Post Cruise Hotel, Light Activity, and Local Food suggestions please!

[mathed101]

I have been looking at flights from Vancouver to Orlando for our arrival in Vancouver from our southbound cruise. I really don't want to end a perfectly awesome two week trip with a red eye flight! So...we will stay over night in the beautiful city at a Holiday Inn Express (hoping to use rewards). There are several to choose from but  the Vancouver Airport Richmond may make sense to stay at for an early morning flight the next day plus they have an airport shuttle. Does anyone have experience with this hotel and the neighborhood? Are there other IHG suggestions?

 

Last time we disembarked in Vancouver we rented a car and drove up to Whistler for the day/night because we had a later flight so we didn't spend any time in the city. We did stay one night pre cruise at the YWCA which was nice and walking distance to so many restaurants but we arrived later in the day and didn't get to do anything except walk to the restaurant. What would your best plan of action look like starting from the port? Should we store our luggage and explore downtown? Take a taxi to the hotel and explore the area around it if there's anything worthwhile? We will be decompressing after a full two weeks of non stop excursions etc...so what would you suggest for a light day of activity and good local food?

 

[cruiseryyc]

I would put your luggage in storage at the port, then wander downtown, along the seawall in Stanley Park.  Have dinner and then pick up your luggage (although you might have to pick it up early depending on when they close) and head to the airport hotel.

[mathed101]

6 hours ago, cruiseryyc said:

I would put your luggage in storage at the port, then wander downtown, along the seawall in Stanley Park.  Have dinner and then pick up your luggage (although you might have to pick it up early depending on when they close) and head to the airport hotel.

 

Thank you! Do you have any suggestions for restaurants? How about any favorite places to go to that are unique to Vancouver? 

[martincath]

I agree with CYYC to stash bags and wandering all day, dinner, and only then head to your hotel. The pier itself though is terrible value and has very limited hours, making it the worst possible bag storage option - the Pan Pacific bell desk upstairs is 24/7 and much cheaper so you will be able to leave them there until after dinner.

 

Without knowing diddly about your personal tastes or budget OP, it's hard to make a good resto recco - in general we are probably the best city on the continent for Chinese, close to that good for Japanese (especially Sushi) and do pretty well across most Asian cuisines; if by local you mean more locavore dining on seasonal produce and beasties rather than just located downtown, 'PNW cuisine' is pretty much the norm in any swanky non-ethnic spot - there's definitely enough climatic difference here compared to Florida that you'll have different veg and many different fresh seafood options compared to home.

 

But what we do have that's as unique as food gets is First Nations cuisine - Salmon'n'Bannock is the only sit-down place in the city (a couple of food trucks based around bannocks, Mr Bannock & Bannock Queen, might be somewhere around town on your date too) and I'm hoping that 2023 will mark expanded hours and menu again - they did stay open, but dinner only, the last couple of years and getting hold of their most interesting hunted and foraged items had extra quarantine issues due to some coastal native communities remaining locked down much longer than elsewhere. If 'normality' returns, they'll be able to give you free samples of food that is otherwise illegal to sell to non-native peoples! Downside is the location means having to get a couple of miles across False Creek back to the pier area to collect your bags - the resto isn't big enough to stash suitcases.

 

A few other specific spots: Forage (locavore, nose-to-tail, game meats type spot); L'Abattoir (French methods but local produce, swankiest dining in Gastown); St Lawrence (Quebecois food - extra-fatty, extra-mapley French peasant fare... now with a Michelin star so prices have gone up almost 50% and resos are even harder to get, but to be fair even the new pricing is better value than any starred resto I've dined in south of the border - CAD$125pp for a multi-course menu this good is more than fair and a big chunk of the increase did go to pay staff more); Dynasty (swanky Dim Sum, and if you can get a few people together perhaps even an Alaskan King Crab Feast - we're the only place you'll find LIVE crabs served during cruise season, and while it ain't cheap as you need to buy a whole one it will feed 8 or 10 people!); Chinatown BBQ for a nice, good value old-school lunch or earlyish dinner downtown; Phnom Penh for a ridiculously good value, but VERY casual (shared tables, plastic cloths, brusque if not surly service) dinner of Viet-Cambodian food (seriously, over 40 years open and there's still a queue outside every dinner service!)

