martincath

Unless you've booked a private guide who insists on cash, a few bucks for cash tips to hotel bellstaff and the like is the only thing most tourists need physical money for. We may actually have more 'no cash' than 'cash only' restos downtown these days! I can think of a few spots that are Interac (Canadian Debit) and Cash only - so for tourists from outside Canada de facto cash places - but they're cheap so $200 is already ample!!!

Sorry, as a diabetic I rarely buy baked treats so I'm a poor resource to compare and contrast bakeries, except the odd niche item (for example if I'm here on my birthday rather than in Portland, my annual donut cheat is a Swiss Bakery Frissant - basically the same concept as Dominique Ansel's Cronuts that were all the rage back in the day, croissant dough fried up with rotating fillings & glazes). I've tried a few of the downtown & GI bakeries now and again, but not often or widely enough to give a fair comparative critique that X or Y is best. A few other tidbits for you though: if you're a traditional jelly donut person, Lee's in the Public Market on GI are genuinely great... but not so great as to be worth queuing more than a few minutes for, they've been overhyped for several years now ever since Seth Rogen name-dropped them. If you're going to be on GI anyway you may as well see what the queue looks like (they have their own 'holding pen' outside the market on Johnston St where folks are asked to wait until waved in through the window, as the queues were wreaking havoc with the interior flow!) Another local fave on the baked goods front, which may be of interest because it's different from the typical Western fare, is New Town Bakery (in Chinatown) - their apple tarts are the 'world famous' thing that most tourists who hear about the place go for, and they are very nice (not a tart in the traditional sense at all, more of a bun shape with fully enclosed filling in the middle - sort of what a McDonalds apple pie wishes it could be!) but everyone I know who is from, or lived in, China feels they do savoury better - the filled steamed buns and the pineapple buns are the best things they make (don't go for lunch - the dim sum is meh and some baked goods have already sold out by then, and it's a cash only joint). Lastly, when it comes to Canada's contribution to baked goods, Butter Tarts should not be missed. They're more of an Ontario thing, but they're a bit like pizza in that even a bad one is still pretty good, and a six-pack from a supermarket bakery is plenty good enough to let you see if the concept works for your palate - if they're not your thing, no need to spend the big bucks hunting down artisanal versions all over town! Nanaimo bars aren't baked (a classic refrigerator 'bake'), but they're probably BCs most famous contribution to the world of sweet treats - again, try a supermarket bakery for a basic version but GI has a wacky artisanal shop these days (Northern Bar) that sells teeny squares for triple the price with some fancy flavours added. If you're Costco members you can often find giant packages of both of these in the bakery oif the downtown Expo Blvd branch!

On GI, seafoody but a little swankier, I'd go to the Vancouver Fish Company; while the menu tightened up during Covid, it's still fairly broad. If you'd be fine with casual but want a wider menu than GoFish and indoor seating, Tony's might deliver - most stuff still comes out of the fryer, but a way bigger menu with much more shellfish. In Yaletown you have a plethora of options including the best seafood resto in the city in Blue Water Cafe (if you want to have a splurge seafood dinner, but not everyone would be happy with a sushi/sashimi menu, BWC is the place to go); if everyone would be on board with an all-Japanese, no menu, definitely some raw fish, Omakase experience you can visit one of our Michelin starred joints, Okeya; Rodneys Oyster House sells a fair whack of not-oyster dishes too; and while it's not a seafood joint as such, I have a soft spot for the Flying Pig which offers several shellfish and fish dishes at a good value pricepoint especially during 'Appy Hours' daily.

Seems like I'm even more out of the loop than I thought on WJ, thanks for further correction!

