Post cruise- weekend in Vancouver ideas

[rmzlvacationers]

Husband and I are going next August for SB Alaska & Hubbard Glacier cruise on Radiance of the Seas. End up in Vancouver on a Friday and plan on staying in Vancouver until Sunday. 

 

TA gave hotel option for Westin Bayshore for $1139 US for the 2 nights.  Not really comfortable with that price just for 2 nights when we will be gone pretty much sightseeing out and about.

 

-Any good hotels not quite that pricey but decent?

-Is staying down the West End (where Westin Bayshore is) the best area to stay in? 

-Would any hotels let you keep your luggage with them the last day after checkout? Our flight doesn't leave until 10pm Sunday.

-We are not really foodie's but more into sightseeing. Do not plan on car rental so what do you suggest for what to see/do for the 2 days?

 

Just beginning my research so all ideas welcome and appreciated!

[Cbtours]

4 minutes ago, rmzlvacationers said:

Husband and I are going next August for SB Alaska & Hubbard Glacier cruise on Radiance of the Seas. End up in Vancouver on a Friday and plan on staying in Vancouver until Sunday. 

 

TA gave hotel option for Westin Bayshore for $1139 US for the 2 nights.  Not really comfortable with that price just for 2 nights when we will be gone pretty much sightseeing out and about.

 

-Any good hotels not quite that pricey but decent?

-Is staying down the West End (where Westin Bayshore is) the best area to stay in? 

-Would any hotels let you keep your luggage with them the last day after checkout? Our flight doesn't leave until 10pm Sunday.

-We are not really foodie's but more into sightseeing. Do not plan on car rental so what do you suggest for what to see/do for the 2 days?

 

Just beginning my research so all ideas welcome and appreciated!

We stayed five nights at pan pacific right at the port. Stunning location. Close to everything. Got a good special

inc breakfast. It was perfect for everything, Walden to Stanley park. All day transport ticket cos us $8.65 ? Aud covered trains buses and ferries. 
 

After our cruise, we didn’t have flight til 10pm so they stored our luggage for $5 each case, for as long as we wanted. we picked them up at 4pm and headed out to airport on sky rail. We had lounge access so quite comfortable waiting.

[Milhouse]

Yup unfortunately, Vancouver hotel prices (particularly downtown) are generally pretty expensive due to a lack of supply keeping up with demand (on top of the local housing shortage).

  

I'm not sure if there's really a best area to stay in as there are pockets and corridors of interesting areas throughout the downtown core.  Plus, if you are mobile, most of the downtown core and vicinity are very walkable IMO though there are some areas that are a bit sketchy.  

Staying by the Westin Bayshore is reasonable IMO as it provides easy and quick access to Stanley Park, the Coal Harbour waterfront/seawall, and Robson Street & Denman Street which are pedestrian lively with shops and restaurants.  

I'll defer to others for alternative hotel suggestions but might be able to add colour about the neighbourhoods.

 

Personally, I think some of the best parts of Vancouver are along the water:  Walking along various parts of the seawall, Granville Island, Friday night Shipyards Night Market, etc.  I think with 2.5 days, you should be able to fill it with most of the big sights around the downtown core and just beyond particularly if you are also going to spend time at any of the paid attractions.  (The missus and I visited a number of the attractions around town as part of an industry event this spring and found many of them very interesting though YMMV as many of them revolved around local history.)

On top of the usual tourist sights, Vancouver typically has a rotating list of annual festivals and events nearly every weekend during the summer.  Note that the first Monday in August is a long weekend and more busy than normal.  

[Heidi13]

20 hours ago, rmzlvacationers said:

Husband and I are going next August for SB Alaska & Hubbard Glacier cruise on Radiance of the Seas. End up in Vancouver on a Friday and plan on staying in Vancouver until Sunday. 

 

TA gave hotel option for Westin Bayshore for $1139 US for the 2 nights.  Not really comfortable with that price just for 2 nights when we will be gone pretty much sightseeing out and about.

 

-Any good hotels not quite that pricey but decent?

-Is staying down the West End (where Westin Bayshore is) the best area to stay in? 

-Would any hotels let you keep your luggage with them the last day after checkout? Our flight doesn't leave until 10pm Sunday.

-We are not really foodie's but more into sightseeing. Do not plan on car rental so what do you suggest for what to see/do for the 2 days?

 

Just beginning my research so all ideas welcome and appreciated!

 

As per Milhouse, affordable and hotel doesn't really exist in downtown Vancouver. In the downtown area, across from BC Place is the non-profit YWCA Hotel. Basic, but comfortable, it is probably your cheapest option. Hotels out by the airport in Richmond are cheaper.

[martincath]

On 11/15/2023 at 11:40 AM, rmzlvacationers said:

...

-Any good hotels not quite that pricey but decent?

-Is staying down the West End (where Westin Bayshore is) the best area to stay in? 

