Less Than Two Days in Vancouver

[Cerbiattina]

Hello,

Disembarkation time in Vancouver starts at 7:30 am June 5th. I booked one night at the Westin Bayshore, with a departure time to the airport the next day. The flight is t 7:30 pm, June 6th. I planned to spend the morning at Stanley Park (after briefly leaving the luggage at the hotel) with lunch at the local restaurant. Then we would rest a bit at the hotel and then go see Gastown and the Chinese neighborhood. The next morning, we would walk to Robson Street just to walk around and see it and then collect our suitcases and head to the airport. A friend told me about Butchart Gardens. I tried to change the return flight but the cost would be exorbitant and therefore, it is not an option. I looked into a trip to the Gardens and it would take all day with a tour. The airplane tour leaves very early in the morning, I am not sure we would have enough time to disembark and run to the collection place. Long story short, it is going to be either the little tour of Vancouver or the Butchart Gardens.....Any suggestions? Thank you so much! 

[Northern Aurora]

Just a quick comment -- Butchart Gardens is lovely but is not located in Vancouver.  It is outside of Victoria which is on an island.  

 

In addition to Stanley Park, goggle the Vancouver Art Gallery.  Lovely art museum which frequently hosts very interesting shows.

[Cerbiattina]

1 hour ago, Northern Aurora said:

Just a quick comment -- Butchart Gardens is lovely but is not located in Vancouver.  It is outside of Victoria which is on an island.  

 

In addition to Stanley Park, goggle the Vancouver Art Gallery.  Lovely art museum which frequently hosts very interesting shows.

Thank you for your reply. I know that Butchart Gardens is on an island. However, there are tours from Vancouver to visit Victoria and the Gardens - they stop for three hours in Victoria and 90 minutes at the Gardens. The whole excursion takes 12-13 hours. I was just wondering which one we should be doing. We have never been to Vancouver before, just trying to see the prettier things in such a short time. 

[Northern Aurora]

Since you have never visited Vancouver I would just stay in Vancouver.  Also consider a visit to Grouse Mountain if that would be of interest.

[Cerbiattina]

15 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

Since you have never visited Vancouver I would just stay in Vancouver.  Also consider a visit to Grouse Mountain if that would be of interest.

Thank you. We will stay in Vancouver. I briefly looked Grouse Mountain up and it looks beautiful. I will try to work it into our little sightseeing. Otherwise, I have to plan another visit to Vancouver. ....So sad I couldn't change the return flight! Thank you again, much appreciated. 

[Cerbiattina]

Sorry to bother you again..last question.. I saw that the bus for Grouse Mountain leaves from Canada Place. We can also call a taxi, which cuts the travel time to 15 minutes. I was thinking about visiting Stanley Park the whole morning and having lunch there (I made a 1:30 pm reservation at the local restaurant). We could get a taxi or the bus afterward and spend the afternoon/early evening at Grouse Mountain. Probably the taxi is quicker. The next day we will have the entire morning free since our flight leaves at 7:00 pm. I was thinking about visiting Gastown and the Chinese Quarter. We are staying at the Westin Bayshore which should be fairly close to the two neighborhoods. Do you think this plan is doable? Do you think it would be nice? Thank you so much for your input, like I said earlier, we have never been to Vancouver, and I would like to see some highlights. 

[martincath]

On 3/5/2024 at 12:40 PM, Cerbiattina said:

... We could get a taxi or the bus afterward and spend the afternoon/early evening at Grouse Mountain. Probably the taxi is quicker. The next day we will have the entire morning free since our flight leaves at 7:00 pm. I was thinking about visiting Gastown and the Chinese Quarter. We are staying at the Westin Bayshore which should be fairly close to the two neighborhoods. Do you think this plan is doable? Do you think it would be nice?...

Doable? Absolutely. Nice? Probably very nice, but I can't really advise on whether there would be even nicer opportunities you miss by visiting these as I don't know your personal tastes! If you're looking for the most generally-popular overview of the city, most bus tours manage to get you around those in ~3-4 hours albeit with very few real stops - the HOHO has the advantage of far more stops, and flexibility in how long you take at them, as well as being priced a little less, but they won't let you take suitcases onboard so popping over to your hotel first (even if room not ready, they should hold bags no problem) is required.

