India is a lot cheaper than Dubai.. I lived in Old Town.
Your husbands office should be providing him with a local agent to find a place who will also help him to register you all at the Foreign Registry Office on your arrival.. if not,  I can recommend a company called New Horizons.. they are relocation experts in Gurgaon.
For a peek at properties Google - Magic Bricks India.
Laburnum had few westerners but again, villas there are lovely and perhaps 1.5lakh for 4 bedroom.  Lovely grounds and  great pool.
Garden Estate is the oldest compound built 25 years ago but my,  it is a pretty place to live in too but it is filled with older Indians.. we first stayed hete 4years ago in the company's guest house and later we chose to move into a large villa there when 7 family members stayed for 6months with us
Bring everything that makes it home for you.. I brought my entire house except fridge and washing machine and changed the electrical plugs or used adapters.  Imported anything has 30%tax added to buy here so if you crave Cherry pie filling it costs almost $10 a tin here so pack all your comfort food if your removalist allows or ditch your clothes and bring it in your suitcase.
India is not for the faint hearted but if you check your prejudice at the door it is an amazing experience

Once again, thank you so much, Ioanna for being so helpful and generous answering all of my questions!  I am actually quite exited now to experience a new opportunity or may  be it will be better to say to take a new challenge and try to live in such country as India!   We used to live in villas, townhouses in compounds in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and now It also looks like the Nirvana Estate (my daughter liked the "cool" name of it:)  is the one we need to go for, especially having small kids! I found one company 99acress, where I could see all the mentioned by you places.  They look nice actually.  Thank you for the advise on the Magic Bricks. I will have a look at it now. 

All the best and hope to meet you one day in Gurgaon!

Anna

Hi Ioanna again,

Sorry, forgot to ask couple of more questions, if you don't mind.. How much is it to hire a personal driver there, a nanny and a cook?

Kind regards,

Anna.