twarren
Well-known member
My wife and I have two free days in Vancouver this week without a car. Any suggestions as to what we might see or do?
Twarren..............
Twarren..............
Two days in Vancouver
- Thread starter twarren
- Start date
A couple suggestions would be Gastown and Stanley Park.
The downtown area is pretty walkable but they also have a good public transit system.
There's also no shortage of great places to eat.
You might also want to take a ferry over to Victoria.
The downtown area is pretty walkable but they also have a good public transit system.
There's also no shortage of great places to eat.
You might also want to take a ferry over to Victoria.
Take the train to Whistler. Still some snow on the ground but the hundreds of shops are open. Everything in the village is within easy walking distance.
Take the gondola to Blackcomb and then over to the Roundhouse on Whistler, then go back down to the Village on the Whistler gondola.
Take the gondola to Blackcomb and then over to the Roundhouse on Whistler, then go back down to the Village on the Whistler gondola.
Jay Sco
Well-known member
When I went I stayed right by Coal Harbour and Stanley Park. Nice walkways right there with some good eating. I also walked all over downtown, on the south of the Harbour. Some decent little shops. There are also a couple little tour boats that will take you out for a few hours. My entire week there I only hopped in a cab once to cross the bridge to 'the bad side of town' as the cabbie put it.
tornadocaster
Well-known member
If you're downtown, go to the end of the line of the skytrain towards the pan pacific hotel, the one with the 5 sails. next door is the sea bus which is part of public transit and it will take you to North Vancouver. To the right of where the sea bus docks is Lonsdale Quay Public Market which has some great delis without having to eat at a restaurant. you can eat on the quay facing vancouver. Great view.
Then in down town go to Granville island another little island under the burrard bridge which is a public market just like lonsdale quay but in the core of downtown. get a pass and jump on the little watertaxis and do a tour of false creek. Dollar for dollar the best way to see downtown vancouver. If you want to explore a bit more jump on the skytrain and go end to end.
No offence to Davefr and C4cruiser, but if you only have a couple of days going to Victoria or Whistler needs a bit more time. Trust me I was born there. Vancouver has the shittiest (I am not editing that or adding symbols to hide the word) drivers and city planners this side of Russia and I don't want to offend Russians. The word "******" was coined in Vancouver (I'm making this fact up for the sake of this post)
After I moved to Alberta I started to appreciate what a beautiful city Vancouver really is when you're visiting or retired.
Cheers
Gio
Then in down town go to Granville island another little island under the burrard bridge which is a public market just like lonsdale quay but in the core of downtown. get a pass and jump on the little watertaxis and do a tour of false creek. Dollar for dollar the best way to see downtown vancouver. If you want to explore a bit more jump on the skytrain and go end to end.
No offence to Davefr and C4cruiser, but if you only have a couple of days going to Victoria or Whistler needs a bit more time. Trust me I was born there. Vancouver has the shittiest (I am not editing that or adding symbols to hide the word) drivers and city planners this side of Russia and I don't want to offend Russians. The word "******" was coined in Vancouver (I'm making this fact up for the sake of this post)
After I moved to Alberta I started to appreciate what a beautiful city Vancouver really is when you're visiting or retired.
Cheers
Gio
Last edited:
dubber
Well-known member
I agree with the above with a limited time frame such as you have stick with Vancouver. On the next trip out there with a week or so you can check out either Victoria or Whistler.
Where are you staying? If your downtown there is lots to walk around and do. The inner harbour is amazing, along with Stanley park. Great shopping as well if your need to please both of you haha. Granville island is another awesome hot spot.
Where are you staying? If your downtown there is lots to walk around and do. The inner harbour is amazing, along with Stanley park. Great shopping as well if your need to please both of you haha. Granville island is another awesome hot spot.
I should further explain, the reason for being in Vancouver is to connect with the Via Rail for the four-day tour back to Toronto. Something I have wanted to do for a long time.
Via had a half price deal on last week and we grabbed it.
Thanks for the suggestions guys. We will take them all into consideration.
Twarren..............
Via had a half price deal on last week and we grabbed it.
Thanks for the suggestions guys. We will take them all into consideration.
Twarren..............
