Canada: where to go?

I am saving up some money to visit canada for a few of weeks. I would like to go there not as a tourist... I'd like to get to see how the average Canadian lives. Not looking for fancy hotels and expensive restaurants. I'd also like to visit some small, cute town and not such a big city. I would like it to be on the south (not really interested in visitng a place near the North Pole), and where they speak English (no French territories)

Any suggestions? I'd like to have at least a starting point to move over to checking the maps

 

I'll ring Shan, she will have great ideas for ya I bet. The pics she has shown me sound like your target. We'll see.

 

Sounds great. The main goal of my life right now is getting out of this horrible country and move over to Canada. But as you can imagine, it is quite a scary project, so I am trying to pick a nice town to move to. I would continue earning a nice amount of cash with my sites, and I have studied hospitality management and speak Spanish, so I guess I could find a job. But after checking out the qualifications needed to go live there, it is a great advbantage if you have already visited Canada as a tourist, so I would like to do that and increase my amount of points in order to qualify.

 

She is experienced in this and just made a sucessful such move. You may have alot to talk about.

I dunno what your time frame is, but I can't get her right now.

 

No hurry... I need to save up some nice money to stay as long as I can

 

Thought my ears were ringin' ...

Noppid's statement is a bit misleading. I didn't move from another country. lol.
I've lived all my life in Canada but have made several big moves to other provinces because of work, life changes, ect. You're actually doing the smart thing by heading over to "scope it out" so to speak before you actually make such a big commitment.

Lots of nice places to see/live in Canada. Depends on how much you are able to earn though as to where you would eventually settle down. I spent most of my life living in either the BC Interior, (which was great when I was all about horses) and later moved closer to the US border, near Vancouver. Lower Mainland BC has got to be, THE most expensive place to live...you still can't beat all that locally grown fruit, vegetables and omg...the corn! If you've never had Chilliwack Corn, you haven't had corn.

BC is beautiful and very touristy, so if you could swing a job there I think you would really like it. I have no idea how immigration works, its been so many years since I've looked into any of it. Not sure what qualifications they look for regarding work, although I do know that when I was looking into moving to the states they sure weren't going to make it easy for me.

Anyways, if you're interested, I can give you some names of towns to stay, places to check out for future jobs and such....Just drop me a pm...
Good Luck in your endeavors!

 

fryman ... west coast is always nice!
Many excellent places - go from one province to another and some things can be different - depends on what you are after. Some places are slower than others, some have a faster pace ...
My recommendations:
Vancouver and the surrounding areas. Climate is moderately good, very green, close to the mountains, the ocean and the states. Tourism is good, Olympics in the future, couple of decent major tech companies, lot's of things to do, etc ... I'm a former Albertan and love it here. Alberta is great as well - winters can be a bit extreme, great economy.
Montreal - historic, entertaining, would need to learn a bit of french
Toronto - can't miss this one ... big, humid, lot's of things to do, etc ...

 

Toronto?! lol...j/k

I spent some time in Toronto...wasn't my cup of tea.

I'm a former Vancouverite and sure miss those mountian views. I'm currently living in the flatlands of the world...lovely Saskatchewan. \o_

 

Wow, great info... I am living in a small state right now. It is a place where you can go out and always meet someone you know. You can get in your car and have a nice ride without worrying about traffic, and most of the times you will find a nice empty parking spot wherever you go.

But it IS a city. Meaning that there is everything you would expect: cinemas, small malls, etc. That is more or less what I am looking for. Not interested in going to live in a rural place and having to milk a cow, but not interested either in a place where there seems to be more cars than people.

I remember seeing a show of "The awful truth", of Michael Moore, where he said that Canadians don't even bother to lock their doors, and he goes around just entering any house he finds in his way to prove it. I was totally amazed... here he would of had his head blown off in 5 seconds if he entered a house just like that.

 

Well, I am partial to Saskatchewan Canada myself. You might want to look into Saskatoon. It is not near as busy as the larger centres in Canada like Vancouver or Calgary, Toronto etc, but it is a city. Like you said everything you would expect malls, cinemas etc. The cost of living is also lower compared to those other places so you can get a lot more for your dollar. Housing in Vancouver and Toronto are insane. At least in Saskatoon you can get a decent sized house and lot for around $150,000 Canadian dollars. Winters can be interesting sometimes, but at least we don't call out the army when we have a snowstorm like Toronto does, or shut everything down like in Vancouver.

Check out more at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskatchewan

 

Please don't buy into that proaganda. I'm sure if you go to Canada and actually try that, you will get the same result as in your neighborhood. :/

 

Please don't think you can ever live in Canada and not lock up your kids, dog, cat, car, house and no one will walk/drive away with them. Theives, perverts and rapists abound here, just like anywhere else. I don't own a gun, but I have some pretty big freaking chef's knifes that are kept razor sharp...and I know how to use them...and I would if it came down to it.

 

lol... wouldn't want to enter your house by mistake...

Pitty I can'tremember the town where he did that program... but it was quite impressive since here all the houses are surrounded by huge walls and have all kind of protection.

 

Not true. Canada is quite safe compare to other countries but we have inferiority complex toward Americans and think if our crime rate is not as high as theirs then we are not good enough. That is the reason our media is always trying to find some big time criminal (mostly drug addicted small time car thieves).

If you like to live in a nice city (usually rate as 1st or 2nd place in the list of best cities to live, in the world) then your choice is Vancouver, even other Canadians are always trying to move here.

 

It is not at the level it is in the States. If a stranger walks into your house, your obvious reaction is like WTF, but not many people in Canada will shoot you with a shutgun unless you are clearly a masked man looking to do no good.

Also if you want you can check out Ottawa We got the Parlament, the canal - huge ice rink during winter and a lot of tech companies. However I dont know how you can handle winter, it gets pretty cold here, upwards of -45 with wind chill

 

After living in a place where the average temperature is 80F I guess it would be a bit difficult...

Even in December you have sunny days with over 70F

 

If you were into Florida, My town would be right up your ally.

But get here quick, there is a real estate boom. I'm digging the equity and gonna stick around I think.

 

there is a bit of misconceptions about Canada at times - Michael Moore's bit was bunk.

Vancouver & Toronto is a bit pricey, but then again salaries can be a bit higher and there is definetly more to do!!! I've lived in Winnipeg and been throughout Sask, although summers were great at times, winters were the ultimate killers. It does get cold and having to resort to the shopping malls for something to do gets very boring fast.

 

I didn't mean to imply that, and I'm sure I didn't, that Canada or Vancouver is an awful place to live. Yes, I agree the crime rate is lower than most places. BUT I STILL wouldn't leave my door unlocked or walk alone after dark or let my young children wander the streets...

It's just common sense. If you leave something out there for the taking long enough, sooner or later someone will come along and take it. I just didn't want Fryman to buy into what Moore said about being able to leave your doors and windows unlocked. That's just not the smart thing to do in any case.

 

I don't like the USA... Canada has been my dream. And the dollar is less expensive for me there

Of course I understand that leaving your door unlocked would be a dumb thing to do, but I am sure that Canada would be 1,000 times safer than here.