9 must-know things if you're considering a move to Vancouver, according to a local
So you're thinking of moving to Vancouver. Fun! (Or, if you're from Calgary or Edmonton — necessary!) You already know the basics: it's stunning, it's surrounded by mountains and ocean, the sushi is elite, and the rain is relentless.
You've also heard the clichés (all true) about the housing prices, citywide lululemon uniform, and smug pride that comes from drinking tap water that tastes like it was filtered through a glacier personally blessed by Mother Nature. But that's just the brochure stuff.
Before you roll up with your yoga mat, pack your Patagonia fleece, and hop on a flight with a dream of meeting a hot snowboarder (or worse, becoming an actor), here are the must-know things about Vancouver that you won't find in the Google AI results or TikTok montages.
Nine things you'll only learn — the good, the bad, and the ugly — once you actually live here.
You'll be detoured by film crews
Welcome to Hollywood North! Vancouver is what we call a service production city (i.e., the place Los Angeles uses to film all their TV shows and movies on the cheap).
You'll see fake New York taxi cabs on random blocks. You'll see faux snow in July. You'll see actors sweating in Christmas attire in the dead of August pretending to be chilly for the Hallmark Channel. You'll run into celebrities ranging from D-list reality stars to actual A-listers who thought they were incognito wearing a hat and sunglasses inside Whole Foods (I see you, Dwayne the Rock Johnson).
All this to say, if you live here long enough, you will be rerouted, distracted, irritated, or even inspired by a film crew while on your way to work.
The winter will hit hard
Summer in Vancouver is nothing short of spiritual. You finish work at 5 p.m. and still have an entire second day left: bike rides, patios with friends, beach picnics, swims, watching the sunset at 9:58 p.m.
Then winter hits. Hard. The sun taps out at 4:13 p.m., and half the time it feels like it never fully showed up to begin with. You crank every overhead light in your home to experience "daylight," start googling vitamin D dosages, and find yourself in a sauna (or succumb to the tanning beds) just to remember what warmth feels like.
Vancouver is a city of extremes. Get used to them.
Do NOT learn to drive a stick shift here
Vancouver is basically one giant thigh workout, disguised as a city. There are hills everywhere. If you're moving here and considering learning to drive stick for the first time, don't. And if you do know how to drive stick: congratulations, you are better than the rest of us.
Bonus fun fact: During the single week it snows in Vancouver each year, people roll backwards into each other on these hills (shoutout Oak and 7th) like bumper cars. As an outsider looking in, it's like the city's annual comedy special.
Learn to ski... or embrace a very bleak winter
Listen, you don't have to be a skier or snowboarder to move to Vancouver. I'm not. But I'm telling you firsthand: the winter months are long and empty without something to look forward to.
For those of you into winter sports, you're spoiled for options: Whistler Blackcomb is two hours up the Sea to Sky, Cypress, Grouse, and Seymour mountain are even closer. Night skiing after work on local mountains is apparently incredible, though again, I wouldn’t know.
If you're not into snow sports, your winter itinerary becomes pretty predictable: hot yoga (sometimes), complaining about the rain, and watching yourself get progressively paler until you're genuinely startled by the level of translucence you're capable of achieving.
Choose your path wisely.
The rain (but let's be optimistic for once)
Okay, so yes — the rain can (and will) break your soul, spirit, and will to live. It can rain for literal weeks with only tiny gaps of space where water is not falling from the sky (though during this time it's probably still cloudy).
However, it's also the reason the city is stunningly green year-round. It's why the air smells fresh when you step off a plane. It's why tourists gush about how clean the streets are. And it's why we have some of the best tap water in North America.
Think of the rain as Vancouver's price of admission. It doesn't make it fun, but it does make it a little easier to tolerate.
The runners are everywhere and impossible to escape
Vancouver's unofficial mascot is a person wearing a hydration vest and running along the seawall at 6 a.m. in the rain. Prepare to see runners at sunrise, at sunset, at night with headlamps, in the summer shirtless, in the winter shirtless, in weather conditions where you wouldn't walk to your mailbox.
When you move here you will feel guilty about not running. You need to come up with an exhaustive list of excuses as to why you can't run: "I already showered," "there's a 40% chance of rain tonight," "it's windy and I'm small and I might be blown away," or even "according to research from one remote Scandinavian scientist, running when it's cold out causes blood pressure to rise, which is bad for you."
Feel free to deploy any of these when your boyfriend is pressuring you to go for a run, or when your friend is trying to recruit you into their run club.
The energy is laid-back, but not lazy
People love to say Vancouverites are lazy. Incorrect. What we are is extremely committed to having a life outside work.
Compared to Toronto, the work-life balance here is better, or at least our screen time is. People tend to prioritize hiking, beach days, skiing, brunch, being outside, and touching grass (both literally and spiritually).
Not clocking up hours of overtime doesn't make us lazy — it keeps us sane.
The ClassPass grind is intense
If you're into workout classes, buckle up. Vancouver's fitness culture is unnecessarily intense. Pilates? Weirdly competitive. Barry's? A red-lit dungeon of cardio-induced suffering. Spin classes? Get ready to be yelled at under the guise of motivation.
There's a certain energy in Vancouver fitness studios that screams "I could do this for fun but also I might ascend."
Don't say I didn't warn you.
Don't let the crunchy-granola exterior fool you
When you move to Vancouver you'll definitely see people wandering around with yoga mats as accessories, a few partial dreadlocks, and reusable salad jars treated as family heirlooms. It's the land of co-ops, cold-plunges, and all things earth-crunchy.
However, beneath all that wholesome, earth-loving exterior? Vancouver has money. Big money. Luxury cars are a dime a dozen, mom and pop boutiques charge rent-level prices, smoothies regularly hit $15, and there are outfits on the streets cost more than my first car.
It's granola with a trust fund. Think trail mix with truffle oil.
So, should you move here? In my humble opinion, a thousand times yes.
It's stunning, it's active, it's expensive, it's delicious, it's soothing, it's everything you think it is and more. Just be ready for the rain. And runners. And film crews. And the heartbreak of housing prices.
But once that first perfect Vancouver summer hits? You'll never want to leave.
The views expressed in this Opinion article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
