Holiday Inn Vancouver airport - anyone stayed here?

[Love to Cook!]

Hi everyone

Sorry if this has been asked, but I am having trouble searching in the new format.

We booked the cruise ship package at the Holiday Inn at the airport. Any good restaurants nearby or cool things to see that are close?

Thanks!

Cindy

[martincath]

None of the latter (except the airport itself - it's among the more attractive and has lots of cool artwork including several very large native sculptures), but depending on how you personally define 'close' and 'good' there should be at least a few resto options. However, unless you are not coming downtown at all to sightsee it might be more efficient to eat downtown rather than returning to the airport area for dinner...

 

So a bit more info from you - your ETA, whether you have just the one night pre-cruise or multiple, how far you want to walk, if you will have your own vehicle with you (and if not, are you willing to take public transit?), what sort of things YOU think are cool, if you have any particular food loves or hates, and a ballpark budget for your dining will really help narrow down recommendations. Otherwise the logical suggestion is to point you at TripAdvisor, eGullet, ChowHound and the likes - as there are simply far too many things to see, do and eat to be able to give a good recommendation of anything without knowing you...

[cbc1975]

There is 2 holiday inns near the airport

 

i always stay at the one on Cambie Street. Very nice hotel, renovated.

[Love to Cook!]

Cambia st is where we are staying.

 

I did a search and the restaurants that came up were either seafood or sushi (which we don't eat). We are looking for a moderate priced restaurant with good food. 

 

As far as what to see, possibly any parks or museums close by. We won't be going downtown just because of time. Our flight gets in about 1 pm so by the time we get to the hotel we won't have a ton of time. Just something interesting or fun close to the airport

 

Thanks for the help 😊😊

[martincath]

Basically you're fudged for museums or nice parks close to that hotel. There are a few pretty parts of Richmond, but this is not one of them - about an hour on foot brings you to Minoru Park, the closest thing to a tourist-attraction on that front (but it's still penny ante compared to Stanley, QEP etc downtown) and personally I find the Richmond Nature Park (about half as far) very interesting but I've yet to meet anyone not a fellow botanist who agrees with me (it's a peat bog...).

 

Maybe @cbc1975 can offer suggestions of restaurants they've frequented from the hotel conveniently, but with Not Seafood as the only objective criteria supplied I'm at a bit of a loss myself - there's nowhere I would describe as good within, say, a 10min walk. If you are willing to walk or cab to Minoru you will be passing many superb restaurants like Sun Sui Wah, Chef Tony, Dinesty, Kirin, Fisherman's Terrace (the last of these is closest, about 1.5 miles). All but Dinesty (a dumpling house) mention Seafood in their name or heavily imply it like Fisherman's, but NB: that these are Chinese 'seafood' restaurants - which means that while they do sell a lot of seafood, perhaps an issue if you have a terrible allergy, they also have a wealth of non-seafood dishes! You can expect the same and more that you'd see in a Cantonese resto elsewhere - check out their menus online.

 

If you need Western food the options are at best 'moderate' in quality and pricing around that neck of the woods - Moxie's, Shark Club and a Chops steakhouse are all at the Sandman Inn about 10mins walk but personally I wouldn't actually recommend them, they're just the closest non-fast-food Western options.

 

The big problem with reccos for things to see or do from here is that, with the limited choices in the immediate vicinity I'm sure that you will be willing to tolerate some travel time in order to improve the selection - but depending how much you're willing to do, it may end up being as fast to come downtown as it would be to get to a better part of Richmond... and at the point you'd entertain more than 30mins travel time the possibilities become almost endless which is why I asked for more information.

 

TL;DR - if you want some good recommendations you're going to have to supply more info, and the more detail you give us the better we can help you...

[Love to Cook!]

I am looking for options other than sushi and seafood. I would like to find something around $20 to $25 per person for entrees. Nothing fancy, just good food in a clean and friendly environment.

 

We won't have a vehicle but the hotel shuttle will take us within a 3 km range of the hotel.

[martincath]

Then I'll reiterate Sun Sui Wah, which is bang on 3km from the Cambie Holiday Inn driving; as you'll see from browsing their menu, while they do have many seafood dishes they also have ample land-beasties to nosh on. Their Squab is actually better-known than their Alaskan King Crab feasts. Even assuming your price range is CAD rather than US, you'll find ample dishes under $20 and very few pushing $30 since you're avoiding seafood - but it is a fairly traditional Chinese place so entrees don't really equate perfectly with a typical US 'meat & starch & veg' midrange entree; one 'appy' and 'entree' per person plus one fried rice/noodle dish should easily work out to under CAD$40pp total without booze.

