Private guide - 1 day tour from cruise port to airport hotel

[CruznTheWorld]

Doing a southbound Alaska cruise in early September ending in Vancouver.  Would love to find a private guide to pick us up at the pier, tour around Vancouver to include Stanley Park and then drop us at our hotel at the airport.  Also, any recommendations for hotels at the airport as we have a very early flight the following day.  TIA

[martincath]

On 4/6/2023 at 1:43 PM, CruznTheWorld said:

...Would love to find a private guide to pick us up at the pier, tour around Vancouver to include Stanley Park and then drop us at our hotel at the airport.  Also, any recommendations for hotels at the airport as we have a very early flight the following day.  TIA

Can't recommend a specific guide, but as Tours by Locals was founded right here it certainly has ample listings so it's a good place to start looking.

 

Airport hotels: if you book the only hotel attached to the airport (the ka-ching Fairmont) or the River Rock (right on the SkyTrain just a few minutes away) you'll definitely be at the airport quicker than from downtown. A handful of other Richmond hotels on the other spur of the Canada Line involve a transfer at Bridgeport Station, but with no traffic are probably still consistently quicker (e.g. the Radisson right next to Aberdeen station). But otherwise, since none of the airport hotels have more than one shuttle you may actually have a similar or even longer wait to get to YVR than taking a cab from downtown.

 

If you're looking at a super-early flight, i.e. you are not willing to risk arriving on the first SkyTrain of the day (about 5:15am), traffic is nonexistent - so a cab from downtown will consistently take 30-35mins. Depending on the shuttle schedule (or lack of, overnight it's often On Demand so if someone else just left before you want to you need to wait for the bus to return first...) you might be lucky and only have a 10-15min drive but you might also have to wait until on the hour to depart when you'd rather have left 20mins earlier... in other words, it really isn't much quicker getting to YVR from an 'airport' hotel unless you throw tonnes of cash at the Fairmont... so given the much better dining and sightseeing potential of downtown, unless your guide is going to be with you until sleepy-time you might want to reconsider hotel location.

 

Also be aware that if your flight is to the USA from any E-gate, there is no point arriving any earlier than 4:45am no matter what time it takes off - CBP do not start work until 4:30am, and the first 10-20mins is a meeting with no processing done. The queue full of people with 6-7am flights who obeyed the general rule of 'show up 3 hours early' only to find that there is no way for them to get into Pre-screening area can easily take a solid half hour to get processed, but after ~5:15am everything flows well until closer to 10am when busloads of cruisers start jamming the queues up again.

[dawnvip]

I stayed at the River Rock in January because I had an early flight next morning and was worried about traffic and snow. I can definitely recommend it, as it was very easy to get to the airport, clean, comfortable and quiet rooms. Note there is also a casino on site and several dining venues, so no need to go further if you don't feel like it. 

[Nightowl11]

On 5/1/2023 at 9:47 PM, dawnvip said:

I stayed at the River Rock in January because I had an early flight next morning and was worried about traffic and snow. I can definitely recommend it, as it was very easy to get to the airport, clean, comfortable and quiet rooms. Note there is also a casino on site and several dining venues, so no need to go further if you don't feel like it. 

If you have US dollars, how do they convert to CAN dollars?  Can you use your debit card, credit card? What is the exchange rate and do they charge fees? 

[dawnvip]

@Nightowl11 You can definitely use your US credit card and debit card, with the cards using daily exchange rate to determine the amount in US$. Some cards also charge a foreign exchange fee of 2% so check your card to be sure ahead of time!

 

Some businesses will also accept US cash, but usually the exchange rate quoted will be quite awful. There is a currency exchange kiosk at the airport but it also has horrendously bad rates. If you don't want to use your credit card, or really want to get some Canadian $, then your best bet is to stop at the Vancouver Bullion and Currency Exchange in Richmond - they are awesome and give good rates.

Edited June 7, 2023 by dawnvip
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