Help w/ Vancouver, BC

Hobbes

Never been to Vancouver, BC. The Mrs. and I are headed up in Sept. to catch the AC/DC show. Planning on staying for a few days so any help with hotels, restaurants, coffee shops.... basically what's cool to do in your town. Should we stay near BC Place to be close to the show? Any tips and recommendations are greatly appreciated.

RKCNDY

Paging PJ_Soul...Paging PJ_Soul...she lives there, and can help you on the restaurants, coffee shops, (or 'coffee shops'), and other nightlife stuff.

My recommendation is to check out: http://www.capbridge.com/
and: http://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/stanley-park.aspx

There is a poutine shop downtown too, but they were closed when I went there-they didn't open until 11am or something.

My big tip is to wait until you get there to find an ATM to get spending money with your debit card, you won't pay conversion fees. If you use your credit card, your bank will charge you for each transaction, which can get expensive. Currently, the exchange rate is in our favor!

GratefulJam

ask your US bank about what banks to use there so you don't get changed the fees

eeriepadave

PJ_Soul is from there

PJ_Soul

BC Place is right there next to the downtown core, so you really can't go wrong if you pick a downtown hotel. Were you looking to stay in a higher star hotel? I mean, the Four Seasons, the Pan Pacific, the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver... all very nice, all expensive. For a cheaper but nice place right downtown in the entertainment district, try the Ramada Vancouver Downtown or the Best Western Plus Chateau Granville Hotel & suites. Bascially, you want to be somewhere near Granville and Robson, or the Sandman Hotel right across the street from BC Place (just make sure you avoid the downtown eastside - feel free to ask me about a particular hotel before booking to make sure you're not accidentally staying on skid row!).

Coffee shops... Well they are everywhere. You'd probably be best off just walking around and seeing what looks good to you. Yaletown and Gastown both have some cool restaurants and are close to each other and everything else. There are also many places near English Bay around Davie St., and be sure to go to Granville Island market - restaurants and places to enjoy coffee there. Take the little shuttle ferries to and from Granville Island Market - Science World at Main St is a good place to start or end. That's where the seawall begins - you can take a shuttle ferry from there over to English Bay/Stanley Park/Granville Island Market, or walk the seawall for miles, all the way around Stanley Park if you want.

If you're looking to get drunk and party, Granville Street is where everyone does that, lol.

I recommend renting a couple of bikes or kayaks - there are a bunch of places to rent them near Stanley Park and English Bay. Ride or paddle around False Creek and the seawall.

The Amsterdam Cafe is where you want to go if you're hoping to score some weed.

There are a lot of little restaurants on Commercial Drive between Broadway and Hastings - a lot of ethinic places, tapas, etc etc, as well as Belgium Fries, where the best poutine is.

If you're looking for a fine dining experience, try Vij's. OMG, if you like Indian food, this is basically the best place in the world for you to go. For fine Italian, Cin Cin on Robson is amazing. For seafood, the Blue Water Cafe in Yaletown is great.

If you want more specifics, just ask.

RKCNDY

Thanks PJ_Soul, I'll hit you up when I go (which might be in the next few months).

Wobbie

Take lots of money....it's expensive as hell....but a real cool place.

Halifax2TheMax

Try Cafe Medina at 556 Beatty Street for breakfast. If you go, get the breakfast that is served in an iron skillet. It was the first and only breakfast I've ever had where the last bite was as hot as the first. Damn near burned my mouth on the last bite too. They also have some of the best wood matches I've ever snagged in a bar/restaurant.

Stay at the Fairmont down on the water if you can swing it. Awesome views and if you're going before the high season, it might be reasonable. Even if it's a little more than other options it'll be worth it. They have BMWs or Benzs at your disposal to give you ride wherever you want to go. Just ask the doorman on your way out and you might have to wait a bit but for the price of tipping the driver, it's well worth it. They'll even pick you up again from wherever you end up. They'll give you a card with the number to call when you're ready.. What you might save on cab fare or transit cost might offset the difference in room cost.

Check out the Vancouver Art Museum if you're into that kind of thing. A nice permanent exhibit on native peoples' art and history, particularly the totem pole carvers, tools and what it all means. Very, very cool.

Walk along the waterfront down the left side out to the park and marina area. Pretty cool to see wildlife and huge ocean going tankers against a mountain backdrop.

Walking from the museum back to the hotel on the left hand side of the street there is a bar that has the name, look and feel of a private club but the public is welcome. They serve Red Truck beer on tap which is excellent in my opinion. The bartender I chatted with does photo tours with a photography club like we do Pearl Jam tours. He gave me two Red Truck pint glasses to take home. Cool place.

Have fun, enjoy the city. I'm definitely going back if given the chance.

Empty Glass

Start of the Canadian leg of Degenerate-a-palooza

hedonist

I LOVED Vancouver! Some of nicest people ever and a beautiful city.

Wish I could remember the name of the place, but one of my evenings there, I had a solo dinner at a well-known restaurant (steakhouse? Maybe with Harry in the name? This was years ago), it seemed like a converted home. Seated by the fireplace and the best service. AND food.