-Would any hotels let you keep your luggage with them the last day after checkout? Our flight doesn't leave until 10pm Sunday.

-We are not really foodie's but more into sightseeing. Do not plan on car rental so what do you suggest for what to see/do for the 2 days?

Mostly I'm going to back up other answers already - the YWCA hotel is the sweetspot for location, quality, safety, convenience at a bargain price (especially if you don't plan to have a car, you have very easy access to several decent bus routes and one SkyTrain line within a couple of blocks, and it's less than half a mile to the nearest station on the other line, water taxis, other main bus routes). There's also a fair whack of reasonably-priced dining options, and full kitchens that mean you can grab nice fresh ingredients and cook yourself a meal (or just a picnic lunch) for even cheaper.

 

Any hotel should hold your bags the day you check-in or -out for a few hours - but you may find that it's more efficient to pay a few bucks to store bags elsewhere depending on your plans, so you don't have to go out of your way to get back to the hotel before heading to the airport.

 

Which location is best - unless you are very picky about your hotel having a view, the best location is the one which allows you to visit your preferred sights as efficiently as possible... so I'd plan where you want to go first, then choose where to stay. Which sights would be best for you though is the real question - two days means still barely scratching the surface, you could not possibly hit up even all the top ten downtown attractions and do them justice. Factor in some more suburban big hits, involving 30+ mins travel each way, and time gets crunched even more!

 

Personally I always suggest that you - and all the folks you will be traveling with - hit up TripAdvisor. When it comes to popular attractions, with 100s or 1000s of reviews, any bias becomes meaningless so you can take as gospel that Joe Q Public's Top Ten list is an extremely accurate, large-sample-size, list of comparative 'quality' of the sights... for Joe Q Public. Hopefully you know your own tastes enough to know that you lean e.g. more arty, less gardeny, love museums, hate science centres etc. etc. compared to Joe Q Public - but those Top lists, and the short articles along the lines of 'a day in' or 'a weekend in' make a great starting point.

 

Pick your personal top five or six things, compare to your travel companions lists - then come back and run those choices past us locals, who have practical 'boots on the ground' knowledge of e.g. the best way to link the sites together, best times of day to hit X or Y or travel between them to avoid traffic, and maybe suggest some smaller, less-well-known things to see and do that would fit well if you're already visiting A, B, or C.

[mjmagee]

Got a very good price at Blue Horizon Hotel on Robson last summer.  Great walking neighborhood with lots of restaurants and shopping.  Not too far from the port and Stanley Park.  Stayed one night post cruise and found a tour company that gave us a deal on port pick-up (indluding luggage) tour of Vancouver and drop off at hotel.  Next day pick up (with our luggage) North Shore tour (Capilano, etc.) then airport drop off.  Very convenient, very good price.  Excellent 2 days in Vancouver.

Marilyn

[Denversail]

I don’t recall the hotel we stayed in but we loved Vancouver. We used the train to get from the airport. We were on a ferry to get to the hotel or cruise port. A nice outdoor market. One of my favorite trips and our pre-cruise stay in Vancouver had a lot to do with that. We also enjoyed some seafood right on the water while there. Enjoy your time there!

[Cbtours]

3 minutes ago, Denversail said:

I don’t recall the hotel we stayed in but we loved Vancouver. We used the train to get from the airport. We were on a ferry to get to the hotel or cruise port. A nice outdoor market. One of my favorite trips and our pre-cruise stay in Vancouver had a lot to do with that. We also enjoyed some seafood right on the water while there. Enjoy your time there!

We stayed five days at Pam pacific on the port! Spectacular and we got a great special. Loved Vancouver 

[martincath]

On 1/28/2024 at 2:09 PM, Denversail said:

I don’t recall the hotel we stayed in but we loved Vancouver. We used the train to get from the airport. We were on a ferry to get to the hotel or cruise port. A nice outdoor market. One of my favorite trips and our pre-cruise stay in Vancouver had a lot to do with that. We also enjoyed some seafood right on the water while there. Enjoy your time there!

Sounds like either the Pinnacle at the Pier (tall, boring, glass tower a few minutes walk from Seabus) or the Lonsdale Quay hotel (pretty much on top of the Seabus), both over in North Vancouver - the outdoor farmers market runs summers and there are restos in the Shipyards area on the waterfront just along the way. Or possibly the Granville Island hotel in Vancouver proper, using Aquabus?

 

If you can recall whether the ferry as a big, boxy, thing full of commuters (seabus to North Van) or a wee tiny 12 seater affair (False Creek Ferries/Aquabus) that would confirm it!

[cluso]

Check out Times Square Suites.  That's where we stayed numerous times and will do it again in September 2024.  Great location.  Decent prices.

Edited February 1 by cluso

[cluso]

On 11/15/2023 at 1:40 PM, rmzlvacationers said:

Husband and I are going next August for SB Alaska & Hubbard Glacier cruise on Radiance of the Seas. End up in Vancouver on a Friday and plan on staying in Vancouver until Sunday. 

