Posting on another thread made me wonder.....

How many trips back and forth to people make before they make their final move?
I guess making it all happen in one trip might be less common than I imagine....if you care to let me know I'd be interested in your experiences.
Cheers

we did a lot of research on line, decided where we thought we would like to be. Did one recce trip and decided on the original place we thought we'd like to be. The other factor was the job offer.
Haven't regretted any of our decisions so far.

As above .

One short trip for recce and interview. Did a lot of research online, found a lot of other stuff after moving that I don't think you can appreciate until you live it.

My first trip was around 17 years ago, which was a holiday to visit my wife's Aunt on Vancouver Island. We borrowed her jeep and drove over the Rockies and ended up in Calgary.
We loved it so much we had a look at some new houses in Calgary, but we were too young and too naive to really take it much further.

15 years later, and wife starts visiting Ontario through her work, and the dream starts again. The possibility of a transfer arises, so we book a recce trip with the kids, to see if we like the East as much as we liked the west.

Still loved it

Not nearly as pretty, but much less rain than the West coast, which is pretty high on our criteria.

And now we have one more pre-move trip planned. This is my last chance to really narrow down the area we could be spending the next 10 to 20 years of our lifes, so I feel it's a worthwhile trip. I will also take this time to try and setup bank accounts, visit schools for the kids and talk to mortgage advisers, Realtors and the like.

This is all very expensive as you can imagine, but the cost of a wrong decision would be so much higher.

I did around 25.

You got rejected 24 times????

I should add though that after 7 1/2 years, neither of us still feels very settled here. I don't think any amount of holidays would have anticipated that.

Agree, after five years, Christmas / winter is the hardest time for me...with regard to feeling unsettled.

Same all year round for us. Christmas is actually oddly liberating as we don't have to juggle various relatives we don't really want to see

We both decided to give living in Canada a good go.

Fiance went out for interview Feb.

Moved in May

I would've only been in holiday mode if I'd of "visited" anywhere. My personal opinion is if we wanted to give somewhere a try we just go for it.
Saying that I done alot of research online so knew exactly where to avoid, the good the bad etc. But I had never been, you only live once

Came out about 8 times over a period of some years and stayed for a week in different towns that we thought might be "possibles". I'm glad we did, as some places that looked good on paper just didn't feel right to us (e.g., deserted streets during the evening, not very friendly etc.). We found that reading local newspapers online was a very useful way of shortlisting towns/cities, given that they list cultural events, give crime reports etc. Multiple trips also helped us clarify in our own minds what we wanted. Did we want to be near a big city? Or a nice beach? How close is the nearest decent hospital? Did we want to spend a lot on a house, or live somewhere cheaper/more modest and enjoy a bit of spare cash? That sort of thing.

Our timeline was, suggestion of job for OH - March, phone interview for me - April, details of job offers finalised - May, recce trip to check out offices, meet with realtor, visit schools and find rental - June, permanent move beginning of August. So - one visit, I had been before several years ago but OH never and the kids didn't even come on the recce.

We had holidayed in Canada together twice, but the last time being 10 years before we moved. My husband was born here but left as a toddler. We happened to see a property for sale online that we both fell in love with (June 2005). Husband went over in July to stay in the property for a week (it was operating as a B&B) to check out the area, confirm that the pics of the property were accurate and that it really was it was all it seemed to be from the "For Sale" website. It really was, so we moved over with the kids in November 2005. It was easier for us because my husband was born in Canada and so our boys were automatically Canadians. No regrets and we're all very settled!

My husband sent off job application in the January. Neither of us had ever been to Canada so came for a family trip in the June/July and loved it. Husband came back on his own in the November for interview/testing etc. Came back as a family the following Feb/March to experience the winter and still loved it. Finally moved over that same year in the November and still loving it 4 years on!