 

If budget is at all a concern, I'd SkyTrain out to YVR (go after dinner, plenty of space, but every seat has room under it for a big suitcase and all platforms are nice & level with train floors, RORO your wheely bags easily) then take the included hotel shuttle - a cab will run about $35-40 on the meter to the hotel from around the pier area.

[mathed101]

Thank you so much Martincath!

 

I sort of left the personal choices out of the equation because I am always open to trying new foods etc and really don't want to sway anybody's recommendations. Same thing with budget. Sometimes swanky is swell other times good value is golden! I am not sure which way the pendulum will swing in September but I do know that we love good food and good recommendations based on your experiences! I am so glad that you brought up the First Nations cuisine as I now remember reading about that in preparation for our 2019 cruise leaving from Vancouver - thanks!! Also the descriptions you have used really help me! We like game and Chinese and seafood and... so all of your ideas are really helpful. Chinatown BBQ sounds good too. If you can think of any others please add to it. I am copying everything into a file to share with my family.

[martincath]

19 hours ago, mathed101 said:

... If you can think of any others please add to it.

You're very welcome, glad the first batch was useful; before throwing out any others though I do have some questions to narrow parameters somewhat though:

• What's your approx. date of arrival? (re: seasonal foods; no point suggesting a spot only good for them if you won't be here at the right time!)
• How big is your group? (some interesting smaller restos won't or can't seat big groups at all; others might easily seat a couple as walk-ins, but demand a reso for big groups; in general the bigger the group, the less spontaneously you can can dine)
• Is your group happy to split up? (if not, please answer all the remaining questions from the standpoint of the most-limiting person for each category!)
• Any off-the-table categories of food that you already tried and know you dislike? (e.g. specific animals, specific organs, specific flavours like szechuan peppers)
• Any particular thing you've always wanted to try, as maybe we have it?
• How comfortable are you in skeezy neighbourhoods on foot?
• Dive bars - hell yeah or heck no?
• Food trucks - yea or nay?
• OK using public transit? If not, willing to budget for cabs or should I stick to 'walkable from the pier' distances?
• Happy to walk a mile? three? twelve? uphill?
• Happy to arrange Canadian cash? (a few very local spots remain Cash Only; or since Covid will take Interac - the Canada-specific debit network - but not credit cards)

[mathed101]

• What's your approx. date of arrival? (re: seasonal foods; no point suggesting a spot only good for them if you won't be here at the right time!)       September 17
• How big is your group? (some interesting smaller restos won't or can't seat big groups at all; others might easily seat a couple as walk-ins, but demand a reso for big groups; in general the bigger the group, the less spontaneously you can can dine)       4 Adults
• Is your group happy to split up? (if not, please answer all the remaining questions from the standpoint of the most-limiting person for each category!)     Nope
• Any off-the-table categories of food that you already tried and know you dislike? (e.g. specific animals, specific organs, specific flavours like szechuan peppers)        Super spicy foods and anything with curry
• Any particular thing you've always wanted to try, as maybe we have it?     Antelope, elk
• How comfortable are you in skeezy neighbourhoods on foot?   Somewhat comfortable
• Dive bars - hell yeah or heck no?   hell yeah
• Food trucks - yea or nay?   yea
• OK using public transit? If not, willing to budget for cabs or should I stick to 'walkable from the pier' distances?      Ok using public transit and willing to budget for cabs
• Happy to walk a mile? three? twelve? uphill?    1 - 3 miles good
• Happy to arrange Canadian cash? (a few very local spots remain Cash Only; or since Covid will take Interac - the Canada-specific debit network - but not credit cards)    Okay to arrange Canadian cash if the local spot is utterly fantastic....

What a great list of questions! Thanks so much for asking and I am intrigued by what you will come up with given the answers!!

 

[martincath]

On 3/4/2023 at 8:42 PM, mathed101 said:

What a great list of questions! Thanks so much for asking and I am intrigued by what you will come up with given the answers!!

Slept on this one - given only spicy/curry as a hard limitation, there's just sooooo many options. Even being a Sunday it doesn't knock too many off the list (although the specific cash only, very local spot I was initially thinking of is unfortunately closed Sundays). So I came back around to the crux of the matter - you've only got a day, two meals (well, three if you skip brekky on the ship), maybe a snack/coffee break, so overwhelming you with options just doesn't seem very sensible!

