Hello readers and welcome back to Discovering KW. Just as a recap, in this column we travel around the Kitchener-Waterloo area to discover some of the lesser known activities, locations, and events. This week we’ll be diverging a bit and exploring some of the various neighbourhoods around KW, talk a bit about student housing, and what is around each of these neighbourhoods. Off we go!
To start things off we will visit the Westmount neighbourhood, which happens to be my area of residence. Westmount is located around Westmount Rd (hence the name) and south of Erb St. This is an area of the city that is quiet but yet quite convenient. Walk a bit east and you end up in Uptown Waterloo, home to a multitude of bars, restaurants and loads of shopping. If you walk a bit north, you end up at Westcourt place, a plaza with multiple banks, restaurants and shops.
Westmount is primarily a residential neighbourhood with a lot (and I really mean A LOT) of student housing. It is easy to get to campus with the 8, 12, 7, 7D and I-Express busses nearby and with the aforementioned conveniences it is a great neighbourhood to live in. Another random point about Westmount is that it seems to have a lot of churches. Why? I have no idea, but I found it interesting enough.
Now we are going to head north of campus to the Lakeshore Village area. Lakeshore Village is centered on Glen Forrest Blvd and is wedged between Bearinger Rd and Northfield Dr. For those that are not familiar with these streets, this neighbourhood is north of R&T Park, west of Conestoga Mall and south of St. Jacobs. This makes the neighbourhood quite central to many of the major amenities north of campus and quite convenient for anyone working in R&T Park or with any company on Krumpf Dr. (Kaleidescape, Maplesoft and more). This area boasts student housing but not in the sheer amount that Westmount has. Bus wise, Lakeshore Village has easy access to the I-Express, 8 and 9 which all go to campus.
These are the two of the larger neighbourhoods close to campus but there are tons more to explore in Waterloo and even more in Kitchener. My best recommendation is to find somewhere to live that has three keys things: bus access, a grocery store and people you know nearby. If you have these three things you can get to campus easily, eat properly and have people to walk home with if you are on campus late at night.
Well I hope that you learned a little bit about two neighbourhoods in Waterloo and at the same time gained a little bit of insight into finding housing off-campus. Next week we’ll be back to normal and explore some of the KW area’s museums. Stay Tuned!
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