Vancouver Hotels

[Moerin78]

Our plan is to arrive two days before our cruise departs, are there any hotels that provide a shuttle to the cruise terminal? We would prefer a moderately priced hotel if that is possible in downtown Vancouver. Also any not to be missed restaurants?

[Karen13]

We stayed in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia downtown in Vancouver. it was lovely but expensive so may not be for you but very comfortable (see my review on trip advisor) and they provided a free transfer to the cruise terminal in the hotel bentley!

[Lady Arwen]

We stayed in the Pan Pacific which is located in the cruiseship terminal......no need for shuttle. Lovely hotel in a terrific location.......restaurants everywhere. It is a higher priced property, but so worth it. Get a room facing the pier and watch your ship arrive in the morning!

[Karen13]

But even walking from downtown central Vancouver it is only 15-20 mins to Canada Place Cruise Terminal if you are prepared to do this with suitcases.

[Karen13]

Would recommend the Steamworks brewing co for reasonably priced food and good beer near to Canada Place. It is vey popular so best to book if if you can.

[VennDiagram]

Our plan is to arrive two days before our cruise departs, are there any hotels that provide a shuttle to the cruise terminal? We would prefer a moderately priced hotel if that is possible in downtown Vancouver. Also any not to be missed restaurants?

 

A cab from most places in the downtown area to the cruise terminal will only be around $10 to $15 Canadian plus tip. Moderate priced hotel? Have a look at the Century Plaza. Not sure what the price is now, but it was once pretty moderate. If you don't mind the sirens of the hospital Emergency Room nearby, it was okay.

 

Joe Fortes has a Food Happy Hour in their bar every day from 4 to 6 pm or something like that. Their website is being difficult but this might be the happy hour menu. http://www.joefortes.ca/menus/

Edited August 19, 2016 by VennDiagram

[just_cruising_along]

For many years, we have always stayed at the Hotel Blue Horizon, located in Vancouver's west-end on Robson street.

 

It is very reasonable, has spectacular views, is clean and comfortable.

 

It is located next to a number of good restaurants.

 

Not sure if it has a shuttle, but someone's suggestion about a cab is accurate.

 

Canada Place is located .8 miles away from this hotel so taxi fare would be affordable.

 

Enjoy your cruise and stay in Vancouver.

[martincath]

Moderate = subjective. Factor in the USD having a hefty premium on CAD and our mutual definitions may differ by many tens of $. Expedia, Tripadvisor are far more useful sites to compare hotel reviews and prices on than here anyway - unless some visitors post, us locals can advise on location of hotels easily but very few of us actually *stay* in local hotels!

 

Not to be missed restos? I'd suggest that you focus on restos which are unique to Vancouver, or at least very hard to find elsewhere:

 

Salmon'n'Bannock is almost unique - it's one of only two remotely-accessible native-run restaurants I can think of in the province that use local foods. Nice people, interesting menu, plenty of local fish and game products and nigh impossible to find anything like it so that should be high up your list.

 

Japadog is definitely a few steps down the fanciness chain, with most of their 'branches' being little carts or food trucks, but they do have one sit-down location and again their menu is quite unique. My fave is the kurobota terimayo dog.

 

We have a lot of high end locavore restos which use very seasonal, local produce so every visit is different from the last. If you dine around the PNW there's a big overlap in produce so you can find similar places in Seattle, Portland etc. but with different chefs all doing their own twists on things certainly pretty unique. Assuming you're happy to spend at least US$50pp for dinner and up I can make several recommendations for excellent restos of this type.

 

Other genres to look for are Asian foods - especially Chinese and Japanese. Outside of Japan, very few places have any Izakayas - a scattered few in other West Coast cities, Toronto, NYC. We've got two local chains and many independents. Think of them as pubs meet tapas but with Japanese dishes - sushi and noodles meets sausages and chicken wings. Guu and Hapa have a few branches around town.

 

We also have more good noodle shops than you can shake a stick at - everyone has their own faves, but personally I'm all about the broth and Ramen Jinya's premium tonkatsu (pork) is fantastic. Robson St location was the first locally, and is quite convenient from downtown hotels.

 

Dim Sum is worth doing here, especially if your home town doesn't have as much Chinese food as we do. Many options at many prices, from cheap plastic tablecloth shared table joints to fancy order a la carte places. If you haven't done it before, try a cart place - where they wheel the food around. It's fun, and is a big part of what many people feel makes for a Dim Sum experience, but if you want the best food you need to order a la carte so everything is fresh & hot. Floata fits the stereotypical big movie Chinese resto pretty well - it's huge, can seat a thousand diners, they use carts, and it's right in Chinatown. Personally I'd do somewhere like Dynasty or Kirin instead - pricier, no carts, but better food.

 

Other Chinese - Hons for Cantonese, ChongQing for Szechuan, Peaceful for Northern, all have downtown branches, moderate prices, and lots of local fans. Sun Sui Wah is higher end like Kirin and Dynasty, famous for their Squab and King Crab Feasts (if you can get 8+ people together, this is a great experience that you can really only do in fancier Chinese places here in Vancouver - in Alaska it's all steamed frozen crab legs).

