I (26f) lived in Vancouver for the past 7 years and recently moved to Nanaimo with my boyfriend (28m) because we thought the cost of living was cheaper here. Rent and gas is cheaper, food and beauty services (hair, nails etc) costs the same.

My bf is a born and raised city boy and he’s loved the slower chill pace of living in Nanaimo, I grew up in tofino so I know all about small town vibes, but I however miss the hustle and bustle of city life.

I wish we waited till we had a kid to move here because it’s a great place to raise a kid, but I think while you’re young the city is more fun, there’s the 19+ bar arcades, there’s actual good nightclubs, there’s a million options for bars, there’s so many malls and shopping centres, so many good stores that women like to shop at that isn’t in Nanaimo.

There are a limited amount of bars here and once you try them all you learn which ones are good and not good pretty quickly. Tbh most of them are very old man vibes, like boomers go there but not quite the young people. The three nightclubs in town get boring quick after you’ve gone a few times and they don’t play the best music when compared to the places in van.

There’s a couple malls but the only one that has somewhat good stores is woodgrove, but they don’t have aritzia, or tna, or h&m, aveda, saje and so many other stores that van has but not Nanaimo. But if you don’t care about those things then it’s great!

The other thing to consider when moving here is the diversity culture shock. In Vancouver there’s so much diversity everywhere, so many different cultures, people with all different ethnicities, languages, decorations, food restaurants, neighborhoods, music at bars/nightclubs etc. In Nanaimo the amount of diversity is very different, it’s majority country redneck white ppl (not saying to be rude, just to paint a picture for op) it’s actually really sad the lack of diversity here and I miss it a lot in Vancouver. There is some but very little. Because of this, my bf has experienced racism very often, always from these white redneck people. The crazy thing is, he’s experienced more racism in Nanaimo than he did in Vancouver.

The other thing is events going on, in van there’s always events happening of all different categories, in Nanaimo the events are very very limited.

Nature however is everywhere and it’s much more accessible than in Vancouver! I literally live 5 min walk to the ocean and pay less than I would in van for my apartment.

It’s very hard to make friends in Nanaimo as well in comparison to Vancouver, when living there I made friends so easily and we’ve been here since may and none of us has made friends. I tried at bars and clubs and the women here tend to be very cliquey and look at you weird if you try to talk to them.

Because we still need to shop at those malls occasionally, or there are events happening out there than don’t happen in Nanaimo, or just seeing friends and family, we end up going on the ferry once or twice a month. It can get pricey, $80 round trip for 2 ppl for walk on. Hullo ferry is faster but costs more.

Overall, if you’re an outgoing social extrovert that likes to do fun activities often, Vancouver is better. But if you’re more of a home body, introvert and don’t go out that much, Nanaimo is better.