We returned from the July 1 Alaskan cruise this week, and I wanted to share a bit of what we did in Vancouver, since we had a very enjoyable time in the city both before and after our cruise.
Hotels: We stayed at the Westin Grand before our cruise (booked through Priceline for $146/night). This really was a great hotel for the price. We had a one-bedroom suite with a kitchenette and a fold-out sofa that was more than adequate for the two of us and would have been a great arrangement for a family of up to four. The hotel had a very nice outdoor (!!) pool on the 3rd floor in a well-appointed patio area (they have live music and appetizers out there a couple of times a week - very swanky!). The concierge at the hotel was a humongous help, as well. Overall, a terrific experience and we wouldn't hesitate to stay there again. The hotel is located right on Robson Street (only a few blocks away from the famous downtown shipping district) and is right nextdoor to the Vancouver Public library, which is a pretty well-known landmark downtown.
After our cruise, we stayed for one night at the Sheraton Wall Centre, which we booked on Hotwire for only $97/night. Admittedly, we liked the amenities at the Westin a bit more, but the view from the Sheraton was quite nice and it definitely was nice for the price. Finding the pool here after a long day of walking was quite a chore, though.
Seawall and Stanley Park: It was about a ten-block walk from the Westin Grand out to the seawall - very reasonable. We started out near the floatplane dock and strolled all the way down to Stanley Park, which took us less than an hour. From there we stopped at Spokes (on the corner of Denman St. - you can't miss it!) and rented two bikes. We spent the next two hours biking the entire perimeter of Stanley Park, which took about two hours. The scenery was stunning and this was truly my favorite experience anywhere in Vancouver. Would HIGHLY recommend doing this! For those with small children, tandem bikes and bikes with infant seats were available. The biking was very flat all the way around and many children were biking with their families all day long.
Gastown: Worth a stroll around. Be aware - although this is a touristy area, the homeless are very prevalent here, and if you wander too far east you will stray out of Gastown basically onto skid row. The steam clock is worth stopping at around the top of the hour to see and hear, and there are lots of great restaurants around aside from the Old Spaghetti Factory. We ate at The Flying Pig, which was absolutely delicious and not too expensive. They had some great local brews on tap, and the short ribs I ate were to die for! It was a terrific first dinner in the city, and was recommended to us by the concierge at the hotel.
Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain: Well worth the cost. It is very easy to see these both in the same day, as they are geographically close. There is a free shuttle to Capilano that runs from a number of spots downtown (Canada Place, a hotel on Robson St., to name two) and will get you there in less than a 1/2 hour. The drive is quite pretty and takes you up over the Lions Gate Bridge. There is a similar free shuttle to Grouse Mountain which runs only from Canada Place. Take yoru pick as to which you visit first. To get from Capilano to Grouse, the #236 bus will cost you only a dollar or two and will take you between the two directly. Additionally, the Grouse Shuttle will sometimes drop you off at Capilano on the way back to downtown, if things aren't too busy.
We got an early start up to Capilano and actually wound up way ahead of schedule for the day, so we decided to take the free shuttle back downtown, stroll Robson St., eat lunch at Japadog, and then walk to Canada Place and shuttle up to Grouse again for free. This wound up being a bit of extra walking, but it helped eat up the day.
At Grouse Mountain, you can waive the (pretty expensive) fee to ride the skyride to the top in two ways: 1) You can endure the Grouse Grind (a pretty challenging hike up the mountain that will take about 1 1/2-2 hours), or you can agree to eat an entree at the Observatory Restaurant at the top of the mountain. We went for the latter, which wound up being a nice value. We arrived about three hours before our scheduled 5:30 dinner and saw most everything there was to see up at Grouse (the bird show, the Lumberjack show, the Grizzly bears). Dinner was typical upscale "touristy" fare, but the food was good and the fact that we had somewhat spendy dinners planned for vacation anyway made it a good value, since we didn't have to pay to get up the mountain.
The Grouse shuttle stops running at 5:30, so return trip home involved a very easy ride on the 236 bus and a trip on the Seabus from Lonsdale Quay back downtown. The trip sounds complicated at first, but is in fact very easy. A very worthwhile day!
Granville Island: Would highly recommend walking here if you can over the Burrard Bridge - beautiful views! Otherwise, you can easily walk in general to the False Creek area and hop a small Aquabus (they are so cute!), which will take you all around this part of town and drop you off right at the public market.
The food at the market is plentiful, and it reminded me a lot of Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. There are no bad options for food here - just eat whatever looks good to you at the time! I would definitely recommend grabbing a pastry form one of the bakeries and/or some fresh fruit for dessert...everything is absolutely mouth-watering. If you have small children, they can wear bathing suits under their clothes and wander over to the park and water play area on the Island if the weather is good!
As adults, we also stopped in at the Granville Island Brewery for a tasting. The beer wasn't particularly special, but it was tasty! Worth the $6 for three samples, for sure.
If we had more time, we would have loved to stop at Kitsilano Beach for a bit or visit the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden in Chinatown. Maybe nextime
We always end up riding Soarin several times when we are down south as it is one of our favourite attractions.
