galaxyandminstrels

Hello All,

Some introductions.......we are a family of 6 and live in NS 40 mins outside Dartmouth / Halifax and have been here almost 5 years.

We do feel very fortunate to have good jobs and a nice home. We like living semi-rural and appreciate living on the coast and being able to easily get into the city.

However......I am finding the Winters here are really getting me down and was thinking about a potential move to BC.

I realise that we will not be able to afford the type of home we have here and even being able to live 40 mins outside a city may be difficult also. We do love coastal living but again this may be challenging for our budget.

However, having undertaken some research we were considering looking into living in the Kelowna, Kamloops regions or possibly even Vancouver island. This would give us the lake / coastal lifestyle and amenities of a town /city.

I would love to hear from anyone living in these areas and those that have made the move to these areas from NS. I was wondering how people find these areas in terms of lifestyle, people etc.

Thanks in advance!

Shard

Huh, 96 views an no responses? Paging...Jossie and Jossie !

My two cents is that you will find the people and lifestyle a bit more varied than in NS. It's a wealthier area and has higher levels of tourism, which makes it a bit less insular IMO. Depends on what you like and on the financial parameters.

jossie

Hi there,
We live in Penticton, 30 mins south of Kelowna. The lifestyle here is great. Long hot summers and mild winters. If you want snow in winter there usually isn't any in town but if you travel up into the surrounding mountains there is lots of snow to play in. To give you some idea of climate, the temperature here has been around 10 degrees for the past month or so and golfers have been playing for the past few weeks. After your game of golf you can travel 30 mins up into the mountains to a ski resort and the temp is around -5 degrees and you can ski. The Okanagan Valley is surrounded by vineyards & orchards so there are many great wineries many of which have great lake view restaurants. The wineries are becoming more and more prominent and are beating out regions like the Napa Valley for the quality of the wine. There are also many sandy beaches around Okanagan and Skaha lake and if you like camping & fishing there are many hundreds of smaller mountain lakes in the region. Because of the climate, lake, beaches, wineries, ski resorts etc lots of tourists flock here from June to September so during that time you have to make reservations to get into many of the restaurants. As far as location we like it because we can travel to Banff Jasper, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Washington State, Seattle etc from here. Penticton is a small city (around 45000 people) and Kelowna is a little bigger. The only problem some people find is that real estate is expensive here and finding a good paying job can be a challenge depending on what field if work you are in. The people are great, we have met many great families here. Many of them are into the outdoor lifestyle and many move from other provinces for the milder climate or they have vacationed here and fell in love with the place. I have yet to come across anyone that doesn't like living here. There are also lots of retirees here due to the mild climate in the winter. Schools are great - no complaints. As far as Vancouver Island, we have vacationed there and it is a beautiful place. Kamloops - our Son attends Uni there. IMO Kamloops is great as well but not in the same league as the Penticton / Kelowna area.

galaxyandminstrels

Thanks for your thoughts Shard. So pleased to get a reply after so many views!

We are not city people by any means but I certainly appreciate how I can easily get into Dartmouth for some retail therapy whenever I need to and that we can access the cinema, swimming pools etc for the children. I certainly could not live any further out than we do now!

We live just a 10 min drive from a beautiful beach too, which is wonderful. Not 100% sure if having big lakes rather than ocean will be ok or not! Its difficult to know!

We have neighbours but they are not visible from our yard which we like and with 4 children I am sure our neighbours are pleased we are far enough away for them not to hear us too loudly when we are outside! Having close neighbours would be difficult for us to adjust to now!

As for people I do find the people here friendly and welcoming to a degree, but for me personally I do find my closest friends are from the UK. I am not sure NS people 'get me' or maybe its me not 'getting them!'

