Q: I live in Ontario and want to move to BC with my small family. Please help.
A: I moved to Victoria 3 years ago from Edmonton. While I found that island living was not right for me, there are definitely a lot of people who LOVE it. From my experience, here are some of the advantages and disadvantages: Advantages - Without exaggeration, one of the most beautiful areas in the world - If you like outdoors activities, you can do them year round - Victoria gets far less rain than surrounding areas (e.g. Vancouver, Seattle) and the summers are beautiful - sunny and 25 degrees every single day - Only snows 1-2 times a year (could be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on how you feel about snow) - Lots of activities for kids and young families - particularly lots of nice parks and walking trails - Great schools (public and private) - Slow pace of life - everyone is pretty laid back, people take the afternoon off work if it's a particularly nice day, etc. - Cheaper than Vancouver and Toronto (although housing costs are increasing) Disadvantages: - It's small - if you don't like a small town atmosphere, beware - Since it's small, it can be difficult to make friends when you didn't grow up there - Victoria, at least, gets overrun by tourists from March-October. It's hard to do things downtown during high season. - It is difficult to get off the island. Flights are expensive you usually have to connect through Vancouver or Seattle. Ferries are also expensive and take a lot of time. - Even though it doesn't rain quite as much as Vancouver, it still gets its fair share. This winter, for example, we had rain and cloud for at least 4 months straight (but this was a particularly bad winter). My experience is primarily based on living in Victoria, but the surrounding communities are somewhat similar (just smaller). Hope this helps!