 

On the practical front, logistics of your listed sites so far - yes, a cab will be quicker than the bus to Grouse almost every time, BUT as soon as you cross a bridge onto the North Shore traffic becomes problematic. Since you're here midweek, both morning and evening rush hours just plain suck - far too many commuters drive from the north shore for the number of bridge lanes! In a bus you might lose time with traffic - but in a cab that meteralso keeps on ticking! Plus, with the one-way roads, cabbies hate calls to pick people up at certain points inside the park (they're driving to you for free!) but then love it when your destination means that you have to circle the park really slowly to get out again, so depending exactly where you are in the park you may find it hard to get a cab to come or the cab fare is already ka-ching before you even leave the park!

 

Personally, if I were going to combine Stanley Park and Capilano or Grouse same day I'd be inclined to take transit - several services pass through the park and over Lions Gate bridge, and you can transfer to the 232 or 236 bus (which both go to Grouse; most bus drivers are good about helping out with reminders if you ask them when you board where is best to make a transfer). Stops for these buses are just outside the park entrance - very close to your hotel, so if you wanted to pop back to refill water bottles, grab fresh socks, use your own loo etc. it would be convenient.

 

On the way back down the mountain rather than hustle to meet the last 'free' shuttlebus of the day if you're still enjoying yourselves you could even consider dining up at Grouse - outstanding views of downtown from the Observatory resto. Ride the 236 all the way to Lonsdale Quay - there's a lot of casual but decent dining around the quay, the nearby Shipyards area, and streets between them - then take the Seabus back across to Vancouver for a dirt-cheap extra 'cruise'! Or stop at Capilano on the way down if you're inclined to do even more outdoorsy stuff - they drop their prices in the evening after 5pm, and with sunlight until after 9pm in June there's ample time to see it all without the hordes of bus tours earlier in the day.

 

Combo bus tours that take you to Cap and Grouse generally run about 5 hours - not quite enough time at either site to do everything, but with an entire day you could easily spend 3+ hours on-site at Grouse, and Cap is easily done in 2hrs if you avoid the worst crowds. It's just Stanley Park that is problematic - even folks very familiar with the park have almost never seen all of it, it's just so darn big at over a thousand acres! The Seawall trail around the outside is over 5 miles - assuming you cut back across via Lost Lagoon to where you started but otherwise don't go anywhere else on the interior. But that means missing Prospect Point, the Rose Garden, Beaver Lake, the Hollow Tree... you could literally walk around the trails for days! Bike rentals are a big win - and your hotel offers free bikes to guests (although limited to 2 hours, and first-come, first-served!) which you could try making use of. Due to the one-way Seawall (no, it's highly unlikely any cops will enforce it, but the sheer insanity of trying to bike headlong into a sea of other cyclists dissuades anyone with an ounce of self-preservation instinct from trying it in summer!) it would probably be best to try and snag bikes at the hotel, do a loop all the way around (even with photostops, 2 hours is plenty) then go do your Grouse etc. and go for a second ride later, or early next morning, to the Rose Garden, Prospect Point, Beaver Lake and any other interior parts - you can ride back out on Pipeline Rd and various trails which are not one-way but do be aware the hill up to Prospect is pretty steep!.

 

Day two, with a 7pm flight, even if it's to the US I would not show up at YVR before 5pm - if you are very nervous travelers, 3 hours early is the official line for US/Int'l flights but that is only ever needed mid-morning through early afternoon. You can prebook a slot at security for free (I'd suggest doing this for 60mins preflight, so if anything goes wrong and you are running late and barely manage to check your bags in time you can go right to the short security queue... I would be genuinely shocked if security and Preclearance took more than 40mins total around the time you're going to be there) to play safe.

 

That means you can safely plan to be Doing Stuff Downtown until at least 3pm - even if you're in Chinatown and need to go all the way back to the Bayshore for your bags, you can be out at YVR in an hour total. What to do though?

 

Honestly, the Things To Do list in Chinatown is very short other than Eat and Shop - see the new Gate and the copy of the old one, the skinniest building, visit the new Storytelling Centre if you want to learn something (an hour or so), visit Dr Sun Yat-Sen garden (if you take the docent guided walk, allow an hour unless you plan to chill and meditate), compare with the free park nextdoor (10 mins if you've already done the 'real' garden).

