Vancouver
 

Hi. I've just joined so not entirely sure how this all works. We are potentially relocating to the Vancouver area with my husbands job. We would love to live within 1 hours commute to downtown Vancouver in a nice town with a community feel to it. (If this exists?) so just looking for ideas on nice areas/towns please. We are in our 30's with a small child so are looking for family friendly places. Many thanks.

Re: Vancouver
 

It's a small town of 17,000 but is a young town and a family town, loads of families with kids, and even with the Lions Gate Bridge, you can on most days get to downtown Vancouver within an hour.

Squamish is the towns name and is a family town no doubt with a lot of activity for families to do.

Re: Vancouver
 

I wouldn't recommend to anyone to live in Squamish and work in Vancouver. I know some people who do it and they are continually getting stuck in traffic. If you hit Lions Gate at the wrong time, it could take more than an hour just to get down Pender/Georgia and over the bridge. In addition, the lack of public transit is an issue, especially if you want to go out after work.

Re: Vancouver
 

Not just some. A boat load of people commute to Vancouver, it's just as easy a commute if not easier then coming from the Fraser Valley, or Maple Ridge or another eastern burb.

The Lion's Gate thing is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be, delays happen, but most people reporting their daily commute can do it on average in an hour.

Squamish is a Vancouver suburb for all intents now, all these houses selling are not people working locally, they are all commuting into Vancouver.

In all the drives to downtown Vancouver it has never taken more then 65 minutes door to door except once when there was an accident on the bridge.

Re: Vancouver
 

Hi, and welcome to BE.

Lots of places would meet that criteria, do you have any other specifics? Where will your husband be working, do you want any particular amenities, what kind of property do you want (i.e. a 7 bedroom house or a 2 bed apartment), an idea of your rental budget etc? The more info you can give the better, then people can help you narrow it down a bit.

This Wiki article might be useful if your husband is being transferred with his job - Intra-Company Transfer-Canada : British Expat Wiki

Best of luck with it all.

Re: Vancouver
 

And I would equally advise against living out there too, but at least they have the advantage of having more than one route to downtown, whereas from Squamish you are pretty much stuck with 99.

Re: Vancouver
 

I'd recommend living downtown-ish for a while (renting) to enjoy what Vancouver has to offer and why many people move here in the first place.

If you insist in living within an hour away, try Port Moody, Some North Vancouver areas, New Westminster (Queens Park Area), erm.....i can't think of any other that have community feels to it.

I'm downtown on the water and there's a great community feel here, especially for the kids. Lots to do and enjoy. You just don't get a 3000sqft house to live in.

Re: Vancouver
 

If we ever have a high income, we are so living downtown Vancouver. I'd love to live there and be close to just about everything and walk, burb life sucks. Urban life rocks :thumbsup:

Re: Vancouver
 

Definitely rent somewhere downtown for a year or two - you won't regret it.

Re: Vancouver
 

Thanks for the replies. Someone else mentioned maple ridge to us so any info / thoughts on that area would be useful. Is it comutable to downtown. Is it a nice town for families. Decent facilities. Schools. I'm also interested in toddler groups/ stay and play groups. Do these exist there? Local community / mums groups that kind of thing? Any info really. TIA.

Re: Vancouver
 

It's around 1hrs 15mins realistically each way unless there's an accident, which would be a few times each month at least.

It's not the nicest areas, although the mountains are nice. It's not disimilar to Hull or Staines in many ways and the homelesness and drugs are quite visible in a number areas.

If you're working downtown, it would be a nightmare.

Some on here live there and love it, but i'm not sure they work downtown.

Re: Vancouver
 

There's a commuter train (search for West Coast Express) which runs between Maple Ridge and downtown; I take it each day. It's good (and takes about 50 minutes) if you can work pretty regular hours, since it only operates early morning and in the evening. There is also a train bus which covers the same route home, but the last one leaves downtown at 8pm.

There are a number of threads commenting on Maple Ridge vs other places. One advantage is that property-wise you get a bigger bang for your buck. Drawbacks include the lack of a good shopping centre and, as el-richo said, the homelesness and drugs are quite visible in some areas.

Re: Vancouver
 

My daughter in Vancouver has a small baby, they seem to be involved in an endless stream of parent/child activities. Many of them such as "Bach for Babies" and visits to the Yummy Mummy Spa requiring Birkenstocks and premium branded strollers. When not on maternity leave the daughter commutes downtown by bicycle so I suppose where they are, Kits, isn't too remote; it's certainly a place that has a suburban, child embracing, child worshipping, vibe. If you've a kid called Tarquin you might fit there.

Re: Vancouver
 

I live there. The town is shitty, but the rural parts are nice.

Commuting to Vancouver from here would not be pleasant, I wouldn't even consider living out here if I had to do that.

Re: Vancouver
 

Bloody hell sounds like maple ridge can be discounted. So in an ideal world I would be looking for approx 40 minute commute to downtown. A nice family friendly town with good facilities for shopping, eating out, children's/toddler activities/groups. Parks. Good schools. Safe. Low crime. Expected base rate salary before commission is 170k dollars. I will be a stay at home mum with 1 child. So not sure if this is enough in terms of renting in some areas. Happy to hear any thoughts / suggestions. We live in such a fab little town in Hertfordshire in the UK I'm just not sure if I'm being unrealistic to find the same there?? Also mentioned to us were Surrey but I'm sure I read that a load of refugees had been housed there? and coquiitlam not sure about this one? Thanks so much for any input. Really appreciate it.