Originally Posted by BCPhil
If you want the best of everything, close to nature, transit, and city, then I would recommend the West End, especially if you want to rent first and try the city on for size. There is no better way to be introduced to the character of Vancouver (for better or worse) than spending your first year in the West End.
You would be close to the park, beaches, shops, and transit. It's easy to get over to the north shore from downtown, and I would take daily easy access to Stanley park and the Seawall over the north shore mountains. That's just my taste, I would rather bike/jog/walk the seawall every day than climb the Grouse Grind once or twice a week. And if you want to do stuff on the north shore, like ski or mountain bike, transit gets you there in 25 minutes.
Kits is great, if nature is secondary to living in a more socialista community. Kits has good access to the beach, and decent access to Granville Island, and 4th Ave is a trendsters wet-dream, but there's not much in the way of nature. Good views of nature, but not close to any of it.
If you do like to mountain bike or hike, and downtown and the North Shore are out of your price range, I would say close to SFU is a good bet. You might be slumming it a bit compared to other places, but it's usually affordable, and Burnaby mountain is covered with trails through the forest. Alternatively, the Brentwood area is quite pleasant (not very walkable, but still nice and fairly urban) and Skytrain takes you anywhere, especially a few close by parks like Burnaby Lake and Burnaby Mountain/SFU.
If walking in a park is more your thing, I would say live close to Patterson Station, near Central Park in Burnaby. It's a bit nicer than right near Metrotown, and the park is beautiful, with many city run activities (outdoor pool, pitch and put, and tennis were my favorite when I lived there) and Skytrain takes you into downtown in 15 minutes. The area feels incredibly urban with all the apartments and condo towers and townhomes, but not too busy and hectic (very quiet at night). Living near Metrotwon and the park, for me, was very enjoyable.
If you are looking to buy, and don't have to commute, but own a car, and are worried about rain, and want some space, I would recommend South Surrey and White Rock. I lived there last year, and the place is radically different than it was 5 years ago (so don't rely on old stories and opinions you've heard).
There is a good mix of houses, duplexes, townhouses, condos and apartments. It's a bit tough to find rentals in the area as most apartments are held onto for a long time, but there seem to be a lot of houses and suites for rent.
But for purchasing, South Surrey probably has some of the best price per square foot ratios in the lower Mainland West of Langley. There are many brand new, spacious townhomes in the sub $400K range, and lots of brand new and diverse shopping (Thrifty's FTW). If you have a car or even a bike, you are a short drive away from many, many parks (Surrey is the "City of Parks" afterall). And getting downtown by car only takes 45 minutes or so (faster than a comparable distance to Fleetwood or Cloverdale), and Transit service has greatly improved since the opening of the Canada Line.
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- I live Lower Lonsdale which certainly does not get 2000 plus mm. I can't find specfic stats for Lo Lo but seems to recall reading it as around 1400, similar to coal harbour. I honestly don't see any real difference than when I lived in Kits.
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