Vancouver realistic agenda with charter tour?

[Chilly]

You can read about our time in Vancouver here if your interested:

Day 1 - Travel to Vancouver

Day 2 - Capilano Suspension Bridge & Grouse Mountain

Day 3 - Champions League Final & Exploring Vancouver

Day 4 - Stanley Park & Gas Town

 

[mickeyhereicome]

We are renting a car in Seattle and driving to Vancouver. We have 4 adults and 2 children (4&3). I looked up the trolley tour in Stanley Park and it would cost us $160 not including getting to the park. Should we just keep the car? An extra day is only $100.

 

[dizzyr]

We are renting a car in Seattle and driving to Vancouver. We have 4 adults and 2 children (4&3). I looked up the trolley tour in Stanley Park and it would cost us $160 not including getting to the park. Should we just keep the car? An extra day is only $100.

Did you look up just the Stanley park portion or the whole city tour? The prices I saw we much cheaper.

 

[mickeyhereicome]

Did you look up just the Stanley park portion or the whole city tour? The prices I saw we much cheaper.

That was the price I found for just the Horse carriage ride thru the park.

 

[dizzyr]

That was the price I found for just the Horse carriage ride thru the park.

Ok that makes sense. There are the horse rides and a trolley car - the trolley is much cheaper and stops at more places. Not as cool as the horses but much more flexible.

 

[mickeyhereicome]

Ok that makes sense. There are the horse rides and a trolley car - the trolley is much cheaper and stops at more places. Not as cool as the horses but much more flexible.

Which trolley where you looking at? The one I saw doesn't start running until end of June. We are going in May.

 

[jdb in AZ]

We don't live in Vancouver but it's one of our favorite cities to visit (plus we honeymooned in Vancouver and Whistler!). I would absolutely not rush through Stanley Park--it's gorgeous. The totem poles are definitely awesome but there's more to see there. We actually really like the aquarium, as we find it nice and small but very well-kept with friendly employees. DS4 is also really looking forward to the train ride there.

We also spend at least a couple of hours on Granville Island. The shops are very unique with lots of stuff I'd never buy but is super fun to look at. Great toys there too! The market part is fantastic with a wide variety of food. We have one full day in Vancouver and plan to spend it split up between Stanley Park and Granville Island, as dizzyr suggests.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge freaks me out. But you should see it at least once.

We usually just rent a car. It's not too expensive and we've found the city to be quite easy to navigate and the traffic is not overly horrendous like many other major cities. It's nice to be able to follow our own schedule.[/QUOTE]

Can you rent a car in Canada using a U.S. driver's license, or do you need something extra?

 

[jdb in AZ]

You can read about our time in Vancouver here if your interested:

Day 1 - Travel to Vancouver

Day 2 - Capilano Suspension Bridge & Grouse Mountain

Day 3 - Champions League Final & Exploring Vancouver

Day 4 - Stanley Park & Gas Town

i was just looking at the pictures of the Capilano Suspension Bridge. how many stairs are involved? DH has bad ankles, back, plus artificial knees. He's hoping that holding onto the hand rails will be enough help/support that he can give it a try.

 

[meajuly5]

Wow, thank you so much! The tours within the park sound great. There will definitely b a lot o do. I will return the favor and give you all the details on grouse man if we head there. This park sounds amazing!

 

[meajuly5]

You can read about our time in Vancouver here if your interested:

Day 1 - Travel to Vancouver

Day 2 - Capilano Suspension Bridge & Grouse Mountain

Day 3 - Champions League Final & Exploring Vancouver

Day 4 - Stanley Park & Gas Town

Enjoyed your posts very much!

 

[Chilly]

i was just looking at the pictures of the Capilano Suspension Bridge. how many stairs are involved? DH has bad ankles, back, plus artificial knees. He's hoping that holding onto the hand rails will be enough help/support that he can give it a try.