The weather this week is supposed to be beautiful so pretty much anything you do outdoors should be great.
Where are you staying ? I'm a local (and was in Tourism for 15+ years not so many years ago) so would be happy to pass on a few suggestions (restaurants, shopping etc) close by where you are staying if you would like.
When the weather is nice a must do is Grouse Mountain (go to google images and type in "Grouse Mountain Vancouver"). The Gondola ride up the mountain and the panoramic scenic view of the City is spectacular. There are "tours" to Grouse but it's relatively easy and inexpensive to get there on Public transit (take the Seabus from downtown over to North Vancouver and then take the Grouse Mountain bus that's waiting at the bus loop on the other side). The Translink website which has all the schedules and route planner help (which buses to take) is found here : http://www.translink.ca
Most of the local attractions mentioned so far (Stanley Park, Gastown, Granville Island etc.) are probably easiest and best accessed by tourists on one of the local hop-on hop-off city tours. There are a couple of companies in town that run buses around a circuit continuously throughout the day. The cool thing is you can hop on and hop off where you please and pick up the next bus that comes along and continue on. The oldest and probably the best is run by the Vancouver Trolley Company : http://vancouvertrolley.com/tours/hop-on-hop-off . Looks like they have a special on right now where you get a 2 day pass for the price of one. It is a tour so while you are on the bus you are getting commentary on what you are seeing go by.
As mentioned Victoria and Whistler are fabulous suggestions but only if you are willing to give up an entire day to do one of them. Victoria (and especially the ferry ride over to Vancouver Island) would be gorgeous at this time of year when the sun is shining and the Butchart Gardens (one of the highlights of a Victoria tour) would just be coming into bloom. If you think you may want to do one of these tours I would highly recommend these folks : http://www.vancouvertours.com.
Food suggestions : Vancouver has easily some of the best Sushi, Chinese, East Indian and Seafood restaurants of anywhere you could visit. If you are staying downtown make sure to check out one of the local food trucks for lunch. The food that some of these street vendors are putting out is amazing. Locations of the trucks can be found here : http://streetfoodapp.com/vancouver . In case you're not sure what I mean by food truck :
pm me if I can be of help
Where are you staying ? I'm a local (and was in Tourism for 15+ years not so many years ago) so would be happy to pass on a few suggestions (restaurants, shopping etc) close by where you are staying if you would like.
When the weather is nice a must do is Grouse Mountain (go to google images and type in "Grouse Mountain Vancouver"). The Gondola ride up the mountain and the panoramic scenic view of the City is spectacular. There are "tours" to Grouse but it's relatively easy and inexpensive to get there on Public transit (take the Seabus from downtown over to North Vancouver and then take the Grouse Mountain bus that's waiting at the bus loop on the other side). The Translink website which has all the schedules and route planner help (which buses to take) is found here : http://www.translink.ca
Most of the local attractions mentioned so far (Stanley Park, Gastown, Granville Island etc.) are probably easiest and best accessed by tourists on one of the local hop-on hop-off city tours. There are a couple of companies in town that run buses around a circuit continuously throughout the day. The cool thing is you can hop on and hop off where you please and pick up the next bus that comes along and continue on. The oldest and probably the best is run by the Vancouver Trolley Company : http://vancouvertrolley.com/tours/hop-on-hop-off . Looks like they have a special on right now where you get a 2 day pass for the price of one. It is a tour so while you are on the bus you are getting commentary on what you are seeing go by.
As mentioned Victoria and Whistler are fabulous suggestions but only if you are willing to give up an entire day to do one of them. Victoria (and especially the ferry ride over to Vancouver Island) would be gorgeous at this time of year when the sun is shining and the Butchart Gardens (one of the highlights of a Victoria tour) would just be coming into bloom. If you think you may want to do one of these tours I would highly recommend these folks : http://www.vancouvertours.com.
Food suggestions : Vancouver has easily some of the best Sushi, Chinese, East Indian and Seafood restaurants of anywhere you could visit. If you are staying downtown make sure to check out one of the local food trucks for lunch. The food that some of these street vendors are putting out is amazing. Locations of the trucks can be found here : http://streetfoodapp.com/vancouver . In case you're not sure what I mean by food truck :
pm me if I can be of help