filz

WE are still undecided where we want to settle in Canada and would be interested in thoughts based on the following requiremnts:

1.We would like like to live within 2 hours drive of a city with an international airport (direct flights to europe and USA)
2.We don't want to live in a city itself.
3.We would like a climate with cold winters and warm to hot summers with a good amount of snow fall and good sunshine all year round.(we currently live in the Austrian Alps and like the climate here and would like something similar)
4.We want to be within 2 hours drive of good down hill skiing
5.We want to be able to buy a 4 bedroom house in a reasonabkle family area circa 1600-2500 square feet for $cn 400k max
6.We would like a town / city with enough to keep teenagers family happy i.e 15k to 100k popualtion.
7.We are more drawn to western Canada mainly due to the mountain geograhy.
8. We would like to be be within a commutable drive (say 60 minutes) of good job opportunities so say 100K+ city.

Any ideas for locations welcome.

jericho

I would say Calgary, or one of the satellite towns, is your best bet. Houses are pretty expensive though, so I dont think you'd get your 4bed house for that budget.

gibsonslanding

check out gibsons landing........or abbotsford....both in bc and i agree with previous posting, calgary fits those criteria apart from house prices.......vancouver is in the same cat too on the house price front.......

Judy in Calgary

What he said.

When I look at your wish list, your options are Calgary, Calgary, or Calgary (or one of its satellite towns, as jericho indicated).

The real estate market had gone crazy in this place, but has softened in the last year. I've just found a 4-bedroom house in Arbour Lake, in the northwest quadrant of Calgary, with a list price of $379,900. I looked at the NW quadrant, because it's closer to the mountains than other quadrants, and therefore a good starting point for skiing.

Some members of this forum are very fond of the satellite towns of Okotoks and Cochrane. Okotoks is to the south of Calgary, and Cochrane is to the northwest of Calgary. Again because of its geographic location, Cochrane would be a better base for keen skiers.

But, if you have teenagers who soon will be attending college or university, beware of the transportation issue. The public transportation from satellite towns is confined to a couple of express buses during morning and afternoon rush hours on week days. If you lived in one of the satellite towns, you might have to provide your kids with vehicles, and that would add to the expense of living in those places.

My sons used transit to get to and from the University of Calgary during a large chunk of their studies, and that helped with expenses.
x

Judy in Calgary

This had to have been stated tongue-in-cheek.

This too (although not quite as ironical a suggestion as Gibsons ).
x

acer rose

Iqaluit.












Seriously, I don't think there is anywhere in Canada that will meet all of your requirements.


Some of the Lower Mainland in BC is within a 2 hour drive of YVR. Flights to most places in the US almost always seem to involve a hop to Seattle. UK flight connections are pretty good (for as long as tourist airlines exist). Not sure about the rest of Europe. Asian destinations are also served.

I suspect Toronto has relatively good connections directly to the US.

I've tried to book flights from Calgary to the US and been routed through Vancouver. Not sure whether this was destination specific, location specific or a common thing (ie this may or may not be common with airports in other large Canadian cities). The population of Canada is about half that of the UK. There are correspondingly fewer services at some levels. On the other hand, some places with relatively small populations have a much wider range of services than similarly sized cities in Europe. For example, Whitehorse has a population of about 20,000 but has a wide range of cultural, sporting and educational opportunities. It also has long summer days, cold winters (and loads of bugs).

Well there's more non-city than city in Canada.

Only been on holiday to Austria once so you'll have to compare for yourselves.
http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec....s/index_e.html
http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/weather/winners/intro-e.html

I suggest you avoid the prairies.

The west, and BC in particular, will give you the widest choice of locations.

That may be quite possible in most places outside the Lower Mainland (you could get a townhouse of that size in an OK area of Surrey for that kind of money), though I hear Kelowna is pretty expensive too these days.
http://www.mls.ca/

I suggest you think more specifically about what facilities you are looking for.

It is true what you have heard. We have mountains in abundance. Other parts of Canada merely have "mountains"

You need to give a bit more detail about what kind of opportunities. If you are looking for retail or hospitality or health, there is probably a wider choice of locations than if you are looking at aeronautics, off-shore exploration, biotechnology or marine mammal trainer openings. You may also wish to tailor your idea of commutable to climate and population. It could be quite different commuting in winter conditions in a rural area. In an urban area, one hour in the Lower Mainland might only get you from Surrey to Burnaby on a bad day.

As a starting point, look at Prince George. Not everybody's cup of tea but it will help you think about your requirements around what is out there.

acer rose

I take it all back, the locals know that there is a place that could meet all of OP's requirements. Go Calgary!

Steve_P

I'm curious where in the U.S. were you trying to book flight to from Calgary that you got routed through Vancouver?

And what travel search were you using?

acer rose

California. I was time limited to leaving after 7pm to get there by 7.30am next day. I tried Kayak and a couple of airlines. I was rather surprised myself but my search also failed to find the first flight of the following morning out of Vancouver!

Steve_P

The time constraints are the key here.

The last flights out to San Francisco or Los Angeles appear to leave around 7pm

AlexInBC

No, seriously, don't... It's our nearest city so we go there at least monthly. Wages are awful, it's extremely ugly and it smells *grim* (from the pulp mill.) Also, I think it unlikely you'd be able to fly directly from there to any European destinations. Sorry... LOL!

Steve_P

I've never been there but I've heard a number of people refer to poor old Prince George as the arm pit of B.C.

Nobody I know wants to live there and a few I know are glad they are out.

acer rose

But none of those were in the list of requirements, which was sort of my point.

Also true of many other locations that would otherwise fit the list of requirements.

Danny B

Kamloops fits most of your requirements.

MB-Realtor

Ain't that the truth