Vancouver Chinatown Festival

[sbt518]

I'm researching what to do in Vancouver on our short time before our Alaska cruise.

We land super late Friday night and Cruise on Sunday.

 

I noticed that the annual Vancouver Chinatown Festival is on Saturday.

We did want to get dim sum or some good Chinese food while in Vancouver and I'm wondering is this festival going to have authentic food or will it be like street festival food?

 

We avoid street festivals in NYC because they are always touristy and cheesy.  Any locals have info about this festival?

 

Thanks!

[japlanet]

I live in Chinatown and was not aware of this festival. So I’d say its not a real local thing. I do think I’ve happened upon it in previous years and it’s your standard street fair, albeit with a Chinese Dragon theme. 

 

It’s worth coming to Chinatown to check out Sun Yat-See garden, and the festival will be across the street so you can walk by but I wouldn’t plan my day around it. 

 

The best dim sum is in ‘new Chinatown’ aka Richmond. Locally the best is Kam Wai which is an old school hole in the wall. Grab some and enjoy while walking around. 

[sbt518]

32 minutes ago, japlanet said:

The best dim sum is in ‘new Chinatown’ aka Richmond. Locally the best is Kam Wai which is an old school hole in the wall. Grab some and enjoy while walking around. 

 

We don't have time to go to Richmond, we only have about 36 hours in Vancouver this time so we will check out Kam Wai and the garden!  Thanks.

[martincath]

I agree with all the above except spelling (it's Dr Sun Yat-Sen park/garden - but it's very easily spotted anyway so no biggie) 😉

 

The summer Chinatown Night Market downtown died years back, it came back briefly then died again, tried to come back again but failed to get insurance/permits, so this one-shot 'festival' is what's been put in just to have something Chinese-focused happening in the original Chinatown in summer - it's pretty much a huge disappointment. Streetfair food is exactly what you get (and not even all Chinese), so while the performances are at least local and earnest (various song/dance/martial arts displays put on by local organizations) overall it's more of an annoyance to those of us who now have to walk around the crowds/deal with street closures than something to enjoy.

 

I'd recommend it only to folks who have never been to anything similar - but would agree that if you're in the Garden anyway, doing a quick walkthrough of the stalls just in case you see something interesting to nibble on isn't a bad idea, and if there's something on-stage that intrigues you for a few minutes, bonus!

 

[xlxo]

• The 2019 Chinatown festival is scheduled for August 10. http://chinatownfestival.ca/ looks like it's going ahead
  https://www.carnifest.com/vancouver-chinatown-festival/
• the reality is the Chinatown today is very different than the yesteryear.  Many of the former Chinese shops are no more.
• if this is your first visit to Vancouver... I would be doing a morning Dim Sum at Kirin on Alberni and then explore the regular Vancouver attractions sights

Here's a possible itinerary for a first time visitor...

• Wheels down Friday
• morning 10am Dim Sum at Kirin on Alberni... assuming you have a downtown hotel.  I recommend reservations as they are super busy.
• over to the cruise terminal for Grouse and Capilano shuttles.  If you get to Capilano after 5pm, you skip the day crowds and will be rewarded a 30% admission discount
• return to cruise terminal with a free shuttle... visit Fly Over Canada
• walk over to Bella's for a cold one before 11pm
• back to bed with dreams on returning because you didn't budget enough time
• optionally get a cab or walk over to Chinatown Sunday morning pre-criuse to see what it's all about.  You might want a Dim Sum at Floata.

[sbt518]

10 hours ago, xlxo said:

Here's a possible itinerary for a first time visitor...

• Wheels down Friday
• morning 10am Dim Sum at Kirin on Alberni... assuming you have a downtown hotel.  I recommend reservations as they are super busy.
• over to the cruise terminal for Grouse and Capilano shuttles.  If you get to Capilano after 5pm, you skip the day crowds and will be rewarded a 30% admission discount
• return to cruise terminal with a free shuttle... visit Fly Over Canada
• walk over to Bella's for a cold one before 11pm
• back to bed with dreams on returning because you didn't budget enough time
• optionally get a cab or walk over to Chinatown Sunday morning pre-criuse to see what it's all about.  You might want a Dim Sum at Floata.

 

Thanks for the itinerary! Since you posted it, I'll tell you what we are thinking for our abbreviated visit to Vancouver....maybe you can help us with the order.

 

Arrive Friday night/Saturday morning and try not to sleep late on Saturday (should be helped by being on east coast time.) We are staying downtown, at the Westin Grand (thank you Marriott points)

• Dim Sum
• Fly Over Canada
• Stanley Park
• Granville Island Market
• Gastown
• Dr. Sun Yat-Sen park

If this is too much, we might skip Fly Over Canada or the Chinatown visit.  We had thought we wouldn't have time to go to Grouse Mtn/Capilano because it's too far out of town and we would stay close since we basically have 36 hours or less.

