Hi everybody!
We are a young family living in Edmonton (have been here since July).
Now it is time for us to make a decision about settling down somewhere. Red Deer is one of our options.
I would really appreciate any advice and/or information - anything that would help us make the decision. What are the best and the worst things about RD? What are nice areas and neighbourhoods? We have a 3 yr old boy - is there going to be plenty for him to do?
Many thanks in advance!!!!

Are you going to be commuting to Red Deer everyday? I wouldn't like to do that in the winter especially.

I personally love Red Deer as does my husband and 12 year old daughter.

Why do I like it? You can get from one end of town to the other in 20 mins - even during peak times. There is tons of green space. There are loads of walking trails. It has all the amenities you need. It is halfway between E-Town and Cowtown. You can get to the Rockies and Drumheller in less than 2 hours. It's easy to find your way around.

I don't know what sort of things your 3 year old boy likes to do and when my daughter was 3 we did loads of free stuff as we didn't have the money for 'laid on' entertainment. Bower Ponds is lovely to walk round and some of the trails are pretty. The nearest beach is 20 mins away, Discovery Canyon is open in the summer, there are ski slopes just out of town and free ice rinks in every community. The Library does toddler stuff as does Michaels.

I can't think of bad things, we are just really pleased Red Deer is our home. I'm sure there are people that hate it here.

General rule of thumb is to buy property south of the river although in all the neighbourhoods there are nice areas. I would avoid Oriole Park and Highland Green. I also wouldn't personally buy in the new West Lake or Vanier Woods - when we moved here those areas were wetlands.

if you need more info - just ask.

Thank you for your response!
My husband will be working both in Edmonton and Calgary, hence he wants to be in the middle. I am a bit concerned about the regular commute for him, especially in the winter. Although even now he has to go to Calgary and it's so much further for him form Edmonton. So, it kind of makes sense to live in the middle....I guess...
I just wanted to see what kind of town RD is. We came out there for a drive last week. It looks fine, but my only concern is the probable lack of amenities, especially in winter time when it's too cold to be outside and roads are too bad to go to either of the big cities..
We like going out for walks and being outdoors, we are really looking forward to taking on all the winter activities too. But it's also good to know if there are some indoor playareas for kids.
Is there much for adults to do? Cinemas, theatres, restaurants? There is sooo much going on in edmonton all the time, that I am really worried that we will struggle to find good activities in RD (I am not saying all the activities in Ed are fantastic, but we are definitely spoilt for choice here).
What are people like? I am worried about making friends, I have been really lucky in Edmonton so far, it will be hard to start from scratch again..
So many questions, so many concerns... maybe for no reason?

Hi,

I'm not sure about the indoor play areas for little ones - there is one of those ball park places (Moonwalkers) but mine is too old for that now. There is the Collicut Centre which is a sports hall with gym/pool/running track/ice rink. There are a couple of other pools too. There are 3 (I think) cinemas one is a cheapy one, the films are a little older (the other cinemas show them 1st then the Carnival gets them type of thing).

There are tons of restaurants and a fair few pubs. There are dinner theatres quite regularly too, I haven't attended any yet.

http://www.city.red-deer.ab.ca/Conne...ls/default.htm

http://www.rdc.ab.ca/rdc/organic_che...ls/trails.html

There are Ski clubs - one is called jackrabbits for little ones, curling clubs, ice rinks and intensive trails (as the links will show you). Bwling Centres.

There is talk of a high speed passenger train from Calgary to Edmonton with a stop at Red Deer to. I think you can fly from Red Deer Airport too.

I have never lived in a huge city so I'm not sure if Red Deer lacks anything that you may be used to. It hasn't got a Zoo but there is Petland and of course the wildlife centre at Innisfail. There is the wildlife sanctury in town too.

Hope some of this helps.

Oh I forgot they are building a huge recreational centre and 10 screen (I think) cinema on Gasoline Alley as well.

Thanks so much for all the info. I think I feel better about it now. We haven't made the final decision yet, but I think I will probably be ok with moving to RD.
How long have you lived there? where in the UK are you from?

Hah! Just looked at your profile - you have the same Birthday as ME! Although I am a few years older

We have lived here since June 2005 and moved from a small market town in Bedfordshire, I grew up in Harlow and moved to Cambridgeshire when I was 11 though.

Are you enjoying Canadian life? Where did you move from? What does your hubby do to be working in both Calgary and Edmonton?

LOL well, if we end up moving to RD then maybe we should have one big birthday party ))
We are loving Canadian life, so happy we got here. Hubby is an application engineer for an engineering tooling company and he covers Alberta (mostly) and BC. We moved from Wiltshire (used to live between Swindon and Bristol), although I am originally from Lithuania. Hubby is English though He's got family in Vancouver, where he took me 3 years ago and it was there and then that we decided to move over to Canada. Haven't regreted it so far

We live in Ponoka about 25Km north of RED DEER, we think it is much better than Edmonton, but Edmonton is close enough that we can go there if we want! Mainly if we run out of Bisto gravy granuals we can get them from west ed Mall! But yes big up for Red Deer! Oh yes left UK March 2006, work in Leduc! 2 kids under 4, latest one born here!
Bob

So you commute to Leduc every day ? What is it like drive-wise in winter, coz my hubby will be driving to Ed and Cal on regular basis, so it does concern me. What's Ponoka like to live in?

My brother also lives in Red Deer and loves it there. He also lives there because it is half way between Calgary and Edmonton (he works in both places occasionally). I too would live there if there was a job for me. But after 10 years in Calgary, this is home.

And I too share the birthday mentioned

the birthday party is getting bigger by the hour! lol

We were residents of Red Deer after landing in 2003, but after 7 months moved to SW Ontario where we spent 8 months. Things didn't work for us there and we went back to the UK where we spent another 8 months. Did the best thing and came back to Red Deer where our big adventure first began and we've been here and happy ever since. It is a fantastic place to live with everything you could possibly ask for, all within easy reach. Lots of great neighbourhoods, schools, recreational facilities, beautiful trails, easy access to Cal/Edm/Mountains or wherever. We spent 2 years living in the heart of Red Deer which was good for us at the time but so noisy and hustle & bustle, but now have our own place in a lovely community on the outskirts of RD so now we enjoy the tranquility of country life but have all the amenities of what the city of Red Deer has to offer in just under 10 min drive. There are jobs galore to be applied for here - absolutely no shortage. If you are interested in a move to Red Deer and want help finding the right place, I can put you in touch with 2 realtors who are friends of mine

Rubes

And so she comes out of hiding !!!! Hiya Rubes, nice to know your still about!

I know, I drift in from time to time Sometimes, when there are questions like this post, I just have to have my two cents input.....we just have to when we want to brag about fab RD eh! Are you enjoying the extended fall time Piff? Isn't it great having no snow!!!

I seem to remember from last year that there were a lot of Taureans on this board many of them celebrating May 3rd!

Liagora, I'm pleased for you that you are enjoying your move that's great.

Rubes, I'm expecting the snow any second but it keeps going away, a winter the mix of '05 and '06 would be fine by me - not much snow in '05 far to much in '06 Glad your enjoying your new home too.

rwin, thanks for the support of Red Deer - so many people don't even consider it when they do their reccies - mind you the Brits are taking over, everywhere you go there are English people. Red Deer's horrible - stay away