 

Gastown has even less in the way of specific sites (the Steamclock requires a visit on the hour for the 'full' show, or any quarter hour for a shorter one, and that's the only specific Thing now that the statue got pulled down - Generic Ye Olde Cobbled Street vibe can be absorbed just walking a couple of blocks on Water St) so it's basically down to again how much shopping or eating you want to do that determines how long you'll need. Touristy T-shirts and the like are cheaper in Chinatown - most cruisers only get as far as Water St on foot and all the shops there are just a wee bit gouge-y in their pricing (never, ever, ever buy Maple Syrup in a tourist shop - Costco is by far the best value if you're a member, but any supermarket you pass by still spanks the souvenir shops - Safeway on Robson would be closest to your hotel).

 

The good stuff in both 'hoods IMO, other than dining, is what you find out from a tour guide about the history, architecture etc. There are some virtual guides online these days (free city wifi, look for #VanWiFi broadcasting if you don't have free roaming data), lots of paid guides offering private tours, but you could also take a free ('tip what you like') Toonie Tour which run 10am-1pm; get in touch with AIBC to see if they will have one of their superb walking tours running on your dates (pre-Covid this was the most informative $10 you could ever spend!); or reach out to Stroll Buddy to see if a local is available for a free (no tips expected) walk just with your party (2 caveats here - firstly, I'm a Buddy but since it's entirely free I don't feel it's a conflict of interest to inform you about the service; secondly, all Buddies are volunteers so whether any of us are free during your short stay is a bit of a crapshoot - but for the price of ~five minutes of your time to fill out the request form, you might get a private custom tour for zero bucks...)

 

Personally I'd consider Granville Island to be another of the places which most tourists visit and enjoy - and with your overnight, you have the luxury of not being forced to visit it during the horribly-busy chunk of time that all the pre- and post-cruise bus tours drop people off! While the Public Market is a great place to lunch in theory - soooooo many food options - it's a far more pleasant place to visit either as soon as the shops start opening (9am is good), or mid-afternoon and later (there's a comedy club, a theatre, various restos open at night) when you can stroll the streets and especially the interiors of the shops without feeling like you're the filling in a tourist sandwich!

 

Regardless of your tastes, I would also plan for a Rainy Day Alternate unless you are happy wandering around in the rain - many of us locals use the term 'June-uary' as it seems that we quite often get a rather toasty warm dry chunk of time in May but then have a string of several days of drearier, drizzly weather come June. You should of course be packing layers anyway for your cruise, but especially if the 6th is wet you might not want to get too damp when you have to load yourselves onto a plane rather than having a night to let wet socks etc. dry out.

 

Various general and more-niche museums and art galleries abound; Scienceworld, the Aquarium, and the indoor bits of Granville Island might entice more than outdoor parks and gardens when the liquid sunshine is flowing!

 

Sorry if this just adds more work for you in your planning - but with less than two full days it's crucial to prioritise, see the places and do the things that YOU like most rather than what Joe Q Public says a visitor to Vancouver 'must do'... there's no such thing as a must do tourist site, so the more research you do now to figure out which of the many options in our fair city appeal most to you, the better time you'll have here!

[Cerbiattina]

10 hours ago, martincath said:

Doable? Absolutely. Nice? Probably very nice, but I can't really advise on whether there would be even nicer opportunities you miss by visiting these as I don't know your personal tastes! If you're looking for the most generally-popular overview of the city, most bus tours manage to get you around those in ~3-4 hours albeit with very few real stops - the HOHO has the advantage of far more stops, and flexibility in how long you take at them, as well as being priced a little less, but they won't let you take suitcases onboard so popping over to your hotel first (even if room not ready, they should hold bags no problem) is required.

 

On the practical front, logistics of your listed sites so far - yes, a cab will be quicker than the bus to Grouse almost every time, BUT as soon as you cross a bridge onto the North Shore traffic becomes problematic. Since you're here midweek, both morning and evening rush hours just plain suck - far too many commuters drive from the north shore for the number of bridge lanes! In a bus you might lose time with traffic - but in a cab that meteralso keeps on ticking! Plus, with the one-way roads, cabbies hate calls to pick people up at certain points inside the park (they're driving to you for free!) but then love it when your destination means that you have to circle the park really slowly to get out again, so depending exactly where you are in the park you may find it hard to get a cab to come or the cab fare is already ka-ching before you even leave the park!

