*Travel Tips>>>Vancouver Travel Tips

I'm moving to Vancouver, BC. Advice?

Travel Info
How long have you lived there? How do you like it? What's the crime like there? Best places?

Travel Tips

I've ived in Vancouver all my life - its a great city - close to nature, cosmopolitan, pretty mild weather.. in the winter it rains, rarely snows.

Crime, is mostly due to the real disparity between rich and poor here - housing is expensive, you can't buy a detached home in the city for less than half a million - anyway, there's a fair amount of property crime (B+E's, auto theft) relative to the rest of Canada - of course nothing like the States, nor do we have the kind of gun violence endemic to the US. There is a pretty large stree drug addict problem here.

Where to live - depends on what you want, Burnaby and the North Shore are suburbs well suited to outdoors activities (ski, snowboard, mountain bike). East Van is good for relatively cheaper rents, and funky communities (albeit a little rough around the edges). Downtown and the Westend are great of you want to experience the real cosmopolitan side of the city, clubs, restaurants, shopping - that sort of thing.

Certainly, I would say Vancouver is one of the best cities on the planet in which to live (also consistantly ranks as so in Int'l surveys)

Others
ive lived in abbotsford (an hour from vancouver) it rains alot but its still awesome. ive lived here for 16 years and the crime is good unless you go to the wrong end of vancouver(east vancouver)
I was born here and have lived here my whole life..I'm now 57 years old...I have never considered ever leaving Vancouver..even though I worked for an International airline for 31 years and saw much of the world...crime here is ok...guns are not legal and most of the violence occurs between specific ethnic gangs..doesn't really affect most of us...It mild in the winter..and not too hot in the summer....It rains a lot in the winter..which I quite enjoy...this is a rainforest and so it is always green....best places...I don't know...depends on what you want ...but Vancouver's a big city and has it all...come! you'll enjoy it....the people are a little more laid back here than other parts of north america.
Always BLAME CANADA
i feel sorry for the grave decision you have made. the crime is 10x worse than in America. it was reported on dateline last Tuesday than 3 in 5 belong to a gang in canada.
the weather is another drawback of canada. it rains 364 days a year. sorry to tell you the truth about canada but now you have been warned
I used to live in Vancouver. I live in Ontario now. It does not rain in all of Canada all the time, there are different geographical areas. It does rain a lot in Vancouver but there is barely any snow in the winter time, opposite of Ontario. I would not say Vancouver is a huge city either.

The west side of Vancouver is very nice, ditto for North and West Vancouver. In the East side the homes are more modest and typically most of the crime occurs in the east side. Since the weather is warm many transient people travel through the city and this is one of the reasons why you have crime and homelessness. Lots of drugs, prostitution and crime on one street called East Hastings. Many cultures live in Vancouver but I would say predominantly Chinese and East Indian people live there. It is picturesque with the mountains and the ocean and I find people very athletic there. It is a wonderful city but like I said the weather does invite people who are just passing by so crime does occur. When I lived there my car was stolen and broken into a few times. You have to use common sense and not leave any money or other valuables in the car.