Granville Island - Vancouver

[JimCroce]

Has anyone toured Granville Island in Vancouver, BC and if so, how was it?  Thank you

[DirtyDawg]

I liked Granville Island when we visited. I wouldn't skip Stanley Park to do it but it was funky and interesting.

 

Worth a half a day of exploring, i.e shopping and eating.

 

[lenquixote66]

3 hours ago, JimCroce said:

Has anyone toured Granville Island in Vancouver, BC and if so, how was it?  Thank you

Magnificient

[WatchHill]

It was fun to wander through the various ethnic markets and try the foods. Nice place for lunch, too, very casual, mix with the locals. Spent a few $$CD on unique artistic pieces. So much to do and see in Vancouver. If you have extra time, nice to do the island, but don't make it a priority.

 

Darcy

 

 

[zqvol]

It's a nice half a day.

[JimCroce]

Any recommendation on a reasonably priced hotel in Vancouver?

[martincath]

You'll find tons of reccos for hotels already Jim, here and on the West Coast Departures and Alaska boards. Your definition of 'reasonable' though, especially with Sterling tanking badly, may differ from others... so revealing your actual budget would give you more accurate reccos.

 

Hard to look past the YWCA Hotel though for value - even though they do now use dynamic pricing like other hotels instead of their previous fixed rates for high/low seasons so on busy cruise weekends they're no longer quite the steal they used to be, it's still by far the best-reviewed bargain hotel in the region. Consistently inside TripAdviors top 20 hotels at any pricepoint, great downtown core location, clean & safe, and all in a modern tower building - anything else in the same price range basically sucks in comparison with no AC, no elevator, very dated building or out in the 'burbs where you waste an hour or two daily getting to the sights.

 

As to Granville Island - it's one of the most popular tourist spots in the city for many reasons, but most folks don't actually see a lot of the good stuff as they begin and end their day in the Public Market and other shops. The (free!) walking tour is well worth doing to see the more obscure parts and hear about the history.

[AngelDisney]

We stayed at the Granville Island hotel over the Canada Day weekend for a last minute trip so it’s not budget friendly. We really enjoyed the Granville market with amazing macaroons, fresh fruits and variety of food options. We arrived late and was glad that Keg was still open to feed our empty stomach. If you get s ferry pass, you can visit the Olympic village and other sights beside Granville Island for a day.

 

Have fun planning!

[Canadianweaselette]

On 8/10/2019 at 1:56 PM, martincath said:

As to Granville Island - it's one of the most popular tourist spots in the city for many reasons, but most folks don't actually see a lot of the good stuff as they begin and end their day in the Public Market and other shops. The (free!) walking tour is well worth doing to see the more obscure parts and hear about the history.

 

Where might one find out about this free tour of Granville Island? I am interested in spending some time there on a pre-cruise day in a couple weeks and this tour sounds interesting.

[hallux]

@Canadianweaselette I found some results by using Google (search term - granville island walking tour) but I don't want to suggest any since I haven't done one..

[martincath]

19 hours ago, Canadianweaselette said:

Where might one find out about this free tour of Granville Island? I am interested in spending some time there on a pre-cruise day in a couple weeks and this tour sounds interesting.

Sorry, that was an oversight on my part as I usually link to the providers. It's one of the Tour Guys offerings - they have other free tours too. I took it a few years ago and was somewhat underwhelmed; not by lack of content/accuracy, but simply by the horrible logistics of when it started (11am) and that it was only 60mins long. Both of these factors meant that the pace you had to walk at, combined with the crowds in cruise season, made for a simply god-awful experience of banging into people while hustling around the place!

 

Now that they extended it to 90mins but covering the same areas, the required pace is much more practical (the 11am timing is designed to let people finish up then head into the Public Market for lunch with a grounding of GI, which does make sense, though personally I'd do it in the afternoon myself when it's generally quieter thanks to many fewer tour buses). Their other tours - now four freebies, though not on all days of the week so if you only have a single day pre-cruise it's unlikely you can do more than one - are easily found on the website through the link above to the GI tour. Even as a relatively-clued-in local history buff I've learned things on all the Tour Guys tours, the quality is if anything higher than on general paid walking tours as the guides are dependent on tips for their entire income - so even the bits they don't get completely correct are more likely "fudged for greater entertainment value" than "I do not actually know the real info" situations, and a visitor is very unlikely to notice any errors unless major research is done in advance!

 

 

[Canadianweaselette]

Thank you so much for the feedback.