Please help to plan our days after cruise in May

[jtsbusiness]

When we finish our cruise we are going to spend 2 days in Vancouver, followed by a night in Kamloop courtesy of Rocky Mountaineer train, a night in Jasper before going on the Icefields Parkway trip to Banff and then 2 days in Banff before catching our flight home from Calgary.

 

Are there any MUST DOs for this itinerary. There seems so much out there that it is difficult to identify what is really good PR and what we would really hate ourselves for for missing.

 

I am a reasonably active pensioner and my son is a very active 35 yr old. I have told him he can do his own thing as I would really like him to get the most out of this trip, especially as he is so kindly accompanying me. Our budget is fairly limited but if there is something that we really should do, it can possibly be stretched.

 

Hopefully there is a lot of experience out there that can help me as we are coming from the UK and want to make this truly memorable as we are not likely to be able to afford to come back again.

[Urban trekker]

Our BCHAPPYGIRL has a great list of things to do but she is away on an extended trip so until I or someone else finds her list and posts it it will be each of us mentioning some of our favorites.

 

But first a couple of questions - do you know where you are staying - in the down town core or somewhere else?

 

Do either of you have any special intersts - parks, flowers, museums etc.

 

As for things to do - STANLEY PARK is a must as is Granville Island

 

Capilano Suspension bridge and if the weather is clear Grouse Mountain.

 

Gastown - the birthplace of Vancouver and Chinatown

 

A visit to Queen ELizabeth Park and its sunken garden - short bus or rapid transit ride from downtown.

 

These are just a few of the highlites that I would recommend to visitors.

 

Hope this helps

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Urban trekker]

Here's BCHAPPYGAL list of must dos while in Vancouver - not sure if the links will load as it it is copy and pasted.

 

My favorite must do attractions are

 

1) Grouse Mountain – http://www.grousemountain.com – this is a wonderful scenic mountain only about 15 mins from downtown Vancouver. Ride the airtram to the top for lots of fun activities that include a loggers show, birds of prey show, 2 movies (1 about the Vancouver area and 1 about the 2 Grizzly Bears who make their home on Grouse Mtn) ride a chair lift higher up the mountain to visit the wind turbine that generates approximately 30% of the power required for Grouse Mountain Resort and visit with 2 live Grizzly Bears. Thrill to a 2 hour Zip Line Tour. Enjoy a meal in any of the restaurants. Caveat only spend the money to go up on a clear day.

2) Capilano Suspension Bridge – http://www.capbridge.com – this is Vancouver’s oldest tourist attraction and I still enjoy visiting it! Located on Capilano Road just before you reach the Grouse Mountain parking lot. Walk across a suspension Bridge over the Capilano Gorge, wonder the trails thru the rain forest, walk thru the treetops on the new Tree Top Adventure, visit the trading post for a huge selection of souvenirs, watch native weavers and/or carvers at work.

3) Capilano Fish Hatchery is also located on Capilano Road and is a great place to view salmon jumping up the fish ladders to get around the Cleveland Dam. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capilano_River_Regional_Park

4) Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge – http://www.lynncanyon.ca - is also located in North Vancouver and is much less touristy than Capilano but it also is not as spectacular. The bridge is slightly higher above the water but much shorter in span. Located in a Provincial Park this bridge comes with some nice hiking trails and you will find an ecology centre in the park as well as picnic tables and a food concession outlet. Should you choose to enjoy the Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge always cross the suspension bridge first and then hike down the trail to the lower (Twin Falls wooden) bridge to cross back over the Lynn Valley River and return to your car – that way you are hiking downhill rather than uphill. It is also free to visit this suspension bridge!

5) Stanley Park – http://www.vancouver.ca/parks/parks/stanley/ - is the crown jewel of Vancouver's parks. As one of North America's largest urban parks, covering over a 1000 acres and offering an abundance of activities. Enjoy the totem pole collection near the Brockton Point Light House, hiking trails, beaches, water parks for the kids (young & old), rose gardens, miniature train, petting zoo, aquarium –http://www.vanaqua.org – many view points, and several restaurants. During the summer months there is a free shuttle bus that you can ride around the park on.

6) Vancouver Aquarium – http://www.vanaqua.org – is Canada’s largest aquarium and is committed to the conservation of marine life and education. Located in Stanley Park this is a fun place for the family to visit.