 

Therefore instead of a scattershot 'bunch of good places all over town' I'm going to give you a rough route to follow with some sightseeing options as well as dining spots - everything connects, so if you're in the mood to walk a lot in smallish chunks, you could do it all on foot... but there are also points where hopping in a cab or a bus to skip the longer walks is a good idea. A few Googlemap links will be embedded for your convenience. The wee boats along False Creek also enable skipping sections if you e.g. like the sound of Granville Island and Chinatown, but don't fancy Mount Pleasant/Broadway corridor - both Aquabus and False Creek Ferries let you hop from the Athlete's Village or Plaza of Nations direct to GI, but FCF are cheaper due to their fare zoning ($5.25 vs $7.25 at the moment).

 

First - drop your bags off upstairs at the Pan Pacific, then hang a left and follow the curve of Canada Place. Turn left on Cordova - you'll see Waterfront Station on your left as you walk down into Gastown, which should help at the end of the day as SkyTrain will be convenient to get out to your hotel. Water Street is probably our biggest tourist drag, more souvenir shops than you can shake a stick at, the Steam Clock (gives a little show on every quarter hour with a bigger one on the hour, hordes will throng all four corners of the intersection around these times trying to get pics/vids - if you've never seen it before, by all means hang around and watch).

 

From the steam clock there are a few routes to choose - I'm mapping the least-obvious one here as it goes through a building - as even good ship coffee basically sucks, if anyone feels the need for tasty locally-roasted coffee then Nemesis is just a block out of your way at 302 W Hastings. The Woodwards building I routed the map through is a great example of a very Vancouvery architectural concept (keep facade of old building, plonk a new tower or two on top with a tree), a cool indoor public space (free piano, weird staircase that goes nowhere art installation, photorealistic 2 sided painting above the doorway of the gastown riot back in the day), an iconic sign (the big rotating W on top of the tower is new - the original is in a display case in the alley you'll walk down) and also has both a supermarket (Nester's) and pharmacy (London Drugs) in case you want to shop for Canadian candies, grab some bottled water for the walk etc. 

 

As soon as you peel off Water St you'll leave 90% of the tourists behind - the classic walk is all the way down to Maple Square... but since the Gassy Jack statue got pulled down a couple of years ago, there's really nothing to see except more of the same fake Ye Olde cobbles and cast iron decor that the first block has! Which is why I routed you down onto Pender after the Steam Clock - if you're enjoying Water St by all means continue another block or all the way to Carrall, then turn right and backtrack as needed to catch up with the map locations.

 

Why Pender? Two things that you won't see anywhere else in the world juxtaposed - a totem pole on top of a building (Skwachays Lodge; cross to south side of street and look up - then if you want any kind of First Nations souvenirs, go inside the gallery and buy here, as profits remain with an indigenous owned operation that way and you might even meet the artist as they do an Artist in Residence program) with a Chinatown gate just down the block! Skwachays operates as a regular hotel too - and if you get VERY lucky you might be able to enjoy an indigenous brunch here again by your visit (ground floor cafe space at the back of the gallery, it died before Covid but with now a few bannock trucks and S&B expanding to the airport there's more demand than ever, so I'm quietly hopeful we might see it return... The huge gate across Pender is the second one - the original fell apart, but a metal copy of it was made which can be seen on the next bit of sauntering... a very short walk from the new Gate to the old one (check Streetview) past the Sam Kee building (the thinnest commercial building in the world).

 

The reason I stopped that map where I did isn't to buy stuff in a cheesey gift shop, but because it's right next to the metal copy of the original gate, and also because Google gets confused about where you can actually walk on this block - if the red gate you can see in the Streetview is open, just walk right on in (look down, there's a large inlaid Zodiac on the courtyard surface) past the statue toward the round gate in the wall ahead. That statue is of Dr Sun Yat-Sen - who the park and garden behind the wall is named after. If the red gate is closed, backtrack onto Carrall, head south, take first left into the alleyway instead - this gate is always open when the park & garden are (again, gift shop map point is convenient rather than suggested to buy in!)

