Getting around Vancouver

[DLgeeks]

We are gearing up to do our first Alaska cruise in June (13-20) and I am finally getting around to trying to figure out the Vancouver portion of things. We’ll be flying in the Saturday morning before, so we should have about 1 ½ days to explore the city. We’re staying at the Pan and won’t have a car so my main concern is getting around. The main points I think we’d like to try to hit are Stanley Park, the Aquarium and Granville Island, other than that we are pretty open to just wandering a bit. It will be myself, DH, DD (8) and DS (2.5) so we’ll be limited to things that will hold the kids interest as well as pacing. (we’ll be avoiding Capilano/Grouse Mtn due to a fear of heights (me) and a toddler with no sense of self-preservation)

Has anyone done the hop-on trolley? How useful was it for getting around? Worth the price? I am a bit concerned about getting stuck places as it stops running so early.

What is the easiest way to get from the Pan over to Granville Island? Everything else seems pretty walkable, or like it would be a quick cab/bus ride, but I’m not sure about getting all the way over there. Are cabs fairly easy to catch?

Has anyone done one of the horse-drawn tours through Stanley park? That looked like it might be a fun way to see the highlights without dragging tired kids all over the place.

Should we plan to spend our one full day doing the park and the aquarium or would it be doable in a half day if we got over there around noon?

 

[disneyfaninaz]

From the Pan, Stanley Park and the Aquarium are an easy walk along the water. You can also rent bikes near the Pan and ride to the park. The public bus system is also very easy to use to get to Granville island.

We used about an entire day at the park. We rode one of the horse drawn carriages and then spent some time at the aquarium. We did one of their behind the scenes tour and enjoyed it very much.

 

[bcwife76]

Cabs are VERY easy to catch, especially from the Pan. They are lined up outside! You could do that or catch a bus as the bus would go right over the Granville St bridge and then it's a short walk to Granville Island.

 

[anricat]

For getting around inside the park, there's also a hop on hop off trolly that is exclusively inside the park (and cheaper than a city-wide hop on hop off).

 

[xlxo]

We’ll be flying in the Saturday morning before, so we should have about 1 ½ days to explore the city. We’re staying at the Pan and won’t have a car so my main concern is getting around. The main points I think we’d like to try to hit are Stanley Park, the Aquarium and Granville Island, other than that we are pretty open to just wandering a bit. It will be myself, DH, DD (8) and DS (2.5) so we’ll be limited to things that will hold the kids interest as well as pacing. (we’ll be avoiding Capilano/Grouse Mtn due to a fear of heights (me) and a toddler with no sense of self-preservation)

Thoughts....

• With your limited time there.... skip the car rental. $35 (USD$27) taxi is the way to go to get from the airport to the Panny. Daily Parking downtown will be close to the taxi fare. There is also a 17% surcharge for car rentals in the first 24hrs you arrive.
• Have Yellow cab dispatch set to your phone speed dial. They have the largest fleet. (604) 681-1111
  http://www.yellowcabonline.com/
• Vancouver's taxi are integrated with the eCab app.
  https://www.e-cab.com/en/
• The hop on service takes you to all those tourist attractions you have identified.
  http://vancouvertrolley.com/tours/route-map

 

[DLgeeks]

• With your limited time there.... skip the car rental. $35 (USD$27) taxi is the way to go to get from the airport to the Panny. Daily Parking downtown will be close to the taxi fare. There is also a 17% surcharge for car rentals in the first 24hrs you arrive.

• Have Yellow cab dispatch set to your phone speed dial. They have the largest fleet. (604) 681-1111
  http://www.yellowcabonline.com/

• Vancouver's taxi are integrated with the eCab app.
  https://www.e-cab.com/en/

Thanks so much for the cab info - that's super helpful! We're going to be using AeroCar from the airport since I really don't want to deal with cabs and luggage with the kids, but I expect to be using the busses and the cabs to get around other than that. I am aiming for doing things in the easiest way possible on this trip (traveling with young kids is hard enough already!)

Anyone have suggestions for good, kid-friendly places to eat in the general vicinity of the Pan? Not looking for anything super fancy, but I also want to avoid fast food for the most part.

