Lower Lonsdale offers a combination that's surprisingly hard to find: walkable urban living with the mountains and ocean still very much part of everyday life.

Restaurants, cafés, breweries, shops and fitness studios are woven throughout the neighbourhood, while The Shipyards and Lonsdale Quay create a lively gathering place along the waterfront. You can walk for coffee, meet friends for dinner, follow the waterfront trails or catch the SeaBus downtown, often without getting in your car.

For people who work downtown, that SeaBus connection can be a game changer. And when the workweek ends, the rest of the North Shore is right behind you, with skiing, hiking, mountain biking and paddling all within easy reach.

Housing here leans toward condos and townhomes, making Lower Lonsdale especially appealing if you want less property to maintain and more life happening outside your front door.

But that energy comes with a trade-off. Lower Lonsdale is denser and busier than many North Vancouver neighbourhoods, and living close to The Shipyards can mean more people, events and activity. If your West Coast dream involves a big backyard, quiet forested streets and trails outside your door, another part of North Vancouver may feel more like home.

That's the beauty of North Vancouver: you don't have to decide whether it's a great place to live. You get to decide which version of it fits the way you want to live.