 

Personally, if I were going to combine Stanley Park and Capilano or Grouse same day I'd be inclined to take transit - several services pass through the park and over Lions Gate bridge, and you can transfer to the 232 or 236 bus (which both go to Grouse; most bus drivers are good about helping out with reminders if you ask them when you board where is best to make a transfer). Stops for these buses are just outside the park entrance - very close to your hotel, so if you wanted to pop back to refill water bottles, grab fresh socks, use your own loo etc. it would be convenient.

 

On the way back down the mountain rather than hustle to meet the last 'free' shuttlebus of the day if you're still enjoying yourselves you could even consider dining up at Grouse - outstanding views of downtown from the Observatory resto. Ride the 236 all the way to Lonsdale Quay - there's a lot of casual but decent dining around the quay, the nearby Shipyards area, and streets between them - then take the Seabus back across to Vancouver for a dirt-cheap extra 'cruise'! Or stop at Capilano on the way down if you're inclined to do even more outdoorsy stuff - they drop their prices in the evening after 5pm, and with sunlight until after 9pm in June there's ample time to see it all without the hordes of bus tours earlier in the day.

 

Combo bus tours that take you to Cap and Grouse generally run about 5 hours - not quite enough time at either site to do everything, but with an entire day you could easily spend 3+ hours on-site at Grouse, and Cap is easily done in 2hrs if you avoid the worst crowds. It's just Stanley Park that is problematic - even folks very familiar with the park have almost never seen all of it, it's just so darn big at over a thousand acres! The Seawall trail around the outside is over 5 miles - assuming you cut back across via Lost Lagoon to where you started but otherwise don't go anywhere else on the interior. But that means missing Prospect Point, the Rose Garden, Beaver Lake, the Hollow Tree... you could literally walk around the trails for days! Bike rentals are a big win - and your hotel offers free bikes to guests (although limited to 2 hours, and first-come, first-served!) which you could try making use of. Due to the one-way Seawall (no, it's highly unlikely any cops will enforce it, but the sheer insanity of trying to bike headlong into a sea of other cyclists dissuades anyone with an ounce of self-preservation instinct from trying it in summer!) it would probably be best to try and snag bikes at the hotel, do a loop all the way around (even with photostops, 2 hours is plenty) then go do your Grouse etc. and go for a second ride later, or early next morning, to the Rose Garden, Prospect Point, Beaver Lake and any other interior parts - you can ride back out on Pipeline Rd and various trails which are not one-way but do be aware the hill up to Prospect is pretty steep!.

 

Day two, with a 7pm flight, even if it's to the US I would not show up at YVR before 5pm - if you are very nervous travelers, 3 hours early is the official line for US/Int'l flights but that is only ever needed mid-morning through early afternoon. You can prebook a slot at security for free (I'd suggest doing this for 60mins preflight, so if anything goes wrong and you are running late and barely manage to check your bags in time you can go right to the short security queue... I would be genuinely shocked if security and Preclearance took more than 40mins total around the time you're going to be there) to play safe.

 

That means you can safely plan to be Doing Stuff Downtown until at least 3pm - even if you're in Chinatown and need to go all the way back to the Bayshore for your bags, you can be out at YVR in an hour total. What to do though?

 

Honestly, the Things To Do list in Chinatown is very short other than Eat and Shop - see the new Gate and the copy of the old one, the skinniest building, visit the new Storytelling Centre if you want to learn something (an hour or so), visit Dr Sun Yat-Sen garden (if you take the docent guided walk, allow an hour unless you plan to chill and meditate), compare with the free park nextdoor (10 mins if you've already done the 'real' garden).

 

Gastown has even less in the way of specific sites (the Steamclock requires a visit on the hour for the 'full' show, or any quarter hour for a shorter one, and that's the only specific Thing now that the statue got pulled down - Generic Ye Olde Cobbled Street vibe can be absorbed just walking a couple of blocks on Water St) so it's basically down to again how much shopping or eating you want to do that determines how long you'll need. Touristy T-shirts and the like are cheaper in Chinatown - most cruisers only get as far as Water St on foot and all the shops there are just a wee bit gouge-y in their pricing (never, ever, ever buy Maple Syrup in a tourist shop - Costco is by far the best value if you're a member, but any supermarket you pass by still spanks the souvenir shops - Safeway on Robson would be closest to your hotel).

