Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hi! Our family is moving to the Vancouver and surrounding area, and I'm getting overwhelmed by the choices of places to move to, I need help!
We are a family with one 8 year old, a cat and a large dog, so we'll need a yard. Both my husband and I work from home, so commute is not an issue. However, proximity to airport is, so need somewhere that it's not more than an hour drive to an international airport. We'll probably rent at first, at least initially to see what we like before we commit to buying anything.
I'm looking for something quite specific, so hoping you all can help? Is there a town or suburb in and around the Vancouver area that has a quaint little main street (older/historic or even touristy with coffee shops, galleries, restaurants, parks, etc.), close to needed amenities like grocery stores and other requirements like that, good schools, and just generally more suburban than urban? Somewhere that feels like a community where you get to know your neighbours, kids play on the street and it's generally safe? Festivals, art walks, events for the community, things like that?
AND, not too far from a ski hill would be ideal
Does this unicorn place exist within short driving distance of Vancouver or the airport?
If you want quaint, cozy, homey, family and community oriented villages in the Greater Vancouver Metro area do some research about Ladner and Fort Langley. They are both delightful communities on the south bank of the Fraser River, both villages are surrounded by farmlands, natural attractions and family recreation, dining, business and shopping resources such as you mentioned are desirable and they are close to all essential amenities. Ladner is less than a half hour drive from the Vancouver airport, Fort Langley is a little less than an hour to drive to Vancouver airport. Neither village is really near a ski hill but then there is no part of the Vancouver Metro region that is very far away from a ski hill either, so it's easy to go from any part of the lower mainland to a ski hill somewhere for the day if you have your own car.
.
thank you for the suggestion. Fort Langley keeps coming up in multiple places, so I think I'll need to check it out. I hadn't heard about it before I started researching, but it sounds promising. Is there a little main street or small community feel in Ladner as well? I'm planning a visit, so I'll make sure I check these out. Thank you!
thank you for the suggestion. Fort Langley keeps coming up in multiple places, so I think I'll need to check it out. I hadn't heard about it before I started researching, but it sounds promising. Is there a little main street or small community feel in Ladner as well? I'm planning a visit, so I'll make sure I check these out. Thank you!
Yes, Ladner has a little main street in the heritage part of town (with some really cool shops) and a bigger main street (newer business part of town). I'd suggest you do some online research about it but in the mean time you can check out some of these images to get some perspective of what some of it looks like, as well as this youtube video of a May Day parade from 7 or 8 years ago to give you a bit of an idea of the community spirit and atmosphere.
Port Moody might fit the bill and is within an hour of the airport. Close to Belcarra and Anmore which are certainly quaint, and the north side of the Burrard Inlet has some nice views of the water. White Pine Beach and Rocky Point park provide nice natural amenities for the kids. Not sure you'd get the exact sort of small town street you're looking for though.
Steveston was a historically important village and fishing port / sea port with a big commercial cannery in the past and it used to be quaint right up until about 30 years ago. But in recent decades it has become increasingly more congested and is now subsumed by the city of Richmond. Now it is no longer what it used to be, it is what I call wall to wall houses and urban sprawl with lots of vehicular traffic and not much of a comfortable community feel to it, if any.
At the location of the original village there is a very small touristy shopping district along the main street and a marina and wharf there with a few nice (but pricey) restaurants. You can go down to the wharf to buy fresh caught seafoods straight off the fish boats and there is an open grassy park with beaches near by. There are a few large farms just to the east of Steveston village, and there is a wonderful huge farmer's market place near the Massey Tunnel but otherwise all the other farmlands that used to surround Steveston are gone now and been developed into residential neighbourhoods. There are walking/cycling paths (called dykes) overlooking the shorelines from the south side of the island that continue all the way west and around the island to the north side of the island.
But it has becomes so encroached upon and swallowed up by the rest of Richmond's growing residential neighbourhoods you can't tell now where the city of Richmond ends and the village of Steveston begins. I don't think it would fit any of the criteria you stated you were looking for as it has just become one small neighbourhood of yet another big city that continues to become more and more congested and impersonal with each passing year. It's as if The Borg came and assimilated it. Makes me sad.
But those are just my personal feelings about it - I'm admittedly biased against big city environments and sprawling congestion which makes me ill and dispirited, (which is why I live in Maple Ridge on the north side of the river where I can have the best of both worlds) so I think you would have to actually see Steveston for yourself to determine whether or not it was suitable for you.
Edited to add: I don't ever recommend Richmond or any other part of Lulu island to anyone since I personally feel it's not a safe long term bet. The island is all completely flat with elevation right at sea level and having being created and built up from silt from the river it is not solid ground with a lot of rocks, it is all rich soft soil. The big problem is that entire island is subject to liquefaction and sinking completely below sea level if there is ever a big earthquake or tsunami. It was perfect as unbeatable farmland before it became more developed. Since it has been getting developed with so many buildings and infrastructure so much over the past few decades the island is beginning to sink a bit already just from all the additional weight and shaking activity caused by development and human vehicular movement. I think that one really stiff rock'n'roll shaker will liquefy the silt that the island is composed of and if that happens the whole island will sink out of sight within a couple of hours. That is what big earthquakes do to silty delta islands.
.
Last edited by Zoisite; 10-03-2019 at 03:45 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