 

Another genre - food trucks: very few cities have more of these than Vancouver. Easiest thing to do is hit up a spot with multiple trucks, buy something from each, and have a little picnic. This site will show you where and when each is trading. Vijs, Roaming Dragon, Tacofino are all super-popular and quite Vancouvery.

 

We have plenty more food across all price ranges and genres, but the above should give a solid idea of what we do best here.

[Scrapnana]

I stayed at the Metropolitan. In relation to other hotels in the area it was moderately priced (two nights was just a few dollars more than one night in the Pan Pacific). It does not have a shuttle but it is very close to Canada Place (less than ten minutes and I walk slowly). The taxi was only a few dollars.

[Heartgrove]

I'll second the suggestion of the Blue Horizon. We stayed here in 2007 on a BC driving vacation, and this year stayed post-cruise for two nights. Plenty of restaurants and shops within walking distance. One of the HO-HO have it as a stop.

 

Our hotel pre-cruise this year was the Day's Inn on Pender St. For some reason it isn't highly regarded. It is a re-purposed 1920's? building which I enjoy for historical purposes. Our room was on the eighth floor which was added in the 50's so the room was larger than most. We found it comfortable, reasonable, and very close walking distance to Canada Place.

[Click.Write.Post.]

Last year pre-cruise, we stayed at the Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront. The room was nice and we had a view of the harbour. I don't recall it being crazy expensive. We watched the seaplanes when we were resting in the room. Otherwise, we spent our time outside walking around town. Meat & Bread is good for lunch, especially the porchetta sandwich. In the gaslamp district, which we walked to, we had dinner at The Flying Pig. I recall the dinner being good, but the dessert was amazing. It was yellow cake with chocolate frosting and it was perfect. We brought the cake leftovers back to the room and finished them off while watching the water.

 

On the day of our cruise, we stowed our luggage with the hotel while we walked to brunch at Cafe Medina. Then it was back to the hotel, and a quick cab ride to the cruise terminal. You can walk, but with luggage we opted not to.

[borasue]

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Downtown (on Drake). They provided a shuttle to/from the port. Moderately priced, easy to walk to most areas of downtown.

[AnnieBelle]

We stayed at the Georgian Court Hotel and it was very nice. It was within walking distance to the Yaletown area which had a lot of restaurant choices. Theynalsomhabe a shuttle which took us to the cruise terminal.

[xlxo]

Our plan is to arrive two days before our cruise departs..

If you share your cruise date..... we can provide better advice with availability.

[Jaaact]

We stayed at the Pinnacle at the Pier in North Vancouver in July. It was less expensive than downtown. It is directly across from the cruise pier. We watched our ship sail into port from our bed on departure morning. We used the Seajet water taxi (appx $4) to cross into the city. The hotel is a 2 minute walk to the Seajet terminal. It is also next door to Lonsdale Quay- a nice indoor shopping/eatery area. Once you get off the boat it is less than a 5 minute walk to the cruise terminal (it's next door). Highly recommend!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[alwaysfrantic]

Martincath. You are so appreciated!!! Thank you for your restaurant suggestions. I've c&p the entire post to my folder.

 

I would love your recommendations of local favorites. We will be staying in the Delta Suites, so while they don't have to be walkable, an easy Uber ride or Skytrain would be appreciated.

Edited August 20, 2016 by alwaysfrantic

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Pan Pacific is a great location

[John Cruise]

Fairmont Waterfront is perfect as is Pan Pacific.

Avoid the Four Seasons it is overpriced and disappointing.

JC

[ski ww]

We stayed post cruise at the Executive Hotel Vintage Park. It's close to False Creek, lots of places to eat within walking distance, also the Hop on/off bus has a pick up/drop off at the hotel which is a great way to see the city, can't remember what we paid. Enjoy your stay where ever.

Allan

[frankc98376]

We like Pan Pacific. Love being right at the cruise terminal and hotel picks up our bags and delivers to ship on the morning.

[Lizzie68]

Our plan is to arrive two days before our cruise departs, are there any hotels that provide a shuttle to the cruise terminal? We would prefer a moderately priced hotel if that is possible in downtown Vancouver. Also any not to be missed restaurants?

 

To the OP - very few, if any, of the downtown Vancouver hotels provide a shuttle to the port. However, a taxi ride is very inexpensive, and from just about all the downtown hotels the port is walkable if you don't have too much luggage. Pretty much everything is in walking distance downtown, and you will be spoiled for choice of restaurants and things to do.

 

The further you get away from the cruise ship terminal, the cheaper the hotels. The Blue Horizon on Robson is much more reasonably priced, as is the Rosedale on Robson. Taxi would cost about $10 from both.

[martincath]

Martincath. You are so appreciated!!! Thank you for your restaurant suggestions. I've c&p the entire post to my folder.

