Only a partial day in Vancouver before cruise what do you suggest ?

[POF1234]

I would have loved to have come to Vancuver a few days before our cruise, but we are doing a land tour to Denali as well and I had limited vacation time.  So we arrive in Vancouver at 2:30, hopefully at hotel and checked in by 4:30.  I'd like to walk around near Stanley Park.  We are staying at Sheraton Walle - I was thinking of taking a cab to Stanley park and then walking back to Canada Place and meandering back to hotel.  ( finding somewhere for dinner along the way )

 

We will be tired - since we are flying in from Boston, but at least will get a look at some of the city.  next AM, plan to get up early  (6:00 AM ) - walk over to gas town and make our way back to hotel to check out and get to terminal . 

 

Would appreciate any tips or suggestions ( note - DH recently had a foot injury. It's healed - but we are babying it in anticipation of a lot of walking in port - so that's why i thought a cab would be good )

 

Thanks ! 

 

 

[Milhouse]

What day and/or day of the week are you arriving?  You might want to take into consideration sunrise/sunset or special events around town..

 

The itinerary you propose is a pretty reasonable circuit.  You can wander around the east side of Stanley Park with options to visit the rose garden, aquarium, miniature train, totem poles, nine o'clock gun, etc and then walk along the seawall back to Canada Place with a few dinner options along the way.  

 

With consideration to your limited time and a healing foot, it's kind of a shame you can't kind of do the reverse, walking to Canada Place, along the seawall to Stanley Park, walk across Denman to English Bay for the sunset, and then cab it back to the hotel.

All bets off if it rains though.  

[POF1234]

We are arriving on Friday Aug 30. 

 

I'll take a look at your route, I wasn't sure about catching a cab, I knew I could at the hotel.  

 

Any recommendations for dinner. We will probably want a casual pub type place.  Not really into long drawn out dinners.  This is our second cruise, but first time was about 7 years ago.  

[martincath]

A cab certainly wouldn't cost an awful lot, but better value might be making use of local transit - the 19 bus goes right into the park and several others have a stop just outside it. As long as you have a device with WiFi, you can make use of the free citywide #VanWiFi network and easily orient yourself using mapping software (Google has had people walk and bike around with cameras for Streetviews of non-vehicular paths, and also fully-integrates our transit system so it's a good one-stop-shop for deciding if you want to walk a part of your route or hop on a bus instead).

 

I concur with Milhouse that what you've mentioned certainly sounds quite feasible, but I'd be concerned that the foot combined with long walks precruise might be problematic, as you won't know if or when it might become troublesome. That makes me inclined to start with bus or cab into the park as you proposed so that from there everywhere else you go is city streets therefore easy to find cabs & buses if DHs foot starts to niggle.

 

One option to consider - can you both ride bikes? That will take an awful lot of stress off DHs foot, speed your movement, and still allows you to go anywhere that you would on foot. You can sign up for MobiBike - the local bikeshare - for just a day (24 hours - so good next calendar day too) and then have unlimited hops of 30mins or less. Given how many of their bike racks are scattered around - including multiple inside Stanley park these days - it would be very feasible to cycle from rack to rack, walk around a bit, grab another bike and continue to lather, rinse, and repeat your way around town. They come with helmets - use them, it's the law even on dedicated bike paths.

 

Not knowing exactly where you'll be at what time it's hard to push for any specific resto/pubs - but honestly the standard of food in even pretty mediocre chain pubs here is perfectly decent, with things like local salmon, halibut & chips and various Asian dishes the norm across the board. If you're not picky, you'll do fine in any random pub - but if you are on or around the Seawall come dinner time you may as well have a view while you eat!

 

Tap & Barrel are steadily building a deathgrip in the local 'pubs on Seawall with a patio' niche, but fortunately they've also got the best pub grub menu around - despite their many and huge patios giving them a license to print money (even decidedly mediocre food sells if you have a view to go with it) they revamp the menu completely every 3 years so it always stays interesting. If you're feeling a little swankier, Cactus Club Cafe is a 'casual fine dining' chain that has branches at both Coal Harbour and English Bay with views - and no pricing bump compared to their other branches locally (there's another just up the street from your hotel for example).

Edited August 20, 2019 by martincath

[POF1234]

Thanks 

we both ride bikes and that is a great suggestion.  I've looked at both the restaurants you mentioned and they are on my list.  I also looked at a restaurant - very casual serving smoked meats and poutine ( starts with a d ..... ) near us.  

 

After a 6:00 AM flight from Boston, just now sure what we will want to do.  I think we will probably come back this way anyway for a visit.  I really want to see the Chihualy gardens in Seattle sometime as well.  

 

[martincath]

55 minutes ago, POF1234 said:

... I also looked at a restaurant - very casual serving smoked meats and poutine ( starts with a d ..... ) near us.  

 

After a 6:00 AM flight from Boston, just now sure what we will want to do.  I think we will probably come back this way anyway for a visit.  I really want to see the Chihualy gardens in Seattle sometime as well.  

 

Dunn's I wager - personally I'd suggest La Belle Patate on Davie, as it's not really much further to walk and the poutine is vastly superior to Dunn's. I've also never been a huge fan of Dunn's smoked meat to be honest, despite making a huge deal about their hand-carving it's just not as flavourful IMO as Lester's or Schwartz' back in Montreal.

 

Smoked Meat really isn't a Vancouver specialty so if you've had it before in Quebec or even Toronto I wouldn't recommend it here, though if you've never had it so wouldn't know the difference you might like it just fine - if it's primarily the poutine you're after then LBP do actually serve a very authentic basic product as well as a plethora of variations, and when you fling smoked meat into gravy & cheese you don't pick up on the subtleties so much 😉

[Milhouse]

 

Tap & Barrel and Cactus Club are likely your best good and easy options near Canada Place with a view.  That Cactus Club (and the one by English Bay) get pretty busy though so you may want to consider making reservations (online).

 

My favourite poutine downtown is literally a hole in the wall with no seating called Mean Poutine which is only about a block and a half from the Wall Centre. 

Another dinner option is Earl's (Test Kitchen but it's actually a full restaurant) which also only a block from your hotel (but also has a few other locations scattered around the downtown core).  It's another chain on par with Cactus Club and they are also usually busy so a reservation would be handy.  They have a great happy hour before 6pm and after 9pm.  

If you make it to Gastown on Friday night (instead of Saturday morning), I'd recommend the Irish Heather which is a delicious gastropub.  

 

Another Friday night option I love to suggest in the summer is to take the seabus across to the North Shore where you can visit the Lonsdale Quay Market, open to 8pm, and the Shipyards Night Market which runs to 10pm.  Behind Lonsdale Quay there's salsa dancing in the plaza on Friday nights.  The outdoor night market is free, has live entertainment (cover band), a rotation of food trucks, and a great view of the inlet/downtown Vancouver/Stanley Park.  There's also a Tap & Barrel if you want to go that route for dinner.  

[POF1234]

Thanks again, so many options.  I'll need to do some more research