Living in Vancouver Island

dmurph

Well-Known Member
Curious if many members on here are living in Port Alberni. Thinking of a possible change of life off the main land and looking at areas between Port, Nanaimo and up as far as Comox area. Looking for opinions on people’s favourite places to live. Would be the wife, boy and myself.
 
The whole Island is worlds away from the the mainland. It depends on what you and your wife do as to where the best place to settle might be.
 
Lived in Maple Ridge and worked in Vancouver for 25 years, in 2009 retired to Qualicum Beach. The pace and lifestyle is greatly laid back on the Island especially in the smaller towns and Islands. As fish brain said....depends on your place in the ladder of life, financial position, likes/dislikes, needs/wants, etc, etc. Do your homework, take your time, every part of the Island from the northern tip to the south end including the various smaller Islands opens up to special and unique interests and lifestyles. I’m sure there is a perfect fit waiting.
 
Anywhere on the Island is going to be better than the mainland. I would be looking at Health care, Hospitals and doctors are getting harder and harder to find these days. The other would be airports and ferries. All that being said, most are only 1-2 hrs away at most. Port Alberni is only a hour from just about everything you will ever need over on the east side of the Island. My only complaint about Port is that it gets to hot in the summer. Lol. Housing is cheap, about $240K. Some of the best, if not the best fishing/Hunting right at your door step. Where ever you move on the Island will be a better lifestyle than on the mainland and I'm sure you won't regret it.
 
Sorry, we're all filled up. No more room. Might want to try the Interior. Hear they have room...:)

Seriously - look at the Comox Valley. Skiing, Golfing and boat launches within a half hour of each other. And if you get up early enough, you could do them all on the same day. New hospital and great shopping.
 
We spend a lot of time in Alberni and hope to also move there in the near future. If you enjoy outdoor activities it's a good spot and still relatively cheap. The deer hunting can be good, fishing is pretty good , lakes are unreal and It's a quick trip to Nanaimo or the west coast. The fog and rain in the winter is an issue so the money you save on real estate you should dump into a couple vacations every winter. I personally run all the way out to the broken group or offshore most of the time to fish (unless it's sockeye) so you do burn a **** ton of fuel vs living on the east coast of the island and running 15 minutes.
 
Although the Island is worlds better then Mainland, it too is starting to have some social issues that is reflective to what is already happening here on the Mainland.

From the CBC website this morning.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/cowichan-valley-housing-1.4483975

That said, the Island is still on my shortlist of possible retirement locations in about 7- 10 more years.
True we are also a destination for the homeless! I note they always try and throw in that these folks are not "migrants" however when you get most of them in conversation,eventually they mention where they grew up and it usually isn't locally. I often question how they try to sell us that these folks are all local, do the warmer climates produce more homeless?

At any rate it shouldn't matter where people come from if they need help they need help. Having said that,I feel the attempt to pretend they are all local (in every story there is a mention)plays into the Federal Governments hands and enables them to stick handle the problem to the Province and Municipalities. Canadians have a right to move from Province to Province but the Feds need to step up to the plate when problems are simply being shuffled Province to Province. BC takes a pretty big hit by being a destination for both retirees (medical etc.) and homeless. The Feds need to kick in.
 
We are seeing this up in our area too... A couple young fellows mentioned that Victoria bought them the bus tickets to come up to our area????
 
Thanks for all the great insight everyone. We like the prices around Alberni and the idea of spending a lot of time exploring the broken group. Like the idea of being able to to fish both sides fairly easy, currently we fish all around Nanaimo and Gabriola for spring and first part of the summer. Like the idea of being able to still do this. We will definitely spend time at Mt Washington, kind of feel the price has already jumped up around Courtenay and Comox though and feel that area would require more travel time to fish ? Anyone familiar with Qualicum area? Will most likely looking at at least an acre with outbuildings like a nice shop, want a spot I can build the boy a skate ramp or whatever and not have a neighbor complain. Work won’t be a concern and my wife is more redneck than most of people us lol. Do have to consider day to life for a 6 year old though. Please keep the input coming.
 
