My pleasure. I think that Vancouver has an international reputation for being one of the best places to live on earth? What I have found from living here day-to-day, is that it is a fairly straightforward, medium sized city (with a pretty water/mountain backdrop). It has its pros and cons - just like anywhere else does.

I have lived here for 17 years and agree with most of Ork comments to a point. However, coming from Manchester, I have to say that there is much more to do and keep one occupied here. I've noticed those from London find the place lacking, probably something to do with 600,000 vs 7.5 million. I imagine someone from London moving to manchester would have much the same experience.

Weather - better than Manchester - fall and winter are identical - spring is nice, summer outstanding. Rain fall figures are misleading and while it rains more in volume, the number of days is less,. We also get more sunshine, lots more. Rain in the uk tend to be evenly paced here it drops about 60 percent in a 3 month period. Comparing Vancouver's climate to Glasgow is useless.

I agree with the suburbs - very soulless - very different living downtown. While there is no pub culture like the UK, there are lots of options for going out if you live downtown, not so much so in the burbs, tons of decent eateries.

I haven't noticed mush difference with the amount of stores here than the UK. It seems much the same to me, but I must confess I'm not much of a shopper, so may not be the best to comment.

Groceries - never had any probs finding what I needed.

There is definite emphasis on the outdoors here. Skiing in winter and just about everything in the summer.

Here is something I wrote up about vancouver:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...r+confidential

Thanks guys, very much appreciated.

If we did move there then we probably would be living in the downtown area. Does anybody know the average cost of 1 bedroom flat or houseshare?

Sounds ungrateful!

At least you had the opportunity... Others have to struggle to go and live there! I.e ME!!!

Dboy are you the guy from "Only Fools and Horses" ?

Yes, i believe he's Trigger and i claim my £2.89.

So the famous "Del boy" trotter from Peckam SE London has been hiding in canada all this time

I thought that snowy mountain behind Nelson Mandela House looked a bit out of place.

Rent is not bad. The West End would be your best option (great area to live in right Alan?). It varies quite a bit. A half decent one bed would be around 1200 bucks, although you can be less or more - on average about 2 dollars a sqaure foot is the norm for a standard place but things like views will jack it up. Here you don't pay council tax if you rent and rent includes principal bills.

To give you an idea:

I rented a place in the west end on English Bay for 1100 - including parking (which is only about 50 bucks a month) was 600 square feet, small balcony, view of the ocean and mountains. Heat and hotwater were included. Electric was 15-20 bucks a month. Other bills would be cable, phone and internet for around 150 - some apartments include cable. Same unit with no view was around 950 bucks. This was 18 months ago so may have gone up?

The place was older, but clean, nice hardwood floors, but a pathetic galley kitchen which was in dire need of a make over. Laundry was shared in the basement It was half a block from the beach and tons of restaurants and bars etc.

Not bad, I thought it would be less than that to be honest, that's actually slightly more expensive than my flat in Central Manchester now. I think we may end up having to look at a house share instead, at least in the interim until work is found etc.

You can find cheaper places, it depends where you want to be. Personally, I think its cheaper to rent here than Manchester when you factor in where you are and what you are getting. Vancouver is light years beyond living in central manchester.

Cheaper options are the east side of the city or further out, but its better to pay a bit more of location. Another saver is looking for basement suites in private owned houses. These tend to be a great deal and usually include all bills, including internet and cable.

Best thing is to check out craigs list:

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/se...=max&bedrooms=

One other thing you should be aware of is the fact that there are very few furnished places for rent.

Yeah we would definitely need a furnished place unfortunately and I think that the location would at least need to be reasonably good since we would be strangers in a foreign land and neither of us drive.

Probably more like Inspector Frost!

You don't need a car, in fact I would advise against it - transit is fine and you can always rent a car for trips out. I would rent unfurnished and buy a cheap bed, couch, tv etc. It's a pain, but you can easily sell the stuff later on craig's list.

Yeah I suppose so, we don't even have drivers licenses, were both thinking of learning over there with a local driving school if we go as it's too expensive to learn in the UK these days and it's even more expensive than that in my gf's country of origin.