So I guess what I am saying is that if I could pick up our house and lifestyle and drop it into a warmer climate in BC where we may find it easier to relate to people all would be perfect!!! Lol!!

galaxyandminstrels

Hi Jossie,

Thanks for your reply, the information is very much appreciated and just the sort of information I needed. How do you find the climate in the summer? Are bugs a problem? We have bugs here so we are used to that! It certainly sounds a more appealing Winter climate that NS! I will certainly check into house prices and job opportunities. Do you happen to know what Vernon is like?

withabix

Bring a large pile of cash....

Average house price in Dartmouth $270k

Average house price in BC: $570k

galaxyandminstrels

Will start saving now then withabix.......just in case!

Atlantic Xpat

^^___ Quite.

Although to be fair, following Jossie's post I had a quick squint at Realtor.ca and was surprised - in comparison to Newfoundland - how reasonable(ish) prices actually are. Which really just goes to show how expensive it's got here and how cheap NS is. Which is going to make moving without the guarantee of good jobs/income, very challenging.

galaxyandminstrels

We are only just starting to think of a possible move so just starting to gather information at this point. We certainly would not consider moving without securing jobs first especially as we have 4 children to support too. We have a vacation booked to BC this summer so that will give us chance to explore the areas we are interested in.

jossie

because we are at the tip of a desert, summers are hot and dry without the humidity so bugs aren't a problem. Vernon is really nice as well. Vernon, peachland, kelowna, summerland, Penticton are all great areas to live. What line of work are you guys in if you don't mind me asking?

galaxyandminstrels

Thanks again Jossie for the information, it is most helpful. I am a RN. I currently work in a local nursing home which I love so would be looking for a similar job. I also have a small number of private foot care clients so it is possible I would continue to do that also.

Lychee

Don't underestimate how large the province is!

galaxyandminstrels

We have 2 weeks in a RV so am hoping this will be long enough to see the areas we are interested in.

scilly

We live in Vancouver, our daughter has lived in the Dartmouth area since 1999 ............... so I have experience of both areas.

I find the born Maritimers very different from born BC'ers ................ and harder to get to know. They have very different humour ......... I'm still trying to get the humour of my daughter's father-i-l after 16 years!


I find BC'ers to be much more laid back, but also go-getters in more ways than the Maritimers. For example, people here will go out and search for jobs, go get their own funding, etc ............. I've seen this in young people here since the 1980s. Many of the Maritimers I've known over the last 16 years, seem to be more willing to sit back and wait for the job to come to them.

Family members there were horrified when my son-i-l went out drumming up his own job when there were suddenly no openings in teaching as he graduated from Acadia with a B.Ed. back in 2001 (major, major government cutbacks). His mother said "What are you doing? We don't do that". M's response was ........... I've got to find a job, I'm not going on welfare!


We have a small 2 bedroom house on the southern edge of Vancouver ................... we could buy 3+ houses in Dartmouth for what our house is worth.

You would not get acreage in Vancouver for less than several million dollars ............. so you would be out in the 'burbs, and driving time into Vancouver would be much more than your 40 minutes into Dartmouth, with much longer traffic jams.

Much of Vancouver Island also has high prices for acreages .............. plus you will find that you have to travel for things such as specialist medicine. We have several friends who live in Nanaimo, a town of around 84,000, and, while there are good medical services in that city, they have had to go to Victoria for various specialist treatments ........... or even fly or take the ferry over to Vancouver.

Nanaimo has an excellent symphony and a small theatre, but opera lovers have to drive to Victoria to see Pacific Opera. There are several malls in Nanaimo .............. some very probably similar to MicMac, with the same sort of stores, etc. There are cinemas.......... but none of us are interested in movies, so I don't know how good they are.


There are several cities with universities in them, and the advantage of that is that there are often more services and social life than in non-university places.

Kelowna, Kamloops, Prince George, Victoria and Nanaimo all have universities. Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley and Squamish up Howe Sound (on the way to Whistler) have private universities. There are also several communities that have colleges, and they offer the same extension of what is available ................ Nelson is a lovely place on Kootenay Lake in the Selkirks.

scilly

ouch!


2 weeks will mean an incredible amount of driving to see the areas you are interested in, and spend any meaningful time in any of them