Cant speak for many other places but here in Alberta those rural places close to major cities are often on smaller roads which may NOT be totally cleared of snow in the winter, have deer, elk and moose running across them, are unlit, are used by Trucks that may not be travelling as fast you are but still cant be passed because of the traffic ahead or oncoming.
As an example the Transcanada (the MAJOR highway from Calgary to Vancouver) is largely a two lane road (thats one lane in each direction) from east of Lake Louise to Kamloops (and possibly beyond) a 4-5 hour journey!!! The Maritimes is a lovely place, but MAJOR cities??? Calgary is the fourth(?) largest city in Canada and has (approx) 1.2 million Residents, Driving between place is NOT that easy or convenient (although yes you get used to it) Vancouver to Calgary (the next 'major' city) is 12 hours, Calgary to Regina is 8 hours, regina winnipeg is 6.5, winnipeg-toronto is 24 hours (21 if you go via the states) are you getting the idea???

And then you can go further south to our area, some real cheap rural propertys, but then you have to think of hauling your water, waste tank, power that goes off regular and dial up internet (and that is 20mins outside of our city)...........plus if you have kids ((i know u dont butch)) then there is schooling, some communities are not what we would expect.........or you then you home school
You also need to look at the emergency services, something we never even would of looked at before, but living outside the city limits brings joys and downers.
Living inner city is nice (we live in lethbridge, so smaller than calgary)
I know people from all over, coaldale,coalhurst,taber etcetc and most of the smaller places come into the city to shop
I would say it depends on the reason you are moving, alot of stuff sucks in canada, but then alot sucks about the uk and other countrys

The advise i always give is come and try it, you may hate it, you may love it, but only you can make your mind up, everyone is different.
To live where mandy lives would be my nightmare, but mandy loves it...........(nothing against you mandy i was using you as an example )

The other thing, you can sit there in xxxx years to come and say "what if we had tried canada"

Did you know cost of living is higher in Halifax (NS) than Calgary?????

Again LB makes some VERY good points (although I disagree I could buy cheaper where she is then I just got my new place for )

I'm not sure that's true. I did some research on this sort of thing lately for a variety of reasons.

If you were going from Calgary (this March for argument's sake). According to Kayak:

-> Halifax $485 (return including tax)
-> London (Heathrow) $969 (return including tax)

These are best prices across multiple airlines.

I guess if we are really considering the move we just have to give it a go - maybe not right now but when our chances for PR are a bit better so if we love it we can do it. And if not at least we'll know it's not for us...

one time - i had the option of flying from regina to manchester at half the price of a guy who i worked with who lived in new found land.... i guess it comes down to charter flights.

ture about the isolation, it really gets lost on people how big this place is. vancouver island is bigger than wales!

http://www.canadianaffair.ca/book/li.../atopgweb.aspx
YYC-LGW $661 return
http://www.expedia.ca/pub/agent.dll?...=1&rfrr=-55055
YYC-Halifax $751

Same dates

My Halifax price is better than both those...

post links then

It is difficult to link from Kayak. See if this works for you:

http://www.kayak.com/book/flight?cod...869532489&sr=1

Sorry, but this flight is no longer valid.

The search results on most travel web sites expire after 15 minutes. If these results are much older than that, try running your search again to get fresh results.

Offering advice as well as the negatives and positives about the costs of living and especially the distances between different areas of the country is what I find most new comers tend to under estimate. Halifax NS is closer to London UK than to Vancouver BC for example. The country is regionally and geographically diverse. Many of the laws/regulations are provincially based. The costs of housing vary greatly between provinces, within provinces and within the cities themselves.

There are no castles in Canada and there is not much in the way of older buildings and older architecture, the country is 142 years old, I think the queen of the UK is older than that. Stupid things like the audacity of Canada not to have British supermarkets or the fact that Canadians are not going to start doing things the way the newcomer wants them to do comes across as arrogant and will likely place that person in a position of not having many friends, there is a direct correlation between the two. Incessant whining about things being different wears thin fast. You are in a different country on a different continent, get over it.

From what I gather Tanja87, you are a German living in the UK, so I assume that you are well aware that different countries are different. Good luck with what you decide.

Thanks Lord Vader

Erm, have I misunderstood the thread title ? I haven't actually mentioned anything that sucks, so I guess I did misunderstand and stated quite clearly that I liked it here. But there is no harm in injecting some realism. Yes ?