 

Happy to spend some money? Head inside the entrance to the garden, enjoy a fascinating guided tour, revel in the insane authenticity of bat-tiles, smashed teacups, real Taishu stone, etc. etc. Or if you want to get a vibe of the place without spending a penny, check out the city park through the round gate (if this is closed, just follow the wall - there's a narrow covered passage that leads to another gate into the park) which shares the same pond. While the rocks on this side are knockoffs imported from Mexico and the tiles concrete rather than artisan-made you can still sit in a nice gazebo by the water looking at lillies and turtles, and Koi if the otters haven't massacred them recently!

 

The Chinese Cultural Centre is on the east side of the park and well worth a visit - suggested donation rather than tickets required - if it's 11am already. From here, jink back up onto Pender - if it's late enough and you're feeling like BBQ for lunch then Chinatown BBQ; if it's too early for lunch then just a snack stop in New Town bakery (their apple pies are quite literally world famous; Ryan Reynolds smuggles them over the border [NSFW]; they are the things that McDonalds Apple Pies hope to become after their deaths; in their pastry religion, the good pies get to be reincarnated as New Town pies😉); if you feel like something more traditionally brunchy, then whether you head across on Keefer or Pender from the garden head south on Main, past where Jimi Hendrix spent a few years hanging with his granny, Nora, who cooked at Vie's Chicken & Steak - now a dirtcheap student residence, but with a weird little copy of the Seattle Hendrix grave monument outside - to the Hunnybee Bruncheonette at Union & Gore.

 

As the name suggests, Hunnybee is a great brunch option - and these two buildings are about the only remnants of Vancouver's African-Canadian neighbourhood of Hogan's Alley. I also stuck a couple of quirky but delicious food options on this map, Crackle Creme (dessert cafe, creme brulee is their big thing but also proper Liege waffles, macarons etc.) and Harvest Community Foods which does homemade noodles and a very short list of other prepared foods to take out or sit-in at their handful of seats (it's mostly a local, organic, grocery store). E. Georgia St, a block up, also contains two heavy-hitters in the local noodles with broth game, Fat Mao and The Ramen Butcher, so if it's a nice day you could grab a takeout bowl from each and have your own noodle review session!

 

If you're craving a Full Irish Breakfast, then Chinatown is weirdly enough a great place for that too - the Irish Heather on Georgia does weekend brunches with both black and white puddings (although they seem to have ditched their soda farls for sourdough these days, so for a more traditional bread head a few blocks south on Main to Johnnie Foxes where soda bread remains available - as well as a barely-portable brekky sammich, probably the biggest in the city, a big slab of baguette stuffed full of unhealthy meats!) Unless you fancy an Irish brekky though, this would be the time to hop a bus - anything going southbound on Main (003, 008, 019) takes you up the hill into Mount Pleasant.

 

Option - before, or instead of, Mount Pleasant you can pop into the newest downtown neighbourhood, The Village, where the athletes were housed in the 2010 Olympics. There isn't really any Olympic stuff left aside from the buildings (now condos and rentals), but there are a fair few restos - Tap & Barrel's original location is on the water here, a great 'meal with a view' option, decent pub grub at not too gougey prices, great beer list. Craft is inside a historic building, the old Salt warehouse, but otherwise has zero to recommend it (craptons of beers, but like 90% of them are boring macro lagers, and a notoriously bad kitchen). It's a nice, family-friendly area to walk through with a few remnants of the old rail line, some nice public art, the Seawall and wee ferries, but in terms of food you're definitely better off continuing up into Mount Pleasant. I like to walk folks through both as a comparison between New and Old Vancouver, stuck right next to each other, while explaining what False Creek used to be like when it was an industrial zone - but unless you organize a guided tour there's not much to actually see.

 

Food-related options in Mount Pleasant abound, very few chains; Main Street was also the original focus of an annual Muralfest for several years - they are more widely scattered across the city now, but many murals are visible from Main itself as you bus up the hill. All are pictured in the gallery here, so if you spot some you particularly like you can see exactly where you need to go to see them live - there are also some neighbourhood maps for mini self-guided tours. This is Vancouver's original suburb - the first neighbourhood built outside the core, the first streetcar line, and many historic-by-Vancouver-standards buildings remain.