 

[lorimay]

The trolley is fun, you can see a lot in a day this way.
Save a meal for Glanville Island, there are some really good places in there to try.

Have a wonderful time.

 

[Jess_S]

There was a thread on places to eat in Vancouver really recently and you should definitely search for it. There are a lot of restaurants walking distance from the Pan. In particular, we enjoyed walking to Gastown where there were lots of restaurants with outdoor patios. This was great for my son because he could watch people and dogs walk by and it kept him somewhat entertained while he ate. Chinatown was also walking distance.

While we were in Stanley Park, we ate at the restaurant in the Stanley Park Pavillion, which had a decent kids menu and a nice selection for adults too and it was nice not to have to leave the park to eat.

 

[DizMagic]

I was generally disappointed with the dining in Vancouver. The food was ok, but the service was sub par. For food - there was a little burger place on the water down from the Pan that was really good (with outdoor seating to boot) - service not so good, but food was. We also really enjoyed Keg Steakhouse - that was by far the best service we received the entire week we were there. Food was awesome too.

 

[RedSox68]

We bought discounted 2-day tickets for the pink hop on/hop off buses right outside the Pan Pacific door.

 

[LoveMickey]

We stayed at the Pan Pacific prior to our Disney Alaska cruise. There were 6 of us. Me, husband, nephew, his wife, daughter (4) and son (2 ) Loved it. We took the train (monorail) from the airport to downtown and the Pan Pacific was right around the corner from this stop. We had a stroller for the kids. It was not too bad with the luggage and we managed ok. It was interesting to see the sites via the monorail. We stayed there 2 nights.

We are all east coast folks, so we did not plan a lot due to jet lag issues. First day we just walked around the area of the hotel along the waterside. We saw the hop on hop off trolley right outside the Pan. There s a great food court just across the street from Pan that can be accessed underground from the Pan. Had dinner there, (early night) and breakfast the following morning and the morning of the cruise. Prices at the Pan for food are high.

The next day we walked to Stanley park, kids were in the stroller. It was not a bad walk. We did the aquarium and walked back. We ate lunch at a White Spot. Good food and reasonable prices. We then walked back to the observation tower and did that. Easy walk and good neighborhoods. After dinner we walked to Roboson Street. Lots of shops etc. we just looked around.

On cruise day, the hotel folks brought our luggage down stair to the port for us. This was free, just tipped them.

We loved Vancouver.

Have fun at the Pan. Love that they have elevator mats with the day of the week printed on them.

 

[xlxo]

Thanks so much for the cab info - that's super helpful! We're going to be using AeroCar from the airport since I really don't want to deal with cabs and luggage with the kids, but I expect to be using the busses and the cabs to get around other than that. I am aiming for doing things in the easiest way possible on this trip (traveling with young kids is hard enough already!)

Anyone have suggestions for good, kid-friendly places to eat in the general vicinity of the Pan? Not looking for anything super fancy, but I also want to avoid fast food for the most part.

Thoughts....

• Aerocar at the airport is right beside the taxi stand.... however you pay DOUBLE for aerocar. Unless the taxi's are super busy... I will do the taxi. Aerocar is not much different than a taxi.... they just have larger vehicles like SUV's instead of Priuses and Minivans.
• White Spot is consider one of the better "family" or kid friendly restaurants. It's a significant walk, so I would use a taxi to get there. Check out the "pirate packs".
  https://www.whitespot.ca/menu/bc
• What do others think of Cactus Club for kids? It's a three block walk from the cruise terminal/Pan Pacific.
• There's the spaghetti factory in Gastown.... but reviews have been mixed.

 

[RedSox68]

We stayed at the Pan Pacific prior to our Disney Alaska cruise. There were 6 of us. Me, husband, nephew, his wife, daughter (4) and son (2 ) Loved it. We took the train (monorail) from the airport to downtown and the Pan Pacific was right around the corner from this stop. We had a stroller for the kids. It was not too bad with the luggage and we managed ok. It was interesting to see the sites via the monorail. We stayed there 2 nights.

