Capilano bridge

[gottagoacruzn]

Hey guys, is the capilano bridge worth a visit? Have seen pictures of it an am wonderin about it. Thanks.

[YVRteacher]

Yes, it’s worth it but not on a rainy day.  If you like being outdoors and walking in the woods you’ll enjoy it.  The restaurant is wonderful too.

[Buckeye10640]

10 hours ago, gottagoacruzn said:

Hey guys, is the capilano bridge worth a visit? Have seen pictures of it an am wonderin about it. Thanks.

Loved it. I would go again if ever in Vancouver. Its a bit of walking, but the bridge and the suspended walkways between trees were pretty cool. As someone mentioned, I wouldnt want to do it on a rainy day, though.  

[Gardyloo]

You might want to consider visiting Lynn Canyon Park in North Vancouver, which is not only very beautiful, but also has a free suspension bridge that IMO is a fine substitute for the overpriced Capilano bridge.  The rest of the park - trails, waterfalls, etc. - is quite grand.

 

 

[martincath]

+1 to what GL said. Cap's fine, certainly very pretty, added more bells and whistles over the years, but still we have never returned after our first visit - whereas Lynn Canyon we take all our visitors to. Lynn's only real downside is the lack of a 'free' shuttle to take you there, so without a car you have to spend about an hour each way on transit (to be fair, Cap's shuttle is also a 30min drive each way from downtown) or spend enough on a cabuber that for one person Lynn doesn't have much of a discount...

[YVRteacher]

For a tourist, Lynn Canyon is not easily accessible.

I would choose Capilano Suspension bridge over Lynn Canyon any day.  Way better experience, way more fun, way more spectacular and there’s food (and beverages!)

[martincath]

13 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

For a tourist, Lynn Canyon is not easily accessible.

I would choose Capilano Suspension bridge over Lynn Canyon any day.  Way better experience, way more fun, way more spectacular and there’s food (and beverages!)

Lynn Canyon has had a cafe for decades - it did reopen after Covid closures. Confirmed by both the park and local tourist board on social media as operating within the last fortnight, although with the prior caterers bought out there isn't yet an online menu available to peruse. Bonus - since the primary market is local hikers, not tourists, and the park operates not-for-profit historically prices were both significantly lower and portions more generous than at Cap. Since the previous operators were the pretty-good-but-not-great The Butler Did It who were bought out by hands-down the best large caterer in the region, Culinary Capers (now rebranded as SavouryChef) if anything changes significantly the food should actually be better than it was (and it was pretty good in TheBeforeTimes, especially the brunchy options).

 

As to access, Cap is inarguably easier - or rather more convenient thanks to the extra option of the shuttle - but Lynn is not remotely challenging to get to even for folks in town without access to a car. If you spend some cash, Lynn is just as easy as Cap to reach: hopping in a cab or uber from downtown to Lynn is maybe 10mins more drive time than to Cap, but with nobody else fighting for seats on the 'free' shuttle, and able to do it whenever you want instead of being stuck with the fixed frequency of shuttles (and possibly having to wait 20-30mins for the next one if it fills up before you can get on - on cruise days the Cap shuttles and the HOHO can easily fill all their seats and then some at Canada Place) means that it's probably quicker on average from most downtown hotels to get to Lynn than to use the Cap shuttle. The 227 bus stops just outside the parking lot too, so both bridges have a dirt-cheap public transit option available if folks have more time than money available.

 

TL;DR - Cap is absolutely worth visiting, at least once, and if I were being purely selfish I'd recommend all the tourists go there and never even mention Lynn... but I feel bad failing to mention the much-larger, less-crowded, less-developed, cheaper-to-eat-in, non-profit, publicly-run, more-educational (the Ecology Centre runs lectures on all sorts of stuff and has some interesting info as well as staff on site to chat about e.g. the best trail to choose for your group, and doesn't even charge for entry just asks for a suggested donation of a couple of bucks) Lynn Canyon park. All that's verifiable - but going subjective, the canyon itself is also a metric buttload more spectacular than Cap: comparatively slow-moving water way below in a wide valley under the bridge at Cap doesn't come close to the spectacle of surging whitewater in the narrow canyon at Lynn with rock walls both sides IMO!

[xlxo]

Capilano is my fav attraction to take visitors, go in the morning to avoid the afternoon crowds.  Going an hour before they close is another option.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWm2vgMomrs

 

Come back in the winter when they light the bridge up and it becomes bottomless.

•  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmP7Rc81cTM
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrMFbJvEMdA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDa1d00imTM

[YVRteacher]

On 4/26/2023 at 12:30 PM, martincath said:

Lynn Canyon has had a cafe for decades - it did reopen after Covid closures. Confirmed by both the park and local tourist board on social media as operating within the last fortnight, although with the prior caterers bought out there isn't yet an online menu available to peruse. Bonus - since the primary market is local hikers, not tourists, and the park operates not-for-profit historically prices were both significantly lower and portions more generous than at Cap. Since the previous operators were the pretty-good-but-not-great The Butler Did It who were bought out by hands-down the best large caterer in the region, Culinary Capers (now rebranded as SavouryChef) if anything changes significantly the food should actually be better than it was (and it was pretty good in TheBeforeTimes, especially the brunchy options).