7) Gas Town – the location where Vancouver originated. The name is derived from a very colorful character named Gassy Jack who was one of the first settlers in the area and a salon keeper – while in Gas Town don’t miss your photo op with the statue of Gassy Jack and by the Steam Clock. During the summer months there is a free walking tour of Gas Town for times call 604-683-5650

8) At the start of Gas Town is the Harbor Centre Tower http://www.vancouverlookout.com a great spot to start your tour of Vancouver with a birds eye view of the city. Either take the elevator up to the lookout level or go to the top and enjoy a meal in the revolving restaurant.

9) China Town is only about 6 blocks over from Gas Town and is the largest China Town north of San Francisco. While in China Town enjoy a visit to the Dr Sun Yat Sen Classical Gardens http://www.vancouverchinesegarden.com and also make sure you visit the world’s thinnest building it is only 6’ wide!

10) The city of Vancouver has laid out self guided walking tours of 4 distinct historical neighborhoods in Vancouver – Gastown; Chinatown; Yaletown; & Shaughnessy – these walking tours along with a historical introduction to each neighbourhood can be found at http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/plannin...alks/index.htm

11) Granville Island – http://www.granvilleisland.com – is a huge public market area which not only sells fruit & veggies but you can also buy frozen fish to be shipped to your home. Many artists make this their home and you can watch them at work in their studios – making this a great place to buy unique souvenirs. The Granville Island Brewery is also located here and you can stop in for a free tour & tastes. There are theatres for live performances and many fine restaurants. A fun way to get to Granville Island is via the Aquabus – http://www.theaquabus.com

12) Burnaby Village Museum – http://www.burnabyvillagemuseum.ca – is an open air museum with over 30 restored homes, shops, school, church and a 1912 carousel situated on 10 acres

13) Gulf of Georgia Cannery – http://www.gulfofgeorgiacannery.com – is a restored fishing cannery located in the historic fishing village of Steveston (part of Richmond). Here you see exhibits that showcase the history of the fishing industry in British Columbia. Once finished in the museum it is great fun to walk along the fishing docks and see the fishing boats which are selling their catch. There are also some excellent restaurants located here.

14) The Vancouver Maritime Museum located on the shore of English Bay is fun for the whole family with lots of hands on exhibits for the kid in all of us. Here to you will find the ship St Roch which the RCMP sailed from Vancouver to Halifax via the Northwest Passage and then completed the return journey in 1944. You actually get to tour this ship. http://www.vancouvermaritimemuseum.com

15) Queen Elizabeth Park http://www.vancouver.ca/parks/parks/queenelizabeth The 130 acre (52 hectare) park is one of the most beautifully maintained public parks in the world. Second only to Stanley Park in annual visitations, it receives nearly 6 million people a year who marvel at its superior standard of garden plantings.

The park was originally quarried for its rock which served to build Vancouver's first roadways. In 1929 the Board proceeded to acquire the property which had become an abandoned eyesore but still served as the site for two holding reservoirs for the City's drinking water. Dedicated as a park by King George VI and his consort, Queen Elizabeth (the present Queen's mother) on their much lauded visit to Vancouver in 1939.

16) Fort Langley is the restored wooden fort built by the Hudson’s Bay Company as a trading post. It is the origin of British Columbia and was the first capital. This Fort is operated by the Federal Parks Board. http://www.fortlangley.org

17) If you are a wine lover you might want to rent a car and spend a day visiting a few of the many excellent wineries located in the Fraser Valley only about a 1 hour drive from your hotel. Almost all of the wineries offer free tastes & tours. Two of the wineries have excellent restaurants on the premises. This makes for a very fun and relaxing day. Check out the Fraser Valley Wine Association web site for a map of winery locations and a brief description of each winery http://www.fvwa.ca

18) If you are a real animal lover than don’t miss “Mountain View Conservation & Breeding Centre” It is located in Fort Langley about an hour drive from downtown Vancouver. Mountain View Conservation and Breeding Centre is a leading non-profit Canadian facility that breeds endangered species in family groups for re-introduction back into their natural habitat in Canada and around the world. This facility is not a zoo their goal is to breed rare and endangered wildlife and re-introduce these animals back into their natural habitats. Presently Mountainview hosts over 50 species of the world’s most threatened animals and birds. See animals such as the spotted dog from Africa, Giraffes, and much much more. Here you do not wonder around as in a zoo rather you are given a guided tour with commentary on each animal group. Check it out at http://www.mtnviewconservation.org

19) VanDusen Botanical Garden is a scenic 55- acre garden of international renown – a living museum of plants collected from around the world and artistically displayed amidst rolling lawns, woodlands and five tranquil lakes, all in the heart of Vancouver and just 15 minutes from downtown.