Really depends where you are in town - Taxi (or rideshares, we have Uber, Lyft, and local Kabu running these days) are the obvious 'point to point' options. Google Maps is hands-down the best option for figuring out transit from wherever you are sightseeing/your hotel, all of our transit routing is fully enabled in it (indeed, it even powers Translinks trip plans on the website now), but wherever you start you'll need to transfer onto the 9 if you don't want to walk (the 99 Express bus also runs along Broadway, but very limited stops). If you don't have free data from your phone provider, you can make use of realtime mapping on the city's free network - it broadcasts as #VanWiFi all over the place - with any WiFi capable device. Slight annoyance - Broadway has a few really big holes right now (subway station construction - interesting to peer down them before they get covered!), with restricted lanes and even chunks of sidewalk missing for the work, so if you plan to walk from SkyTrain at Broadway-City Hall station or a bus stop on Cambie/Granville, you'll need to cross the street now and again (or just walk along the next parallel streets - 8th or 10th - until you reach the right block - between Spruce and Alder). Cabs and rideshares will probably have to drop around the corner on Spruce, there's a lot of No Stopping zones on Broadway and I think the block with S&B is still restricted. Granville Island is only big tourist site nearby that you might be walking from - but be aware that the hills are pretty steep if you walk from GI to S&B. I would take Alder rather than Spruce as Choklit Park interrupts Spruce just north of 7th, and while you can walk up the stairs this view can be very confusing for visitors!

1 card per person. The system tracks the card from first tap to last (or just times out at 90mins if you are on a bus, which you only tap to enter not exit), compares which Zones those were in, bills accordingly. I don't think retapping the same card from outside will even work to open the gate a second time - if it does, it may have actually just immediately tapped you out back out again (which is free within a few minutes, if done at the same station) but regardless, at least some of your party will be guilty of fare evasion (as an automated system, it's rare to get checked by Translink staff or Transit Police, but if you are the fine is almost a hundred times higher than a basic adult fare!)

Then I'll keep it simple with mostly some bar/pub reccos - best patio for views of the North Shore mountains on a sunny day is at Tap & Barrel's convention centre branch; the whole T&B chain offers better-than-it-has-to-be-at-the-price pub grub, a wide range of local beers and wines (including several custom made for them, cannot get anywhere else). Rogue (closest is inside Waterfront Station, really nice old space, many nooks and crannies) is the pub arm of Steamworks brewing - almost identical menus but I find that Rogue consistently does the same food slightly better than Steamworks (who are literally across the carpark - main difference is that Steamworks sells their own beers whereas Rogue sells a whole bunch of different PNW breweries' products, so depending whether you feel like trying several different beer styles made by the same brewer, or several different brewers takes on the same beer style, you have both options available just yards apart!) Moose's Down Under is one of the best value boozers downtown - not at all fancy, but unless you are an Aussie or frequent their expat bars while at home it should be a different enough menu to be interesting, and it has a genuinely fun, friendly vibe. It's in a basement, with the street level sign only about waist height, easy to walk past if you're looking up, and just around the corner for you. Broad menus in all of these, being Vancouver the average pub menu includes a few Asian dishes as well as burgers, fish & chips etc., and for everyone not your Sis at least a couple of different cooked fish dishes plus some sushi and something in the shrimp/mussel/crab area. Lastly, a low key but long-lasting Vietnamese cafe is just up the street, Joyeaux - they're rarely bigged up by local foodie types these days, but they survived Covid and continue to just keep doing their thing (their website is almost hilariously old school, no social media budget for these guys!) which includes one of the best-value breakfasts in downtown in case your hotel rate doesn't supply brekkie. A wee map with all of these and your hotel here - even if you walked around all five reccos you'd rack up barely more than a mile)

Appreciate the corrections! @yolotraveler , sounds like this person's been on more WJ flights more recently than I have so I'd give their commentary more weight than mine! My beef with Rouge wasn't pitch, but lack of cushioning - I've never had a sorer butt after a flight than my flight to Vegas on Rouge, which AC swapped on us from a regular service with no compensation. If WJ have just reduced pitch in the back rather than changing to thinner seats I'd still prefer their Economy product to Rouge... Our only WJ flight since they started offering the PE cabin had exactly the situation you describe - swapped metal, no PE, no compensation 'because you still have a premium seat' - hence my comment about 'most' of their planes lacking such... to be fair, I could have checked the current fleet numbers to see if the Covid cull means that now most of the planes do actually have PE seating, but even if 'some' or 'a few' were more accurate descriptors, it's still craptacular to even pretend that the old style 'no middle' is as good as a wider seat - the battle for the armrest also simply shifts to 'who gets to leave their stuff on the unused middle seat' if you aren't traveling as a couple!

