Hi everyone,
thinking about moving out to Canada with family. As it takes so long to go through the emigration process, my husband and I are going to get work(hopefully!), get work permit, rent accomodation
and get kids (16, 13 and 10) into school.
Difficulty is deciding where to go! Opted for Ontario as flights are cheap to fly 'home' to visit family or for them to come to us. As we don't know Ontario (or Canada for that matter), we need some info on the areas. Don't want to live in a city; would like somewhere rural/semi-rural with no more than an hours commuting to work and back. As where we come from is a peninsular and water is no more than twenty minutes max in three directions, would like somewhere fairly close to water. Cold winters don't bother me- love the snow! How does everyone get around in the winter months? Does the State clear the roads daily or do people snow-mobile about?
Getting off track, Husband and I are visiting Ontario in May to "have a look." We are staying in Toronto for three nights and then going to Niagra for two. Is it worth hiring a car and looking around any neighbourhoods? Which ones would you recommend?
Looking for somewhere where real estate not too expensive, would like to buy house 'outright' eventually once we sell our house here. Hopefully will get work easily, husband a maintenance fitter (millwright) and I'm a registered nurse- already applied to Ontario Nursing board to get registered.
Anyway any info would be appreciated. Thanyou.

I can't help you with the neighbourhoods as this would be the blind leading the blind. However you should hire a car as it is the only way to explore properly. You need to check out what the areas are like at night and in the morning for traffic. Perhaps take a drive into town at the time you'd have to leave in the morning.

I can recommend Hertz for rental cars. Assuming you're from Britain, you shoud book this from UK as the rate will include Loss Damage Waiver which is essential.

I can also give you a promotional code they send people which should give you 10% off. Use Promotion Code 500179 in the Corporate / Affiliation number (CDP) field and WOW in the Rate Code (RQ) field.

Which airlines are the cheapest for Toronto and which sites do you use for finding air tickets?

thanks PAULGEE ,
we've booked our flights through canadianaffair.com ,the outbound flight from Manchester (England) to Torontowas £54 and the return was £75 plus taxes. Got daytime flights and we're flying out on a Saturday! We also booked our hotels through this company and got an excellent deal!
Good ideas about times of visiting places and thanks for the codes for Hertz. We'll certainly use them.
Balesy

You've set the bar quite high, wanting somewhere that's rural(ish), within easy commute of Toronto, near water but inexpensive property prices! That's the nut most people who live in Toronto's sprawling suburbs would like to crack.

Also it's difficult to know what you mean by cheaper property prices. If you're comparing it to the UK, they're much cheaper to begin with, so.......

But here's a couple of ideas.

It's going to be extremely difficult to escape suburbia, it just keeps getting bigger. But north of the city, rather than west (where you're going) is probably a little more rural. I have friends who bought a house in Aurora, north of Richmond Hill. One of them is also a nurse and there IS a hospital there too, so she doesn't have to commute. The house is a bit cookie-cutter but they're two minutes from hills and countryside.

Further north still is Barrie. Once a small northern town, it sprawls a bit now, but it's still substantially cheaper than Toronto and would definitely satisfy your thirst for water as you're surrounded by lakes. There's lots of hamlets in between as well.

North-west of the city there are the attractive towns of Guelph, Waterloo and Kitchener and Cambridge (completely surrounded by countryside but near the 401 highway). They're about an hours drive away. Guelph and Waterloo are also university towns which gives the areas nice youthful energy and things of interest to do. They are about an hour drive from the city (depending on the 401!!!). In two minutes you're in Mennonite country and every Saturday at Kitchener's splendid farmers' market, they sell their delicious cheeses and bread to you.

Be warned though that every little bit you go north, the snowier and colder it gets in the winter, which may be why it hasn't been tapped out as much as east or west of the city.

West of the city heading towards Niagara, Oakville, Burlington, St. Catherine's and Stoney Creek are all attractive suburbs near the lake, with Oakville the most attractive in my view. But they're expensive by Canadian standards. However there are towns and villages north of there that are quite rural and where the property prices drop substantially - towns like Orangeville, Halton Hills and Milton.

I know east of the city less, but I hear Port Perry is quite nice and a bit off the beaten track.

At first Toronto's suburbs will feel even more sprawling and endless than the UK. But it doesn't take long to get out of it here and you realise quite quickly that even though this is the most populated part of Canada (over a third of the population live in southern Ontario) there's still a lot of open space and lots of land here.

I won't expect you will be able to see too many areas in only 5 days, but if you want to try and do as much as you can then a car would be very useful.

