Transportation from Ballantyne to hotel near airport

[cardamon]

I need advise.

We return from our RCI cruise to the Ballantyne terminal. We only have one day in Vancover (I know, not enough, but we did precruise travel in Seattle). I would like your advise on the quickest and best way to get from the Ballantyne terminal to our Hampton Inn hotel near the Vancouver Airport. We will have suitcases and carryons from 2 weeks of travel.

I know this ma not be the least costly, but we want to drop our bags and see the city. Ihave already purchased the HO HO trolley tour for the day. Thank you.

[martincath]

Taxi will be the fastest. Should be c.$15 to the Hampton.

[Urban trekker]

Martin - it looks like they are at the Hampton at the Airport not downtown so it will be more like $40.00.

 

Cheers!

 

Dennis

[martincath]

Good catch UT - totally missed the airport mention. OP - consider changing to a downtown hotel (a couple of cab fares usually make up more than the price difference between an airport and downtown hotel in the same chain...) to maximise your time for touring.

[cardamon]

Good catch UT - totally missed the airport mention. OP - consider changing to a downtown hotel (a couple of cab fares usually make up more than the price difference between an airport and downtown hotel in the same chain...) to maximise your time for touring.

 

I know we would have better access and save time with a downtown hotel. However, we have a very early flight the next day, and the downtown prices were just too high after all our precruise travel.

Are there any options besides the taxi? We want the fastest transport to the hotel, and easiest with all our baggage.

Thank you for your help.

[scottbee]

I know we would have better access and save time with a downtown hotel. However, we have a very early flight the next day, and the downtown prices were just too high after all our precruise travel.

 

Are there any options besides the taxi? We want the fastest transport to the hotel, and easiest with all our baggage.

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Ballantyne is one of those places where a taxi really is the best idea. Public options are a bit slim in that part of town

 

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[martincath]

I know we would have better access and save time with a downtown hotel. However, we have a very early flight the next day, and the downtown prices were just too high after all our precruise travel.

Are there any options besides the taxi? We want the fastest transport to the hotel, and easiest with all our baggage.

Thank you for your help.

Shuttles to airport hotels are shared, so unless your hotel is the first stop much slower than a cab - and not really much less $ (going rate seems to be $15pp, versus $40 total for a cab...)

 

The only way you can possibly get there quicker than a cab is to hire a prebooked limo service and pay them to sit & wait for you outside - if you don't pay the $50 Meet & Greet fee, you're going to be lining up just like for cabs... There are no fixed rates to airport HOTELS, just the airport itself, so I assume that you will end up paying more than the fixed airport rate of c. $140 from Ballantyne including tax, required gratuity, M&G fee.

 

The earliness of your flight isn't much of an issue - travel from downtown won't take much longer than the Hampton shuttle early on a Saturday morning, and security/check-in queues are much lighter on early weekend mornings as all those damn cruisers can't get to YVR to start clogging the gates until 8am or later;-)

 

I'm assuming that since you did not say your Hampton rate was nonrefundable, it can be canceled. If you are locked in to a prepaid & nonrefundable rate then ignore the remainder of my note:

 

Even without using Priceline/Hotwire type unknown hotels, Expedia is showing many perfectly good 3*+ well-located downtown hotels for $150-180 a night - Rosedale (full condo suites at Yonge & Robson, within a hundred yards of the actual start of the HOHO trolley route - they wait at the library before driving to Canada Place '1st' stop), Moda (swanky boutique hotel right in Yaletown), 2 Best Western Plus, Holiday Inn etc., etc. Even if you scored the Hampton airport for $100, if you cancel it you can stay in one of the afore-mentioned hotels, break even/save money, and save time. Seems like a win-win-win...

[martincath]

Yet again the lack of PM facility on CC causes trauma - since your most recent post is in this thread, I'm posting here even though it's not directly relevant to transportation Cardamon...

 

You asked a lot about beers & breweries - well on the remarkably good news front, the Vancouver Urban Winery (which has it's own stop on the HOHO tour I know you want to do) now shares their building with an open and well-reviewed brewery! Postmark Brewing are also unique in that ALL of their beers are designed for session drinking - clocking in at under 5% ABV.

 

I'm super-excited myself because if there's one thing I've had multiple conversations with local brewmasters about it's the lack of tasty local session beers. Any idiot can make a big beer with plenty of flavour - keeping flavour with less dense fermentable is much trickier. I hope to get up there this weekend and be able to give a first hand review of the beer (and food, the website is uber-minimalist with no menu).

 

On the bad news front I also found another three breweries I had no idea were operating yet - so it may take me a while to get around them all;-)