Can we get into Vancouver airport before long wait?

[madre2]

We will be getting off a ship in Vancouver in June, with a late evening flight out.  We have looked at post excursions and nothing of interest.  We really just want to go to the airport and sit and relax, and read.  We know we can’t check in for our flight and go through TSA until early evening.  But is there a area in the airport we can just relax and get something to eat, and just sit and read,  before check in?

[CruiserBruce]

You can see if any lounge there has a day pass.

[martincath]

While frankly I question your sanity OP - almost an entire day in one of the best cities on the planet and you want to go read at the airport!? - I'll still offer some ideas...

 

There's fairly typical pre-Security food court options, a viewing lounge for planespotting, and even the lobby of the Fairmont Airport within the building. The best place to sit and read is unfortunately after security (the Quiet Area - lighting is low, but with a modern eBook reader or strategic choosing of a seat close to a light you can still make out the pages fine) but once checked in (3 hours before your flight; sometimes earlier depending on airline, routing, Status) it's a comfy spot to hang. YVR also has some nice art installations. Their website is very informative...

 

I'd much rather offer you some nicer spots to chill downtown though - while stashing your bags will involve dropping a few bucks, the vastly superior (and cheaper!) food options not-at-YVR should save you money overall given you'll need to have lunch and dinner if it's a late o'clock flight.

 

Dr Sun Yat-Sen garden is an oasis of calm in the city; it's also damn good value with a guided tour included in the $16 entry fee. But even cheaper is the city park next door, built in complementary style just without the hand-crafted, imported-from-China components of the real garden - and it has a little pagoda right on the shared lake, and several benches under cover next to the Chinese Cultural Centre that shares a wall. I often find myself chilling here with a book, or bringing a packed lunch to eat in the pagoda.

 

Sick of the outdoors after all that Alaska time? Howsabout reading (and using the WiFi) in our biggest library, which has a very Roman Colosseum vibe? The completely covered atrium has a few little food and drink spots (right now a bit sparse, Covid did a real number on folks hanging at the library, but hopefully some of those empty shops will be back to cafes and whatnot by this cruise season) but if it's a nice day you can also hang upstairs in the roof garden.

 

Plenty of benches all along the Seawall too if it's nice weather - or if it's too hot & sunny, head into Stanley Park for some quality shade under the vast canopy of trees.

 

Robson Square in summer sees the ice rink area rarely used - it's below street level so shady but with natural air flow, and come lunchtime food trucks will give you a variety of cheap lunch options within a few yards. Come evening time there may be summer entertainment - outdoor movies have frequently been shown - but you'll almost certainly need to head out to YVR before dark so no worries.

 

Granville Island is normally better described as 'frenzied' during cruise season - but even in peak 'bus tours dump hordes for a couple of hours to get lunch' middle of summer days, you can wander along to the False Creek Ferries dock area (NOT Aquabus, those park right by the seating out back of the public market) and sit on the benches at the edge of the car park - look out at the water from a bench and it's remarkably peaceful... if you head into the public market before 11 or after 2 the volume of punters in the food court plummets, but even during peak dining time you can pick up some tasty grub at the collection of converted cargo containers just next to you including some topnotch burgers, ice cream, and fish & chips as most tourists go from bus drop to public market to out the back by aquabus and then back towards the bus drop via souvenir shops and totem carver - they never think to cross a boring carpark!

 

And if you don't mind paying for a few coffees, beers, nibbles etc. to graze on through the day I can think of much worse spots to chill than the Granville Island Hotel - again, too far from the buses for most tourists to bother with but they have their own on-site brewery and waterfront dining. Personally I'm not a huge fan of the beer list - very lager heavy - but for most North American palates it's a very good set of options, especially on a warm day when sometimes a fizzy yellow drink really does hit the spot!

 

Lastly, to just lurk indoors on comfy seats with your suitcases hit up a few swanky hotel lobbies. As long as you don't abuse any free snacks or drinks, maybe order something from in-house dining options, you can go unmolested for hours - so many folks come & go, waiting for friends or scheduled transport, that as long as you don't make yourself stand out you should be good. But moving on every couple of hours just to stretch your legs works - there are a whole bunch of swank hotels downtown, you won't need to go more than a couple of blocks at a time.

[Urban trekker]

MartinCath - correct me if I am wrong but I thought that when YVR opened there new food court areas a few years ago and attracted many of the big players that it was a stipulation in there lease agreements that they had to charge the same prices as their other outlets?