 

Popular spots with locals, and the tourists who do manage to get outside the core, include (from south to north heading up towards Broadway) Earnest Ice Cream @ Quebec & 2nd (queues can extend over a block on a hot weekend day!); the Swiss Bakery (does a Cronut by any other name taste as sweet? Find out here, with their Frissants!); Brassneck Brewing (not food, but beer - you might be thirsty after walking up the hill! - although there's usually a Food Truck outside); I'm one of the few people I know who does not frequent Cartems Donuts regularly (I'm diabetic, only treat myself to donuts twice a year, so I stick to Swiss Bakery Frissants here or Blue Star's blueberry bourbon basil brioches in Portland - Cartems are mostly old-school cake-style so just don't quite do it for me). If you're doing this walk out of order and it's evening, then Como Taperia (outstanding Spanish), Bar Susu (quirky as hell, but delish), and The Narrow (basement dive bar, relative bargain drinks and food that's very good Mexican... by Vancouver standards, so don't eat here if you have actually-good Mexican food at home!) all pop into the mix, but if you're looking for a superb locavore dinner, even a possible Elk-serving resto with a little luck, in this neck of the woods then I cannot recommend Burdock & Co highly enough - Andrea Carlson somehow remains among our unsung kitchen heroes despite being one of the hardest-working and best chefs in the city (she also owns - and cooks for - Harvest and Bar Gobo, the woman is a workaholic!)

 

Now we're turning Westward, along Broadway - another chance to hop a bus, as the real big hit is pretty far along (Salmon & Bannock). For most visitors, this is a prime street for eating - worth the annoyance of longterm roadworks as the new SkyTrain line gets constructed - but for your group I'll only suggest a couple of options other than S&B as the Malay, Indian, and most spicier Chinese options need avoided for you guys: Peaceful @ B'way & Ash (hand-pulled noodles, very rare, but be careful as the menu does run spicy - avoid any Szechuan offerings and definitely not the DanDan noodles unless someone in your party does like it hot! If a little heat can be tolerated, and a LOT of cumin, then the iconic dish to have would be the cumin lamb over noodles; their beef rolls are excellent, a classic Northern Chinese dish that's hard to find most places, and they do pretty good XLB too, neither of these are hot-spicy at all; given how rare Xinjiang cuisine is I do feel this is a worthy spot to recommend even with your party's spice issues!) and Dynasty (linked last time around; mostly Cantonese so many not-spicy dishes).

 

Now we're heading back toward the core, via Granville Island - walking down from Broadway isn't too bad, much better than the opposite direction as the hills are very steep here with some sidewalks having actual stairs built in! If you've made it as far as S&B, this map will take you the shortest walking route - and includes a little bit of Seawall. 6th Ave is very much a commuter road, very limited pedestrian crossings and access down to the Seawall, but if you only went as far west as Dynasty you can easily get down through Charleson park to the Seawall. I've used the Public Market as the end point on GI for both, as that's the place most folks want to see - it will be busy until at least mid-afternoon, but more tolerable than peak summer when frankly I avoid the market entirely despite how good some of the butchers etc. are!

 

Lee's Donuts are super famous (if old-school jellies are your thing, this would be the place to go), and there are a ton of food-related stalls selling choccies, macarons etc. as well as more substantial fare. Two breweries (Dockside has the better food and a nice outdoor dining area; GI has better beer IMO), a Sake maker, various 'real' restos for a proper sitdown meal - there's not really any secret spots given how many tourists visit GI, but if there's anywhere I would say gets the lowest proportion of tourists compared to locals it would be Tony's (a very old school, fry a bunch of things from the sea, eat it with your fingers kind of place) or, if you fancy treating yourselves to a lobster or crab picnic, hit up The Lobster Man who will cook a crustacean you pick from their tanks and even sell you cutlery, lemons, bread etc. to go with it if you don't want to walk over into the market to acquire the fixins!