For the actual bridge, not too many, but for the other parts there are quite a lot.

Enjoyed your posts very much!

Hope they helped.

 

[tink too]

Hi Chilly. I've found your TR very helpful also.

I've also taken a special note to try to find an Irish bar near the port that serves a Blueberry Rainbow cocktail!

 

[dizzyr]

Hi Chilly. I've found your TR very helpful also.

I've also taken a special note to try to find an Irish bar near the port that serves a Blueberry Rainbow cocktail!

There is one not too far from the port - not sure if it serves a blueberry rainbow cocktail but I'm sure I can find out for you!!

 

[meajuly5]

I’ve lived here since 1995 and I’ve never been to Grouse so I don’t have any advice on that. I did just look it up and it looks interesting if you can see the bears. Not sure if it is guaranteed sightings or not. I may actually take a trip to see this summer. It’s always struck me as pricey if you weren’t going there to either ski or do the Grouse Grind (hike up to the top).

I have been to Stanley Park and Granville Island many times though and in July with the beautiful summer weather I would spend the whole day at those two places.

One of the most popular things to do in Stanley Park is to walk and or bike the seawall. The entire seawall is about 21km long I think – it takes 2-3 hours to walk the Stanley Park portion. You start at lost lagoon and make your way around the outside of the park.

In Stanley Park itself there is lots to do to keep all ages entertained.

At one end of the seawall is second beach which is a nice beach with concession stands, a playground, washrooms and lifeguards. There’s a floating dock that you can swim out to and dive off of. The celebration of lights fireworks can be seen from there – they are July 27 and 31st in case those coincide with your dates. It’s obviously not comparable to the Caribbean but it’s a nice place to swim in the Pacific ocean.

If the beach is not your thing there is also second beach outdoor pool right beside it. It can get crowded on super sunny days but my kids like to go there for an hour or so to cool off after walking the sea wall. The family rate is $2.67 a person so it’s pretty inexpensive even if you’re only going for a short time.

On another section of the seawall is a waterpark with concession stands and picnic tables. It’s also close to the miniature train and aquarium (more on them in a bit). A little further along is third beach (not sure why there isn’t a first beach!) which is a little quieter then second beach but still nice. There are also concession stands and lifeguards there.

If you don’t want to walk the seawall or if the less mobile members of your party aren’t up for it but still want to see the whole park then they can take one of the horse drawn carriage tours or the shuttle bus. The horse drawn carriage tours are an hour long from start to finish and they can take 20 passengers at a time. It’s fully narrated and stops at the Totem Poles, the Girl in a Wet Suit Statue, the S.S. Empress of Japan Figurehead, and the Rose Garden. It’s $31.99 for adults, $16.99 for children and $29.99 for youth and seniors. If you buy a combo ticket with the aquarium you save $5.00. They run every 20-30 min or so.

The trolley is a 45 minute narrated tour that stops at 15 different places in the park. The family rate is $22.32. It’s a hop on, hop off kind of ride so you aren’t forced to stick to someone else’s schedule. Once you buy your ticket you can get on or off at any of the stops so if you want to spend a lot of time at one place and not at another you can. It passes by each stop every half hour or so. It’s not expensive $8.93 for adults, seniors and youth and $4.46 for child. I won tickets for this once but wasn’t able to use them so I gave them to my parents and they loved it.

There is a mini train there as well that winds through one area of the park. In the fall it becomes a ghost train and in the winter a Christmas train. I’ve done both (the Christmas one we do every year!) I haven’t done the summer one yet but I am going to this summer. It becomes a Spirit Catcher train and transform into Klahowya Village that showcases some of Vancouver’s unique aboriginal culture. At the village there are artisans working you can watch, traditional story and legends at the Story Telling Circle, a 11:00 daily opening prayer and at 2:30 a smudging ceremony (not sure that that is). From June 29 – July 2nd is Metis Nation Day and from July 27-29 its Squamish Nation days. A family pack for the train is $25.00 (up to 4 people). The entire site is wheelchair accessible and the train has a specially designed carriage that can seat up to two wheelchairs.

