I'm facing a 7 hour layover at YVR, what are the best options to get downtown to do some shopping?

How long should I allow to/from?
How much should it cost.

thanks in advance...

You should allow at least 2-3 hours to be back at the airport for your onward flight. So literally, you would only have 3-4 hours to spare. You must also take consideration the need to come and go which can range from 30-45 min depending on how traffic is on Granville (the main road linking the city centre and the airport). Speaking of which, your best bet in getting to the downtown areaa would be by cab which is approximately $25 CDN each way. And no, you don't need to pre-book your taxi on the way to town but you will need to call in advance for the return trip to the airport.

What kind of shopping do you want to do? If you want the generic shopping mall experience, you could take the free shuttle to the Richmond ("airport") Marriott or Hilton (they're twin hotels). It's about a block to Richmond Centre mall there, and a little bit further to Lansdowne mall. The airport Radisson shuttle puts you very near/adjacent to a couple of malls catering to east asiatic folk (demographically, Richmond is majority chinese). Much less exotic, the airport Hampton Inn shuttle drops you close to a Costco.

As for downtown, much cheaper than taxi is the [url=http://www.yvrairporter.com/]yvrairporter bus[url] at C$18 r/t. You can go cheaper by taking public transit which is C$3.25 each way (C$2.25 offpeak) though it involves a change of bus.

If you are checked in for your onward flight, you'd only really need to be back 1 hour before flight time.

What options other than taxi for the late arrival of CX889 from JFK? The winter schedule has it arriving at 12:40 AM. The last B-98 (or is it B-99) bus to downtown YVR leaves the airport bus stn near Granville at 1:20 AM. Is the taxi really only approx $25? I stayed at the airport Hampton Inn and a taxi was used (broken shuttle) and that was almost $10, that was paid by the hotel.

Pretty miuch only taxi or private limo at the that time of the night. The 98B (99B is the Broadway line) doesn't go to the airport. You take the 100/101 or 401 (I forget which) and change. I wouldn't risk it at that time of the night (not security but being stranded). $25 is a good estimate to downtown. It's about $22 (exc. tip) to the NE part of Point Grey (Vanc. west) or the central part of east Vancouver - both further away than downtown, so $25 to downtown including tip is a good estimate.

Thanks for the info terenz. I might be staying over by the stadium, so I'll budget a few extra $$.

Update: The airport <=> airport exchange service has been updated. A dedicated shuttle bus (like a car rental/hotel bus but sans luggage storage) is being used and runs about every 10 minutes. If you can make the last 424 and the last 98B, it wouldn't be too bad.

I do this trip regularly (live one block from Robson) by cab. Its $25-30 plus tip, depending on time of day.

An update. There is a night bus N-10 which departs the YVR airport going to downtown via Granville until Pender or Hastings. Departs 1:27 am, 1:57 am and 2:27 am and takes about 30 minutes. Actually better than the 424 shuttle and B98 bus. In the other direction the N-10 bus goes to Richmond via the B98 route. It was simple as the CX 889 flight arrived about 30 minutes before hand. Customs/immigration was a breeze at that hour.