Moving to Vancouver

August 11, 2013 10:18 AM

I'm (almost certainly) moving to Vancouver for grad school, starting this September. I've never moved before, other than college and that was only an hour away from my hometown. What do I need to know about renting an apartment, getting my iPhone to work and everything else?

I'm moving from the US East Coast and in about six weeks, I should have Canadian citizenship as well as US citizenship.

I have a decent amount of apartment stuff (pots and pans, futon/bed). Is it worth trying to ship it out or possibly drive out or better to just rebuy it?

I'm going to SFU, on Burnaby campus. I'd like to avoid buying a car. Is it possible to get around with public transportation and a bike? Where are the best neighborhoods to find an apartment? Based on other questions, I'm going to look around East Vancouver, around Commercial Drive? Is craiglist the best way to find a place?(Since I'm moving so soon, I will probably try to find a place with AirBnB if I can't rent right away, any other suggestions?)

What is the best way to use my Verizon iPhone 5 in Canada? It's the A1429 model for the US and I'm about halfway through my contract. Do I need to get a new simcard? Can I change my contract to a Canadian one?

Any other advice about moving would be greatly appreciated.

posted by raeka to Travel & Transportation (16 answers total)

One thing I'd say is that it doesn't make a lot of sense to look for an apartment on Commercial when your plan is to attend SFU; that's quite a treck particularly when you're intending to bike around. Find something in Burnaby; you can always bike or Skytrain to Vancouver on weekends for fun. Besides, living in the area you suggest I would say it's nothing special and the rent is going to be higher than what you can find in Burnaby. Craigslist is fine for getting a place: just be alert for the obvious scams. I would also use Craigslist to rebuy stuff like your futon and such: no point schlepping low quality Ikea stuff across the continent at great expense when you can buy and later resell with minimal hassle.
posted by Pomo at 10:26 AM on August 11, 2013

Unless your furniture is sentimental, heirloom or otherwise very valuable, it's almost always better to just sell it on Craigslist and buy new furniture, especially for a cross-country move. Moving large items is expensive and time-consuming. (And if it is heirloom or valuable, you should probably think carefully about whether you should be moving it anyway.)

With kitchen stuff, if you have good-quality knives or pots/pans, I would keep those as those can be expensive. If they were just cheapo pans you got at Target, I'd just sell/donate and repurchase them in Vancouver.
posted by andrewesque at 10:37 AM on August 11, 2013

It is most likely easiest to by stuff here. Moving stuff will cost a small fortune.

Are you sure all your courses will be at the Burnaby campus? SFU has several campuses and students sometimes have to move between all three.

If you will be at SFU BBY, I would opt for living off campus. I'd aim for either Lougheed Mall or around one of the Skytrain stations that has a bus running up the hill to SFU. Commercial Drive is going to mean a commute to school all the time. If you are on the Skytrain, you can get downtown pretty quickly. And you'll be able to zip around to the other campuses, in case you end up TAing, RAing or studying there.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 10:45 AM on August 11, 2013

The main SFU campus isn't in Vancouver, it's in Burnaby which is right next to Vancouver. I agree with the other comments that you should look for a place in Burnaby, it will be closer and cheaper than Vancouver. I would start by looking at transit maps on the translink website; there are a few SFU express buses, it would be great to live on one of those routes. Most people I know do use Craigslist to find apartments, but it might be a bit tight to find something for September 1st right now. Good luck!
posted by piper4 at 11:08 AM on August 11, 2013

Also, make sure that any bus route is a frequent route. I lived for two semesters on a route that my landlord assured me was an SFU route. There was even a sign for the bus at the end of our short block. But it turned out that bus only ran at certain times, meaning I had to walk about a kilometre to the usual bus, which was pretty awful in the rain or dark or rain and dark!
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 11:16 AM on August 11, 2013

Lots of people live on the Drive and commute to SFU. But I'd also recommend the Hastings-Sunrise neighborhood (Hastings/Nanaimo and further east... sometimes called the East Village), which is in my opinion one of the city's best, though somewhat under the radar. You'll have to ride a bus, but everyone does who doesn't live on the mountain itself, and you might as well have a nice comfy urban environment around you if that's important to you.

