McNandez

hello -

Mrs. McNandez and myself are tentatively planning a trip North for late April. So far, the itinerary is as follows:

04/22: LAX - YVR
04/22 - 04/25: Vancouver!
04/26: Amtrak Cascades to Portland, stay at the Westin Portland, meet a friend's baby
04/27: PDX - LAX

Questions:
Is late April a good time to go to Vancouver? We'd be paying cash for this trip, and according to the ITA Matrix, this would be a cheap time to go.

Is this enough time to visit Vancouver? One day too many?

Would we need a car to get around?

In what neighborhood should we stay?

Our Interests: food, beer, exploring nature. We don't have any kids, are in fair to good shape, early and mid 30's. So far I'm interested in seeing Stanley Park, Lynn Canyon Park, and taking the Seabus. I'm sure I'm leaving stuff out.

JumboJet

It's a wonderful city. Your three days should be full.

El Cochinito

My 18yo son and I just returned from a short visit to Vancouver two weeks ago. We stayed at the Sutton Place, a deluxe hotel downtown. We got a very nice twin room with separate sitting area and spacious bathroom for only C$125 per night via Hotwire. There is a fee for the Internet plus a parking fee of C$45/night (valet parking with in/out privileges). The property is well located and the facilities are top notch. I'd stay there again.

In retrospect I'd say a car really isn't required in Vancouver if you are staying downtown or near public transit. The downtown area is quite walkable with lots of interesting shops, quirky bars and plenty of dining options.

The suspension bridge at Lynn Canyon is definitely worth a visit. Not only is admission free, it receives way fewer tourists than the more famous (and pricey) Capilano suspension bridge. When we visited Lynn Canyon there were maybe a dozen if not fewer other visitors with us.

Grouse Mountain is a nice outing if the weather is clear so you can take in the view.

The Museum of Anthropology on the campus of the University of British Columbia is worth a visit; it provides an excellent insight into the aboriginal Canadian people of the First Nations and their cultures.

Stanley Park is one of North America's urban park treasures and you can easily spend a day here. Inside the gift shop in front of the famous Stanley Park totem poles be sure to try Canada's national dessert, a Nanaimo Bar, at the coffee/pastry counter. If the weather is nice you might catch a cricket game in progress nearby or take the time to stroll the seawall for fantastic views. In Stanley Park is the Fish House, an excellent seafood restaurant where I've had dinner on both my trips to Vancouver this year.

Vancouver's seaplane terminal is the busiest in Canada and located near the Waterfront Station public transit stop close to Canada Place. There is regularly scheduled seaplane service to Victoria as well as towns in northwest British Columbia. If you get some cooperative weather consider a sightseeing flight. Search online for "Vancouver seaplane tours" to get some ideas of what's available.

McNandez

Awesome, El Cochinito! Thank you!!

Thanks for the tip on Hotwire; so far, I've only looked at AirBnB's, but I'm hoping that the more I learn about the various neighborhoods, I'll be confident to check out Hotwire or a similar site.

Jay71

IMO, weather in April is a bit unpredictable; still in showery season but can get stretches of clear weather. It's cherry blossom season.

Depending on what you want to see, I kind of think it might be a day too much unless you want to allocate a daytrip heading up to Whistler or Victoria.

Personally, I think it's generally easier to get around by car, particularly to some of the more somewhat remote places. However, transit covers a lot of the city and anywhere near a Skytrain (ie metro) station is easy to get to. The transit website has a decent trip planner tool.

IMO, without a car, you probably want to stay downtown in the downtown core as it is hub of transit & Skytrain, quite walkable, and has a lot of nightlife.
You can stay outside the downtown core if you have a car. Parking downtown is somewhat pricey. You probably won't want to stay too deep in the suburbs as traffic can get pretty congested during rush hour.

Other typical Vancouver attractions include Granville Island, Queen Elizabeth Park, Grouse Mountain (somewhat of a tourist trap), Canada Place/Jack Poole Plaza, Gastown, etc.

Vancouver is a foodie city IMO with lots of diverse places to eat some great food. If you indicate what kind of food you like, you'll get many suggestions. Craft beer is enjoying a bit of a boom in Vancouver too.

gglave

The train is great, but make sure to get seats on the right hand 'ocean' side on the the way south.

No, but if you're able to rise early, I'd take a day and head to our provincial capital (Victoria).

BC Ferries operates large car ferries between Tsawwassen (south of Vancouver - pronounced suh-wassen) to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island (North of Victoria).

http://www.bcferries.com/

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2731/4...89b2e5ca_z.jpg

Downtown vancouver to Tsawwassen is about a 45-60 minute drive, Swartz Bay to Victoria is about 30 minutes. The ferry crossing is a little over 90 minutes. Reservations are recommended for peace-of-mind, but you can also just show up.