 

The good stuff in both 'hoods IMO, other than dining, is what you find out from a tour guide about the history, architecture etc. There are some virtual guides online these days (free city wifi, look for #VanWiFi broadcasting if you don't have free roaming data), lots of paid guides offering private tours, but you could also take a free ('tip what you like') Toonie Tour which run 10am-1pm; get in touch with AIBC to see if they will have one of their superb walking tours running on your dates (pre-Covid this was the most informative $10 you could ever spend!); or reach out to Stroll Buddy to see if a local is available for a free (no tips expected) walk just with your party (2 caveats here - firstly, I'm a Buddy but since it's entirely free I don't feel it's a conflict of interest to inform you about the service; secondly, all Buddies are volunteers so whether any of us are free during your short stay is a bit of a crapshoot - but for the price of ~five minutes of your time to fill out the request form, you might get a private custom tour for zero bucks...)

 

Personally I'd consider Granville Island to be another of the places which most tourists visit and enjoy - and with your overnight, you have the luxury of not being forced to visit it during the horribly-busy chunk of time that all the pre- and post-cruise bus tours drop people off! While the Public Market is a great place to lunch in theory - soooooo many food options - it's a far more pleasant place to visit either as soon as the shops start opening (9am is good), or mid-afternoon and later (there's a comedy club, a theatre, various restos open at night) when you can stroll the streets and especially the interiors of the shops without feeling like you're the filling in a tourist sandwich!

 

Regardless of your tastes, I would also plan for a Rainy Day Alternate unless you are happy wandering around in the rain - many of us locals use the term 'June-uary' as it seems that we quite often get a rather toasty warm dry chunk of time in May but then have a string of several days of drearier, drizzly weather come June. You should of course be packing layers anyway for your cruise, but especially if the 6th is wet you might not want to get too damp when you have to load yourselves onto a plane rather than having a night to let wet socks etc. dry out.

 

Various general and more-niche museums and art galleries abound; Scienceworld, the Aquarium, and the indoor bits of Granville Island might entice more than outdoor parks and gardens when the liquid sunshine is flowing!

 

Sorry if this just adds more work for you in your planning - but with less than two full days it's crucial to prioritise, see the places and do the things that YOU like most rather than what Joe Q Public says a visitor to Vancouver 'must do'... there's no such thing as a must do tourist site, so the more research you do now to figure out which of the many options in our fair city appeal most to you, the better time you'll have here!

... I am speechless....you are AMAZING!!!!! I have copied and pasted your message and treasure it in a dedicated folder. THANK YOU SO MUCH....you are truly AMAZING....

[Vagabond Knight]

We will be disembarking our ship on Friday, July 12th this year in Vancouver.  I looked at the historical weather data and, although you never really know, it seems that the temps and precipitation will probably be pretty favorable. We'll have all day Friday and Saturday to visit Vancouver, and then we fly out Sunday morning for our next adventure. Looking for suggestions on a couple of things... 1) Are there any areas to be avoided regarding where to stay or where to walk? 2) What are some recommended "must see" places/things (which doesn't necessarily mean the iconic/popular places/things)?

A little about what we like to do on vacation in a new place. We enjoy experiencing a location through our taste buds. We're foodies, home cooks, and home brewers, so we love tasting the local cuisine, local brews/spirits, and indulging in ethnic cuisines. We're not going to rent a car in Vancouver and don't mind doing some walking (prefer to limit it to about five miles in a day, though we've done more... if it's hilly, we'll stick with the five), but will also use Uber/Lyft. Unfortunately, my husband "doesn't do heights," so I know that knocks out a bunch of really cool local attractions, both natural and man-made. Suggestions regarding historical stuff, beautiful churches/cathedrals, cultural stuff, botanical stuff, architectural wonders, quirky museums and sites/sights and obviously excellent/interesting places to eat and drink are all appreciated. We don't go shopping for jewelry or clothes on vacation. We haven't selected a place to stay yet (wow, Vancouver is pretty expensive when it comes to lodging!).

