Key takeaways
- Metro Vancouver’s most popular suburbs sit roughly 30 to 70 km from downtown Vancouver, which is a 35 to 70 minute drive outside rush hour.
- North Surrey, Cloverdale, Langley and Aldergrove are inside Metro Vancouver. Abbotsford is not. Abbotsford is a Fraser Valley city with no direct rail link to Vancouver.
- Moves inside Metro Vancouver are usually billed by the hour. Moves out to Abbotsford or beyond are more often billed by weight and distance.
Great Canadian Van Lines is based in Surrey and moves households across the Lower Mainland and across Canada.
Most people who move from Vancouver to a suburb are not leaving because they stopped liking the city. They are leaving because a detached house with a yard costs less an hour east than it does on the west side, and because they have decided that trade is worth making.
This guide covers the five areas Vancouver residents most often move to, what the commute actually looks like from each one, and what changes about the move itself once you cross out of the city.
What counts as a Vancouver suburb
Metro Vancouver is the regional district that includes Vancouver and 20 surrounding municipalities, stretching from Bowen Island in the west to Langley in the east. When people say Vancouver suburbs, they usually mean the eastern and southern parts of that district: Surrey, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Langley, Richmond and Delta.
Abbotsford is the exception on this list. Abbotsford sits in the Fraser Valley Regional District, outside Metro Vancouver, about 70 km from downtown. It gets grouped in with the suburbs because plenty of Vancouver families end up there, but it is a separate city with its own housing market and no rail connection to Vancouver.
Comparing the five suburbs
| Suburb | Distance to downtown Vancouver | Drive time (off-peak) | Transit time | Known for |
| North Surrey | About 30 km | 35 to 40 minutes | About 50 minutes on the Expo Line | Urban density, City Hall plaza, Green Timbers forest |
| Cloverdale | About 40 km | 40 to 50 minutes | Bus plus Expo Line, about 1 hour 15 minutes | Small-town centre, rodeo, Surrey Museum |
| Langley | About 43 km | 40 to 45 minutes | About 1 hour 25 minutes by bus and Expo Line | Fort Langley, detached housing, family amenities |
| Aldergrove | About 55 km | 50 to 55 minutes | Over 1 hour 30 minutes, bus dependent | Agricultural land, US border access, Greater Vancouver Zoo |
| Abbotsford | About 70 km | 55 to 70 minutes | No direct rail link | Fraser Valley city, airshow, larger lots |
Transit times assume the trip to downtown Vancouver during weekday hours. Driving times assume no significant congestion, which on Highway 1 during rush hour is an optimistic assumption.
Langley: detached housing and a real town centre
Langley is the furthest reach of Metro Vancouver and the most common landing spot for Vancouver families who want a detached house without leaving the region entirely. It sits about 43 km from downtown Vancouver, which is a 40 to 45 minute drive when the highway cooperates.
Fort Langley, the historic site on the Fraser River, is where British Columbia was declared a Crown colony in 1858, and the neighbourhood around it has kept a village feel that most of the Lower Mainland lost decades ago. The Canadian Museum of Flight is also in Langley, and the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants play their home games at the Langley Events Centre rather than in Vancouver.
The transit picture is the trade-off. Getting downtown without a car means the 503 bus to King George Station and then the Expo Line, which runs about an hour and 25 minutes each way. Langley is a car-dependent suburb and planning around that matters more than the house price.
Cloverdale: the small-town pocket inside Surrey
Cloverdale is a town centre within the City of Surrey, west of Langley and roughly 40 km from downtown Vancouver. It is the part of Surrey that does not feel like Surrey, which is most of its appeal.
Cloverdale Athletic Park anchors the community with soccer fields, ball diamonds, tennis and basketball courts and walking trails, and the Surrey Museum sits in the town centre. The Cloverdale Rodeo has run every May long weekend since 1888, which tells you something about how the neighbourhood sees itself.
Because Cloverdale is technically Surrey, buyers sometimes get Surrey pricing on a property that feels like a small town. That gap is narrower than it was five years ago, but it still exists.
North Surrey: the closest suburb that still feels urban
North Surrey is the densest and most connected option on this list, about 30 km from downtown Vancouver with a direct Expo Line ride of roughly 50 minutes. For anyone who wants more space but is not ready to give up transit, North Surrey is usually the answer.
Surrey City Hall sits inside a 200,000 square foot civic complex with a plaza and a performing arts venue, and Central City Brewers and Distillery is next door. Green Timbers Urban Forest, a few minutes away, protects a large stand of second-growth forest inside the city limits and is the closest thing the area has to Stanley Park.
North Surrey is also the part of this list changing fastest. Towers are going up around Surrey Central, which means the neighbourhood you buy into in 2026 will not be the neighbourhood you live in by 2032.
Aldergrove: rural space at the edge of the region
Aldergrove is a largely agricultural community at the southeastern corner of Langley, about 55 km from downtown Vancouver. It is the most rural option that is still technically inside Metro Vancouver.
The Aldergrove Credit Union Community Centre covers most of the recreation needs with an ice rink, pools, a waterpark and a fitness facility. The Greater Vancouver Zoo and the Twilight Drive-In, one of the last drive-in theatres operating in British Columbia, are both here.
Aldergrove sits next to the Aldergrove-Lynden border crossing, which makes it convenient for anyone who regularly crosses into Washington State. Transit is thin, so this is a two-car household kind of place.
Abbotsford: more land, further out, no train
Abbotsford is about 70 km from downtown Vancouver, a 55 to 70 minute drive depending on Highway 1. It is a full city of its own rather than a bedroom community, with an airport, a university and a large agricultural sector.
The Abbotsford International Airshow draws large crowds every August, the Abbotsford Centre hosts concerts and hockey, and the Reach Gallery Museum runs rotating exhibitions. Trails along the Sumas River and up Sumas Mountain are the main draw for anyone who moved out here for the outdoors.
One correction worth making, because it appears on a lot of relocation pages: there is no rail service between Abbotsford and Vancouver. The West Coast Express commuter train runs from Mission, not Abbotsford, and Mission is a separate drive away. If you are moving to Abbotsford and working in Vancouver, you are driving.
What changes about the move itself
Moving from Vancouver to a suburb is usually a local move, and local moves are priced differently from long distance ones. A move within Metro Vancouver is typically billed by the hour: crew size, truck, and the time it takes door to door. A move out to Abbotsford or beyond is more often quoted by weight and distance, the same way a cross-country move is.
Three things change the number more than people expect:
- Access at both ends. A downtown Vancouver condo with a booked elevator and a loading bay is a different job from a walk-up on a narrow street. Same for the destination.
- Timing. Month end and the summer stretch from June to August are the busiest windows in the Lower Mainland, and availability tightens well before the date you want.
- What comes with you. A move to a larger suburban house is the one time most people take everything, which is exactly when the weight and the hours climb.
The practical advice is to book earlier than feels necessary if you are moving in summer, and to get the quote done as a walkthrough rather than over the phone. A walkthrough estimate is far less likely to move on moving day.
Planning a move to the Vancouver suburbs?
Great Canadian Van Lines is based in Surrey and moves households across the Lower Mainland and across Canada. Get a free estimate and we will walk through the details with you before you commit to anything.Call 1-800-665-0055 or request a free estimate online.
