If anyone know any of these places well would love to hear your knowledge and comparisons of the areas. We are deciding where to visit and which to cross off the list for an upcoming brief recce.

Oakville, Burlington

Orangeville, Milton

Newmarket, Aurora

Richmond Hill?

We are a young family with one toddler and another on the way. OH will be working full time on a reasonable wage and I will return to work in a couple of years. We will start off renting at around 1,500 - 1,900 per month. Looking for good scenery, good local amenities and restaurants, hiking, cycling, near skiing a big bonus, ice skating near plus good cinema within a 15 min drive would be good! Nice children's play parks and toddler/mum meet up/groups culture would be very good. Would prefer detached or semi detached and needs to have good space for when family come to stay-3/4 bedrooms plus a finished basement would be best. Getting to understand we would get a lot less house for our money in Oakville- Is it worth the extra money- how does lifestyle compare in Oakville say to Newmarket/Aurora? Is there not much to do in Orangeville and Milton? I hear Newmarket downtown has been improved recently, anyone know what it's like?

We currently live in a small town in England in Surrey so are surrounded by rolling hills and greenery but in a very overpopulated, too many people in too little space type feeling for us! We only have one children's play park and a small but beautiful pond nearby and not many great shops. However, we only need to drive 25 mins to get to great shops and amenities. We live in a small 3 bed house with a small back garden and are over looked by loads of neighbours- which I hate!

I would love to visit some locations that will offer us bigger space for better value but in a location with great scenery and walks plus fun things to do outdoors and in all year in all seasons. We love winter sports and hiking and canoeing in the summer but rarely get to do much of these here due to the weather. We need to be in commutable distance to YYZ by around 45 mins preferably.

Is this possible!? Where do you rate and why?

Thank you

KT

Don't move to the GTA if you want to avoid overcrowded.

Oh and where will work be? For the commute etc?

Caledon

Bats- Pearson International airport (YYZ) is where commute is to. Did put this but my post is sooo long and loads of questions so easily missed! Hmm, hoping not as overcrowded as we are here per square metre, I guess I will be able to compare in a few weeks time.
Will look into Caledon MikeUK, thanks. What do you know of the place?

Currently live in Cheltenham ON on 1/2 Acre, very nice area
Takes approx 40min to get to the airport (Office is right next door)

Dig out Google street view and hit MLS for property

Cheltenham looks really good, thanks Mike, will add to the Recce itinerary

I'm following this with interest. We've got a lot of the same questions. OH work is in Markham but we've been looking at Richmond Hill and Unionville as places to live.

working at YYZ if it was me I would avoid living anywhere that would involve any travel along the major highways such as the QEW, 401 400, 427.

I'd be inclined to look at Newmarket, Schomberg, Nobleton or Bolton

How would one get to the airport from, say, Newmarket, without using the major highways listed?

When winter comes, they clear the major highways first, and if you track the timing on a GPS even on a bad day thery are often still faster

For me when winter comes its either 410 and 401, or King street and Airport road
I work right next to the Airport

the places I mentioned was so they could ease across and/or travel down #27

I would say that your budget for renting may be pushed a little in the Richmond Hill/Newmarket/Aurora area for the size of house you are looking for...I'd say you'd be looking at over 2,000 dollars probably but you could get a feel on www.realtor.ca
Depends on your priorities...the aforementioned areas are increasingly densely populated, and the majority of houses are of a decent size but on small plots. So in RH especially don't expect much space around you and your neighbours! However there are plenty of the amenities you mentioned - parks, cinemas, countryside within a reasonable drive although not right on your doorstep... Equally skiing on reasonable learner slopes within an hours drive, we thought this was great with young kids learning last year, and plenty of ice skating both indoor and outdoor, hiking.
Not sure about commutes but have friends in Caledon/Palgrave/King city areas and these are less likely to have as many big new housing developments so you may get more green spaces...although that's slowly beginning to change!
My husband works RH/Markham which is why we ended up here and its fine for us. Everything within an easy-ish drive.

If you're thinking of the housing projects around those towns then I'd think the suburbs around the airport, Mississauga or Etobicoke, would be an option though I'd choose to live in Toronto and commute out rather than do that. I'd have thought the point of commuting from the areas mentioned would be to have some land, a house in the country, moving out there and then living in a box with no lawn seems to me to be the worst of all possible worlds.

I live in a decent sized, practical family home which we rent, with yes a smallish garden but enough grass for kids to play and big deck for BBQ, pond and parks within short walk. Like I said its a matter of your own priority - ours for many reasons was proximity to husbands work, which is why we're here. Downtown wouldn't have been an option for us. Each to his own...

Oh, of course, when I had children at home transit, entertainment and independence for them were priorities so we lived in town. Now that the children have grown up and emigrated, the country works better.