Craigslist is the best way to find a place if you're looking for roommates. If you want an apartment, many of them advertise by posting vacancy notices and phones numbers on little boards on the front lawns. You can bike around and call a bunch of places. There are a lot of apartments in Hastings-Sunrise (usually lowrises, 3 or 4 floors) and it's one of the more affordable neighborhoods in Vancouver.
posted by PercussivePaul at 12:13 PM on August 11, 2013

Seconding Hastings-Sunrise; it was my neighbourhood the last time I lived in Vancouver and it was affordable and pleasant. A 5 min walk to Hastings and Nanaimo with all its amenities, 20 min walk to Commercial Drive, a reasonable, no transfer bus commute to SFU. I would live there again quite happily.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:46 PM on August 11, 2013

Nth-ing Hastings Sunrise. Maybe the last neighbourhood in Vancouver proper with both character and (somewhat) affordable rents. Along the Hastings corridor into Burnaby is nice too from what I hear.

Craigslist is a good option, as well as PadMapper. If you get the chance, a lot of people have good luck walking around the neighbourhood they want to live in and looking for "for rent" signs, then calling the building manager on the spot.
posted by no regrets, coyote at 1:10 PM on August 11, 2013

I attend SFU and commute from the Commercial area. It's not that bad, about 45 minutes each way, and very frequent service, I think every 8 minutes. The bus that runs from the skytrain station up the mountain is a bit of a pain. It's usually really really full and you may have to wait for the second or even third bus. Protip: There are two different 'transportation hubs', major bus stops, on campus. Never wait for the bus down the mountain at the lower stop, near the main entrance to the campus. Wait for it at the stop by the retail mall, near the coffee shop. It fills up there and if you're waiting down below, you can sometimes see four or five buses got by full before you can get on one. By the way, I lived in Burnaby when I first moved here and I hated it. If you don't know anyone, you're not going to meet a lot of interesting people there. I suppose it would be okay if you already had a social group, but I did not and I found it really lonely there. I love this neighbourhood and can't say enough good things about it, but Sunrise-Hastings is also really cool and a little closer.
posted by alltomorrowsparties at 1:35 PM on August 11, 2013

My sister lived on the north side of Metrotown while doing her PhD at UBC. I thought it was a nice neighbourhood. Very convenient.
posted by KokuRyu at 2:33 PM on August 11, 2013

Several good points about Hastings-Sunrise and Commercial being more neighbourhoody. But if getting to campus quickly is your priority, Burnaby offers more options. I pretty much detested Burnaby, though, and moved out as soon as I could, even choosing courses downtown to speed my departure.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 2:59 PM on August 11, 2013

Of course you need to get a new SIM card for your phone. You need to use a Canadian carrier. There is no Verizon in Canada and you cannot transfer your contract- you're going to have to eat whatever is left on your US contract and get a new one with a Canadian carrier. The good thing there is that Bell and Telus (and maybe other carriers, ask) will give you a discount on the order of $20/mo if you bring your own phone. An issue with the Verizon version of the iPhone 5 is that it only gets Verizon LTE bands, which might not coincide with the Canadian ones (though they might). The Verizon iP5 is GSM unlocked which is good as you can get at least HSPA+ speeds from any Canadian carrier that has the nanosim card (which AFAIK is all of them).
posted by ethnomethodologist at 3:27 PM on August 11, 2013

Nth-ing hastings-sunrise. Inexpensive living, and if you can manage to get a place a few blocks off of hastings and near a 135 bus stop, it'll take you right to sfu and back really quickly near all hours of the day. Skytrains/other buses/cheap groceries and awesome ethnic food is also super accessible by bike or bus. Def one of the top areas i've lived over the years. Commercial is a fun//interesting area to live, but you'll be paying more to live in a place you can just as easily enjoy by visiting it. Also nth-ing craigslist as a means of finding a space.

drop the furniture if it's easily replaceable, keep the small/packable appliances and pots and whatnot. Replacing furniture is easy/inexpensive (especially if you use craigslist to find some decent pieces), but repurchasing cutlery/plates/toaster/etc. adds up REALLY fast.

good luck! I hope you find you love it out here as much as i did!
posted by rideunicorns at 6:50 PM on August 11, 2013

Hey! Vancouverite university student here!

