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I can only personally comment on the trolley, as with their greater range of stops for the same price I've never seen the point of taking the only alternative (West Coast). You might get the occasional duff driver who lacks local knowledge - but then you also get the occasional hilarious or very knowledgeable one. At the end of the day they'll all tell you something about what you're looking at, a few historic tidbits as well as more current events, and generally provide a useful overview of the downtown parts of Vancouver.

 

On the practical logistics side, popular stops do mean that sometimes there are more folks waiting to get on than a given bus has seats for - if you're left behind at a stop they'll call for one of the 'floater' vehicles if there's one available, but if not be aware that you may have to wait for the next regular one (i.e. worst case is generally waiting a half-hour to reboard). Check the maps, and check Google also - sometimes it's more efficient to get off at one stop and walk to the next stop and see that too before reboarding so you're not standing around waiting for a really short ride (e.g. Rose Garden and Aquarium in Stanley Park, or Old Spaghetti Factory and Steam Clock, Maritime Museum and Museum of Vancouver).

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How are the Hop on Hop off busses? I am stayng at the Marriott residence Inn Downtown. ANy suggestions for a company ?

 

 

I am following this and we are going Sept. of 2018 and decided to stay a day and see the city and then fly out the next day...and we just don't know what to see... so thank you for letting me tag.:cool:

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you might like this then

http://www.visitacity.com/en/vancouver/itinerary-by-day/1?gclid=CO-X3fHt1tQCFcZAGwod6AoEgQ

 

You can add in what you want to do then get a trolley map and see

the route it take to see if it fits- We liked Sun Yat Sen Garden Granville market and stanley park which are all at opposite sides/ends of the main city oh and the must see steam clock !

We had a couple of days and it was a bit rushed!.

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I will be there July 28 to 31st, boarding my cruise the 31st. Right now, I am thinking of a two day pass the 29,30.

 

 

You should say when you are going? Vancouver is notorious for its

Summer Festivals , packed streets and so on. Probably impacts on the busses http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/listings/index.html

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You should say when you are going? Vancouver is notorious for its

Summer Festivals , packed streets and so on. Probably impacts on the busses http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/listings/index.html

'Notorious' seems a rather strong term when talking about a grand total of four weekends a year with street closures that impact HOHO routes (two big road races, Canada Day, and Pride weekend)! There are plenty of annoying events for us since our apartment overlooks the end of False Creek - right now the third and largest Dragon Boat festival weekend of the year has a less-than-stellar band playing - but for most tourists these events are a positive rather than a negative, and they very rarely have any impact on streets since we have so many parks and other outdoor event spaces.

 

 

I will be there July 28 to 31st, boarding my cruise the 31st. Right now, I am thinking of a two day pass the 29,30.

You are lucky to be visiting over the very-popular Celebration of Light's first weekend - which will close many roads around English Bay but not until after the HOHOs stop running anyway. Feel free to join the approx 400-500,000 others watching the free fireworks - and if you want to guarantee a decent seat you can drop some cash on tickets for the seating areas they build. The only downside is that restaurants downtown will be packed - so make a reso for your Saturday dinner.

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Maybe a bit strong -sorry - maybe only 4 days with street closures but

if you are only there for one of those days . . . . . .

We now know when the OP is there and even then there is the celebration of light = 400,000 people? I cant see that they will only be there for the fireworks at 10pm so where are they going to be during the day?? I dont know maybe they are all locals and be at home.

Martincath has already said

"On the practical logistics side, popular stops do mean that sometimes there are more folks waiting to get on than a given bus has seats for - if you're left behind at a stop they'll call for one of the 'floater' vehicles if there's one available, but if not be aware that you may have to wait for the next regular one (i.e. worst case is generally waiting a half-hour to reboard)."

So if you have even more people than normal you would need to plan for that perhaps they have extra vehicles they can use?

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^I'm sure there are plenty of tourists among the attendees, but doubt that there are many who come specifically for this event - in other words compared to any other summer weekend during the day there will not be that many more extra people in the city. Given that we only have just over 10,000 hotel rooms in Vancouver itself (city pop ~630,000) and less than 25,000 in the whole of Metro Vancouver (regional pop ~2.5 million; but many of these towns aren't connected by convenient transit to Vancouver) I hope it's now extremely clear just what a tiny difference a big event makes compared to any old summer weekend tourism-wise - our hotels run close to 100% capacity all through July/August.

 

Even if you assume every room in the area has 2 people, that AirB&B/other non-hotel tourist accommodation had just as many rooms also with 2 people (totally unrealistic), and every single tourist went to the fireworks - that's still at most a quarter of the crowd... and transit/parking data also supports the overwhelming majority of attendees are from the region and further that they mostly arrive from late afternoon onward.

 

Vancouver also handles crowds well - nice wide sidewalks and lots of green spaces, e.g. Stanley Park alone you could drop half a million people into and they'd all have almost 20 square yards each! It really is only when there are tens of thousands all in the same place for a specific event that things feel unpleasantly busy - and even then it's very localized.

 

While I'm not denying that you personally could have had an experience that gave you the impression we're somehow inundated with hordes of tourists - the data simply does not back that up.

 

And yes, the HOHO companies run more vehicles on busy days. They've both been in business many years and they seem to have some idea of what they're doing!

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Well I don't think a Fireworks festival is going to bring so many in the city, that the trolley would be affected.The only reason I might go with another HOHO is because I like being on the top open air deck for pictures. Are these abudnant in the city too?

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Well I don't think a Fireworks festival is going to bring so many in the city, that the trolley would be affected.The only reason I might go with another HOHO is because I like being on the top open air deck for pictures. Are these abudnant in the city too?

Sorry, no - West Coast took possession of the entire bus fleets of all the other competing companies a couple of years ago and repainted them. Very few double-deckers, although there were some single deckers with partially-open roofs (back of the bus was open, front enclosed). Coudn't say what proportion, but it's random which bus type you'll get with West Coast so if you do actually hop on and off odds are you'll sometimes have an open roof and sometimes not. IMO not worth it considering they're the same price as the trolley but have several fewer stops and zero in East Van at all while trolley has three. Big windows in trolley - which open properly - while the enclosed West Coast buses have regular bus windows with minimal openings, so you'll get more consistent photo ops on trolley too.

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I think the open decks are single deckers due to the trolley wire safety.

 

I remember during Expo '86, they had a double decker open top. After a few weeks, they had to close the upper deck around the Expo line to ensure no one stood up while under the high voltage wires.

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How are the Hop on Hop off busses? I am stayng at the Marriott residence Inn Downtown. ANy suggestions for a company ?

 

I love the http://www.vancouvertrolley.com/ Trolley!!! As a local I experienced it when I had a visitor here from Australia and rode it for a full day with her. So many great stops and funner than riding in the big buses! Would recommend for sure.

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Ok, you sold me! I will do the 2 day pass on the trolley! :cool:

 

I love the http://www.vancouvertrolley.com/ Trolley!!! As a local I experienced it when I had a visitor here from Australia and rode it for a full day with her. So many great stops and funner than riding in the big buses! Would recommend for sure.
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I loved the trolley. There are some open windows so you don't have glass in the way. Although I find it hard to take a picture while moving anyway. :) It was fun and informative and gave us a really good overview of the city. We did get off a few times but I only recall one stop where we seemed to have to wait a while for another trolley (I don't remember which one....might have been near Granville Island?). We didn't get off at every stop. We had to leave Stanley Park for another visit, but if you get the two-day pass you'll have time to explore inside the park.

 

Vancouver is a great city. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

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