Due to Vancouver’s mild climate, plants bloom at the Garden year-round. This same climate creates a unique environment where plants from varying climate regions thrive and grow – at VanDusen you will see plants from the southern hemisphere, tropical areas and the high Arctic tundra along side native species. The Elizabethan Maze (one of only six in North America) provides year-round fun.

20) UBC Botanical Garden located at the University of British Columbia covers 110 acres and includes an Alpine, Asian, Native, Food, and Japanese Gardens. http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org

21) Dazzle your senses when you visit Minter Gardens nestled against 7000 foot Mt. Cheam in beautiful 'Super Natural' British Columbia. One of the most spectacular show gardens in the world! Eleven themed gardens are designed to dazzle the senses with massive displays of artistic floral designs.

Minter Gardens is located 90 minutes east of downtown Vancouver just off the Trans-Canada Hwy. #1 at exit #135. http://www.mintergardens.com

22) Enjoy a FREE walking tour of Vancouver. This 2 hour tour starts in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery and ends at the Steam Clock in Gastown. This tour runs Tuesdays & Saturdays at 1pm and reservations are required. Check it out at http://www.tourguys.ca

 

 

Trust she won't mind me posting this as she did alert us locals that she is away on an extended trip.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Putterdude]

Ut has done a great job with the highlights of the city and not knowing what your budget is I would recommend taking a HOHO one day as it is a great way to see a lot of the city in a short period of time. You also do this with transit and one of their all day passes ($9 and $7 if you are over 65) but you do need to know the system and as transit provides no narration it is not a tour. If your budget allows then day 2 I would be inclined to recommend taking in the Caplilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain, during the season they provide a free shuttle service from several locations downtown.

www.vancouvertrolley.com/

http://www.bigbus.ca/

http://www.vancouverpinkbustours.com/

[jtsbusiness]

Thanks everyone.

 

We are staying at Blue Horizon in Robson Street when in Vancouver and planning to do the Hop on Bus before we go on the cruise, as we have half a day then.

 

The list of places in Vancouver is excellent, and I will certainly take my time looking through that.

 

My son is interested in architecture and a must for me will be Stanley Park. Grouse Mountain and the bridge also sound very good suggestions.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations for Kamloops, Jasper and Banff??

[no fuss travel]

You should post on Trip Advisor to find out about Banff and Jasper as well as Kamloops. Both Banff and Jasper are easy to wander around on your own. They are both resort towns. You can go to the various ski hills and take the chairs up to admire the views. The scenery at Banff and Jasper is incredible and there are lots of local hikes you can take. The hotels usually can give you excellent information on where the local hikes are.

[martincath]

BCHappygal's extensive list posted above by Dennis gives you everything that anyone would say is a 'must do' in and around Vancouver, except Whale- & Bear-watching you indicated you were interested in. On other threads you were looking into Humpback tours from Alaska and asked about seeing Orcas from the cruise ship - if you're keen to see Orcas in the wild then a tour from around Vancouver/Victoria/Seattle is your best option by far. It's not impossible to see Orcas in the Inside Passage, but May is early in the season for them - the Northern pods seem to usually work their way gradually up from Tofino to the Alaskan border, staying much further out than cruise ships usually travel.

 

The Southern pods though pretty much stay between Vancouver Island and the US/Canadian mainland from at least May through October; there are also traveling pods that frequently visit - we were fortunate enough to see a Superpod of all three Southern pods and some visitors, plus a few rogue males on our tour a few years back. All the local companies offer a money-back guarantee because sightings are virtually 100% - you can get tours directly out of Vancouver, it just takes a bit longer to get to the whales than leaving from the island (expect a 5 hour trip rather than 3).

 

Bear-watching is pricey compared to whales - there are only a handful of people doing them so prices remain high. You can guarantee seeing the grizzlies on Grouse Mountain in their enclosure, but if that doesn't do it for you expect to have to get yourself to Whistler (for Black Bear tours from mid-May, approx $189 per person). The grizzly tours I've found tend to be seasonal (August onward), very far from Vancouver (northern tip of Vancouver Island or up around Knight's Inlet on the mainland) or both - and very expensive at around the $300 mark and up.

