New To Vancouver (for rent, safe area, living in)

[kinddoc]

I wish to spend about a month in vancouver to check it out as a place to migrate to. I have never been here before. Please suggest options for SAFE areas close to public transport ( skytrain) and shopping , where I can rent a furnished room for a month for less than $1000.

thanks

[ElleVancouver]

Eeesh, less than $1000 a month...well, Burnaby has lots of public transport including skytrain lines and you might be able to find a little shoe box for $1000 a month. It is not right downtown but is the closest suburb. Coquitlam is also nice or New West but they are farther out but they do have the transit lines. You can also try North Van, you would have to take the seabus across the bay to get to downtown but you might find accomodations there that you can afford.
Stay away from East Van, over all it can be quite sketchy and dangerous. South Van you can try but it can be a little dicey in pockets. Richmond has recently had the Canada Line (skytrain) connected so it makes getting in and out of Vancouver a breeze, it has a very large Asian population there so if you are thinking of immigrating from there you will feel at home. Good luck, hope that helps!

[kinddoc]

Originally Posted by ElleVancouver

Eeesh, less than $1000 a month...well, Burnaby has lots of public transport including skytrain lines and you might be able to find a little shoe box for $1000 a month. It is not right downtown but is the closest suburb. Coquitlam is also nice or New West but they are farther out but they do have the transit lines. You can also try North Van, you would have to take the seabus across the bay to get to downtown but you might find accomodations there that you can afford.
Stay away from East Van, over all it can be quite sketchy and dangerous. South Van you can try but it can be a little dicey in pockets. Richmond has recently had the Canada Line (skytrain) connected so it makes getting in and out of Vancouver a breeze, it has a very large Asian population there so if you are thinking of immigrating from there you will feel at home. Good luck, hope that helps!

Thanks ElleVancouver. Yes, I am an Indian doctor immigrating to canada.I have heard/read a lot about vancouver, so my main objective is to see the best of vancouver , to make a rough assessment if I can spend my life here. Not particular about living in an asian neighborhood.

After reading your post, I thought I would be better off spending more on a month's rent rather than commmuting from one of the remote areas. If we forget about $1000, which area would you suggest would be the best close to the city and what kind of rents are we looking at there?

[ElleVancouver]

Originally Posted by kinddoc

Thanks ElleVancouver. Yes, I am an Indian doctor immigrating to canada.I have heard/read a lot about vancouver, so my main objective is to see the best of vancouver , to make a rough assessment if I can spend my life here. Not particular about living in an asian neighborhood.

If we forget about $1000 which area would you suggest would be the best for my objective and what kind of rents are we looking at there?

I would for sure think that if you want to be close to the downtown core, where all the shops, restaurants, Stanley Park and the beaches are then North Van North Vancouver) would be your best bet to stay at that $1000 mark. IF you can spend a bit more for rent, then I would check out Kits (Kitsilano), it would be my number one place to live that has lots of easy transit, beautiful communities and it's own vibe, while being minutes to downtown and beaches. Oh and don't worry about the snow...it melts almost as fast as it comes down...if it does at all...just be prepared for rainy, gray skies in the winter months. It's not tan you see but rust! Okay, it's not THAT bad, the summers are usually wonderful here, hotter inland, cooler by the ocean.

[martina9eld]

Hi kinddoc, I live in Burnaby and my room-mate is a doctoral student also from India. Rent is under $500inclusive furnished and next to Edmond's skytrain station which is a 2 min ride to Metrotown and 20 mins to downtown Vancouver. Very safe here.. have lived incident free for 3 years. I'd think there would be tons of other similar places here near Metrotown.