 

As to my #2 above, I can give you an example based on the fact that we live in Florida. If someone asks where to go while visiting here, most people would say Disney World, Universal Studios, Daytona Beach, etc.  If you told me that you wanted to see something really nice that others might not know about, I'd send you to Bok Tower Gardens, with its 157 acres of gardens and its Gothic Revival carillon tower in Lake Wales, and nearby Spook Hill, and to the Edison and Ford Winter Estates down in Fort Myers, and to the eclectic little town of Dunedin over on the west coast with its microbreweries, interesting little cafes/restaurants, and Celtic flair that may find you sharing a toast with someone wearing a kilt. With our time limited, we need to stick fairly close to Vancouver on this visit, but we're hoping to make some interesting memories.  

 

Edited March 24 by Vagabond Knight

[Milhouse]

Our summers have been getting drier over the years so yes, you'll likely avoid getting rained on in July. However, we've also experienced the occasional hot spells as early as June. Though being from Florida, you'll likely be better equipped to handle some low 30C/90F'ish and occasionally somewhat muggy temps than a sweaty mess like me. 

 

I'm assuming you'll be pull up some of these locations on Google Maps or some other mapping software.  

Core area to avoid is Hastings Street between Carrall Street and Main Street. It's basically the worst neighbourhood in Canada with street disorder, drug use, etc.  A tourist would not normally go here but the mayhem also spills over a bit into adjacent streets and neighbourhoods so you might encounter some of it if you visit Chinatown (to get a bun/dim sum or to see the gardens) or Gastown.  

You also get some seediness around social housing buildings like near south Granville Street by Helmcken Street or near Pender Street by Richards Street.

If you stick to the main tourist areas/routes, it's generally fine.  FWIW, I regularly walk around various parts of downtown. 

 

While Vancouver has some decent commercial tourist attractions (though obviously not on a scale of Disney, Universal, etc), I've said in previous posts that my favourite parts of Vancouver are by the water like walking the seawall which takes you to places like: Granville Island, English Bay, Stanley Park, Kits Beach, etc.  While I regularly walk portions of it, a couple of times in the summers, we'll dedicate a day to walk a significant portion of it but you can obviously take shortcuts (eg you don't have to walk around the entire perimeter of Stanley Park), Uber/Lyft, transit, aqua ferries, etc to cut down on distance.

 

Even though it's very touristy, I think Granville Island is a good option with the Public Market and a variety of food vendors.  Great views, buskers/entertainment, etc.  We love going there regularly.

Go Fish located in a container just off of Granville Island is one of my favourite fish and chip places.  They have tempura beer battered local fish (cod, halibut, & salmon).  Their fries are only meh tho IMO.  Their grilled salmon tacone are really good too. Line and wait for food can be insanely long though (30+mins).  

Another type of local fish to check out is sablefish which is very buttery but some parts can have a lot of bones (worth it tho).

 

There's a farmer's market on Saturdays by Nelson Park that you might want to check out which doesn't just have fresh produce & products but some ready to eat (eg bakery items).

I also always like suggesting the Shipyards Night Market which runs Friday nights across the inlet in North Vancouver with live music, beer garden, food trucks, and a great view of downtown Vancouver.  The effort isn't too bad with taking the seabus across the inlet and there is also the Lonsdale Quay Public Market which is nearby.  

 

Vancouver has a bit of a microbrewery scene but a lot of the smaller independent producers are located outside of the downtown core.  You may come across some of the bigger brands like Steamworks, Granville Island Brewing, and Stanley Park Brewing in and around downtown.  If you want to do a bit of a microbrewery crawl, there are a bunch somewhat clustered south of Olympic Village. I recently hit up a bunch for a stag last year and I found the walk pretty reasonable.  (It also looks like the Carnival del Sol Latin Festival will be taking place nearby at Jonathan Rogers Park this year if that interests you.)

There's another cluster of microbreweries and distillers east of downtown.  They used to hold a kind of annual open house crawl that the missus and I loved going to.  However, parts of area can feel a bit sketchy and industrial so I'm not sure if this is the best for a tourist.

There's also a cluster somewhat near the Shipyards area that we see when we drive to the nightmarket but we haven't visited yet.  