 

From GI back into the core, there's a very convenient bus service (050 has a stop on 2nd Ave, and then takes you to Granville & Hastings, only 400yards from the PP hotel) or you could use the wee boats again to get across False Creek and walk up Hornby street. While normally 4 bums on seats in a cab works out cheaper than 4 bus tickets for short hops around town, GI is a nightmare for slow traffic - it might cost more to drive 500 yards off the island than the rest of the ~2 mile trip - and the indirect routing needed to get up the bridge height makes for probably an average of $20-25, so I'd do the bus myself. A transit day pass would be more expensive than just buying 2 bus tickets and a SkyTrain ride separately (you only start saving with the fourth trip) - weekends it's all just 1 zone fares, so about US$7ppin total, and if everyone has tappable Mastercards/Visas or Apple/Samsung/Google Pay phones you can just tap your cards on buses as you board and SkyTrain faregates as you enter/exit stations with the correct amounts being billed by the system so no need to fiddle with exact change on buses; it's actually more convenient to just tap your cards than to find a machine or shop to sell you a day pass! Note that while the Seabus over to the North Shore is part of Translink, the wee boats on False Creek are private so they do need paid for separately.

 

Total distance looping from the PP all the way back to it is definitely more than you'll want to walk in total, but it's in very manageable chunks - since you'll actually only be sitting down in a couple of the many dining spots listed it's quite doable as a single day wander, especially if you hop in a cab or bus for the uphill on Main and the GI back the PP stretch. If you visit the Sun Yat-Sen garden, maybe after a shortish downtown attraction like FlyOverCanada at the pier or the Harbour Centre viewing floor first, the timing should be pretty good for lunching in Chinatown; pootling around the Village and Mount Pleasants public art, a coffee or beer stop, then along the Seawall or wee ferry to Granville Island (False Creek Ferries also go all the way out to the Maritime Museum, which is almost next-door to the Museum of Vancouver and Space Center, if the weather's sucky and you want to do more indoor stuff) fills your afternoon before you head for dinner wherever entices you the most - if you're up for a multi-location, multi-course meal then the Main Street spots I listed could be turned into a very nice combo as you order a dish and a drink in each and move on to the next (I'd start at the top of the hill and work down myself!)

 

Apologies for the ridiculous length of the post!!!

[mjmagee]

Wow! Just wandered into this as looking for Vanc info.  I say wow again!  What a post!

 

Marilyn

 

[mathed101]

On 3/6/2023 at 6:24 PM, martincath said:

Slept on this one - given only spicy/curry as a hard limitation, there's just sooooo many options. Even being a Sunday it doesn't knock too many off the list (although the specific cash only, very local spot I was initially thinking of is unfortunately closed Sundays). So I came back around to the crux of the matter - you've only got a day, two meals (well, three if you skip brekky on the ship), maybe a snack/coffee break, so overwhelming you with options just doesn't seem very sensible!

 

Therefore instead of a scattershot 'bunch of good places all over town' I'm going to give you a rough route to follow with some sightseeing options as well as dining spots - everything connects, so if you're in the mood to walk a lot in smallish chunks, you could do it all on foot... but there are also points where hopping in a cab or a bus to skip the longer walks is a good idea. A few Googlemap links will be embedded for your convenience. The wee boats along False Creek also enable skipping sections if you e.g. like the sound of Granville Island and Chinatown, but don't fancy Mount Pleasant/Broadway corridor - both Aquabus and False Creek Ferries let you hop from the Athlete's Village or Plaza of Nations direct to GI, but FCF are cheaper due to their fare zoning ($5.25 vs $7.25 at the moment).

.......

Apologies for the ridiculous length of the post!!!

 

 

WOW!!

 

Thank you so much for the detailed and in depth route! You always offer a master class for all things Vancouver and I couldn't be more grateful! 

 

I had to take a break from the details of planning since your post but I am now back at it with Vancouver on my mind and your post was just what I needed to see. 

 

We are looking at an 8:25 am flight on Monday. I originally said that I wanted to stay near the airport but now I am rethinking that given another post that you responded to about the time it takes to get to the airport in the morning. You said that the timing might not be much different at an airport hotel with a shuttle than staying at a downtown hotel and taking a cab. I am actually looking at Vrbo and Airbnb since we are now a party of 5.

 

My first two questions for you are, if you don't mind,... what mode of transportation should we consider to get our party of 5 adults to the airport on Monday morning - taking a cab or the skytrain or a shuttle and does your answer differ given a downtown location or near the airport (not the Fairmont or River Rock)?

 

Third, what time would you suggest that we plan on arriving at the airport?

