Three Days in Vancouver

[critterchick]

Hi, all. We just got back from a pair of cruises - LA-Vancouver on the Diamond Princess and a 3-night Vancouver roundtrip on the Sun Princess - with a three day stay in Vancouver in between. I thought I would post our Vancouver doings for any who are looking for stuff to do.

 

Day 1: after disembarkation, we took a cab to the Westin Bayshore. We were staying on Starpoints, and the reservation had been messed up (they showed we were arriving the night before). They were able to find us a room in the tower. Although our room was larger than the room we had in the main building on our last stay, the view was only so-so because we were on the 10th floor & couldn't see over the main building. No matter, there was a Heavenly Bed waiting for us. One note, though - if you are addicted to the Heavenly Shower, make sure you ask for a room with one. Due to water controls, not every room is equipped. The concierge checked with maintenance to see if they had another one lying around someplace, but alas, we had to make do with a conventional showerhead. Such hardship! :D

The room had a coffeemaker (Starbucks, yuck), stocked minifridge at typically high hotel prices and some snacks. The Seawall restaurant served munchies in the bar and a limited pricey menu in the main restaurant. We had one cocktail there, but no meals. In-room Internet access is only available to those with laptops, in contrast to the Westin Grand, which has the keyboard in the room. There is a small, claustrophobic business center where Internet access was $.35/minute, as I recall. We elected to stop in one of the dozens of Internet cafes around the city, where access is as low as $1 for ½ hour.

 

The first day we just walked around Vancouver a bit. We had lunch at the Bellagio, a little cafe on Hornby Street at the corner of Robson. We had breakfast there last time and liked it, so we thought we'd try lunch, and we were quite pleased. DH had pasta bolognese and I had a linguine with chicken. They added some spinach at my request. The cappuccino was wonderful. Lunch was about $30Cdn for the pastas, coffees and 2 diet cokes w/tip.

 

For dinner, the concierge recommended Cardero’s, which is right by the hotel on the waterfront. He called & made a reservation for us. The place was packed and very noisy. The food was good, but it was just a little too loud for us.

 

Day 2: BCHappyGal, who we “met” on the Sun Princess thread, invited us out to her neck of BC for a tour of the wine country. So we stopped at Bojangles for a quick breakfast and then headed for the Skytrain. We walked to the station, which is right outside Canada Place, in about 20 minutes. The Skytrain is very easy to navigate – we just bought an all day pass for $8 Cdn & headed down the stairs to catch the train. Once we reached the end of the line, Ann met us & took us to the Fort Winery for some fruit wine tasting (even though grapes are fruit, fruit wines are made from other grapes). Very sweet wines, mostly for dessert. DH liked the apple, I liked the blackberry port. We picked up a bottle of each plus a bottle of cranberry Klondike. We also had a chance to meet the resident pooch Dakota, a very fuzzy shepherd mix. We then went to Domaine Chaberton for lunch, and tasted a few wines ahead of time so we could decide what to have with our meal. Lunch was delicious, but the portions were HUGE. Ann also gave us a tour of the area – it was the highlight of our time in Vancouver!

 

After we returned to the hotel and had a nap, we were ready for dinner. Did someboday say oink? We again relied on the hotel’s recommendation and went to Ciao Bella on Denham Street, one block from Robson. It was a very pleasant meal and very good pasta.

 

Day 3: We went to the Sun Yat Sen Garden in Chinatown. We had a 2:1 coupon, so only paid $8.75 for both of us. It’s a small place, and easily seen in 45 minutes. After that we took the Storyeum tour in Gastown, which was a little expensive at $21.95 (adult), but gives a very interesting history of BC. The tour takes place underground – you meet your guide on the ground floor, then get into a large round elevator (it looks like it holds up to 70 people) to go underground. The history is acted out and takes you from the First Nation to WWII. We followed the tour with lunch at Umberto’s al Porto, on Water Street. More yummy pasta for me, and DH had a boffo pizza.

 

We then walked back to the hotel and prepared for some strenuous activity – a massage. We normally get one on the ship, but are tired of the Steiner sales pitch, and the hotel prices were far less. They were fab. We then went for a drink at the Pan Pacific Hotel, where an eagle deigned to fly right by us into Stanley Park. We wandered around for awhile and ended up at Joe Forte’s for dinner. We were lucky to get a table, and I would recommend a rooftop reservation if you can get one. It’s an expensive place, a power steakhouse, but I had sesame-crusted ahi that was one of the best pieces of fish I’ve ever had. DH had porkchops that were similarly delicious.

 

On our last morning, we walked to Stanley Park, then over to Capers, a health food market like Whole Foods in the US, for a muffin & coffee.

 

We always run out of time in Vancouver. We had planned to get to Grouse Mountain, but will have to do it next time!

[grouchy]

Come back again and visit!

[critterchick]

We're planning on it, Grouchy! Vancouver has become our favorite North American city to visit!

[dodieh]

Thanks for all the info....we will only have one full day in Vancouver prior to our cruise in July, so will not be able to do all that you did....and ate!..;) The food sounds wonderful....but we will look into doing some of the things you suggested.