We are all east coast folks, so we did not plan a lot due to jet lag issues. First day we just walked around the area of the hotel along the waterside. We saw the hop on hop off trolley right outside the Pan. There s a great food court just across the street from Pan that can be accessed underground from the Pan. Had dinner there, (early night) and breakfast the following morning and the morning of the cruise. Prices at the Pan for food are high.

The next day we walked to Stanley park, kids were in the stroller. It was not a bad walk. We did the aquarium and walked back. We ate lunch at a White Spot. Good food and reasonable prices. We then walked back to the observation tower and did that. Easy walk and good neighborhoods. After dinner we walked to Roboson Street. Lots of shops etc. we just looked around.

On cruise day, the hotel folks brought our luggage down stair to the port for us. This was free, just tipped them.

We loved Vancouver.

Have fun at the Pan. Love that they have elevator mats with the day of the week printed on them.

Oh, I forgot the floor mats -- it was a fun feature there. This hotel was probably one of the most convenient we've ever stayed at. And yes, forgot about the wonderful food court underground -- made use of that several times. You'll have a great time! Be sure to visit a Japadog cart -- hot dogs with some amazing choices for topping!

 

[Quellman]

Public transit is very easy to use in Vancouver and never had an issue. They have day passes with unllimited rides/transfers so that might be an option as well. Works for the train, bus, and ferry.

 

[DLgeeks]

For those of you that stayed at the Pan were you able to drop your bags off at the hotel ahead of check in? Our flight will be landing around 10:30 that morning so we'll be in town well before normal check in. I kind of assumed we'd be able to do this without an issue, as my hope is to get things dropped off and then head over to Granville Island for lunch on Saturday.

 

[Snowwhyt]

If you choose the trolley please let me know how it went for you. We plan to use the trolley plan on our trip. PS there's 2 trolley companies maybe more.

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

We were in Vancouver last June for the Alaska cruise. I purchased vouchers for the Hop on Hop off tour online as they were running a "buy one day, get the second day free". We loved it. The first day rode the full loop first to get our bearings and then hopped off at Granville Island and ate lunch at Tony's Fish & Oyster Cafe. Its a little place that was recommended by the bus driver, FANTASTIC fish & chips! We also loved all of the food options at the Public Market. Check out the Doughnut shop and hopefully they have a fritter that you can check out (it was about 12").

With our passes on the Trolley it even came with tickets to take a water taxi to Granville Island (I can't remember where that left from). You can even catch a shuttle to Capilano Suspension Bridge. We didn't do that, but it was an option available.

I was worried about the early stopping time of the trolley, but the driver will tell you when the last bus will be picking up and we just made sure to be back about 10 minutes before that time. We waited to tour around the Pan for the evenings. The walk to Gastown was really easy and there are lots of restaurants to choose from.

One of the other things that we did that we LOVED. We did the Guilty Pleasures Gourmet Food Tour with Vancouver Foodie Tours. We didn't have kids, so that might not work for you, but the tour took us to five different restaurants and we were able to get a great sampling of the food scene. The one place that I would highly recommend with kids would be to hit the Bella Gelateria on West Cordova Street. Its walkable from the Pan. There is usually a line out the door, but the gelato has won awards and it was great! We bought our tickets at the Tourism Vancouver office across the street from the Pan. This was a great place to get maps and suggestions for what to do in the area.

Have an amazing trip. Its a vacation that I would repeat in a heartbeat.

 

[deanimal]

I'm a local so we've never used the trolley but that sounds like a good deal if it goes all the way to Granville Island. If you do wander as far as the Yaletown area (south of downtown, near the big stadiums) you can catch fun little water taxis that go across the harbour to Granville Island. They do a loop and also stop at Science World, the big shiny silver ball that's visible from all over Vancouver. It's a fun place to visit with small kids if the weather isn't co-operating for the outdoor attractions.

 

[Passholder]

I second public transportation (bus drivers are friendly and helpful), Granville Island, and Stanley Park

 

[Aby]

We did the hop on hop off trolley one day in Vancouver and used it to get to the Stanley Park Aquarium. After our visit there we enjoyed the scenic ride through the rest of Stanley Park and back to our hotel. We originally had intentions to get off at another stop, but we were too tired and so just enjoyed the view!

Aby