 

Thanks so much for your assistance!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[martincath]

2 hours ago, mathed101 said:

<snip>We are looking at an 8:25 am flight on Monday....

I am actually looking at Vrbo and Airbnb since we are now a party of 5.

 

My first two questions for you are, if you don't mind,... what mode of transportation should we consider to get our party of 5 adults to the airport on Monday morning - taking a cab or the skytrain or a shuttle and does your answer differ given a downtown location or near the airport (not the Fairmont or River Rock)?

 

Third, what time would you suggest that we plan on arriving at the airport?

 

Thanks so much for your assistance!!

If the flight is to the US (or International) two hours early should be ample at YVR that time of day - you'll be there long before cruisers disembarking that day - and even less if the flight, or at least the first leg of it, is Domestic Canadian. But you know you - if your party would be uncomfortable unless they get to YVR with lots and lots of padding, aiming for 3 hours early will do no harm (CBP will have started work and cleared the first batch of folks who came TOO early by then, bags can definitely be checked at the three hour mark, so everything should be nice and smooth).

 

Most sensible mode of transit does depend where your accommodation is - out in the burbs, not near SkyTrain, realistically you're booking an UberXL or Kabu Plus as local cabs virtually all seat only 4 people even if they are minivans (almost every van is set up for wheelchair users, so only 4 seats are available for able-bodied people). With 5 pax, even if all traveling light you still need 5 passenger seats - so a premium rideshare, even with a modest Surge price, is going to be cheaper than two cabs! Staying somewhere along the Canada Line though? Take the train, it'll save a packet heading to YVR as there are no Addfares, so price will be at most ~US$3.50pp depending on age of passenger (free if you have kids <13!) It will get you there in plenty of time for an 8:25am flight even if you do want to be three full hours early (first train arrives ~5:11am). Time to leave accommodation? Check Google for drive time, no traffic in the 5-6am ballpark so minimal padding required, or for SkyTrain Google will also give walk time to nearest station. Take the first train if at all nervous flyers, or anything up to as late as 6:30am if you're more laid back (max travel time is <30mins from Waterfront, all other stations less, and 90mins is usually plenty in advance for early flights).

 

With 5 people, few hotels work for good value (exception, YWCA Hotel family rooms have 5 single beds and a private bathroom so are perfect; some Condo Hotels like Times Square Suites or Rosedale on Robson should have two Queens or a Queen and a pair of Twins in 2-bedroom units, plus a sofabed so could also handle 5 peeps). AirBnB and other short-term private accommodation does add some complication of legality - we do have licensing, but there are still a lot of fraudulent hosts! Warning signs - anyone with multiple Vancouver properties is a fraud, end of story, it's impossible to be legal under the terms agreed between city and AirBnB etc. unless it's your own primary home you are renting or individual room(s) within that home... but even for Hosts who are cheating, it's a matter of risk tolerance for both the (probably very low) chance of your Host being a cheat  AND getting caught before your stay, but also for any niggling thoughts of 'if they are happy to cheat by not getting licensed, can I trust that they e.g. comply with fire safety law about marking exits, having working detectors etc.?' A downtown condo rental brings more risk of cancellation as if neighbours report a unit is short-term renting then management can levy fines right away if the building has rules against such, which many now do. But if all goes smoothly, provided all the fixed fee costs like cleaning which rack up the per-night costs of a short stay disproportionately still keep the price low, a whole-apartment rental will probably offer some tempting value for a larger group like yours... just go in eyes open, perhaps even Belt & Braces with a refundable hotel booked just in case something goes awry with the AirBnB!

 

Since these short-term lets could be ANYWHERE, be super-careful to check a map - even if you cannot see exactly where they are without making a booking, they always give a ballpark address so you can definitely avoid accidentally booking in the wrong city (Vancouver WA is the worst mistake to make, but even West or North Vancouver BC can seriously hinder your travel plans for sightseeing as they're over water from Real Vancouver!) Come back and ask if you can't easily figure out from Google what sort of 'hood you're considering, and at the very least look at transit options carefully from an intersection within the vague circle a listing says it's within (SkyTrain, Seabus, regular buses etc. are on Google maps with accurate timetables and stop locations so you can quickly figure out whether a 'bargain' rental will involve 90 minutes and a transfer to get anywhere you want to go sightseeing in!