scilly

The important thing is that you MUST isolate and quarantine yourself for 14 days immediately after arrival, not travelling from the airport in Vancouver to Victoria first for example.

That means staying inside, no going out for even a short walk or to buy food. To order food or groceries for delivery, you will need a credit or debit card, of course.

Meals will be limited to what you can make in the room ............ a hotel room here will have a coffee machine with coffee and tea packets provided. It MIGHT have a small fridge. Some might have a small microwave, most do not or else you pay a daily deposit for one.

If you can arrange an AirBnB, you would at least have some sort of cooking privilege, if only a microwave. You would still have to not leave the premises for 14 days ....... one with a patio or balcony would allow you to at least go out there.

As I noted before ........... they are checking up on people who should be in quarantine to ensure that they are indeed following the rules. The penalty they seem to be assessing at the moment is the $1,000 fine ......... maximum is seemingly $250,000 and/or 1 year in jail.

A friend has just stayed in quite a fancy hotel on Vancouver Island as part of a "vacation in BC" idea. He will probably not be doing it again ............ after checking in for 3 nights, he had no contact with hotel staff, not even clean sheets or towels delivered to his door. If he wanted anything, such as clean towels, extra coffee or tea packets, he had to phone the front desk and pick them up from there later. NO breakfast or lunch served, he had to provide his own breakfast, buy lunch out from any place that he could find open. The hotel's fancy restaurant (meals costing mucho $$$$) and a local pub were open in the evening ....... with limited numbers and reservations required. When he came to leave, he had to phone the desk and tell them he was about to leave, leave the key in the room, and walk away. He will get the receipt for the cost by email ..... no chance to double check it before accepting it as one would normally expect.

He was paying quite a lot of money for that. As he said ........ he did very little different from what he had been doing at home in his condo for the last 4 months, and had far fewer people with whom he could talk.

Your stay in a quarantine hotel would be as bad as that, worse actually as you would be unable to even leave your room.

Siouxie

If you don't have a pre arranged quarantine plan I believe they would potentially place you in a quarantine hotel (which wouldn't be a great option, being stuck in 1 room for 15 days).. and potentially little to no ability to order in groceries or other goodies.

A 'holiday let' with a kitchenette / outside area will likely be only a little more expensive than a hotel in downtown Vancouver would have been - and possibly cheaper as many holiday rentals (vacation rentals) aren't filled and they are eager for people to take them and are reducing the prices. That would be my first choice - the links I gave the other day had some accommodation that was under $100 a night (most hotels are more).

You could also look at longer stay motels/hotels to arrange yourself.. - they usually have some rooms with some kitchen facilities.> https://www.tripadvisor.ca/HotelsLis...zfp742645.html or motels / hotels with balconies, wifi and a microwave > https://www.trivago.ca/?aDateRange%5...erlayMode=more

You may be able to fly to Victoria International (internal Domestic flight) from Vancouver International provided you are wearing a mask..
https://www.yvr.ca/en/passengers/tak...way-operations
https://www.victoriaairport.com/travelsafeyyj

Exactly this

caretaker

Well since my baby left me, I found a new place to dwell...

Hurlabrick

You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.....

darkneal

Finally had a chance to go through all the links provided, it seems that at the moment its affordable to rent for 14 days at a reasonable price, some of the prices are shockingly low for all they offer, i'm presuming this is because of the pandemic and lack of tourism at the moment? Thanks to all for the help, particularly Siouxie. I think the plan is to find a place with a kitchen and garden for 14 days in Vancouver in September, not so far from the airport, then maybe even move to another similar, cheaper place after the quarantine so I can then get out there and start scouting what part of Vancouver I'd like to live at first. But for those first 2 weeks its definitely a case of ordering shopping and food in. Artistically there seems to be more going on in Vancouver than Vancouver Island so thats a place to focus.

Thanks again for the info and help.

Siouxie

Sounds like a plan! If you need help with identifying specific areas or information about specific areas I'm sure our lovely members will be willing to offer their insight.

You are most welcome.. do stick around, we've quite a community around these parts.. lots of different sub forums too - (for Canada look at the Maple Leaf for a little distraction)

darkneal

ok, will do! i'll see if there are chats where i could be comfortable joining in. thanks again.

scilly

Be aware that finding places to live IN Vancouver will come at a high cost.

Prices for apartments to rent have dropped a little but are still very high.

I hope you have lots of money behind you to fund you until you find a job, which might or might not be difficult depending on what you want to do.

