Vancouver Travel Guide
Vancouver is young, beautiful and blooming in her lovely natural setting, her mild climate fostering a relaxed outdoors lifestyle that is drawing increasing numbers of visitors to enjoy her hospitality. The city, named for a Royal Navy sea captain who sailed into Burrard Inlet on the British Columbian coast in 1792, was barely even a town 100 years ago. Today more than two million souls call this exquisite spot home, and the shiny downtown towers contrast dramatically with the snow-capped mountain backdrop. Business is booming in the retail stores, chic and unusual shops and excellent restaurants.
The city’s green heart is Canada’s largest city park, Stanley Park, which covers hundreds of acres filled with lush forest and crystal clear lakes in the city centre. The city’s past is preserved in Victorian Gastown with its cobblestoned streets lined with unique shops and galleries. Exotic flair is added by Chinatown, a maze of colourful markets, restaurants and shops.
During the winter months snowsports are the order of the day on nearby Grouse Mountain, perfect for skiing, snowboarding or ice-skating, although the city itself usually escapes a snow frosting and remains green all year.
Vancouver’s diversity and combination of mountains, sea and city bustle, offers families an endless supply of things to see and do no matter what time of the year or what the budget.
Getting Around
The efficient, integrated Translink public transport system is good value and includes buses; electric trolley buses; the computerised Sky Train (light rail) that has four underground downtown stops as well as an elevated track; West Coast Express trains (week days only) and SeaBus passenger ferries that connect downtown to North Vancouver. The network reaches every part of the city, including the beaches and ski slopes. After midnight the regular bus system is replaced by a limited ’Owl’ night bus service on main routes. Fares are based on a zone system and tickets are valid for buses, the SkyTrain and SeaBus with transfers valid for 90 minutes from the time they are validated. Various travel passes are available, but the cheapest is probably the DayPass, which allows unlimited transport and is valid across all zones. Taxis are easy to come by at taxi stands, hotels or by telephone, but can be difficult to hail outside of the downtown area. Vancouver’s traffic and road situation is fairly well-ordered, but hiring a car is not necessary in the city because the public transport is more than sufficient.
Attractions
Chinatown:
Vancouver’s Chinese Quarter is not only a strong, established ethnic community, but also a popular tourist attraction and prosperous commercial district. Its bustling streets are full of colour and commerce; even the pagoda-topped telephone booths add to the atmosphere. Shop displays spill onto the pavements, tables groan with the weight of exotic foodstuffs and the weird wares of the Chinese apothecaries like dried lizard skins and powdered rhino horn. The Sam Kee Building in Pender Street is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as being the narrowest building in the world, at only six-foot (two metres) wide. This was the result of a local property owner reacting to the expropriation of most of his land in 1912 for the widening of the street: Chang Toy decided to build what he could on the remaining tiny strip. Another main attraction in Chinatown is the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, enclosed behind high walls, that was built in 1986 at a cost of $5.3-million with the craftsmen and materials all imported from China. It is a quiet haven of walkways, pavilions, gnarled trees, water features and natural rock sculptures. Next door to the Garden is the Chinese Cultural Centre with its elaborate gated entrance hand-painted in traditional colours.
Website: vancouverchinatown.ca Transport: SkyTrain to Main St. or Stadium stations, or bus
Gastown:
The fascinating little historic enclave of Gastown, in the central core area of Vancouver alongside Chinatown, transports visitors back in time to envision the city in days of old, with its cobbled streets, antique gaslights, Victorian architecture and maze of narrow alleys, courtyards and passages wherein hide boutiques and restaurants. Gastown was named after Vancouver’s first settler and saloon owner, Jack “Gassy” Deighton, whose historic hotel was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1886 along with much of the city. The fire swept through the town in less than an hour, leaving only two of the 400 or so houses standing. “Gassy” Jack has been immortalised with a statue in Maple Tree Square in Gastown. Another point of interest is the Lamplighter Pub in the Dominion Hotel, which was the first Vancouver inn to serve alcohol to women. The Europe Hotel was the first fireproof building in western Canada, having been built just after the fire in 1892. Gastown keeps time with the world’s first steam clock, which plays the Westminster chimes every 15 minutes on five brass steam whistles inside its cast bronze case. These and many other interesting corners of Gastown can be explored on a daily walking tour, offered at 2pm each day between June and August, which starts at the Gassy Jack statue and takes 90 minutes.
Website: www.gastown.org Transport: Gastown is easily accessible by Vancouver’s Rapid Transit System, SkyTrain, and city buses
Grouse Mountain:
On Vancouver’s north shore, just a 15-minute drive from the downtown area across the Lions Gate Bridge, is the year-round mountaintop playground of Grouse Mountain. Ascending the mountain is part of the adventure in the Super Skyride, a 100-passenger tram that glides up the steep mountain slopes carrying visitors up 3,700ft (1,100m) above sea level in just eight minutes. At the top, apart from magical views of the city below, is the ’Theatre in the Sky’, which offers a high-tech presentation about Vancouver. There is also a cedar longhouse called the Hiwus Feasthouse that offers the chance to experience native West Coast culture with displays of dancing, storytelling, chanting and native cuisine. There are hiking trails up the side of Grouse Mountain and on the east side one of them features the Grouse Grind, which is billed as the world’s biggest stair-climb. Mountain biking is also a popular pursuit on the mountainside, as is, of course, skiing and snowboarding in the winter months.
Address: 6400 Nancy Greene Way, North Vancouver Telephone: (604) 984 0661 Email: info@grousemountain.com Website: www.grousemountain.com Opening Time: Daily 9am to 10pm Admission: C$26.95 (adult), C$14.95 (youth), C$9.95 (child); other concessions available
Museum of Anthropology:
In west Vancouver, at the University of British Columbia on the cliffs of Point Grey, totem poles mark the way to the Museum of Anthropology, world-renowned for its displays of Northwest Coast First Nations art. One of its main features is the world’s largest collection of works by internationally acclaimed Haida artist, Bill Reid, including his famous cedar sculpture ’The Raven and the First Men’. In the museum’s unique Visible Storage Galleries more than 15,000 objects and artefacts from around the world are arranged according to culture and use. In the grounds of the museum are two Haida houses to be admired, showing the dramatic beauty of traditional Northwest Coast architecture.
Address: University of British Columbia, 6393 Marine Drive Telephone: (604) 822 5087 Email: info@moa.ubc.ca Website: www.moa.ubc.ca Transport: Buses 4, 9, 17, 25 or 99 to UBC Opening Time: Daily 10am to 5pm, Tuesday until 9pm (summer); Wednesday to Sunday 11am to 5pm, Tuesday 11am to 9pm (winter) Admission: C$9 (adults), C$7 (youth). Free on Tuesdays 5pm to 9pm
Stanley Park:
Pride of Vancouver’s network of parks and gardens, Stanley Park, covering 1,000 acres (405 hectares), is one of the largest parks in any urban centre in North America. Situated in the heart of Vancouver’s densely populated West End, stretching out on a peninsula and surrounded on three sides by water, Stanley Park is both a refuge for visitors seeking a brief escape from the urban jungle, a showcase for the natural beauty that surrounds the city, and an entertainment centre. The park is criss-crossed through its dense rain-forest interior by miles of wide gravel paths surrounding Beaver Lake and Lost Lagoon. It is home to hundreds of migratory birds such as Canada geese, swans and ducks, and large populations of racoons, squirrels, skunks and coyotes. It is also possible to walk, jog, cycle or rollerblade around the park’s 6.5 mile (10.5km) long seawall that encircles the perimeter.
Opening Time: Open daily Admission: Free
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