 

Vancouver has a bit of a Food Truck scene.  There have been some really good ones over the years but I haven't kept up after I stopped working downtown. Many of my faves now have brick and mortar locations or have shutdown. Tacofino was one of my faves (delicious fish tacos) that made the jump to brick and mortar with a few locations in and around downtown (which are actually better because their trucks' quality started to degrade a bit in trying to cycle through orders faster so you didn't have to wait 20+mins for your taco.)

 

I thought we hit peak ramen a few years ago but the number of ramen shops in Vancouver seem to just keep growing.  You'll always see a line-up outside of Ramen Danbo which I think is good but not worth the wait (we occasionally go to one outside of the downtown core).  I kind of like Menya ITTO but it's a bit pricey.

 

Anyways, just a few ideas from me.  I'm sure others will chime in with some great suggestions based on their experiences.

[Vagabond Knight]

Wow, excellent information,  @Milhouse! We really appreciate the "where not to go" advice as well as the tips on fun things to see and do around the city.  We booked our lodging a long time ago for the front end of the trip but haven't booked it for Vancouver yet, so that should help us narrow down the hotels and AirBnB options we're considering.  If you ever head to Florida, tag me in your post so I can try to return the favor.

[martincath]

21 hours ago, Vagabond Knight said:

...A little about what we like to do on vacation in a new place... We haven't selected a place to stay yet (wow, Vancouver is pretty expensive when it comes to lodging!)...

A useful summary of your tastes! Enough that I'm confident in making several specific recommendations right off the bat which should check off your boxes, as well as some more general suggestions.

 

First - see if the YWCA Hotel has a room left on your dates. Given your desire to walk around, it's the only high quality, remotely modern, value option downtown -although a couple of legit cheaper options are very old properties, no elevator, no AC like the Buchan that might work for you as you may be able to sleep in warmth and humidity being from FL and of course being lowrise your hubby won't be feart to go near the windows! Avoid AirBnB - a provincewide crackdown begins May 1st, with decent enforcement budget at last, so any Vancouver 'whole home' AirBnB still on the system is likely to disappear at short notice as they cannot be licensed legally. If you don't mind booking just a room within someones home, those will remain legal though.

 

Second - church-wise there are two really nice and rather different downtown cathedrals, plus another architecturally and culturally interesting church, that are very easily visited. The Anglican cathedral is basically unique - no belltower which is highly unusual for a cathedral (well, they have built one now, but it's a separate metal thing that just looks weird as heck!), but it was also built by ships carpenters mostly of wood and the interior is reminiscent of an upside down hull. Great acoustics, between the gently-curving shapes and the wood - I know someone on the choir and everyone who sings in there loves the place - plus it's specifically welcoming to visitors, 10-4 daily. The Catholic one is a much more traditional shape, brickbuilt French gothic, but does have slightly unusual shiny aluminum roofing rather than copper-plated - my wife's office looks over the roof and it always reminds me of NYCs iconic Chrysler building when I see those bright, steeply-pointed silvery tower tops! Lastly, the St Andrews-Wesley United Church (a very broad-brush Protestant group) has a wide array of stained glass, a pretty nice Gothic tower with a vaguely Scottish style general layout, and if you're actually church-going types they've been running Jazz Vespers services weekly for years and years which are pretty unusual!

 

Basically everything @Milhouse said gets a thumbs-up from me - my only disagreement is Granville Island, and then only about the timing! I avoid it like the proverbial plague anywhere around lunchtime from May to September because of the tourist volumes, moving around inside the Public Market becomes really annoying. That said, since you're staying over you can avoid the crowds simply by going early or late - all the stalls and shops open by 9am, some as early as 8am, so if you head over for breakfast and a wander then get off the island before 11am things remain pretty sane even in peak summer. The empty campus of Emily Carr college is also interesting to wander and photograph - they're now elsewhere but nobody has moved in to the old buildings yet, so it gives you an idea of what GI would have been like back in the day post-WWII when the industrial tenants mostly all left. The floating homes in the little marina are also fun.