Even minimum wage service jobs such as in restaurants, coffee shops etc are hard to find because they are still not at full service levels, and they have to re-hire previous employees before newcomers ....... assuming that the previous employee wants to return to work that is.

This is a very strange time all around.

unobscure

Locate your nearest Save On Foods (or similar supermarket/grocery) and sign up for an account/arrange delivery. Wife and I had an account before we left Hong Kong. That way you know what is available for home delivery.

abstractprojection

It depends on the type of artist you are.

More traditional landscape and nature artists tend to reside on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands (which are spectacular). Hot spots are Victoria the largest city but a bit suburban (rather then nature proper) and slightly old fashioned for my taste (think fancy hotels and cream teas), Cumberland which has a younger arty slightly hippy/hipster vibe (think barber shop with a live electronic violin gig in the evening), and Salt Spring Island the largest and most commercial of the Gulf Islands with a very prosperous art scene (I think Sting has a house on this island, it certainly has lots of very expensive galleries).

In Vancouver the city itself you have a lot of commercial art centered around Granville Island and the Emily Carr University that is based on it, where as the edgier trying to survive as working artists or involved in community based art scene is firmly in East Vancouver and the network of collective homes in it.

abstractprojection

One thing that might be of interest to you (once you've complete the quarantine period) is that some people find employment or at-least free accommodation by looking after holiday homes on the Gulf Islands through the winter. I can't imagine anything nicer as a hobby artist myself.

L0VE

Hello, I'm here! A self employed artist.

I sell my paintings almost exclusively online for the last 15 years before emigrating a year ago to BC and I've carried on this same since moving from the UK.

Having a good social media presence with clients worldwide has helped make the transition easier.
Apart from the shipping being so expensive in Canada everything has been the same.

To start I rented a small studio. From there I got to meet local artists in the area and also by joining some local groups.

What I learned when I got here is there are a lot of talented artists in BC if you are marketing and business savvy you can get yourself ahead. Success travels with you.

I wish you all the best of luck with your move!
I'm excited for you!

darkneal

hi there,

sorry i missed your reply originally! I still haven't made the move, it was changed to Feb 1st but thats had to change to March 1st, the UK is a mess again atm...im determined to get to BC on this day tho, pandemic or not! cause...its just not going to happen at this point if i dont.

can i ask what part of BC you moved to? Theres so many places there i want to live! any recs would be appreciated.

L0VE

I think March would be a good time to move you'll have the summer ahead to enjoy
We moved to the Okanagan in July 2019
The main reason for the Okanagan was family.
Why I love it here is the amazing climate, surrounded by beautiful wineries. The lakes. Paddleboarding, kayaking, hiking. In the summer you can plan to have a BQ and almost guarantee it will be gorgeously sunny and dry. Although in winter we get more snow than the western part of BC it's milder and a much dryer climate. It so warm cactuses actually grow in people gardens here! lol
I can't comment or compare with other places in BC but I found rent is high compared to UK and many homeowners Airbnb rather than rent, so finding accommodation was hard. We ended up staying with family for 5 months rather than weeks and then had to to do with an apartment because finding a house to rent was impossible. You would visit the place only to find out it was a shared house or shared laundry or just the bottom level of the house. Some were only available in the winter months. So that is something to keep an eye on. We are not settled, so holding off buying a home. I'm frequently told that if I visit the West Coast I would never want to leave because of my love of forests, coast, trees and nature that emanates through my art. So would like to visit there, after this pandemic. Love Golden, Nekusp and Nelson too! Spoilt for choice really. So I'm not that helpful sorry LOL
One last thing some places don't have internet or even mobile reception so with your work that would need to be checked out.
Where are you thinking of going to?

darkneal

wow, thanks for the tip, okanagan looks beautiful. seems pretty huge too, what city were you in? North okanagan looks picturesque, like a dream, i definitely want to visit there now, especially if the climate is warmer than the west coast.

the plan at the moment was to start in vancouver or vancouver island, i'd previously read the victoria has one of the warmest BC climates, and it was pretty hot when i visited a couple years ago.

can i ask, as you were in the same situation as im about to be! since you sell your work online if you changed bank accounts from UK to Canadian when you moved? or did you just have both? not sure how that works out best when everythings going thru online....oh and taxes! did you have to close your uk taxes to canadian at first? did you get taxed higher being permanent resident as opposed to natives? i really should have worked this stuff out sooner....