Yes, if it's all going on one card you'll have to use the kiosk! If you tap the same card over and over, it only bills it once so everyone else is fare-dodging 😉 It's been ages since I actually bought an individual ticket, thanks to the reloadable Compass card, but if memory serves during evenings/weekends if you try to buy a multi-zone fare the machine won't let you, so it's just how many tix are Concession (>65) or regular (13-64). Also, I think you can 'buy' a free child ticket just so they have something to tap and a wee souvenir - if not, make sure someone taps and lets the kid walk through right in front of them, as the faregates close pretty quick to minimise the chance of someone tailgating you through for free. However, just so you have the comparison at hand, with 6 adults and a kid you might consider 2 cabs instead unless you were coming in early enough to be able to reuse a DayPass efficiently... with AddFares on top, SkyTrain does not save much cash (more on weekends with 1 zone pricing) as a cab is only CAD$37 to the EXchange. Four adults and baggage can be tricky in a Prius, but with 3 grownups per car and the kid taking the middle seat in one, they should be comfy enough even if no vans roll in. Note that you'll need a car seat for DG on many AK excursions unless she is rather tall and heavy for her age (even schoolbuses up there, a fairly typical vehicle for tours, require boosters installed if there's a seatbelt to enable attaching them); technically 'professional drivers' like cabbies are exempt from requiring car seats here in Vancouver, but they're also not allowed to charge you for car seat install/removal time even on metered fares when you choose to use them. Of course, if you've chosen excursions that don't need car seats to avoid bringing one, transit's the safest option even if it doesn't save much. Recco for travel with a little'un is to board the front of the train at YVR (the back if you see it roll in - it reverses a few minutes later) so GD can pretend to drive the train! Or in my case, justify pretending to drive the train myself by instead pretending I'm sitting here for the benefit of my nephew... 😉

I'll goe ven further than Bruce - if you really want a wide sample of opinions on westjet, you're not going to get it anywhere on CC, 'flyer talk' forum (not sure about linking to a travel competitor, but a quick search should find it!) would deliver. My two cents - most folks I know with a preference between WJ and Air Canada like WJ a little more. In theory all staff should be 'more invested' in success because they are all owners (of teeny tiny proportions, but still if the company does well, they win). Planes run a bit older, their idea of 'first class' is basically 'do not sell a middle row' on most aircraft, but if you're buying economy tickets seat comfort is better than AC Rouge but a touch worse than regular AC, so it's overall about a wash. Honestly I generally do find service aboard aircraft better on WJ, the general vibe reminds me of Alaska with just a little more happiness from the crew, but because they codeshare with Delta for US flights and we have never had anything but absolute crap treatment on Delta we no longer book them in case we end up on Delta metal! If AC were the same price I'd prefer them to WJ regardless; but I'll take WJ over any AC Rouge plane.

Any chance you narrow down (dis)liked foods/genres, budget, how far you're willing to walk, whether you care more about a view than the best food, and some idea of what sort of restos you can access easily at home? 'cos from that hotel there are literally hundreds of restos that I'd personally consider an easy walk away, running the gamut from swankadelic to cheap & cheerful and covering at least a dozen ethnic varieties. Without anything else to narrow down the field, for a single dinner in Vancouver I'd be inclined to point you to somewhere that's almost impossible to find anywhere else, and while not cheap it's at a very good pricepoint for the quality (but it would involve a bus or a ~$15 cab ride): Salmon'n'Bannock, our only Indigenous resto. Even if you're a Steak'n'Taters kinda person, they can feed you (try the Bison pot roast!), but if you enjoy game meats and interesting (cooked) fish that's where they really shine.

