To ask where we consider living near Toronto?!!

[Torontowannabe]

My wife has been offered a fab job opportunity in the Toronto office of her company (currently London). We are a same sex married couple with twin 5 year olds who are happy and settled in reception. It could be an amazing family adventure but we have never been to Canada before and no idea where to rent near Toronto. The company pay for and sort out the full relocation. So, any Toronto or Canadian mumsnetters out there - where could we live that is picturesque, striking distance of Toronto with good schools and a liberal / gay friendly vibe? We would rent initially but have a budget of 600 - 700k to buy in the future. Obviously we will be researching this ourselves but would love to hear any suggestions. Thanks!

Oakville is beautiful! What a lovely adventure. We stayed in mississauga for a while, it's a bit built up for me.

Well, Milton is town outside the city of Toronto (about an hour's drive) but it only has a train service that runs in the rush hour. It's the fastest growing place though in Canada, I suspect in 5 years it will have merged more with Oakville!
I am guessing what you are looking for is a Reigate/Epsom/Guildford vibe where you have good transport links but sort of more "country" -ish? It's kind of difficult to characterize, but that sort of commuter town, where they are old villages that turn into towns doesn't really exist, it sort of more "suburban" style houses generally which to Toronto means towns like Oakville and Burlington. I see you mentioned picturesque in your post, the area around the Niagara escarpment is lovely, Dundas for example has some amazing walks and things and lots of hills,but it will increase your commute substantially as you would have to drive to a Go station, then another hour or so on the train. I think, though, that Port Credit/Oakville or Burlington might give you a good balance as they have the lake, the mature trees and lots of paths. Honestly in the snow, it's pretty stunning and we have coyotes, foxes, rabbits, possums, turtles so it's pretty green overall. I guess it depends, what sort of home you currently have and where you are coming from and how you normally structure your days and weekends? If you like long walks in the country you might struggle a bit in Bloor West, but if you like nice parks with the kids that would be fine. When we came out we did a "rekky" trip to have a look around houses and areas which was really helpful. I think it's such a big decision for you, one of you might want to do the same? The thing that stands out with that Markham house is the garden, it's pretty massive!

I had family in Hamilton. It was lovely, they had moved into town after living rural on the outskirts till they retired. Seemed to have good transportation to Toronto too. Have to admit I havent been there for 10 years so it may have changed

Hello! Welcome to the hood! I think as you are just moving, maybe living downtown may give you an idea of what you like and what you don’t to settle in long term:
I live in the junction. Schools are good around little Portugal , high park ( high park avenue, Indian grove are some
Streets in high park ) and the junction have Big houses and are commutable to Adelaide st office as I commute downtown too:

I’m more of a West end girl than the east end but as a gay female with kids, Toronto is a lovely city. The boys and I love it.
Good luck

I live here and have also lived in London. We live in Hamilton which is a fair old commute into Toronto- 1.5 hours each way. It works for us as I work here and my husband mainly works at home and occasionally goes into Toronto. Our house here probably costs a 1/4 of what it would in Toronto and we have a 5 bedrooms and a huge garden & swimming pool.

Hamilton has a good mix of outdoor trails, parks etc and an exciting food, arts, culture scene. It’s a larger city than some mentioned but has nice, older neighbourhoods as well as town type areas on the outskirts like Dundas, Ancaster, Stoney Creek. There is a rough side to it though and there is poverty.

Burlington downtown is lovely but is very middle class and is still an hour commute. All of these cities are right on Lake Ontario. Oakville isn’t for us, it’s too expensive.

Guelph is lovely and has a very liberal vibe and is a similar commute.

If I was in your position & had a healthy budget I’d consider living in some of the areas mentioned in Toronto. Despite there being traffic at times it’s still relatively easy to leave the city and escape for weekend adventures. Driving in Canada is 1000 times better than driving in London. Places like Algonquin Park are only a 3-4 hour drive from Toronto & there are many provincial parks closer. We love the area around the Bruce Peninsula. Look up Tobermory etc if you want to research more.

Enjoy. We love it here, it’s the best move we ever made.

Beaches, the Junction and also some of the out of town places listed here. Good luck and wishing you many years of happiness. Been here 15+ years.... now Canadian!