Pros: most beautiful city I've ever seen, the water and mountains are unbeatable, ski resorts nearby, nice beaches, good asian food, friendly strangers
Cons: some really surprisingly unsafe and uncomfortable parts of the city, everything's expensive, lots of rain, biking feels really unsafe in most parts (some good bike lanes)
For cons — would consider it safer than any other “city” in North America once you exclude Hastings/surroundings. Safety issues are more concentrated in one zone compared to Toronto, NYC, SF, Seattle and etc.
I’ll add another con — it gets very routine after a few years. You don’t feel like you’re living a city life compared to… basically any other city. It’s nowhere close to Toronto, NYC, London, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Tokyo, Hong Kong and etc.
The people living there seem super friendly though. I think I would prefer Vancouver over Toronto.
Are there warmer places like Spain and Portugal in USA/CA?
Like, it'll get cold and there will occasionally be real snow, but is mild compared to other Western Canadian cites.
There is a lot of Dark and Bleak, though. Also like Seattle, once summer is over it turns gray and stays that way until April.
Exactly, I expect Canada to be more like Australia, NZ, West/Northern Europe, not the US or developing world. And for the most part it is