Here's my typical day-trip schedule -

- Drive away from Vancouver around 5:30AM, arriving the Tsawwassen ferry terminal at 6:15am-ish

- Board 7am ferry to Victoria, eat breakfast on board in the buffet, admire views of sun coming up in Active Pass

- Drive off ferry at 8:45, arrive downtown Victoria around 9:15.

- Visit the Royal Provincial Museum, tour the Legislature, walk around the inner harbour, take a harbour ferry water taxi to Spinnaker's for lunch.

- Leave Victoria around 3:30 PM for the 5pm ferry out of Swartz Bay

- Eat dinner of board

- Drive off ferry around 6:45, back in Vancouver 7:30 - 8pm.

You can also take an organized tour that follows roughly the same itinerary.

McNandez

Thank you, Jay71 and gglave! That info is super helpful.

I think this time around we're going to skip a day trip, although Victoria looks beautiful!

Due to work obligations, we actually won't be able to go until late May. Flights don't look that much more expensive, and hopefully the weather will be a little warmer then than in April.

We're going to stick to downtown and hopefully not need a car!

As far as food interests go, we're both interested in Indian, and in finding a good place to have tea. Also, great burgers are always of interest!

gglave

Vij's is considered one of the best restaurants in Vancouver.

http://www.yelp.ca/biz/vijs-restaurant-vancouver

(No reservations, so make sure you show up by 5:10 pm)

Note that by May they may have moved to their new location on Cambie street.

Box5

By April, the days will be longer than the nights. When that happens, the days will always be longer than in L.A. On the other hand, when the days are shorter than the nights (October to March), they are shorter than in L.A. Temperatures will be in the high 50's.

Enough time is relative. Some people think you need 2 months to see and experience any city. Others feel the most important sites of any city can be seen in one day, two at most. Think of L.A. See the Hollywood sign, walk around Santa Monica, drive by downtown on the freeway, see the Getty Museum, and you're done....no!

I think you can see much more if you have a car. You could save by not renting a car one day while you see downtown and Stanley Park. Having a car will allow you to see Queen Elizabeth Park, Richmond, Steveston, UBC Museum of Anthropology, Sea to Sky Highway, Van Duesen, Railtown and similar areas, Jericho Beach, surburban shopping (which is similar but different from the U.S.), former Olympic Village housing, various buildings of architectural interests, Maritime Museum and other museums nearby, various obscure historical sites, etc.

The nicer neighborhoods are West Point Grey (roughly near UBC), Kerrisdale, Kitsilano, Shaughnessy, but some of those places have few hotels. Richmond has more hotels.

When you use a credit card, you will give yourself away as a foreigner when you don't have a chip and PIN credit card.

BearX220

The issuing bank shown on the card is a dead giveaway too, but everyone in Vancouver is quite used to American CCs. (It's good to at least have a hybrid chip + signature card, readily available nowadays in the US.) And you will soon get used to the wireless / tableside CC processors in use, tip calculator function onboard, and wonder why the US is so behind.

Jay71

We're going to stick to downtown and hopefully not need a car!

As far as food interests go, we're both interested in Indian, and in finding a good place to have tea. Also, great burgers are always of interest![/QUOTE]

Things to consider for a May trip:
Victoria Day statutory holiday is on May 18.
The EAT Vancouver food show usually runs the last weekend in May.

Vij's also has a food truck called Railway Express that parks downtown for the lunch crowd. My fav is their halibut coconut curry.

I've seen Capstone Tea in downtown issue Groupon deals now and then for afternoon tea that you might want to check for when in town. I've never been so can't recommend or not.

Apart from the US chains like Fatburger, Five Guys, etc, the local burger joints around downtown that are a step up from the bigger chains (McD, Burger King, etc) are places like Vera's Burgers, Romer's Burger Bar, Roxy Burger, etc. Check out the Cactus Club on English Bay; it's not really a burger joint but they have burgers and it's a nice location.

Antonio8069

If you are up a challenging climb/hike, I recommend the Grouse Grind (NB a car is req'd). Also, check out the Granville Market.

Who is we?? I thought McNandez was planning this trip?

Jay71

I messed up the formatting on McNandez's quote in my reply.

i59bravo

The tip calculators built into tableside CC processors handily calculate a percentage on the total including tax, instead of the customary 15% on the total before tax. This has resulted in a boost to tipping overall in Canada almost exactly equal to the underhanded increase. The country comparison chart in this news article shows Canadians now tip an average of 17.1%

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22846846

Before anyone says that we shouldn't begrudge the servers a small increase, I'll point out that the banks charge a substantial ancillary fee to restaurateurs for the tip function, augmenting their own fat cat banquets.

I wouldn't put Canada ahead in this respect.

gglave

Meh, I don't know how 'customary' this was even before the payment terminals with tip calculators.

I always just tipped on the total, as did most people I know.