 

[martincath]

On 6/4/2019 at 10:08 AM, sbt518 said:

Arrive Friday night/Saturday morning and try not to sleep late on Saturday (should be helped by being on east coast time.) We are staying downtown, at the Westin Grand (thank you Marriott points)

• Dim Sum
• Fly Over Canada
• Stanley Park
• Granville Island Market
• Gastown
• Dr. Sun Yat-Sen park

If this is too much, we might skip Fly Over Canada or the Chinatown visit.  We had thought we wouldn't have time to go to Grouse Mtn/Capilano because it's too far out of town and we would stay close since we basically have 36 hours or less.

Since you've gone unanswered so far, I'll chime in: this list is easily doable within the day-and-a-half you have - and it would even be possible to add Capilano into the mix if you don't mind being active all day Saturday, though Grouse would be too much if you want to do everything (there's way more stuff than at Cap as well as a wee bit more travel time). The evening you arrive *might* allow checking off FlyOverCanada (it's open late) - but since you mentioned a 'super late' arrival earlier I'll assume not. Saturday you probably will bounce out of bed very early thanks to not having adjusted yet - but unfortunately diddly-squat opens in Vancouver much before 9am except ungated parks. If you plan to walk or cab into and around Stanley, you could do that as soon as you get up - dawn is before 6am until mid-August - but unless a fastfood brekkie would keep you going for miles of walking, it's probably not the best spot to start your day.

 

Granville Island though is another great place to wander early - this avoids crowds! - only the shopping part has to wait until the stores open (9am Public Market, 10am Netloft or Kid's Market). A good plan might be to head over here when you wake, get into Edible Canada for breakfast when they open at 9am having already wandered past the house boats and outdoor art. That way you can hit the stores before most of the tour buses start rolling in - they tend to favour late morning visits so that 'free time' allows folks to shop and eat lunch. Otherwise to avoid the worst crowds you'd have to wait to do GI until close to dinnertime, hitting the shops before they close (some as early as 6pm).

 

Fly Over Canada is the easiest to schedule - you can do it most efficiently right before boarding as you'll be at the pier anyway dropping your bags! If you are not a 'must be onboard early' person, it's best to use your Sunday morning to sightsee, eat brunch on land, then head to check-in after 2pm (NB: that you must be checked-in 90mins before, so aiming for 2 hours before your scheduled departure is a solid bet to minimise your queue time - most experienced cruisers show up 11am ignoring any boarding timeslot suggestions, Amtrak rolls in daily about noon bringing many same-day cruisers up from Seattle, and cruise air flights generally spread from mid-morning through until ~1pm so peak busy times run ~noon until at least 1:30pm). As long as your cruise departs at a typical 5pm you could easily have time for a Dim Sum brunch and seeing the Dr Sun Yat-Sen garden (one hour is the minimum time if you arrive just before the on-the-hour guided tours, which take ~45mins plus a Q&A at the end) then returning to the pier.

 

Depending what you want to do in Gastown, it could be either be Saturday dinnertime/evening option or just a quick walkthrough on Sunday on the way to Chinatown (if all you want is to see the cobbled streets, Gassy Jack statue and Steam Clock then you only need minutes).

 

So assuming the weather plays ball, I'd suggest a penciled-in plan of

Saturday:

• wake up early, head to GI for a wander then breakfast & shopping (leaving GI again by 11am)
• if you bought a ton of stuff, a short cab ride back to the hotel to drop your shopping off - otherwise head straight up to Stanley Park (little ferry across to the Seawall then walking up would be nice if you want to rack up your step count)
• 3 or 4 hours in the park, with either a picnic lunch (bought in GI's public market) or a quick bite in Prospect Point Cafe, taking you to between 3 and 4pm (perfect for Happy Hour dining - many bargains to be had around town)
• Capilano should be done now if you want to do it, so dine in the West End or Coal Harbour - somewhere you can then hop into a shuttle. By arriving after 5pm at Cap you don't just save money, it's also much less busy with almost none of those annoying cruisers 😉 NB: the last Cap shuttle leaves downtown at 6:30pm, and the last coming back to town is at 8:10pm - most folks need a couple of hours to do everything on site, though without crowds you may git'er done in 90mins. So be aware that you may have to find your own way back home (but the discount saves more than enough for a couple of bus tickets and the Seabus!) A bus to Lonsdale Quay, then a Seabus ride back over to Vancouver could give you some gorgeous sunset views en route (sunset = 8:40pm) and it'll force you to stay awake until at least 9pm local time, which is key to getting adjusted.
• If you decide not to do Cap, then head down into Gastown to dine - FlyOverCanada works well on the way, as whether you walk back along the Seawall or take the 19 bus (the only one which stops inside the park) you'll be passing very close by, but if you're hungry head straight for Gastown to eat then come back to the pier for FOC afterward. Doing FOC today gives you more time for a leisurely brunch tomorrow, and having something to do in the evening will help keep you awake!