 

TA gave hotel option for Westin Bayshore for $1139 US for the 2 nights.  Not really comfortable with that price just for 2 nights when we will be gone pretty much sightseeing out and about.

 

 

 

Check out my input above this.

[Purdey16]

Hi all I’m looking for some advice from you locals to Vancouver, after our cruise we are staying at the Georgian Court Hotel Vancouver for two nights , after reading through some of the tips on here we plan to visit the Dr.Sun Yat Sen gardens, Gastown steam clock, and walking from our hotel to Stanley Park, is this all doable in the time we have ? and do you have any other ideas we could do in our timeframe, and lastly can you recommend a nice restaurant to spend our last night in Vancouver near our hotel walking distance please.

[martincath]

6 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

... we are staying at the Georgian Court Hotel Vancouver for two nights , after reading through some of the tips on here we plan to visit the Dr.Sun Yat Sen gardens, Gastown steam clock, and walking from our hotel to Stanley Park, ... and do you have any other ideas we could do in our timeframe, and lastly can you recommend a nice restaurant to spend our last night in Vancouver near our hotel walking distance please.

Shortest walk to the garden and clock, back to hotel, is ~1.5miles - various other sites could be included on this day's wander easily enough.

 

Walking to the park isn't really a problem if you can handle the above; a little under 2 miles to the Rose garden, even less to the park entrance... it's the walking around the park itself that really adds up! Just the Seawall loop is an extra 8km, depending which interior sites you want to visit you could spend hours and walk miles!

 

Personally I'd take the bus - you can walk to a 19 stop easily (just change the google map to Transit mode) and get dropped off inside the park, and several other buses also stop just outside the entrance on Georgia. Then at the end of the day, if you aren't totally puggled and want to rack up more miles, walk back along the Seawall - e.g. directions from Second Beach

 

There's so much that you COULD do, I'm loathe to make any specific suggestions - two days isn't much time so you really need to consider the kind of things YOU enjoy most and target them. Other visitors on here may reply, and you can Search for 'Vancouver' to get some ideas from past trip reports, questions etc., but honestly so few people use this board on CC compared to broader sites that you will get a much wider opinion from Tripadvisor ratings, which for anything remotely touristy here you can assume are rock solid as any fake reviews disappear to irrelevance among the thousands of ratings for big hits.

 

Resto wise, if budget isn't an issue and you eat anything, I'd suggest that Blue Water Cafe is probably the best overall seafood place, for both raw and cooked dishes, in the city and that's a sensible genre to aim at in this neck of the woods. Top-notch service too, a lot of seriously long-term waitrons. But if you want something more unique, Salmon & Bannock would be a cab ride away but significantly less spendy - so overall you'd probably end up still spending less even with 2 cab fares. Indigenous restaurants are incredibly rare, there aren't any other sit-down ones in Vancouver, and while the service is a bit more casual it's very genuine - while still owned by the original lady and several friends/family work there, there's now a maitre d' and the dishes run a little swankier than back in the day. If there's a few of you to enable consuming an entire King Crab, a very special evening could be had here feasting on your very own, live from the tank, AKC - but unless at least 6 of you are dining, it's going to be frighteningly pricey as crabs can easily run 10+lbs and the meal is priced per pound plus a modest extra pp cost for the veggies, rice, dessert etc., so you could easily be looking at a grand total for a big crab feast and a bit of booze!

 

If none of those jump out at you, I'd really need more details of what you love/hate to eat and what sort of budget you are willing to allocate to your nice dinner!

[Purdey16]

Thank you for your guidance on the restaurants I will look them up on google, we do like fish but cooked and not into raw fish, we love a good steak , price wise is not a problem as we have eaten in some high end restaurants in London etc , so Blue water cafe ( just had a Quick Look) sounds just up our street.

Thank you again for your time and effort in replying , I will continue doing some more research in what else to do in our short time in Vancouver, we usually up and out exploring early in the morning all day long until we drop .

[Milhouse]

I generally find the downtown core and near vicinity pretty compact (and fairly walkable).  However, some parts are sketchier than others.  

Sun Yat Sen Garden, Gastown, and Stanley Park are reasonably done within a day IMO.  Even though there are a lot of nooks and crannies I think the missus and I only spent about an hour and half at the Sun Yat Sen gardens.  YMMV of course.  FWIW, the Chinese Canadian Museum and Chinatown Storytelling Centre are also nearby.  We really enjoyed both but a lot of the draw for us is our affinity towards Vancouver history which may resonate with you.  

 

If you go from Sun Yat Sen Garden to Gastown, caution to the street you take as a few of the streets are kind of seedy.  

 

I would counsel to determine where you want to go in Stanley Park as attractions are spread out over a wide area and some at higher elevation.