Vancouver, BC

I Live downtown Vancouver, walk/bike everywhere as I hate driving. Transit system is great here. Cost of living is high for Canada especially rent but everything else is the same. Weather and scenery are unmatched, mountains or the beach within 45 minutes of each other (If your into those things).

Winters are pretty mild, mainly rain and summers are usually nice and temperate (Nothing over 30c Usually). Ive been to places like NY, San Fran and Chicago and can honestly say Van is awesome to live in. The food scene is excellent and its a big enough city that we get a lot of cool things without being annoyingly big (NY, LA).

heh, Vancouver is one of the most expensive cities on the planet. Not as bad as some like Moscow, Hong Kong etc, but it's up there. Downtown living there is very nice, however, with tons of entertainment, food and so on. Good transit because everything is so compact. And yeah, you'll want to avoid commuting in a car there, it's pretty horrendous for traffic.

I haven't personally lived there, but I would think that for a mid level, 800 square foot, one bedroom one bathroom condo is going to be $1,200-$1,500 a month in the nicer areas of downtown Van (Yaletown etc). Less if you're willing to be outside of downtown proper. The good thing is that while real estate is stupid expensive to purchase, rents aren't nearly as bad. Groceries, eating out, booze etc are probably going to be 50% more than what you're used to in the US. Keep in mind that there's both PST and GST on everything, so that's another 12% on everything.

Areas to stay away from would be the Downtown Eastside (unless you like crack and heroin), and some parts of Commercial Drive (which is outside of downtown anyways). Vancouver's too expensive for there to be really shitty areas other than the Eastside, and even that is slowly gentrifying, much to the anarchists' displeasure.

I'd definitely take the opportunity if I were you. Vancouver's one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with some of the best opportunities for outdoor sports given the climate and geography. Tons of shit to see and do. It also has a metric fuckton of beautiful women. The only downside to it really is if you don't like urban living, and the cost of living there. If work is helping you out on that, then you should be golden.

You'll love it. Vancouver is a great city. Just make some time to check out the island

Oakridge Centre

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I don't know Van's neighborhoods very well, so I can't really comment on what that one in particular is like in terms of being "nice" etc. But that's in an area of mostly single family homes with some larger apartments and strip malls. It's not quite suburbia, but it's not urban and overly walkable if that's what you're after. On the other hand, it's right by a Skytrain station so you're a 5 minute train ride from downtown. Rent will definitely be a lot cheaper than downtown.

Ancallagon_sl said:

Thanks!

Now, what are my cable/internet options going to look like while there? I see plenty of options on a search, seems like more options than usually available down here, but want to find something non-shitty! I don't need much in the way of bandwidth, but want a quality connection with minimal downtime.

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If you can find an apartment withNovusthen you're golden. If I had Novus I would get the 300Mbps connection for a couple of months just for novelty sake. If not, you're stuck with Telus/Shaw. I'm using Shaw's Broadband 50. Like the name I get 50Mbps down but only 3 Mbps up. Limit is something like 500GB a month. There's 1 thing good about Shaw: Shaw Go. You can basically use your home internet with any Shaw Cisco router so you aren't stuck to shitty public internet. I see quite a bit of restaurants/public places with Shaw Go.

How hard is it to find a place to rent? Do they do lots of credit checks?

I recently got a SIN (and a canadian residence card) but I've been living in the US for the past two years, so I have no credit information under that SIN. Can I use my US Credit history when looking for a place in canada?

If you have a stable job and solid references from a professional environment, you should be golden.

Ancallagon_sl said:

Oakridge Centre

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It's in the nicer part outside of DT Vancouver as it is close to more affluent neighbourhoods (Kerrisdale & Shaughnessy). Expect lot of students too cause a major college is nearby (Langara) and 41st Ave is a major route to UBC. Transport around metro Vancouver is efficient, express buses that link you to the train stations along the main roads basically get you anywhere quickly. In terms of renting, I rented twice and just needed to provide reference checks, a half month deposit with one month in advance and I was good.. maybe I lucked out.

It rains way too much after September though.. and can get a bit depressing when it rains from morning to night to morning again. Forget the brolly and get a nice warm rain jacket for days like that. After the rain sort of clears in April, it gets so very awesome though.

The weather has been pretty good in the last month. I had a super hippie day with my friends just strolling around.

I'm gonna be in Vancouver for business in May. I'm visiting our Vancouver office and I have some work friends in that office so I will have some input on some things, but I figured I'd ask you cats. What's some cool shit to do there? Awesome beers spots? Local music venues? Baller restaurants? I assume I'll be there too late for ski season?

If you have a chance, come on over to Vancouver Island and hit up Tofino!

That's a ridiculously long drive. Probably won't happen.

Alex_sl said:

I'm gonna be in Vancouver for business in May. I'm visiting our Vancouver office and I have some work friends in that office so I will have some input on some things, but I figured I'd ask you cats. What's some cool shit to do there? Awesome beers spots? Local music venues? Baller restaurants? I assume I'll be there too late for ski season?

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Ski season ended 3 weeks ago, its been the hottest winter in decades on the west coast.

Cool places to visit:

Stanley Park (but the zoo and aquarium kinda suck)
Granville island. - barley an island close to downtown, has some cool shops and great seafood restaurants.
If you are active you can climb the grouse grind, its a very popular hill clime takes about an 40min to an hour. There is an amazing view at the top and you can order a beer and take the gondola down. If you are out of shape you can take the gondola up.

If you enjoy steak and don't mind spending some $$ for quality, try the Gotham Steak House downtown, great food and amazing service. Joe Fortes is a great seafood restaurant as well, like most good eats in Van, its $$.

Robson Street is a nice walk in the day time with lots of trendy shops, Granville street is the place to be at night, most of the clubs and a ton of bars, The Roxy was always a fav and normally had a good band playing.

The Kitsalano area is pretty neat, just over the bridge from downtown it has a great beach if the weather is nice is a good spot for people watching.

All the women here are unbelievably attractive.

Alex_sl said:

All the women here are unbelievably attractive.

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And easy if you got game

Vancouver in and of itself is pretty boring IMO. It's the surrounding areas that make Vancouver a good spot to visit.

Pro Tips
Driving in Vancouver is a nightmare. Don't do it.
Stay out of Richmond. Fuck that place.
Grouse Grind is great until you hit the quarter marker, then you realize what a stupid idea this climb was.
Stanley Park is great mid week.Stanley Park named best park in the world by TripAdvisor
Go to Surrey for drugs
White Rock beach is nice in summer. Moby Dicks- best fish and chips.
White Pine lake for summer swimming.
Cap Bridge is okay for tourist.
Obviously Whistler is a must, stay at the Four Seasons if you can, awesome out door pool in the snow. BadassWhistler Hotels - Whistler Ski Resorts - Four Seasons Whistler
HIT THE ISLAND. Surf in Tofino some nice places to eat there. If you camp, stay at the provincial camp ground, by far the best.
Go down south and visit Gabriola island, rent a Kayak see some neet stuff.Silva Bay Kayak Adventures