Have you thought about any other cities other than Toronto? If you look on your map and follow the 401 East there are a number of cities that follow the waterfront of Lake Ontario; Belleville and Kingston are large places surrounded by lovely countryside. Not many places in Southern Ontario are very far away from some sort of water mass, be it lake, river etc.

Property prices in these areas are very reasonable. Have you checked out MLS? That will give you a better idea of what sort of prices you should expect to pay in all the areas you are considering.

I have not been west of Toronto for many, many years but it was quite built up then between Toronto and Niagara.

I hope you have a lovely holiday. We will be out there in May too so hoping for nice weather.

Make sure you see Niagara-On-The-Lake and its environs - the area is beautiful.

thanks everyone for your help.
I've actually got places to look at, before it was just a minefield of unfamiliar places. I've been surfing the web ever since and we'll try and visit some neighbourhoods during our trip. Can't wait to visit your beautiful country!

Used to live on the wirral myself. Now near Belleville Ontario, see www.greatplacetolive.com

Relatively cheap property, lots of water. its a boating and fishing destination. Belleville is not the biggest or most exiting place, but there is some industry for jobs, and it has everything I need to be happy. Toronto and Ottawa both about 2 hours away if I need to see the bright lights of the big city. Obviously not the same selection of jobs as TO, but then not as many people going after them either, and property costs are a lot more reasonable.

Enjoy your visit

Iain

Which part of the Wirral did you used to live ?

Caldy / West Kirby

Depending on the types of jobs that are openned to you and your husband I would suggest something a little more radical than the Toronto/Niagara area which is very built up (with all of its pluses) and suggest taking a look around the Windsor/Sarnia/London area.

With your nursing degree, one of the pluses (and minuses) is Ontario's healthcare system. Fulltime nursing jobs are hard to come by in Ontario because about 10 years ago our government decided to vastly "improve" the healthcare system. Initially what they ended up doing was letting go of a whole lot of nurses, closing hospital beds and then once we got closer to the election they spent about 1/2 as much as they 'saved' by trying to re-hire the nursing staff that they had let go off.

This is when alot of our nurses ended up going state side and what we learned was that if you are on a boarder city and don't mind driving a little everyday--you can quite easily once you have the Ontario license, pick up a Michigan license and work for a good bit more money. Many of us on the border towns work in the states and live in Canada.

Windsor is on the St. Clair river just across from Detroit and Sarnia is on the bottom of Lake Huron and just over the border from Port Huron. Properties in Sarnia are very cheap compared to the rest of Ontario but it is a large chemical town so we do have the air quality which is similar to that of Hamilton. Windsor, the properties are more than Sarnia but still vastly less than the Toronto area.

London is a medium sized town which is not truly close to the 'lakes' (as in you can't ride the bus to the beach) but it is only a short drive to Port Stanley which is a beautiful beach area. It is built on a couple of rivers and has one of the largest hospitals in Southwestern Ontario, a good sized university and its own uniqueness.

If I had my drivers license (which I don't) then I know financially the best thing would be to work Stateside and to live Canadian side.

As far as winters go, they suck. No getting around it. Further north they are more 'used' to snow and getting around is easy with a car but it does get to be a pain shovelling all the time. We get a little less of it here and much of it is more slush. Wet and muddy and although they take the times to plow the roads in the winter, the sidewalks are a different story so you have to be careful of pedestrians walking along the side of the road because there is no sidewalk on that particular day at that particular stretch. But the summers certainly make up the difference. The summers are hot and pleasant so if you can get through winter its well worth it.

Was looking across Caldy from the top of Thurstaston Common on Saturday! Fab views! Water freezing at Thurstaston though didn't stop the 'boating fraternity'. Lovely warm easter Saturday.
Just been to Parkgate for 'famous' ice-cream- bank holiday crowds out.
Husband at match- Anfield of course!
We're from Higher Bebington. I used to be an Annie Road Ender myself!

Higher bebington eh!

I spent my childhood in Shallmarsh road, then moved onto the Brackenwood estate, which last time I looked has gone right down hill.

I loved Parkgate though, especailly the pubs. Used to have Sunday lunch at the Copper grill which has now changed its name apparently. Used to drink at the Cheshire cat as well when I was younger.

I have friends who live in Shallmarsh Road and Close! I only live around the corner in Linkside. Have a friend who lives on the Brackenwood- not too bad now- they did the Crescent up a little while ago- looks much better.
Did you go to Higher Bebington Junior School, then Beb Sec or Wirral? my children are all at these.
Small world?

Small world indeed.

You read my mind. I did go to Hr Beb Junior and Beb Sec (Cheggar Road).

My brother went to Wirral, lucky boy.