BristolUK

Well the first is a bit more like it, albeit more like spot between two villages and the second looks more like a market town.

The others are a bit High Street(ish) and not unlike how I think of the Downtown (Main st) here.

For Canada, I don't recall much coming up in the Quaint thread, village-wise, although I do recall something about a pub and phone box somewhere.

My vision of village is probably just British skewed.

JonboyE

A short stroll from Downtown Vancouver ...

BristolUK

Which one's Oink or was he out fishing that day?

dbd33

There's lots of urban cricket here too and several places that might count as villages, Erin, Hillsboro, Inglewood, for example, but at the moment there's no village cricket. There's a plan to have cricket somewhere near Erin but in a cricket specific 35,000 seat stadium so probably not what Bristol has in mind.

Siouxie

Georgetown isn't bad either, though since they started building new estates there it's not as nice as it was. There is a 'village' feel to the old part of town and there's a really good cheese shop - reason enough to move there, lol.

geo4

Good instincts, Aurora is brilliant- the Oakville of the North! We have two boys a similar age and moved from downtown over two years ago. It's quite an affluent town but there is still good value to be found in the older suburbs, certainly much better than closer to the city.

Schools are all good, almost without exception, and there are many leisure centers and tons of stuff for kids to do. Happy to answer any other questions you have via IM.

I would personally steer clear of Newmarket and if you are travelling out to the airport Aurora is probably about as far North as you would want to go. Without traffic it's a 35 minute run but during rush-hour would be a lot longer.

In terms of getting into the City, outside of rush hour its a breeze. We have a family pass to the Museum and can get downtown in 40 minutes on the weekend.

Aurora is often over-looked as many feel it is a lot further away than it really is although we are already seeing signs that is changing, however this is likely a function of the crazy house prices along the East/West corridor.

Rgds,

Mayor of Aurora.

Ps- i'm not really the Mayor....

travelling wilbury

Thanks Geo,

Very useful info, maybe you should run for Mayor!!

Will IM you any further questions

TW

magnumpi

@Geo4 Detached Houses near us in south Ajax are selling within a week and priced above 500,000 now.

bats

One of those was Cobourg

BristolUK

And Port Hope too. Those were the ones I thought High Street-ish a bit like our Main St only with shops, so an improvement on ours.

Partially discharged

And both of them have 'british food' shops in the Main Street area. Cobourg has quite a high proportion of young seniors who have left the GTA and want to live in a small town atmosphere. Both towns tend to be out of major snowbelts.

BristolUK

Some Cumberland Sausages would be nice. And Steak and Kidney pie/pudding.

bats

Port Hope's is closed and one of Cobourg's is too. Plus another two sources of baked beans in or near Cobourg. I use the British shop in Peterborough.

Anyway, I reckon both towns will have house price rises soon as the GTA gets closer. Bristol, you might have to move to Brighton instead.

Partially discharged

My folks live in Cobourg but the 'british food' shop isn't too close to them and IIRC it was kind of twee. I think there is also a similar shop in Bowmanville on the edge of the high street.

Brighton is a nice place and may not have the cache and therefore higher prices of the nearby 'county'.

Kingston is a bit more to my liking as it is a bit of bigger place and has many spinoffs due to the university.

BristolUK

I think prices have gone up since I first started gazing that way.

I can't see the train stops at Brighton.

Train fare looks quite a bit more in $$ and time.