In Painters’ Circle, landscape artists display their paintings in an outdoor gallery. Closer to the aquarium, portrait artists draw pictures and caricatures. The do black and white or full colour and they usually do them pretty quick.

The aquarium in Stanley park is a nice size. It’s not the best aquarium I’ve ever been to but it’s quite nice. We have been a few times and the kids still ask to go. My youngest just recently did a sleepover there and slept beside the dolphins. I was jealous! It’s sort of in the center of the park – close to the mini train.

There are 4 restaurants at Stanley park – The Teahouse, The Fish House, Prospect Point Café and Stanley’s Park Bar & Grill. I have never eaten at any of them so don’t have any reviews on them.

There are two gardens – the Rose Garden and the Shakespeare Garden

Malkin Bowl (outdoor theatre) does Theatre Under the Stars which is lots of fun - the two shows for 2013 so far are Legally Blonde the musical and How To Succeed in Business without even Trying. They also have outdoor concerts there fairly regularly I believe The schedule should be released soon.

Fresh Air cinemas did free movies in Stanley Park in 2012 and I’m sure they will again this summer but they haven't announced any dates yet. If you haven’t been to one before it’s kind of like a drive in without the car! It’s a perfect way to end the day!

That’s it for Stanley Park – I will work on Granville Island, Denman Street (where you can rent the bikes for Stanley Park) and dining next 

Great info!!!! Lots of fantastic options. Thank you SO much for taking the time to do this.

 

[dizzyr]

Great info!!!! Lots of fantastic options. Thank you SO much for taking the time to do this.

You're welcome - like I said I've gotten so much info from this board I'm happy to give back. I also found out a few things I didn't know so I can't wait to do Granville island to see if there's anything new I didn't know about before

 

[Chilly]

Hi Chilly. I've found your TR very helpful also.

I've also taken a special note to try to find an Irish bar near the port that serves a Blueberry Rainbow cocktail!

The Irish Bar we went to should be easy to find as its by the giant blue teardrop art thingy!

Here's the website:

http://www.mahonyandsons.com/index.php

 

[Cruise]

Can you rent a car in Canada using a U.S. driver's license, or do you need something extra?

Didn't see that this had been answered, so just wanted to chime in. A US license is all you'll need. Well, and a credit card. I've rented a car in Canada a couple of times and didn't have any issues. They may have asked to see my passport as well, but I honestly don't remember as I always travel with it so it wouldn't have been an issued. If you have any concerns, just call the reservation number of the company you're booking with and ask them. They should know the answer without any doubts.

 

[tink too]

The Irish Bar we went to should be easy to find as its by the giant blue teardrop art thingy!

Here's the website:

http://www.mahonyandsons.com/index.php

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, we won't be able to visit the one near the port as we'll have DD with us, but see they have another one near the University that is family friendly. If we're in the area, we'll be sure to check it out!

 

[jdb in AZ]

Didn't see that this had been answered, so just wanted to chime in. A US license is all you'll need. Well, and a credit card. I've rented a car in Canada a couple of times and didn't have any issues. They may have asked to see my passport as well, but I honestly don't remember as I always travel with it so it wouldn't have been an issued. If you have any concerns, just call the reservation number of the company you're booking with and ask them. They should know the answer without any doubts.

For the actual bridge, not too many, but for the other parts there are quite a lot.

Thanks for the help. don't know if we'll rent a car or do public transportation, but DH is game for the bridge -- he'll just have to take it slow.

 

[meajuly5]

You're welcome - like I said I've gotten so much info from this board I'm happy to give back. I also found out a few things I didn't know so I can't wait to do Granville island to see if there's anything new I didn't know about before

Let me know if you head to New England so Icahn return the favor