Two days in Vancouver. What would you do?

[darnheather]

I have two days in Vancouver (one before one after) for my upcoming cruise. Any advice on must see/do? Has anyone been to the aquarium in the past year?

Also need recommendations on storing luggage. Luggage Hero maybe?

 

[Cheburashka]

I have two days in Vancouver (one before one after) for my upcoming cruise. Any advice on must see/do? Has anyone been to the aquarium in the past year?

Also need recommendations on storing luggage. Luggage Hero maybe?

Fly Over Canada is like the Canadian Soarin' and is right by the port.

Capilano Suspension Bridge park is very nice.

VanDusen Botanical Gardens are extensive, varied and beautiful. They have a hedge maze, too.

 

[semiswtkindalife]

Fly Over Canada is like the Canadian Soarin' and is right by the port.

Capilano Suspension Bridge park is very nice.

VanDusen Botanical Gardens are extensive, varied and beautiful. They have a hedge maze, too.

Echoing the above and adding:

Stanley Park
Granville Island Public Market

 

[Pens Fan]

Stanley Park is beautiful. We did it via the hop on hop off bus which was basically a disaster. Do not recommend. Still, the park is fantastic and not to be missed - just figure out a different way to get there.

Granville Island was the sleeper hit of our stay there. We loved this so much!!

We stayed at the Marriott Pinnacle which was a short walk to the cruise pier and we loved just hanging out down at Canada place watching the float planes come in and looking at all the cruise ships in port. We also loved both of the restaurants down there by the Olympic cauldron.

I'd actually forgotten about Fly Over Canada until I saw it mentioned above which we enjoyed. As said, it's basically Soarin' with Canada scenes. Kind of a hoot for Disney fans.

 

[shosh1530]

We had two days in Vancouver before our cruise and one day after last summer. We visited Stanley Park, spent time on the beach in English Bay (where we were staying) and went to the aquarium (also at Stanley Park).

My favorite was renting bikes and riding along the sea wall at Stanley Park. We spent about 2 hours. The views were gorgeous and it was an easy ride even for my 11 year old.

We had planned to go to Grouse Mountain on our disembarkation day but it was really rainy with poor visibility so we did the aquarium instead. It is a top-notch facility, but was pretty crowded on a rainy Saturday. I think I would have enjoyed it more before the cruise rather than on disembarkation.

Enjoy!

 

[jdb in AZ]

As mentioned above, Capilano Suspension Bridge is a must see. https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=capilano+suspension+bridge+images&fr=yhs-trp-016&type=Y139_F163_202973_090120&hspart=trp&hsimp=yhs-016&imgurl=https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OgCpBGjP1z8/VNuYlKR-9VI/AAAAAAAAJRM/1oUOZxcfD68/s1600/Capilano%2BSuspension%2BBridge2.jpg#id=9&iurl=https://www.vancouverplanner.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/capilano-suspension-bridge-8.jpeg&action=click

Granville Park has so many shops to explore you could easily spend a whole day sampling all the food there, but Stanley Park is also beautiful. You won't run out of things to do in Vancouver.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

Stanley Park-rent bikes and just meander...

 

[PsylockeSmythe]

Stanley Park and the Aquarium would be our choice.

Psy

 

[serrem2]

We wound up with three extra days in Vancouver after our 2019 Alaska cruise because a hurricane had shut Orlando Airport. We did Stanley Park (and loved it). One day we rented a car and drove to Whistler through some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen.

 

[Budzooka]

We did a day trip to Whistler and it was awesome. Stopped at a couple of spots along the way and so much to see at Whistler. Was the highlight of our 3 days in Vancouver before the cruise.

 

[gatorlisa]

If the weather is nice, I highly recommend renting a bike or ebike and biking Stanley Park. We did this last year (with ebikes) and it was a lovely day exploring the park at our own pace. There's a totem pole section worth checking out and the views along the sea wall are beautiful. We took public transportation (bus) from our hotel down to the edge of the park where there are a bunch of shops that offer bike rentals. Vancouver public transportation is convenient and easy to use.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Granville public market and Museum of Anthropology

 

[msmama]

Aquarium is great. Highly recommend. Also agree with Granville island. There's a lot of shops and restaurants and artisans even with no plans to buy anything, it's fun to watch people (we spent a long time in the broom store watching people make brooms).

We did a horse drawn carriage tour in Stanley park which was surprisingly expensive but still fun (it goes through about half the park). We really enjoyed Stanley park but we had a car so it was easier for us to get around. If you're traveling with kids (or, really, even if not) the Science Center was fun (we did it on disembark day while waiting for a late train to Seattle).

 

[anricat]

Grouse Mountain is fantastic. There are so many things to do up there. Capilano was nice, but I felt like Grouse had more to offer. The weather was not great for us, but we still had a wonderful time.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

We had just one day in Vancouver in 2022 and we had a great experience at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.

 

[auntlynne]

We did the HOHO bus a long time ago - when it was an open air double decker? Or maybe converted school bus?

I am also a fan of these bus rides to get an overview of a city. Barcelona, London, NYC, Charleston, and most recently Quebec City come to mind (the list grew as I typed).

Vancouver is a fairly walkable city.

Random shots from our HOHO adventure. I did see the replica of Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid statue at Stanley Park - she was sporting a Canucks hockey jersey.

 

[auntlynne]

Different year, possibly another HOHO. Still didn’t go into any place that required admission. Took photos.

 

[darnheather]

Thank you for the wonderful suggestions everyone. We'll absolutely do the aquarium and either Stanley Park or Granville Island. Looking at the Fly Over too.

 

[tlprice]

In 2022 we did Grouse Mountain, the Aquarium, and Stanley Park. We loved all of them. We had our own car, so it was easy.
We were just in Vancouver again last month and we did Capilano Suspension Bridge Park (we only had about 1/2 a day this time). We went after 5 so it was much less money. It was actually way better than I thought it would be.
My daughter hates big cities so I always try to find activities that are outside the city or more nature like if possible. She loved all of these.

 

[CarolynU]

Granville Island for tourist shopping and if it’s The Summer, street entertainment and some good restaurants. The halibut in a restaurant overlooking the water is fabulous.
Grouse Mountain in the Summer has lovely walking, scenery, the lumberjack show, birds of prey, cable cars, and the famous bears orphaned and raised on Grouse, Grinda and Coola. The views on a clear day are stunning. Taking a float plane trip just as the sun goes down is fun too.