Public transportation and biking is amazing in Vancouver. If you're a graduate student at SFU, you should be eligible for a U-Pass, which entitles you to unlimited travel on the transit system at cut-throat prices. Generally speaking, most areas in Vancouver are connected by the convenient Skytrain system, which will also be your primary connection to SFU, so in terms of housing try to look for things that are a close walking or biking distance to the closest Skytrain station - the smaller buses that connect neighborhoods can be sometimes a little sporadic in their scheduling with 30 minute or 1 hour spacings, so you want to maximize that flexibility if possible. One of the issues with public transit is that the buses and skytrain do shut down really early (like, midnight) with very few trips going outbound at night - so if you're into nightlife, or if you're the type who likes late night studying, factor that into mind when figuring out where you want to live.

Hasting-Sunrise is nice, but there have been a few promising rental developments close to the the Lougheed City Center station, and I know a lot of the places around there have rental signs posted, so you might have some luck there - it's only one stop on the Skytrain away from SFU, so it's closer than Hastings, and it's right up against Koreantown for cheap produce and groceries. It's not the most neighborhoody place however (although it's pretty quiet and residential if you stay off the main artery, North Road), so if that's an absolute priority, go for Hastings-Sunrise.

Craigslist is pretty big here, so I would recommend that you just sell all your stuff and buy some new ones when you get over here. Currently, large swaths of Coquitlam are being gentrified due to the construction of the new Skytrain line, so you will be able to find some really cheap stuff posted online or at garage sales from that area given your timing. So ultimately, I don't think that shipping all your stuff would be the most cost-effective decision.

You can me-mail me with any further questions! I've lived here all my life so I know all of the ins-and-outs of Vancouver, plus I conduct research at UBC, so I know a bit about the university system and life around these bits. :)
posted by Conspire at 8:10 PM on August 11, 2013

Commercial Drive is my favourite neighbourhood by far. There is a commute, but it's not so bad. Rent is also a bit higher. Totally made up by it being a great, fun place to live.

I'd strongly recommend against living in Burnaby, unless school is your only focus. I've had some friends do that, and they all reported getting depressed.

You can bike, but SFU has a major slope, so depends on your fitness level. I know people who do it, but suspect most people would find it a bit much. Otherwise, biking is a great way to get around Vancouver.
posted by fruit sandwich at 11:18 AM on August 12, 2013

Here's my experience from doing many of the things you're asking about, quite recently.

Do not move your stuff. I recently (this week) did this and it cost me over $3K to get that cheap couch and my pots and pans across the continent. It is not worth moving anything that cannot fit in your car.

Canada has a mystifying lack of apartment search websites. Craigslist is your best hope of finding a place. It is frustrating, insufficient, and the best option available.

You can get by without a car in Vancouver and Burnaby. Public transit is good and affordable. Burnaby is a suburb. Without a car, you will be spending all of your time on transit. There are few alternatives. Car2Go, Zipcar, and Moodo do not really service Burnaby, especially when compared to the area within Vancouver city limits.

I've heard good things about the Commercial-Broadway area. You will be within the Vancouver city limits, so car sharing, transit, and entertainment options are much more varied there.

You can move your iPhone 5 from Verizon onto a Canadian network, but you need to do the following. First, call Verizon and ask them to unlock your phone. Second, open a contract with a Canadian provider. They'll require you buy a new sim card and install it. You will need to switch sims if you want to use your Verizon account in the States at a later date.

(As an aside, get a Google Voice account. You can link that account to your new Canadian number, allowing people in the States to call you without international long distance charges. You can also use Google Voice's Click2Call setting to call people in the States without long distance charges either. The app for the iPhone is great and works better than on Android phones in my opinion.)

Be prepared for price shock when it comes to rent, dairy, and alcohol. These are vastly more expensive than in the States. Burnaby is only 20 minutes from the border and Trader Joe's. This can take the sting out of that high cost of living in Vancouver.

Welcome!
posted by Apollo's Favorite Mistake at 3:40 PM on August 16, 2013