 

General walking tour recommendations - go sign up with AIBC right away, as they hope to return their superb architectural walks this summer, so they'll email you with dates once plans firm up. Also put a request in with Stroll Buddy listing your interests - there may not be any available Buddies on your dates, but if there are you'll get an off-the-beaten track custom private tour for free (not even an expectation of tips) so your worst case is wasting a few minutes filling out the request form. Full disclosure, I'm a local Buddy myself, but since the program is entirely free I see no ethical compromise by suggesting it! There's also big group, free ('tip what you like') daily tours in summer from Toonie Tours - usually there's three slots to begin with, but if the morning or afternoon sell out they pop an extra one into the schedule maybe 30mins before or after the sellout. Their guides trend young & fun, use mostly scripts but often have a degree in History or similar (local college kids make decent cash at this in summer) to personalise it a little, and while they are variable in quality for first-timers it's well worth the three hour time investment IMO (unless you've already booked a more specific tour).

 

Foodwise, you should try Salmon & Bannock - truly unique, every other First Nations food option is a very limited menu food truck affair, mostly bannocks plus toppings. The sablefish here is particularly superb, as are the game meats. If you walk from downtown it's a bit of a schlep with potentially lots of up & down (I strongly advise against Cambie and Granville Bridges for anyone with height issues - but even Burrard, which looks more substantial and has slightly-less-see-through sides, is probably best avoided unless DH would be constantly looking at the nice stonework!) Ride a bus - unlike almost everywhere in Florida, we have frequent, reliable, clean, safe public transit and it's all nicely integrated with Google Maps - for the best value transpo to and from. If you have an early dinner at S&B, walking downhill to GI for a wander is easy - late summer evenings GI is very nice, and the empty industrial parts become really atmospheric.

 

Also hit up some regional Chinese food - not sure what you have easy access to in Leesburg or other places you visit regularly, but here we've got the gamut from western and northern styles (lamb and wheat, rather than pork and rice) through the more commonly-found Szechuan, Shanghainese, Taiwanese as well as the usual Cantonese fare found everywhere.

 

Don't waste your time with any local Mexican, BBQ or Southern food - even the least bad local options are expensive and suck compared to what you'll have access to at home. Only possible exception is Machete - a really tiny joint on Main St that does pre-European-contact cuisine which is goshdurn delicious and as different from any modern regional Mexican food as Tex-Mex is but in a really different way (I am an unabashed carnivore, but my usual order is their 'five different veggie & vegan stews in a Machete' - an extra-long tortilla just in case you're not familiar, wrapped in foil so you can eat on the go without spilling on yourself, so it kinda looks like a blunt machete hence the name - I still couldn't tell you which stew is best because they're all great and the range of tastes is the big sell; it's like a grownup version of a multi-coloured icepop made with different fruit juice!)

 

UBC Campus might also be worth a half-day or more to you - in theory MOA reopens before you arrive, there are also some other good museums on campus, a hyperauthentic Japanese garden with tea ceremonies sometimes, a botanic garden (DH should avoid the tree walk!), and just a ton of green space with relatively low numbers of people as summer school is nowhere near as busy compared to regular term so even the bus ride out should be easy to get a seat.

 

Personally I'd say that even if you don't want to hit the whole of Stanley Park, the Rose Garden and the Totem Poles justify walking a loop with a bit of the Seawall to get views back toward Canada Place - but if you do visit UBC they have a ton of poles out there at MOA and also a rose garden (very small, perched on top of a carpark of all places, but it has a really nice view out over the water) so you might even consider skipping the park entirely without feeling bad about it!

Edited March 25 by martincath

[Milhouse]

On 3/25/2024 at 4:47 AM, Vagabond Knight said:

If you ever head to Florida, tag me in your post so I can try to return the favor.

 

We'll eventually hit you up on that as we enjoy eventually sailing on the Royal Caribbean's latest mega ships out of one of the Florida ports.  🙂

 

One more area likely to be avoided I forgot to mention was Granville Street (roughly between Robson and Helmcken) on Friday and Saturday nights which turns into a pedestrian orientated bar/club/lounge scene but leans towards a younger crowd.  There's occasionally some disorder but there's also a reasonable police presence to keep the peace.  

 

And there's also appears to be a football game at BC Place stadium Saturday night.  They typically have a free "street party" along the plaza by Robson Street.  Definitely not as festive as games in the US though.  So you'll get some volume/crowds at the venues around the stadium pregame (4pm) and postgame (7pm).