PJ_Soul, paging you again!

oftenreading

We go over several times a year and have fun checking out different hotels. You'll never run out of hotels in Vancouver. For nice ones that usually aren't as expensive as the biggies like the Fairmont I'd recommend L'Hermitage (supposedly the #1 ranked hotel in Vancouver), the St. Regis, Le Soleil, or Opus. PJ_Soul's restaurant recommendations are good - I'd add Lupo in Yaletown, Chambar (Belgian, so a good choice if you are a beer fan), and even Bishops, which is in the Kitsilano area if you happen to get over there.

Hobbes

Thanks everyone for the help. A couple more questions...

We love to zipline and are thinking of going to the one on Grouse Mountain. Has anyone been up there?

I have heard some horror stories about border crossing. Like taking 5 to 6 hours. Also have heard people breezing through in 15 mins. What has been your experience?

PJ_Soul

Hobbes said:

Thanks everyone for the help. A couple more questions...

We love to zipline and are thinking of going to the one on Grouse Mountain. Has anyone been up there?

I have heard some horror stories about border crossing. Like taking 5 to 6 hours. Also have heard people breezing through in 15 mins. What has been your experience?

If you want the best ziplining experience you should take a day trip up to Whistler instead. But Grouse Mountain is cool for other touristy things in the summer I guess (I'm sure the zipline is perfectly fun too). There is an almost impossible hike up the Grouse Grind, but only do that if you are super fit or are okay with coming close to dying, hahaha. Up top there is a restaurant, wolves and bears, a birds of prey show, a lumberjack show, etc. There is a gondola you can take both up and down, which is kinda fun. But seriously, Whistler is better is all ways, so I'd go there instead if I were you. Beside ziplining, you could go white water rafting, ATVing, etc. It's only about a 1.5 hour drive from downtown Vancouver (there are frequent buses going up there too, from the old Main Street Train station if you don't want to drive). For that matter, you could take a train up there. But that's pretty expensive.

The border line up can be long, but isn't all the time or anything. It just depends on the time and the day. Try the truck crossing or Sumas crossing instead of the Peace Arch crossing... There are border wait reports on the radio, and on road signs as you approach it, so there shouldn't be any surprises. I have personally never heard of anyone waiting at the border into BC for 6 hours, but I suppose it's happened once in a while. You'd be best off crossing on a weekday. Very early morning is always a better time, like before 7:30am.

BLACK35

imalive said:

Take lots of money....it's expensive as hell....but a real cool place.

Wont be that bad considering the exchange rate right now. $100 US will get you about $125 Canadian

oftenreading

PJ_Soul said:

Hobbes said:

Thanks everyone for the help. A couple more questions...

We love to zipline and are thinking of going to the one on Grouse Mountain. Has anyone been up there?

I have heard some horror stories about border crossing. Like taking 5 to 6 hours. Also have heard people breezing through in 15 mins. What has been your experience?

If you want the best ziplining experience you should take a day trip up to Whistler instead. But Grouse Mountain is cool for other touristy things in the summer I guess (I'm sure the zipline is perfectly fun too). There is an almost impossible hike up the Grouse Grind, but only do that if you are super fit or are okay with coming close to dying, hahaha. Up top there is a restaurant, wolves and bears, a birds of prey show, a lumberjack show, etc. There is a gondola you can take both up and down, which is kinda fun. But seriously, Whistler is better is all ways, so I'd go there instead if I were you. Beside ziplining, you could go white water rafting, ATVing, etc. It's only about a 1.5 hour drive from downtown Vancouver (there are frequent buses going up there too, from the old Main Street Train station if you don't want to drive). For that matter, you could take a train up there. But that's pretty expensive.

The border line up can be long, but isn't all the time or anything. It just depends on the time and the day. Try the truck crossing or Sumas crossing instead of the Peace Arch crossing... There are border wait reports on the radio, and on road signs as you approach it, so there shouldn't be any surprises. I have personally never heard of anyone waiting at the border into BC for 6 hours, but I suppose it's happened once in a while. You'd be best off crossing on a weekday. Very early morning is always a better time, like before 7:30am.

Yes, as long as you avoid the obvious ones like long weekends, the border crossing should be fine.

I love Whistler, but if you only have a few short days in the Vancouver area then Grouse is just fine, since there is so much to do in Vancouver alone that you might not want to be gone that long.

Hobbes

Thanks again for the info. I've found a couple of websites that update border crossing wait times. Currently it's 5 mins. It says it averages 15-20 mins. during the week. I'll have to ask dude when exactly he went that it took him 5-6 hours. That seemed crazy.

Whistler looks cool! But having limited time that might be a bit too far. We'll see...

PJ_Soul

Hobbes said:

Thanks again for the info. I've found a couple of websites that update border crossing wait times. Currently it's 5 mins. It says it averages 15-20 mins. during the week. I'll have to ask dude when exactly he went that it took him 5-6 hours. That seemed crazy.

Whistler looks cool! But having limited time that might be a bit too far. We'll see...

I remember one time the wait was something like 3 - 4 hours when I was trying to get back into Canada, but I think it was when the crossing was undergoing massive renovations so hardly any gates were open, and it was at the end of a weekend. But that's the exception, not the norm.