Vancouver might be the place where everything is happening, but some B.C. residents were recently engaged in a discussion about the best rural places to live near the city.
An Ontario resident asked the British Columbia subreddit about places to live that aren’t too far from a moderately sized city, comparing it to an acreage they live in, around two hours from Toronto.
They were specifically asking for recommendations about a rural and wooded area with a sizeable equestrian community.
Hope emerged as the frontrunner, being the most upvoted recommendation. We published a story about Hope last year, and it is a very quiet rural town, at the right distance away from Vancouver.
“My first thought was Hope as well! It’s decently close to Chilliwack, which can serve most errands, but also drivable to Vancouver,” someone concurred. The original poster also said they looked into Hope, and it seemed promising.
Rent in Hope is quite a bit cheaper than it is in Vancouver, unsurprisingly. Housing prices are also some of the most affordable in the province.
The rest of the thread turned out to be an interesting discussion about how the two situations in Ontario and British Columbia aren’t exactly comparable.
“Most of the people commenting here don’t really know what rural means lol,” one Redditor said, adding, “You’re also very unlikely to find a ‘wooded’ property unless you have literally millions of dollars to spend, as someone who also grew up in the woods of Ontario, but close enough to Toronto to commute there… It’s hard to understate how different things are here in BC.”
Some other recommendations included Ruskin, Silverdale, Hatzic, Deroche, and Yarrow.
Squamish was also mentioned, and it seems like Adam Sandler would approve of that suggestion.
Someone else mentioned Pemberton, which got “Shhhhh” as a reply, with the user likely indicating they’re happy Pemberton is quiet.
The discussion is similar to another thread that popped up on the subreddit a few years ago, when someone asked B.C. residents what the best small town to move to in the province was.
Revelstoke, Kimberley, and Vernon were among the most popular spots mentioned in that thread.
If you could choose a rural B.C. spot or small town to move to near Vancouver, which would it be?