*Travel Tips>>>Vancouver Travel Tips

Vancouver ppl????

Travel Info
hi.. im and australian girl.. me and my partner and our lil girl are talkin about movin to vancouver mid 2008, i have never been over there. my partner has tho.. can anyone tell me abit about the place.. ie housing rental prices, daycare availability, good suburbs etc..
thanx in advance :)

Travel Tips

Vancouver IS expensive - and good rentals are hard to come by.. In the city, I would imagine you would be looking to pay in the neighbourhood of $1200 - 1500 for your family to live in a half-decent place. Vancouver itself is divided into East Side and West Side - the latter being nicer but considerably more expensive. Some areas of the East Side can be pretty scary, especially if you are planning to take public transit. The city has an information page here: http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs... to help you look.

To be brutally honest, Vancouver is quickly becoming a place of extreme divide with a lot of haves and a lot of have-nots - with starting prices of $500,000 for a run down old house the possibility of ever buying a home is pretty much naught for the average young person. There are legions of homeless here, and some of the highest property crime on the continent (flag wavers will tell you its getting better, but the reality is that police are so overstretched that they won't show up for a B&E call for at least 6 hours - between that and increased insurance premiums, most couldn't be bothered to report break-ins or smashed car windows anymore). Traffic's getting worse, pollution's getting worse and with the Olympics coming and running WAY over budget - whe'll be in debt for years to come, and as usual - social services will suffer.

I can assure you that there IS a daycare shortage.. (http://www.a-procare.com/daycare_crisis.... in fact, if you are going to move here - you may want to get in line now - as the quality daycares have waiting lists.

Frankly, while Vancouver has a beautiful backdrop of mountains and ocean - its FAR from paradise.. and while some of the suburbs are o.k. they all suffer from some of the urban malaise - without the excitement of being in the city - so before considering suburbs : this is a big beautiful province there are lots of GREAT communities you might also consider - Victoria, Nanaimo, The Gulf Islands, The Okanagan, Nelson and the Kootenays, heck even up north - Prince George..

If, after all that you STILL want to come - then know that the city's extremely multicultural, within 15 min either way of beaches or mountains or forests from downtown.. there's lots of work, especially in construction and there's a Starbucks on every corner (If you like that sort of thing - me, not so much) Source(s): I'm a cynical bastard - and I don't believe in sugar-coating it.. I've lived here my whole life - 37 years - I've watched the city change and see where its going...

Other Travel Tips
It's beautiful but expensive. There will be no problem for day-care and the city and surrounding area is quite big, so you'll have to shop around. Go to actual sites and not just advice from here as some people could steer you wrong. I don't have any in mind but just plug Van into a search engine and I'm sure you'll have lots to choose from. Good choice and good luck, try to take in the Olympics.
For daycare, try http://www.daycarebear.ca and use their City search. It's nice but you'll have to come back often to check as new openings and providers are added in real-time... Hope this helps!
You would be well advised to settle in Victoria and avoid Vancouver.
If you have to live in Vancouver -
check out West Vancouver.