 

I think you'll be just a little too late for the only Architecture-specific tour I'm aware of - part of Jane's Walks on May 4/5. Heritage Vancouver offers occasional tours on foot or by bus throughout the year, but their schedule isn't available yet beyond May 5 and their tours tend to be very specific rather than a general overview. I believe John Atkin will arange a walking tour for $10 per person, but with a $100 minimum so unless you can find some other people to join you that's a bit pricey (toursbylocals might have some other architecture experts listed, but I've never seen anyone offering what I would call a cheap tour...).

 

I did track down an excellent reference book recommended by a local architect, Exploring Vancouver: the Essential Architectural Guide, which had been long out of print (it's actually being reissued but not until May 15th this year, too late for your per-cruise visit!). This and Google Maps make it easy to plan a walk that includes many significant buildings - I could pull together a route for you if you like, just drop me a note at my gmail account.

 

You mentioned on some of your other posts about your trip that your son is very outdoorsy & athletic - if he's into skiing there's pretty much guaranteed to be slopes open through May (last year you could ski on Canada Day, July 1st!). While he's on the slopes you could use your second free HOHO day (all of the HOHO companies offer a second day as a bonus when booked online, useable within a couple of weeks of the first day) to go see some of the other sites around Vancouver that might not be 'his scene.'

 

Generally useful for cheap tours, dinners etc. is to sign up for Dealgator (they amalgamate Groupon and several other coupon sites into a single daily email) for cities you're going to be spending time in. Dealgator doesn't have (nor do I think any of the major coupon sites do) Jasper or Kamloops specifically available, but the Calgary/Edmonton sites will include some coupons for activities in the Rockies - I know I always see deals for all over BC, Washington & Oregon on their Vancouver feed.

[jtsbusiness]

Wow, thank you for taking so much time to give me such a detailed reply. There is plenty to think about there. :D

 

I hadn't thought about a whale trip, but that sounds a brilliant idea.

 

Thanks for all the links. I will certainly explore them.

[martincath]

No trouble at all - and it just so happens today in Dealgator was this HOHO bargain which might be right up your alley...

 

Fun City Sightseeing - while I have not had personal experience of them, it sounds like they have a live tour guide on the bus (the Trolley has live commentary from the driver, some others use canned commentary) and at < $15 per person it's barely more expensive than a day pass on transit.

 

Looks like they're well rated on Tripadvisor too.

[jtsbusiness]

This is great. Wondering whether to book 2 so we have two days travel. How cheap is public transport? Is this better than using public transport to get around?

[Putterdude]

You can purchase an all day ticket for transit for $9 and $7 if over 65; the issue with transit is that it is not a tour, there is no commentary and you learn nothing about what you are seeing, other than that it certainly works for getting from point A to point B.

I know nothing about Fun City, it was new on the scene last year and shut down for the off season. The other thing I noticed in Trip Advisor was that there were two reviews last year and all of a sudden there has been two postings this month a week apart for tours taken last year:confused: Before booking with them I would want to know how many buses they are operating each day and how often they pass any given stop.

If you do decide to use Fun City I know we would appreciate learning how you made out with them.

[jtsbusiness]

A very good point. Thank you.

 

Perhaps I will just book for a one day tour and will let you know. :)

[jtsbusiness]

Been trying to purchase this but as I do not have a Canadian or USA state/province I cannot complete the form and it will not let me purchase this deal. Does anybody have a suggestion as to how I can get round this? Have contacted them but they say it could be 4 - 5 days before they get back to me!:eek:

[martincath]

When you say you're trying to complete the form, do you mean to register for Dealfind? Or did you get that far and the payment page is asking for a local address on the credit card?

 

If it's the former, then try signing in using your Facebook ID (sign up for Facebook if you need to, they let you join from anywhere).

 

If the latter, try not completing the Province/State field (leave it at the default 'select' value or blank). If it's a compulsory field you can type in, put in your UK County; if it's a compulsory list with a drop-down menu listing only US & Canadian locations then you probably need to find a friend this side of the pond to buy it for you :(

[jtsbusiness]

When I contacted them on Facebook I got a reply to say they only sell to Canadians or USA citizens. No more, no less!! :rolleyes:

 

Now trying the bus company direct.

 

thanks :)

[martincath]

If you're not getting the advantage of the discount coupon, check out all the HOHO websites:

 

http://www.vancouvertrolley.com/

http://bigbus.ca/home/

http://www.vancouverpinkbustours.com/

 

As well as Fun City. The trolley is the only one I've been on personally, and they do have live commentary as well as more stops inside Stanley Park than the others. At least you get the second day free when booking online - and all of these folks should happily take your UK credit card as their business is almost 100% tourists...