Areas of the Lower Mainland...
 

Hey Guys,

I apologise if you have seen this a hundred times before but, if you haven't, we'd really appreciate your thoughts...

My partner and I are here (in Vancouver, actually on Richards and Dunsmuir as I type) on a recce to find a place that maybe we could make our own. Not a specific property, just an area that we could start off in and in a few years look at getting a place for some little feet to patter around.

I have either previously asked the questions about locations for dinkys and you guys were great as pointing us in the direction of the West End (very cool, like it), Kitsilano (not really our kind of thing so far and waaaay to expensive) and Commercial Drive (a bit too 'kooky' we think).

I guess we're feeling a little emotionally fragile having put our hopes on our sleeves and find that everything is not 'quite' as we'd hoped. So, feeling a little down we took a 'sky train tour' of the burbs yesterday to discover a little more. Burnaby looks nice, Surrey a little like the wild west and New Westminster looks pretty run down in places.

A quick SeaBus ride to the north shore looked promising. Prices seem to vary wildly depending on... well we're not sure really.

So all in all, we're just trying to find a way of making it work. 'It' being to take the opportunity presented by the FSW visas that we'll get once we respond to the passport requests sat on the dining room table back in Cardiff and make the leap.

If you've got to here thanks for reading guys and any thoughts you have would be really appreciated.

NJ

Re: Areas of the Lower Mainland...
 

There is some generic, though incomplete, information on the Lower Mainland here ...

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Vancouver

Re: Areas of the Lower Mainland...
 

What had you hoped for?

Don't know which part of Surrey you went to that looks like the wild west, Cloverdale maybe, but Guildford is not at all that way. Everywhere has areas that are run down, even the commuter belt of Surrey in the UK.

Try Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam areas. A lot depends on where you want to work your means of getting around and your budget and travel tolerance. I drive an 1.75hr to work, it is not that bad and often well out of the busy times and only have to do it once a week.