 

As to access, Cap is inarguably easier - or rather more convenient thanks to the extra option of the shuttle - but Lynn is not remotely challenging to get to even for folks in town without access to a car. If you spend some cash, Lynn is just as easy as Cap to reach: hopping in a cab or uber from downtown to Lynn is maybe 10mins more drive time than to Cap, but with nobody else fighting for seats on the 'free' shuttle, and able to do it whenever you want instead of being stuck with the fixed frequency of shuttles (and possibly having to wait 20-30mins for the next one if it fills up before you can get on - on cruise days the Cap shuttles and the HOHO can easily fill all their seats and then some at Canada Place) means that it's probably quicker on average from most downtown hotels to get to Lynn than to use the Cap shuttle. The 227 bus stops just outside the parking lot too, so both bridges have a dirt-cheap public transit option available if folks have more time than money available.

 

TL;DR - Cap is absolutely worth visiting, at least once, and if I were being purely selfish I'd recommend all the tourists go there and never even mention Lynn... but I feel bad failing to mention the much-larger, less-crowded, less-developed, cheaper-to-eat-in, non-profit, publicly-run, more-educational (the Ecology Centre runs lectures on all sorts of stuff and has some interesting info as well as staff on site to chat about e.g. the best trail to choose for your group, and doesn't even charge for entry just asks for a suggested donation of a couple of bucks) Lynn Canyon park. All that's verifiable - but going subjective, the canyon itself is also a metric buttload more spectacular than Cap: comparatively slow-moving water way below in a wide valley under the bridge at Cap doesn't come close to the spectacle of surging whitewater in the narrow canyon at Lynn with rock walls both sides IMO!

You have your opinions and experiences, I have mine. No need to write paragraphs trying to be right.  Usually I have you on my ignored list. Going back to that. 

[martincath]

13 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

You have your opinions and experiences, I have mine. No need to write paragraphs trying to be right.  Usually I have you on my ignored list. Going back to that. 

Well, I guess you probably won't see this then but for what it's worth my apologies if you have felt personally slighted; your opinions are of course your own and whether I agree or disagree with them doesn't matter. I have re-drafted this response a ridiculous number of times now, because I truly do not want to offend you but also I have never been able to just walk away from an argument - I really wish I could, my life would be so much easier, but that just ain't the way my brain works - and I'll preemptively apologize for another long 'un if you do read it. If you don't - well, I've only wasted my own time so no skin off your nose and have happy life!

 

Your writing in your trip reports is engaging, and you genuinely seem like a very nice person from all of the mentions of your dad and your career choices on the boards - heck, there's a decent chance we have even met in real life as I've spent a decade volunteering in Vancouver elementary schools, and if we did I can say with confidence that I liked you as I've yet to meet any teacher-librarian who wasn't a generally-excellent human being who contributes significantly to society.

 

All that said though, niceness does not equal knowledge - when verifiable facts contradict statements made... those statements are wrong. Everyone of course gets their own personal opinion, and even in objective matters interpretation of the facts can vary, but at the end of the day we all have to share the same set of facts.

 

Simply claiming you are wrong would be quick and easy, but if I did that I would feel like I would actually be showing you less respect than by engaging properly in the debate - dismissing you entirely rather than focusing on the specific topic at hand where we disagree, if that makes sense? - as well as further muddying the waters for 'outsiders' who actually asked for help with local info on the thread. Two locals presenting two different and incompatible views is possibly worse than no info provided without more context of how those opinions and experiences were formed about the subjective stuff, as well as what factual info is available on the objective side.

 

I'm very confident that I have established enough of a reputation for providing consistently-correct info that if I just proclaimed "That post is stuff and nonsense!" I would be believed - but I detest the assumption of privilege which is why I continue to point directly to external and original sources as often as possible and go into detail to establish that my 'lived experience' remains relevant to the topic on matters that veer subjective. It also ensures that new members who don't know me from Adam can trust that when I say X, Y, or Z I'm probably speaking from a place of relevance rather than having to guess whether my viewpoint is well-grounded or not.

 

But I've screwed up before, I'll do so again, and I'm not ashamed of that at all - being corrected makes me better. Even spurious attempts to correct me also help as they lead me to double-check my sources for the facts in case I mis-remembered something, and ask myself whether my opinion on subjective matters may need reassessed.

 

Not that you need my permission and you may well have already done so, but ignore me by all means; if you never respond to my posts we'll never end up in this situation again which seems like the simplest option all around - but if you do decide to keep seeing my posts please don't stop disagreeing with me. If you catch a mistake I have made I will happily thank you for doing so - who doesn't want to be better after all!?

[Dan G]

I've been multiple times but for me Capilano is maybe a 90 minute stop while Grouse Mtn on a clear day has so many activities you could spend hrs, so for me that would be my choice.  Both attractions have free shuttles from downtown and Canada Place so compare prices and activities and then decide.

[dawnvip]

+1 vote for Grouse Mountain. Whole family loves going there to see the Grizzly Bears, Raptor shows, and the views. 

 

Depending on how much time you have, you could do both - they are only 5 min drive apart!