…hey all, saw some great responses on the “Tell me about Montreal,eh?” thread, so , on a related subject,
what can the Canuck ( and 'mercan) dopers tell ME about the city of Guelph and environs? It looks as though my S.O. is entertaining thoughts of accepting a situation there with the University and I am wondering what may be down the road for us.BTW, I have already been to the web-sites of both the City of Guelph and the University, I am looking more for personal impressions and opinions on such matters as quality of life, cultural amenities, livability, recreational opportunities, weather ( I am from Ga. and do not know about that!) and such-like. Thanks in advance!
Guelph is a city of about 90,000, about one hour’s drive from Toronto. Like most bedroom communities of Toronto, it’s a very nice, wealthy town with a strong local base of low-key art and sport opportunities. Like most old Ontario towns, the downtown core has a sort of turn-of-the-century limestone look, very nice and cozy, but teh rest of the city IS pretty spread out. The educational facilities are good, as you would expect from a university town. I actually like Guelph a lot, and I live about 45 minutes away, between it and Toronto in the city of Mississauga (about 600,000 people.) If you’re the outdoorsy type, Guelph is basically heaven, a city with instant access to about as many lakes, forests, parks, fishing places and hunting opportunities as you can possibly imagine.
Guelph has the level of amenities you would expect from a city its size; like I said, though, it’s close to Toronto and Mississauga, so you have the added value of big cities and Toronto’s huge base of commerce, art, theatre, professional sports and entertainment without dealing with the traffic firsthand. The economy around Toronto and surrounding cities is very strong.
If you are going to live in the southern Ontario corridor, the best places to live are places like Guelph, or Oakville or Brampton where the city is right by you but you still have room to breathe. Disadvantageously, if you do get a job in Toronto or have to go there much, you’ll have to deal with traffic on the 401, which is Ontario’s biggest highway and amazingly crowded.
Weather in southern Ontario varies widely. Summers are hot, around 75-95 degrees on any given day, and typically very humid. It begins to snow off and on around December but tends to warm up a lot and melt the snow away, until January-February, when it gets very cold, often dropping to -25 or colder. One of the ironies of living here is that you’ll need the run the furnace all winter AND you’ll need lots of air conditioning in summer. Spring and fall are extremely pleasant. It rains a bit, though probably no more than in Georgia, and we tend to get tremendous thunderstorms here for some reason.
Air pollution in and around Toronto is significant, but Guelph is well outside the smog zone. It really is a lovely little town.
A person driving from Guelph would get to:
Toronto in 1 hour
Mississauga in 40 minutes
Detroit in 2.5 hours
Buffalo in 2 hours
Ottawa in 5.5 hours
Montreal in 6 hours
Cleveland in 5 hours
They have their own hockey team. (Of course, it’s in Ontario, so that may be redundant.
It’s near the long cliff that runs from New York to Georgian Bay (over which the Niagara River falls a bit more than an hour south.)
It’s about an hour from downtown Toronto, 40 minuts from Stratford with its great Shakespeare festival all summer, and a bit more than an hour from the gorgeous Georgian Bay.
(I have no idea what it’s like to actually live there, of course.)
I live in Waterloo, not Guelph, but it’s only a half-hour drive away, and I go to Guelph fairly often, so I’ll give it a try.
It’s a decent city. The downtown is nicer than many Ontario downtowns in terms of architecture, with many 19th century building facades still intact. There is one failed downtown mall, a relic of the (stupid) '70s craze for putting large ‘magnet’ stores in the middle of downtown, but it’s not particularly off-putting. It’s a low-rise town, with the tallest building being one of the local churches. (It’s on top of a hill, and it’s spire stands out).
Lots of good restaurants. The Bookshelf Cafe is a combination bookstore, cafe, cinema, and bar. Great place. The Greek Garden has stunningly good marinated octopus. Many other ethnic places. Lots of other choices from fairly pricey, but very good, upscale food down to massive burgers at cheap prices. It’s a university town after all, and has a wide clientelle to serve.
Easy to get around. The Hanlon parkway runs from the 401 (the main provincial east-west highway) in the south to highway 7 in the north along the west side of the city, giving easy access to the university and downtown. Lots of pleasant old downtown neighbourhoods, and cookie-cutter suburbs which are OK if you’re into that sort of thing.
Toronto is less than an hour away (OK, only if it’s not rush hour).
Guelph has a good cultural scene, with events like the Hillside Festival, a music festival, livening things up. A number of downtown clubs catering to students, plus a few places like Manhattan’s (great pizza) for jazz and other ‘mature’ pursuits.
If I wasn’t happily living in Waterloo, I think I could be quite happy living in Guelph.
dbrown,tomndebb and RickJay,
Thank you for your thoughtful and through replies, all!
It sounds like a lovely place, not unlike my hometown of Athens Ga, also a University town of about 100,000 located some 60-odd miles from Atlanta,(although I am not up to speed on OUR marinated octopus situation) so maybe it wouldn’t be too jarring a transition…fewer rednecks anyway;)
thanks again!-write’
Well, you’ll no longer have a double-barreled cannon on the courthouse lawn.