Hi All

I was originally looking at the GTA, however due to more demand in my job i am now looking at BC.

Can anyone advise what areas are good to live in and also have the better weather.

Vancouver is a bit too British weather for my liking, so i looked into Kelowna and Kamloops as they have much warmer summers and the Winters are not too bad at all.

My preferred choice would be Kelowna from what i have seen on Wikipedia
but any first hand experience would be gratefully received.

Kind regards

Dan

I would pick Kamloops over Kelowna anyday - but that is just me

Hi AmyDavid

Any reason why??

What is the standard of living like in both places, and crime etc.

I have young family with 2 girls aged 5 and 2 so good schooling and a safe environment is what i am looking for.

Dan

The standard of living's going to be largely dictated by your salary and/or equity you bring with you.

Which place is more suitable may be driven by the type of work you're looking for.

me and my OH move to kelowna in 2 weeks so can let you know then. but from what we have heard from people that live there is that it is a gorgeous place to live, and from people i know that have visited they have said it is a wonderful place. you get the cold winters but you have a lovely summer to look forward to. that just my view anyway, will find out for myself in 2 weeks, but we are looking forward to moving there

Hi RICH

I currently work for the AA as a Product Manager, which essentially is a mixture of Procurement and Account Management with the likes of Tesco, Halfords, Morrisons, BP.

I will be looking to take approx $220,000 CAD over when we sell the house in the UK, although we will obviously rent for a while.

Based on this info, what are your thoughts.

Kind regards

Dan

Are you going out on a TWP or PR and from your message it seems that you have not visited the area yet?

If you do not mind me asking, what do you and your OH do for a Job and can you recommend any Employment Agencies.

Kind regards

Dan

No we havent visited there, we are going on recomendations from the agency we used, we have been using atkins west and they have been very helpful. when we first started looking it was some time last year when we saw some work for whistler for the winter olympics, but because of plans we couldnt go for that, so when we started looking we were going to look in vancouver.

the OH is works in drylining and is going out on a skilled work permit and i am going out on a spousal open work permit.

we went to a Expo in june to have a look, there was only one stall of interest to us, we qued for 3 hours, spoke to someone shortly and they took our details. a month later the OH got a phone call offering him a job and thats when we heard about kelowna and from doing research we fell in love with it

hope that helps

We had dealings with Atkins West and a drywall company when in Kelowna and neither were good!

I just didn't like Kelowna! I felt it didn't have enough for us to do with the kids unless you have lots of money and/or don't mind driving hours to do something. It is odd to hear people talking about driving all the way to Vancouver for the day to do some good shopping!

It is also very expensive to live in Kelowna - had we stayed we would only have been able to afford a crappy house that we didn't really like, but would have to have bought so that we had our own place. Rentals are also really expensive.

It is a beautiful place and the weather is fabulous - it just wasn't for me. I didn't want to spend my time (and my overdraft) trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Kamloops is smaller than Kelowna, and has perhaps a closer knit community feel, from what I've experienced. I'd be surprised if Kamloops was able to provide a directly comparable role to your current job, but perhaps your skill set is transferable into other areas?

$220k won't allow you to live mortgage free in either town if you want a family home in a nice area. Double your budget for Kamloops, and a little more again for Kelowna.

Kamloops is certainly a great place for kids to grow up, the amenities and local countryside offer endless things to do. This video might help you get a taste for the city: http://www.kamloops.ca/media/placeinthesun.shtml

The following sites offer more information:
http://www.tourismkamloops.com/
http://www.venturekamloops.com/ (and specifically http://www.venturekamloops.com/movetokamloops.htm)

Hi RICH

Thanks for the info.

I am happy for my role to change as this is one of the reasons that i want to leave the UK.

Sales is what i would look to do wether that be for a national or local company.

I would definately look to take a mortgage out for probably $220k -$250k anyway but would this tyoe of job pay enough to fund this?????

Dan

I can see why Amy would have that view, and I have no beef with it being expressed that way.

If you're not going to embrace the outdoor life 100%. than Kelowna may not be for you - look elsewhere.

And, you really have to ignore the Jones's because most of them are 100% assholes. Probably 60% of people in Kelowna are assholes, actually. You have to work hard to find the good ones, and that's not easy to do. Plus it's hard work.

If you want smaller, slower pace, more homely, blue collar feel (all meant in a good way) head for the Loops.

R.

Hi

I appreciate your feedback.

I understand that the outdoor life is very much a part of Kelowna which is not a problem at all, in fact it is great that there is so much to do.

My only concern is what the amenities are like, regarding shopping etc as from what i understand it is a fair way from any major City.

I also need to know if there is much of a business centre for white collare workers as this is really what i do???

Dan

Both cities are an easy morning's drive from Vancouver. I used to drive there regularly for business meetings and would be home by early evening.

Both cities have all the amenities, shops, suppliers etc that you need on a day to day basis. In 3yrs I've not felt the need to shop for 'stuff' outside of Kamloops. Kelowna offers more choice and bigger malls than Kamloops, but I've never been there just to shop.

Shopping is fine unless you're a real fussy tw@t. Everything you'd ordinarily need is at hand, apart from high end designer clothing. Nothing wrong in having to go to Van City for a shopping weekend, it makes a nice change once in a while to actually see non-white people and "funny" accents, heck, this is the big country, it's how it is. It's not like the UK and why would it be ???

I'll PM you later regarding the work front. There's good and bad aspects to working life here.

R.