We are seeing this up in our area too... A couple young fellows mentioned that Victoria bought them the bus tickets to come up to our area????
Lol, I can't see Victoria buying them a ticket unless Victoria is a person as opposed to a city? The City of Victoria's downtown seems very vagrant friendly as you can readily tell by just taking a stroll around sometime. Free food, park camping, needle exchanges,likely pretty good drugs and no police hassle. Who'd want to leave?Panhandling must be difficult though because I see the same people month in month out holding up cardboard signs with destinations up Island or for ferry fare, maybe Victoria drove by and donated. Lol
Sorry for the hijack!
 
Thanks for all the great insight everyone. We like the prices around Alberni and the idea of spending a lot of time exploring the broken group. Like the idea of being able to to fish both sides fairly easy, currently we fish all around Nanaimo and Gabriola for spring and first part of the summer. Like the idea of being able to still do this. We will definitely spend time at Mt Washington, kind of feel the price has already jumped up around Courtenay and Comox though and feel that area would require more travel time to fish ? Anyone familiar with Qualicum area? Will most likely looking at at least an acre with outbuildings like a nice shop, want a spot I can build the boy a skate ramp or whatever and not have a neighbor complain. Work won’t be a concern and my wife is more redneck than most of people us lol. Do have to consider day to life for a 6 year old though. Please keep the input coming.
Make sure to build lots of boat storage dave ;)
 
Lol, I can't see Victoria buying them a ticket unless Victoria is a person as opposed to a city? The City of Victoria's downtown seems very vagrant friendly as you can readily tell by just taking a stroll around sometime. Free food, park camping, needle exchanges,likely pretty good drugs and no police hassle. Who'd want to leave?Panhandling must be difficult though because I see the same people month in month out holding up cardboard signs with destinations up Island or for ferry fare, maybe Victoria drove by and donated. Lol
Sorry for the hijack!


just passing on what they said to my wife ... not the first time a province or city has bought tickets to move people along ......
 
The oyster river area is pretty nice.
You can get a acreage there is moorage close by and it is a close run to some pretty decent fishing.
 
My brother is moving to port mcneill, and I having been looking to move to Nanaimo when a coworker retires. I know altest 5 different friends of mine that moved to Victoria area (CRD) last year. It's amazing how cheap housing still is on the island. I know lots of people planning to move there to.

It's definitely going to get a lot busier over their in the next 10 years. Development will be wiping out coho streams soon enough
 
Agree Vic is going crazy, some assessments up 15% or $100K. I worry about the future of local tidal fishing, my opinion JDF cannot handle the current pressure, (golf carts to bring you back from parking now) what will it look like in 10 years with so many more fishermen? Close hunting ended some time ago, new agreement with local forest companies is an awesome idea but still tons of users on the few roads/trails and only 1 idiot will end it again. I picked up over 300 beer cans this year from our local roads, where is the respect? Any body have 2 acres+ north CR area for sale? PM me.

HM
 
Having had several friends who have been through the retirement/move scenario a couple of things stood out. Access to Medical and access to family and friends. The idea of moving to more isolated areas had some appeal, but they found as they aged the requirement to have access to specific medical facilities became a real issue. Also if they moved away from family (kids,grandkids etc.)and friends they felt pretty cutoff.

Retirement itself can be quite a life change. You have lots more time on your hands, you loose the social interaction you have at work and you loose a lot of structure you've become used to. A good hobby, part time work, retired friends etc make the transition easier, but these things may be (not necessarily of course) be lost when you move. I'm sure if you do your research you'll find what works for you, but it's worth noting a lot of people who leave familiar turf end up returning for various reasons.
 
It's definitely going to get a lot busier over their in the next 10 years. Development will be wiping out coho streams soon enough[/QUOTE]

I'm going to suggest you don't comment on things you know nothing about.....thanks to our local stream keepers the Craig flower and colquitz are doing amazing. Keep up the outstanding work ladies and gentlemen.
 
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