Dennis

[princeton123211]

13 hours ago, martincath said:

and even the lobby of the Fairmont Airport within the building.

I would second the Fairmont. In a fairly similar situation a few years ago we actually got a day room at the Fairmont and just relaxed for a few hours before an evening flight. I don't remember what we paid but it was reasonable. 

[martincath]

11 hours ago, Urban trekker said:

MartinCath - correct me if I am wrong but I thought that when YVR opened there new food court areas a few years ago and attracted many of the big players that it was a stipulation in there lease agreements that they had to charge the same prices as their other outlets?

Dennis

You could be right about that - but I don't think it was ever enforced Dennis, even if they claimed that would be the case back in 2020. Other than the big chain fast-food places it's hard to compare menu items to other locations to verify exactly what the markup is, and airport locations never directly list pricing at YVR (typical when there is a markup in play, but between Yelp reviews with dated photos of menus and the internet archive to compare menu prices downtown at the same date for total fairness, there are ways to check!)

 

A pre-emptive de-snarkification - reading through for spelling mistakes this post comes across as a very lecture-y Dennis! We minimize our airport time even more these days so I haven't actually eaten at YVR since Covid, and I did genuinely worry that I might have been talking out of my backside so had to do some research to make sure my pre-Vid memories of YVR pricing remained true these days - my research confirms it's still generally worse value than downtown dining, especially for booze, but while I have left the results below you really don't have to read any further unless you're interested in some specific price comparisons and a bit of waffle...

 

Some concrete examples: the same beer in Stanley Park Taphouse at YVR costs $10.50 for a 19oz pour, whereas in the park (which has 1% of profits kickback to pay out to the park board that YVR location does not) it runs $7.75 for a 20oz now and was 50cents less than that at the date I price-matched from a menu photo; wines have different varietals listed but similar priced products from same vintners also show a 20ish% differential; the food is less marked up but also subtly different, e.g. the cheeseburger is $17 in the park brewpub, $2 extra for bacon, whereas at YVR the bacon is included but costs $19.99 - want the bacon upgrade? Only a 99c difference... but for folks who don't want bacon and ask for it to be taken off, *boom* an extra $2 free income for the YVR resto.

 

Inez at Salmon & Bannock confirmed that in their new outpost at YVR, the most recent opening there I believe, not only are they charging more (10% on the items which are exactly the same as in the resto, impossible to say on most dishes as they don't appear on the resto menu which is much more sit-down than sammichy) but also they were actively courted by YVR, chased for months to please open with more and more favourable terms thrown at them until they said yes! As the only indigenous resto in town, I think Inez got an even sweeter deal on rent etc. than the other local spots like Pajos, Sal y Limon, as while YVR did start actively seeking better, more local foods to keep up with Portland, Seattle etc. there were other taco joints and fish'n'chip places in the running - we could have had Cockney Kings and Tacofino for example.

 

I could throw out some more examples, but even if there was a contractual obligation to price match like at e.g. Chicago O'Hare, the restos can and do still jack up their prices just by changing the dishes offered even a tiny amount, like the bacon-included burger at Stanley. Not the same = no price match! Only massive fast food chains, for whom the logistics of selling the exact same product across regions are such a benefit it would be too much hassle to tweak the menu at a single outpost, truly get caught in the 'airport = downtown' requirements. And honestly, it's not unfair - if I were working a chain resto and had a choice of airport or more convenient location, I'd want more pay at the former especially if it was post-Security and I had to jump through hoops to get security clearance.

[madre2]

Martincath——I have been to Vancouver previously, so I feel safe in saying I have already seen most of the highlights.  I also have mobility issues, and feel it best that I just rest after 7 days of sightseeing.  So please refrain from “ questioning my sanity” before you hear my reasons for doing this.  This is exactly why people like me, just innocently asking for advice on a topic, hesitate to do it on these boards.

[martincath]

20 hours ago, madre2 said:

Martincath——I have been to Vancouver previously, so I feel safe in saying I have already seen most of the highlights.  I also have mobility issues, and feel it best that I just rest after 7 days of sightseeing.  So please refrain from “ questioning my sanity” before you hear my reasons for doing this.  This is exactly why people like me, just innocently asking for advice on a topic, hesitate to do it on these boards.

Sorry for offending you; hopefully the info I gave about YVR was of use even if the rest wasn't.