 

I would love your recommendations of local favorites. We will be staying in the Delta Suites, so while they don't have to be walkable, an easy Uber ride or Skytrain would be appreciated.

You're welcome. No Uber locally - long story short, provincial government is reviewing the whole 'sharing economy' incl Uber and AirBnB to see if they should be made legal, so who knows how long that will take! Taxis are all metered at a pretty fair rate - anywhere within downtown core is likely within a CAD$10 ride as we're a very compact city. Since you mentioned being willing to take transit too, I'll suggest a couple of outside-the-downtown-core spots too.

 

The grand-daddy of locavore cuisine, John Bishop, still runs his eponymous resto in Kits. 004/007/014 Bus or $15-20 cab from the Delta. Very frequently changing menu, superbly-handled seafood.

One of the best alums from Bishops, Andrea Carlson, now has her own hyper-seasonal spot - Burdock in Mount Pleasant (003 bus or $15 cab). Tiny kitchen with the bar in the same area - we like to sit at the bar to watch the ballet of staff managing to glide around each other despite the close quarters. If you're around Chinatown during the day, you can sample her noodles in her other venture, Harvest Community Foods. MAD hard-working!

The next three are all in and around Gastown, in order of distance from Delta:

Cinara (about 300yards) is our current go-to celebratory spot - it's always a good sign when a big restaurateur decides to focus on the kitchen again (as long as they haven't forgotten how to cook!). Fortunately Lucais Syme is kept in line by his better half - a husband & wife kitchen team makes for either marital bliss or good headlines involving knives, and so far it's the former here;-)

Wildebeest (about 500 yards) is a seasonal-but-not-super-seasonal place, very focused on meat. 'Nose to tail' eating, with usually at least three or four offal dishes on the menu, it has continuously improved and is good at promoting staff from within so very consistent in style. We were rather underwhelmed the first year, but it has now become a place we would have no second thoughts about booking - unless you're vegantarian!

L'Abattoir has been a staple of the Gastown scene for many years now - not quite as rapidly-changing a menu as some of the above, but that's good as it means we don't have to burn down the restaurant if they took away our Sweetbreads! These and a few staples tend to stay on the menu, but it does rotate around as the seasons come & go. It's about a half mile if you go the nice way along Water Street - I never recommend visitors walk along Blood Alley as we inevitably see at least one spaced-out junkie and a couple of rats.

 

Less than 10mins walk, opposite the VAG, is Hawksworth, arguably the best kitchen in the city and hands-down the closest to truly old-school Euro fine dining service - at a price. Sommeliers on floor, ninja waitrons who refill glasses without being seen, napkins matched to a lady's dress colour - if you want to be treated like a pretty princess (and who doesn't want that on occasion!?) this is where it will happen. The menu is aggressively protein-forward, but they will make custom dishes to suit anyone without any issues - this is one of our veggie friends' favourite spots. One downside - romantic sweet nothings are hard to whisper, as the resto is always full and on the loud side. Ask for a table in the back room, near the old staircase for the best chance at quiet.

Similarly-pricey, with even better fish, is Blue Water in Yaletown - 3/4 mile walk, maybe $7 by cab. Full Raw Bar, big seafood towers, and truly excellent cooking. Popular celeb-spotting place, vast array of fish - including many 'unsung hero' bycatch fish not normally served most places - but minimal vegetarian offerings and probably not worth visiting unless you can spare $150pp.

 

Oh, even the fanciest spots in town have no dress code, we're super casual on the Wet Coast. Shirt, Shorts & Shoes is about as picky as anywhere gets unless you're invited to a private club.

[bennybear]

We stay often in the best western plus on Kingsway. It is a moderate safe clean hotel with some nice views in an area with great local restaurants. It is only a short walk to the sky train and cabs are inexpensive.

[Fouremco]

For our 2014 Alaska cruise, we stayed at the Auberge Vancouver Hotel,

837 West Hastings Street. We booked through one of the many discount travel/hotel providers and paid a lot less than the going rate. It's a very short and pleasant walk to the terminal.

 

I've stayed at the Pan Pacific and the Fairmont Waterfront while on business trips to Vancouver, but the Auberge has excellent accommodation for a far lower price.

[martincath]

We stay often in the best western plus on Kingsway. It is a moderate safe clean hotel with some nice views in an area with great local restaurants. It is only a short walk to the sky train and cabs are inexpensive.

Just to clarify for visitors - while I totally agree on the nice views and restaurants (don't forget the many breweries!), the Uptown is at least 1.2 kilometres or 3/4 mile from the nearest SkyTrain station, which might be a challenge for many folks with suitcases.

 

Broadway-City Hall station is at least on the Canada Line so the cases will work just fine on the train, but even if traveling light you can't transfer from the bus to the SkyTrain any more (need to buy a new ticket) so do factor in a cab ride from hotel to pier ($15-20) or to SkyTrain (~$7-8) plus a $2.75pp ticket.