LizzyBee Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 We will be visiting Vancouver in July for a dance competition and have not been there before. We are adding a few days to sightsee. Any suggestions on best things to see and do? Is public transportation great or should we rent a car? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frances Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 (edited) The Mueseum of Anthroplogy was amazing. We did a guided tour for one of the special exhibits, and then spent quite a bit more time exploring on our own. Other outdoor stuff we enjoyed was Capalino Suspension Bridge park, the gondola up to Grouse Mountain, and hiking in Lighthouse Park. There are so many amazing restaurants very close to Stanley Park. You can get just about any kind of food you can imagine. I’m not sure about public transportation, as we drove there, so had a car. Enjoy! Edited March 3, 2019 by Frances 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizzyBee Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 It looks like there's so much to do there! We'll be staying at the Sheraton in the middle of downtown, and dd will be dancing at the convention center. We were looking at the Suspension Bridge park today. How is the hiking there? Do you have to hike far to get to the bridge? We probably won't be able to do any strenuous hiking because my dancer won't want to overdo it before the competition, and she'll be worn out afterwards. She's competing two days with practices the evenings before, so it's a lot of dancing. We were looking at the Museums too. It sounds like the Museum of Anthropology should be on our list. Thanks for the suggestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milovany Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 (edited) If you're there on a Friday night, there might be a big food truck thing on the waterfront in North Vancouver. Easy public-access ride and it was lot of fun. Good food, some music, very family friendly. Keep an eye on the following website to see if anything that's interesting to you is offered at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre downtown ( http://www.queenelizabeththeatre.org/events/ ). We enjoyed Stanley Park, too. Have fun! ETA - If you have enough time, and can get down to Tsawwassen for the ferry ride, pop on over to the Victoria waterfront for a day (you'll have to get a ride to the area as the ferry lands north of the city). Craigdarroch Castle was so fun, too. A bit of a walk from the waterfront, but doable. Edited February 16, 2019 by milovany 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frances Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 9 hours ago, LizzyBee said: It looks like there's so much to do there! We'll be staying at the Sheraton in the middle of downtown, and dd will be dancing at the convention center. We were looking at the Suspension Bridge park today. How is the hiking there? Do you have to hike far to get to the bridge? We probably won't be able to do any strenuous hiking because my dancer won't want to overdo it before the competition, and she'll be worn out afterwards. She's competing two days with practices the evenings before, so it's a lot of dancing. We were looking at the Museums too. It sounds like the Museum of Anthropology should be on our list. Thanks for the suggestions! It’s more of an easy walk to see all of the main attractions at Capalino park, not really hiking. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornblower Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 Hey, it's where I live! Capilano is a rip off. Lynn Canyon suspension bridge is free and imo, nicer 🙂 https://lynncanyon.ca/ Transportation is great. Try to find some time to go on the Seabus to North Vancouver. The quay there is a public market with quaint restaurants and shops. If you want to transit up to the north shore suspension bridges, you'd do it from the bus loop on the North Van side of the harbour. Skytrain is fun to just ride around on. If you love shopping Metrotown is right on the Skytrain route. The downtown malls and Robson Street are the super fancy expensive stores. You can take the Canada Line skytrain from the airport right into downtown. The water taxis around the Granville Island side of Vancouver is fun too. Granville Island again has a public market, lots of interesting shops & and a theater. If you hop on the Granville Island ferries you can check out the Maritime Museum & Science World as well https://granvilleislandferries.bc.ca/plan-your-trip/ Science world is good for most ages - they pride themselves on setting up an interesting environment for young & old. You can rent bikes or roller blades to go around Stanley Park.There are also sightseeing hoho buses which IMO are worth it. Add Gastown to your downtown sightseeing - it's a nice little stroll. If you keep walking, the historic Chinatown is also interesting. Within blocks tho you hit the somewhat notorious downtown east side - ground zero of our city's substance abuse & poverty. We have I think one of the most startlingly close interfaces of affluent and struggling. It's generally very safe, just disconcerting. There are neighbourhoods where lots of filming happens (many famous tv shows & movies are filmed here), or streets where the uber rich live - some people like to check out those but pretty much need cars for that. Or if you want to check out some of the further parks & forest, then you'd need a car. hth! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 transportation in the downtown core is good. we stayed quite a ways out one time - right next to the skytrain station so it was easy (but time consuming) to go into the city. best Chinese food is going to be in Richmond. mcD's has rice balls. 😜 sun-yat sen Chinese garden. Vancouver aquarium - excellent aquarium. they have a pool of manatees. you're allowed to put your hand in (after sterilizing your hands), and they will swim past. the babies are curious and will swim right up to you. (drives me nuts to hear people say seattle has a good one... uh, no. I'd rather go to BC. not even close.) it's in Stanley park - bigger than central park in nyc. you can rent bikes, or just walk along the sea wall. there are also carriage "tour" rides that will take you around, as well as learn some history. you can walk along the waterfront. science world MacMillian Space Center Totem poles at UBC Granville island is tourist central - queen Elizabeth park is wonderful. VICTORIA you can use the v2v ferry from downtown Vancouver to downtown victoria. only runs in the summer. (hydrofoil ferry - faster) there's also regular float plane service. (fastest) rent a car to go to victoria. the ferry from tswassen is very nice - the ferry goes to the saanish peninsula - which is about 20? - 30? minutes from victoria. once you get to victoria - you can park and use the hop on hop off bus. you can also use the victoria harbor ferry (aka: pickle boats) to get around the waterfront. on sundays? in the summer they do a water ballet. (also sat in July August.) lots of places for high tea. the empress is #1. provincial Royal BC museum butchart gardens - you can take a tour bus, or your rental car to get there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 I just chatted with dd, who was up in victoria having tea at the empress yesterday. her comment was - don't do it. very overpriced, and there was an undercurrent they want you to move out so they can turn over your table, and get as many people through as fast as they can. she's previously done tea at the butchart gardens. she said it was fabulous, seconds, and no pressure to eat and go. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizzyBee Posted February 20, 2019 Author Share Posted February 20, 2019 Thanks, everyone! This is great. I'll print all these out before we go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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