{help} About Canada - Vancouver/Toronto
 

What's up guys?

I'm thinking to spend 1 month in Canada next year (march/april) to study english and i'm not sure which city to choose, both Vancouver and Toronto cities seems to be awesome. So, I believe there's a few canadians here in the forum. Could anyone, who lives or already visited one of those cities, say something about them? Maybe pros and cons between them?

Vancouver seems to be more peaceful with prettier landscapes, in other hand Toronto seems to be more crowdy with many entertainment options, am I right? Perharps it's a personal decision, isn't it?

I've never traveled outside Brazil before and I'm not rich, hehe. So i would really appreciate some advices like things to check/avoid, interesting and ecominic places to visit and unexpensive stores to buy my stuff! :D

Thank you very much for the attention, and I'm sorry to ask you guys such things but I think there's nothing like hear the natives, usually travel agencies just tell us what we want to know! :P

Well, Squinky is on vacation, so she can't answer for Vancouver, but I live about an hour outside of Toronto, and I can honestly say that, if you're looking for a nice place to hang out for a bit and brush up on your English, you may find Vancouver more to your liking. Toronto is pretty interesting if you know where to go, but it's expensive and pretty hectic, and if you're not a big city person, you probably wouldn't enjoy it as much. Vancouver isn't small either, but I gather it's a little more laid back. If I had to choose between the two, I'd probably choose Vancouver. But if you're looking for lots of exciting things to try, Toronto has a bit of everything.

I wonder where Jack is? He might be better able to argue in Toronto's favour better than I can.

Hmm, I see. Toronto seems very interesting, but my priority is to study/practice the language and, based on what you said, probably I'll not have much time, maybe money, to experience everything the city has to offer. So, maybe vancouver is the best choice. I'll think about it.

Thanks a lot Lee. I really appreciate your help!

I've never been to Toronto, but I live just a couple of hours south of Vancouver and go there often enough. It's very multi-cultural, but my impression is that western Canada is more English speaking the eastern, and a toss up inbetween. So I agree with Lee--go Vancouver.

Where you go in Vancouver is a toss-up since you didn't list your preferences. We usually stay in the West-end and there's a lot to do in that area, and some of Vancouver's finer restaurants are there, but some are not (lot's of good restaurants are south of that). But you could spend all of your time in or near the West End and have lots of fun.

Going east of that can be dicey. The further you go east on Hastings or Broadway you go the more careful you want to be--there's good stuff down there, but it's best if you do it daytime.

My main advice: make your stay in the West End, regardless of where you venture during the day.

Very interesting informations, dude. Thank you very much!

I have decided to follow you guys advice, I'm going to Vancouver. I will study at the canadian College, I don't know exactly where it's located yet.

Well, I hope everything goes right, if it does, I might travel about march or april. I hope it's not very cold in that part of the year because I'm used to Rio summer (about 33 - 37ºc (sometimes even 40º!), hehehe.

I've never been to Toronto, but I've been to Vancouver and it's beautiful! Plus, I don't know from experience, but I would guess that a coastal city like Vancouver would have nicer and milder weather during March/April than an inland city like Toronto.

Ohhh good to know, booB. Thanks!

If you guys pretend to visit Brazil someday, please let me know. You guys were very attentive to me, I would feel very satisfied in helping you with any kind of informations I have!