hollyanne

Hi

My husband has just been offered a job and has been given a choice of location Calgary or Vancouver.

I would be interested to hear peoples comments on living in Calgary or Vancouver and good places to bring up children around these areas,we dont want to be in the hub of things but not too far away either.

Any ideas?

Holly

el_richo

On top of advice from people on here i'd also highly recommend you book a 2 or 3 week holiday and spend a week/week & half in each place

See it for yourself is the best way. Once you've seen it and had limited experience it'll help narrow down the place and after that you can fine tune the area decision for schools etc etc.

Personally, i say VANCOUVER!!!

Butch Cassidy

I agree totally, and if you dont actually want to live in Calgary there's always Okotoks

ExKiwilass

Vancouver - milder climate. Beautiful. coastal.

livermanl

Costly...I personally don't like calgary v. much but it is cheaper.

christmasoompa

Could be a very different standard of living in each place if the salary would be the same.

My husband's company also had an office in the infamous Okotoks so that was one place we looked at too, and I know that we would have had a lot more spare money each month there rather than Vancouver! As it happens, they want him in the head office in Vancouver so the choice was taken away from us anyway.

If you wanted to give people a rough idea of what your OH will be earning then they may be able to give you idea of the type of lifestyle you'd be able to afford in each city.

Steve_P

Yet you chose Winnipeg?

Not being sarky or anything but why don't you like Calgary at what does Winnipeg offer?

livermanl

Winnipeg has more to do per capita than calgary. doesn't have traffic and is cheaper. Generally and this is my opinion Winnipeg has much more to offer than Calgary and doesn't have as many downfalls.

The big bad point about the 'peg is the weather.

Steve_P

More to do per capita? What does that mean?

I can agree with you about the traffic, that doesn't affect me but I can see it being a pain if I had to work downtown.

Homes very definitely cheaper.

livermanl

Well statistically I am not sure but considoring calgary has a much larger population there seems to be very little to do.

Winnipeg has more restaurants per capita than any other province, there is a number of decent shows each year at the main concert halls, museum, zoo, art galleries, ok night life (not amazing).

you get the cultral events in the summer, the beaches.

I have been to Calgary 3 times and I feel that there is very little for me to see there.

Winnipeg gets a bad rep. but on the whole it is a very nice city and always plenty of ways to entertain it's poplulation.

Butch Cassidy

for 'milder climate and coastal' read pisses it down and grey skies

Steve_P

I guess it's all a matter of how you perceive a place.

I would say Calgary has all of what you say Winnipeg has except substitute mountains for beaches.

Thanks for your comments.

livermanl

Yeah again it's not an argument just differing opinions.

I enjoyed banff and cochraine.

leepee

You really need to go and see both places.....

I absolutely love Vancouver - it has such a lovely setting BUT....I have been lucky enough to only be there in good weather. My husband (raised in Alberta) lived there for over two yrs and the weather drove him insane. Vancouver has a much milder climate but - as far as hubby is concerned, that doesn't make up for grey and overcast OR grey and raining!!!

We live in Calgary at the moment. I think most of us here are sooooo fed up of winter! It has been a cold one furr shuur!! But, one thing I do think I would really miss is the Alberta blue sky and sunshine...even at -30 million it is bright!!!

As I say you really need to experience both even for a little while....

Good luck
Lisa

Butch Cassidy

Well said that girl