 

Dinesty's nearest branch is more of a 'buy dumplings to take home and eat/learn how to make dumplings' spot, and the nice resto version is ~4.5km drive away (but it is about 3km as the crow flies, so I'd chance it with the shuttle - no harm in asking - and if they say no, you could probably pay cab fare both ways with the money you save over SSW pricing as Dinesty is insanely good value). I've linked directly to the entrees - but while these are broad in variety and perfectly good, it really is all about the dumplings - hit them hard, order different kinds for everyone, share them around.

 

On the Western side of things, you are a little under 3km to the nearest White Spot (the Sweden Way location) - a very long-standing local chain that offers an extremely broad menu at very affordable prices. I'd suggest sticking to menu staples, rather than any specials that sound fancier, but other than that they do what they do pretty darn well (and they've been doing it since 1928, and their burgers have always been a huge step up from any of the US fastfood chains for not much of an uptick in price).

 

NB: it's unusual for any hotel shuttle to come back and collect you, so factor in cab fare and have a contact number/app on your phone. Unless you do want to stick to Western food I'd also be quite inclined in Richmond to take recommendations from the hotel staff if they are local - there are TONS of mom & pop Chinese restos without websites or advertising budgets. While we do have some downtown Chinese spots that are as good as any of the fancy ones in Richmond, the sheer variety of great-but-almost-unknown-unless-you-eat-here-a-LOT-and-it-really-helps-to-read-the-Chinese-alphabet places is quite mind-boggling there.

Edited March 10, 2019 by martincath

[cbc1975]

The hotel itself has a restaurant called fog n suds.... not bad

 

there is a McDonald’s in the parking lot in front (yea I know everywhere)

 

eveything else is within a quick quick cab ride 

 

seafood .... depends what you are after, but most restaurants have a seafood portion 

[xlxo]

On 3/3/2019 at 3:00 PM, Love to Cook! said:

Cambia st is where we are staying.

 

I did a search and the restaurants that came up were either seafood or sushi (which we don't eat). We are looking for a moderate priced restaurant with good food. 

 

As far as what to see, possibly any parks or museums close by. We won't be going downtown just because of time. Our flight gets in about 1 pm so by the time we get to the hotel we won't have a ton of time. Just something interesting or fun close to the airport

 

Thoughts...

• wheels down at 1pm will have you at your hotel around 2pm.  This leaves you with lots of time to explore Richmond and possibly Vancouver.  Not sure which date you are in Richmond, but expect daylight until 9:30pm in June.
  • A popular tourist idea is Steveston Village, or what some like to call Storybrooke.  It's about an hour by bus away.
  • from the hotel at 2pm, you still have time to catch a bus to Granville island or downtown to explore
  • if you are in Richmond, be aware you lots of opportunity explore Asian foods on No 3 or Food street.
  • have you heard about "Dim Sum"?  It's an Asian high tea served at brunch. Your hotel is located close to the Continental restaurant to the East.  It offers the rare opportunity with push carts.  It's like a buffet on wheels presented to you.
• in addition to Micky Dee's and Fogg 'n Suds.  There are several eateries close by the Sandmann Inn to the North along Bridgeport.
• Lansdowne Mall has a food court, but it's outside of the 3km limitation.
• Pepper Lunch is where I like to go eat for economic eats in the area. Just over 2km from the hotel.
  
  https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Holiday+Inn+Vancouver+Airport-+Richmond,+10720+Cambie+Rd,+Richmond,+BC+V6X+1K8/Pepper+Lunch,+Mcclelland+Road,+Richmond,+BC/@49.1809264,-123.1167445,16z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x54867510b4526f3d:0xa8eee28a0541ab56!2m2!1d-123.1043263!2d49.1836761!1m5!1m1!1s0x5486753b06050ee9:0x216a89d9a1b8f760!2m2!1d-123.1217613!2d49.1780604!3e0!5m1!1e1

Edited March 15, 2019 by xlxo

[Love to Cook!]

Thanks so much for all the info everyone!