My husband and I with kids are moving to Kelowna, please could someone tell me if they know anything about this city? whats it like? is it child friendly? property rental easy to arrange? Please help?

you are moving to a city you know nothing about?

Child friendly - sort of, I suppose.

Rentals - getting better, some space in the market, but still expensive, relatively speaking.

What's Kelowna like..Oh my. You have no clue ? Have you visited ? What's your perception of it. Then I can help with a reality check. In one word I would say "mental".

R.

Personally I love Kelowna. There are various websites you should look at. It depends on lots of things. But the weather is kinder than most of Canada. Summers are great - hot and not humid and there is plenty of snow in winter for skiing. So can provide a great outdoors lifestyle. As I say check out the websites.

There are a couple of oddballs living there though.

Get over yourself, you stalking self righteous little person misfit.

R.

Very liveral

sorry in my haste to reply should read liberal

In your haste to abuse me you should have actually hit the edit button.


Edumacation, innit.

R.

What sort of things would you like to know specifically? There are lots of activities/progams/facilities for children - what age are your children? Property prices have fallen, though from what I see rental is still quite expensive. Depends on the area.

One thing I don't like about Kelowna is the extremes between rich and poor. Seems to be a fair bit of poverty here (eg people willing to work for food, queues at the foodbank) aswell a lot of very wealthy people in million dollar homes. I know all cities have people living at different ends of the social spectrum it's just that here it seems a lot more pronounced than anywhere else I've lived.

If you ask some more specific questions then I'm sure people will be able to give you some useful info.

No we have never been to Kelowna, my husband has been offered a job but we thought originally it was going to be in Calgary (which we have visited) howvever it turns out that they are sending hime to the branch in Kelowna, we may come over for a visit before our papers come through as we are still awaiting LMO etc to come through, my kids are 16, 11 and 9 and its important that they have good access to facilitys that will keep them entertained whilst they are settling in this country.

We have been told that the majority of the rentals are run down and this is why we want to come and visit before we move over fully.

None of this is very helpful if you actually need advice.

What size of city are you coming from and what are your expectations of Kelowna.
Current interests.
Desired interests/hobbies.
Any desire to change your life.
Are you interested in shopping, fine dining, and/or meeting dull cliques of British expats.
Which extreme sports would like to partake in (if the answer to this is none, I really don't know why you'd move here).
Do you want to buy a truck/ATV and rip up the bush.
Is there an inherent desire to become redneck.
What's your view on grow ops, and the use of soft drugs in wider society.

/etc will all help people give you some feedback. As it is now, it looks like it's a whole bunch of nothing. Maybe you'll move your same life to his place and have the same life you had before in a different place. That's a big missed opportunity IMHO.

Kelowna is ugly-beautiful, and I fear even a visit will merely sniff the surface of the place without any real insight. "Oh yeah it looks OK and there's a nice lake, let's move here" kind of thing.

So, I still cant help you.

R.

It is a great place to raise kids in terms of opportunities for sports and things to do. Have a look at this link for an idea of what's available in winter:

http://www.kelowna.ca/CM/Page172.aspx

I'm guessing the cheaper rentals will be run down, there are some nice ones but inevitably they're more expensive.

I don't do extreme sports and I like it here. I enjoy the nature and open space and hearing the coyotes when I'm out walking. Didn't get to do that in West Yorkshire

Fair comment, but with the exception of the coyotes bit you could have done that in Yorkshire. I suppose packs of rabid pit bulls or feral children would replace the coyotes, right?

Yet, I do think personally if a person isn't going to hurl themsleves down mountains on expensive man made contraptions or risk death in the backcountry or some other ridiculous escapade involving exposure, high speed and use of expensive gas powered toys, the chance of meeting a grisly fate at the hands of big animals with teeth and claws, then why pay the extortionate real estate prices here ? One could move to Ontario and be happier and more wealthy whilst living a quieter life.

It sort of doesn't make sense not to embrace the sheer mentalism of the place.

R.

Well when you have young kids theres just some things you can't do, not until you're past it anyway...

Where I live now I'm living in suburbia which suits the rest of the family but I have miles of open wilderness practically at my back door. So I kind of get the best of both worlds for now.

Apart from the skiing & back country stuff everything you can do here you could do back in the UK. It just seems more accessible here and better - with a better climate to top it off.