Hi all. I'm moving to Alberta in Sept 2015 with my husband and two young boys (3,1). We've been offered jobs in Calgary, leithbridge and reddeer. We were planning on Calgary but the salary on offer in the other two spots is 25% higher. Does anyone live in either of these 2 spots or have any info? Is Calgary so much better to live in that we should forgo the extra salary. We won't be stuck for money but extra cash is always handy. But we do want to live in a nice place that's family friendly and where we can meet new friends. Any helpful advice?

Calgary is a big city and OK for what it is. I personally would prefer a smaller town but to be fair I like Calgary way better than I like Toronto.
Reddeer is a bit of a hick town.
Lethbridge is a university town.

I haven't looked at rents in Reddeer/Lethbridge but of the too I suspect that Lethbridge is the cheaper of the two so your dollars would likely stretch the furthest in Lethbridge.

I have lived in Lethbridge for almost 5 years and I find it a bit boring here and we are looking to moving from here. Calgary and Red Deer have much more amenities than Lethbridge has. The only plus that Lethbridge has over the other 2 cities is that the winter weather can be a bit milder here than further north. Also I think rents are slightly cheaper here than in Calgary and Red Deer. I wouldn't chose Calgary personally as it's too busy for me so I would definitely chose Red Deer over Lethbridge.

Red Deer is a city with around 100,000 population, It has all the amenities you need.
I haven't been involved in using the schools, but the sports centres are pretty good. The hospital is the central intake for central Alberta. I don't go shopping out of Red Deer very often, it has the things I need. There are lots of hotels and eating places. Lots of trails around the city and is equally (give or take a few km's) in the middle of Calgary and Edmonton. 2 - 3 hours drive from Banff- beautiful drive south Highway 93 and about 4 hour drive to Jasper north on the same highway.
I lived in Red Deer for a short time, I now have a 45 minute commute to Red Deer for work.
There are others on here who can give you a bit more info on the schools etc.
Good luck in your choice of area to settle.

I think you've got your towns back to front there, Red Deer is a college town, Red Deer College I think is the largest employer. Lethbridge is more the hick town and it's got a housing shortage at the moment, so I would have thought Red Deer was a cheaper place to live. Lethbridge College is half the size of Red Deer College.

Anyway Lethbridge and Red Deer are fairly similar in terms of population.

Red Deer is in the middle between Calgary and Edmonton, which can be sort of an advantage, but Lethbridge is 60 miles from the US border (but 180 miles from Great Falls, the first town of any consequence).

Lethbridge is also very windy because of how close it is to the mountains.

Difficult to choose really, I suppose I like Lethbridge more because gasoline alley makes Red Deer look awful, but it is on the Red Deer river and near Sylvan Lake which is quite nice, but then Lethbridge is near Glacier National Park which is even nicer.

The question is whether you can hack living in a town of 100,000 people where the most exciting place to go is Canadian Tire. Although Lethbridge does have a very nice park. But I do like the river near Red Deer College. Hmm.

Move to Calgary.

Lethbridge has a university...

Red Deer College apparently has 17,000 students and Lethbridge University and college have less than that put together (according to their websites), but anyway suffice to say there isn't much to choose between the two on that basis.

If you won't be stuck for money anyway, then I'd say Calgary (or a satellite community like Airdrie, Okotoks, Cochrane etc) just because its bigger and more diverse, anything you need is within 30mins drive and the mountains are just over an hour away!

Well as the economy looks set to slow down, I think Red Deer or Lethbridge might make more sense actually as people don't want to live there as much.

Hard to say which is better, it would depend on what you're into, e.g. hobbies and so on, what your job actually is.

We are really pleased our joboffer led us to red deer. Its a fantastic town, centrally located so other places are easily accessible. Some posters will be reading my response and thinking but she's moving to Ontario because she don't like it there.

so let me clarify, we are tired with Alberta and winter. BUT it has much to offer and lots of people love it. For places to live Red Deer I believe I read somewhere is the fastest growing city in Alberta, it has loads to offer a young family, schools are good, healthcare is pretty good, although I will be able to elaborate more on that after I have a short stay I hospital next week. The location means you have a choice of two airports for travel.

Thanks for all the info guys. I'm thinking I'll stay away from Calgary as the traffic will probably drive me nuts. I live in a town of 100,000 anyway so Red Deer or Lethbridge would suit us size wise. Just need to decide between the 2. Anyone know if either city is better for young kids.....family activities etc, toddler groups etc?

Lexie, I would definitely chose Red Deer over Lethbridge. I know from some of the FB groups I am in that there is always complaints of lack of children's activities to do here in Lethbridge. My daughter is 9 and does a lot of activities but it costs us a pretty packet to keep her occupied. We moved here for the job which is no longer relevant so we will be moving on next year. I don't hate Lethbridge but it is a bit meh.

We moved to Red Deer last summer from NS and I love it here. We have everything we need and then some.
The shopping is good, there are 2 malls plus Downtown. There is a ton of choice as far as shopping for groceries go, there are of course the bog grocery stores, but also lots of little independant places too. Our daughter is in grade 10 (15) and she's thriving here, its really refreshing!
We also like the bonus of being right in the middle of Calgary and Edmonton and so close to the mountains. Crime rates are on a par I would say with any big town/city you're going to get that.
Good Luck with the move!!

The way the price of a barrel of oil is going at the moment, and what it is likely to do to the housing market, you may be able to buy most of Alberta by then!

When I came to Calgary in 2007, IIRC, the price of a barrel of oil was lower than it is now, and Alberta was "booming"

Could you please explain to me what has changed