Sunday:

• you'll probably still wake on the early side today - so heading to Chinatown via the Gastown sights is easily managed if you did Cap yesterday (the 15min walk direct to Sun Yat-Sen becomes a 21min walk if you go along Water Street to see the Steamclock and Gassy Jack - just be aware that you will be walking past many street people on the way down Carrall, especially when crossing Hastings)
• Sun Yat-Sen garden's sensible tour times are at 10am/11am/noon depending whether you want to brunch before the garden or after
• back to hotel, collect bags, head to pier - after dropping bags head to FlyOverCanada if you didn't do it yesterday (total experience time ~30mins - even without a prebooked ticket you will be in and out in an hour, so you can squeeze it in today if you board closer to 3pm)

Some logistical notes - this would be a lot of walking (Seawall loop around Stanley alone is 5 miles) so hopping in a cab or bus for the trip up to the park and back could save your feet some hurt as well as saving time. The best way to see Stanley IMO is on a bike - you can easily travel twice as fast as on foot but with less effort, and you can get a bike to anywhere that you can walk. Carriage rides see very little and cost quite a bit (for a shared trolley where folks in the middle have crappy views) up to a metric crapton for a private carriage (these start at ~$300 an hour), and unfortunately the in-park HOHO seems to have died a final death.

 

The full city HOHOs do have multiple stops inside the park, especially West Coast which also sells a shorter 'park' loop that includes much fewer city stops. If you can't ride a bike and don't want to walk 5-10 miles, this might be money well spent (you'd also get some spiel while driving around) but it does force you to rejig the order of your visit and brings in more crowds at Granville (HOHOs all go anticlockwise, heading up to the park first) - the other downside is you'll be awake for a couple of hours before the first HOHO starts up, and a ton of disembarking cruisers will pack those first few buses of the day too (which means you may not get back on the next bus at each park stop unless enough folks get off to make room).

 

So personally to avoid crowds/maximize efficiency I'd pick up a current edition of a good guidebook for the spiel about what you're seeing, and drop a few bucks on cabs/buses/rental bikes - in total much less than a couple of HOHO tickets and much more flexible in routing. But if the weather sucks or you're wiped from travel, keeping it simple and just jumping onto the first HOHO of the day will get you all of your requested places without having to walk or cycle around in the rain - just pack your patience! The good news is that with a new HOHO running again, prices have dropped significantly and there are more vehicles to spread the tourist load around - LandSea's new fleet of buses looks very nice compared to the older, mixed fleet of WestCoast, so will probably entice a lot of folks who don't do their research and instead just choose to board the nice, shiny bus outside the pier. The downside of Landsea is they have only half the stops and a lower frequency - but they do hit up all the sites you list, though you have to take a ferry across to GI and back to the bus stop to continue your trip so if their buses seem less popular (i.e. easier to get a seat on each time!) they would work for you to do what you want to, just without as many stops inside Stanley.

[sbt518]

@martincath THANK YOU!!!

 

We were thinking a similar itinerary but in reverse. Your points about Granville Island in the morning makes a lot of sense.

 

Also, when I said super late, I meant it! Our flight lands at 1am so nothing will be open by the time we get out of the airport.  We also might not wake up as early as I hope on Saturday.  But the time change will certainly help.

[martincath]

5 hours ago, sbt518 said:

@martincath THANK YOU!!!

 

We were thinking a similar itinerary but in reverse. Your points about Granville Island in the morning makes a lot of sense.

 

Also, when I said super late, I meant it! Our flight lands at 1am so nothing will be open by the time we get out of the airport.  We also might not wake up as early as I hope on Saturday.  But the time change will certainly help.

Ouch! 1am arrival, even if on-time and immigration/customs smooth that's at best a 'hit the sack' time of well after 2am. If you do wake up by 8am, the timeline above still works but it'll be a loooong day if you're running on ~5 hours kip.

 

The non-Cap version does allow for some downtime - a short nap at the hotel after leaving Stanley to recharge before heading out for dinner could easily slot in there, or else just caffeinate yourselves more than usual during the day. Key point is to make sure you stay awake until a sensible local time on Saturday - most of our Westbound travel back to Vancouver is from Toronto and we find that we are able to function normally after just one night provided we stay up until at least 9pm and start eating on local time as soon as we get back home. Getting out and about in daylight early and late is beneficial too, sunrises & sunsets seem to trigger most people to adjust sleep schedule pretty well.