If it's fresh, then it's against the law - you can plant a ginger root! This is 100% not going to be allowed in any border crossing, whether Canada to the US or vice versa. Buy candied ginger in Canada and you're fine - you can't stick a sugary lump into the ground and get a plant to grow 😉

Just Tap the cards directly on the fare gates, don't bother with the ticket machine at all! The only reason to not do this is if you are entitled to Concession fares and are willing to figure out your required Zones etc. by yourself to save a buck or so per person - tapping directly saves you time and costs exactly the same as a regular Adult fare, with all the math done by the system based on where you then tap back out. Just be sure to tap out with the same card - if you have more than one chip card in your wallet take the one you want to use out, as multiple NFC capable cards in a wallet basically one of them will be billed but not necessarily the same one as last time so instead of one accurate transaction (Card X went from YVR to Downtown = 2 zone fare + AddFare) you will be hit with 2 maximum fares (Card X boarded at YVR and never left the system; Card Y boarded downtown, never left the system; both get billed 3 Zones with X also getting an AddFare!)

Yes, City Centre is closest - it's an almost perfectly flat 1km route to walk, you can use pretty much any street to cut over to Robson from W Georgia (although I would recommend walking at least a couple of blocks on Georgia, to avoid the pedestrianized block between Howe and Hornby behind the Art Gallery, as it is often chock full of temporary stalls making it a hassle to walk through - if you stick to Georgia until you hit the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, any left from there to Bute is fine, you'll walk the same distance... Jervis onward and you overshoot the hotel!) Day Passes don't require a location - they operate across all three zones every day, so only have 2 prices these days (regular fare and Concession for kids & seniors). If you're only planning to head downtown to the hotel, or even take 1 or even 2 rides somewhere else, better to just pay for your fare separately each time... Day Passes start saving on the 4th trip around downtown, and that's only by a few cents -even if it's a weekday when the fare inbound from YVR is 2 zones, so a Day Pass wins by about a buck and a half on that 4th trip, or breaks even on the third trip if you take another 2 zone ride to e,g, North Van by Seabus. Even regular tickets only break it down by zone, not by stop, so you cannot book any kind of ticket to <Insert Station> you can always travel freely within the zone(s) you paid for for 90 minutes between boardings and then as long as it takes to get to where you're going. So if, for example, you ride into town from YVR (<30mins), walk to hotel (~15min with bags), check-in and drop bags, you could jump on a bus outside, or even walk back toward the pier and hop on a Seabus (~25min walk from BH) as long as you tap the last entry gate before 90mins from when you first tapped your ticket to enter the system back at YVR. So that same 2 zone ticket could get you all the way over to North Van to enjoy Lonsdale Quay without buying a second one - and if you stayed until after 6:30pm everything becomes 1 zone regardless of day, so the fare coming back would be cheaper. And all of this 'which zone(s) do I need to buy!?' stuff is irrelevant if you just tap a credit card or smartphone with a card in a virtual wallet on the gates - the system will do the math for you, so for folks who don't qualify for Concession rates it's the same price for less work and no time wasted... also note that if you buy a ticket of any type, even a Day Pass, at the YVR station (or tap to enter) you will be billed the $5pp AddFare for inbound travel - Day Passes only save you the AddFare if they are bought elsewhere. If you want to avoid the AddFare you can buy an old-school Day Pass at the 7-11 inside the airport - this is still ~$2 more expensive than a 2 zone fare with AddFare though, so unless you plan at least one additional use of transit the day you arrive, don't waste your time!

Even wider spread here - I applied last September, my wife didn't get around to hers until November, her card appeared in the mail this Jan without even getting an email that she'd been approved (same thing happened to me 5 years before), but my case hasn't progressed beyond Pending Review. Technically my current card remains valid until this July so I'm not concerned yet, just growing more annoyed at the difference - especially given neither of us has traveled to the US or anywhere else without each other within the last 5 years; same age, same foreign country of birth, even identical Canadian citizenship date; aside from gender and appearance we're virtually identical in everything that we have to put on the renewal form!!!