1 Day in Vancouver - Is this Possible and How

I first want to say that this forum has been amazing and I have enjoyed learning and helping others as we have researched and thought through our trip. Our final day is in Vancouver on July 4th and arrive in port at 7am. I do not know how the disembarkation will work really, but I am sure you can tell me an apx time we will get off the ship with luggage, etc. At this point we have a flight departing at 10:20pm and I image we will want to be at the airport for international travel by at least 8:30 (please please please correct me if I am wrong here).

As far as our day goes in Vancouver we have narrowed our list down to this:

1. Grouse Mountain (if it is a nice day and not totally fogged in to just ride up the mountain)
   
2. Capilano hatchery and suspension bridge
   
3. Walk through some parts of Stanley Park (looking for recommendations)
   
4. Vancouver Lookout if the city can be seen that day
   
5. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden
   
6. Maybe some good food in china town (do you know a place)
   
7. Queen Elizabeth Park
   
8. VanDusen Botanical Garden
   

First, is this even possible? Second, how is going to be the best way to see it? Know of any tour companies or we looking at bus hopping?

Thanks CC

Gut feel is that this is too much. Even with a rental car and a GPS, or paying someone to give you a custom 'drive you around exactly where you want' tour it would be unpleasantly busy - if you thrive at planning a day in a Disney park to the minute *and* can actually keep to your schedule, you *might* be able to pull it off; but frankly I don't think you'll be spending enough time anywhere to really appreciate the sites.

Also, while July is statistically a dry month we do get rain - and the only bad weather options you have listed are Dr Sun Yat Sen garden and the indoor parts up at QE/Van Dusen (the Bloedel tropical garden is inside a glass dome for example). If it's raining, or even just overcast, the value of Grouse, Lookout, Stanley Park and the vast bulk of QE/VD decline markedly in enjoyability of the experience...

I already mentioned about choosing which side of the water you want to stay on and I stick to that as good general advice - while it's feasible to do, say, Stanley Park as well as Cap/Grouse in a long day (one of the only three sensible routes to the north shore is to drive through the park), or add in an early evening dinner in Chinatown, your time frame just doesn't allow enough time to enjoy both Vancouver and north shore attractions.

My ballpark for how long you need to spend, at a minimum, to actually feel it was worth the price of entry/walking time inside each of your sites would be:

Grouse, Cap Bridge, QE, VD, Stanley Park - 2 hours each (and with the last one that's assuming you literally just hit the real highlights - Rose Garden, Totem Poles, Prospect Point, English Bay)

Sun Yat Sen - 1 hour if you arrive right as a guided tour is starting (they last c. 45 mins and frankly a lot of the subtleties of the garden will escape you without taking one of these tours)

Lookout - 1 hour

That's 12 hours already, plus travel time between them, plus lunch & dinner... and your available time is realistically no more than 12 hours total (first off ship with own luggage you could be ready to start by 8am, leave for airport at 8pm - traffic and security queues will be lighter that late in the day so I'd be willing to risk arriving maybe 90-100 minutes before takeoff).

Gut feel is that this is too much. Even with a rental car and a GPS, or paying someone to give you a custom 'drive you around exactly where you want' tour it would be unpleasantly busy - if you thrive at planning a day in a Disney park to the minute *and* can actually keep to your schedule, you *might* be able to pull it off; but frankly I don't think you'll be spending enough time anywhere to really appreciate the sites.

 

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I already mentioned about choosing which side of the water you want to stay on and I stick to that as good general advice.

Martin,

Thank you for the advice. It sounds like We should try and see the highlights at Stanley and then make our way through the different gardens. You mentioned the fact that we can have rain and I have been thinking about this, but not sure what there is to do in the city - any suggestions.

As far as a decent no rain day - what is the best way to stow or tansport luggage and make it around to these areas?

Martin,

 

Thank you for the advice. It sounds like We should try and see the highlights at Stanley and then make our way through the different gardens. You mentioned the fact that we can have rain and I have been thinking about this, but not sure what there is to do in the city - any suggestions.

 

As far as a decent no rain day - what is the best way to stow or tansport luggage and make it around to these areas?

Popular indoor attractions include the Aquarium (inside Stanley Park, so no additional worries about transportation over what you're already looking at), Science World, Art Gallery and various Museums (Maritime, Space, Police, City, Anthropology, Natural History etc.)

As to luggage, beyond what I mentioned in your first thread - I forgot to state that the at-pier storage folks will transfer luggage to YVR. With a late flight like yours this is probably the ideal solution... $40 for up to 4 cases, and you can pick them up until much later than your flight time.

While ordinarily I'm 100% on the 'never hire a car in Vancouver' bandwagon, if you're sticking to parks & gardens a car will actually *save* time rather than cost it. Parking in Stanley Park is on a '1 ticket, all day, any spot, move around as your like' basis for $11. QE & VD have cheap parking on-site (a few bucks, I can't recall exactly how much) and there's free parking on streets around them.

The rental car option seems nice - 45USD for the day (plus fuel) and we can pack our luggage in there without a problem. What is the drive over to chinatown and the airport going to be like in the afternoon?

The rental car option seems nice - 45USD for the day (plus fuel) and we can pack our luggage in there without a problem. What is the drive over to chinatown and the airport going to be like in the afternoon?

Chinatown is busy generally - lots of street parking so if you drive around a little you'll almost certainly find a spot within a block or two of Sun Yat Sen garden. There's also a pretty convenient, well-lit multi-storey parking garage right at Keefer & Columbia - super convenient for the garden, next block over. You might feel a bit safer leaving your stuff in the car here as casual 'smash a window and grab visible stuff from the car' theft is very common in the area.

I'd drive to the airport after 7pm - rush hour traffic will be finished. We don't have highways inside Vancouver proper, so traffic can be a real bear (we were just officially announced as the most gridlocked city in Canada, with the average 30 minutes/day 5 days/week commuter spending 87 extra hours waiting in traffic every year!).

Chinatown is busy generally - lots of street parking so if you drive around a little you'll almost certainly find a spot within a block or two of Sun Yat Sen garden. There's also a pretty convenient, well-lit multi-storey parking garage right at Keefer & Columbia - super convenient for the garden, next block over. You might feel a bit safer leaving your stuff in the car here as casual 'smash a window and grab visible stuff from the car' theft is very common in the area.

 

I'd drive to the airport after 7pm - rush hour traffic will be finished. We don't have highways inside Vancouver proper, so traffic can be a real bear (we were just officially announced as the most gridlocked city in Canada, with the average 30 minutes/day 5 days/week commuter spending 87 extra hours waiting in traffic every year!).

Thank you again for the great information. Any suggestions for a great place to eat in Chinatown?

For a clear day I took out the suspension brigde and have us renting a car, looking around stanley park for 2 hours, lunch at the Fish House, going to Queen Elizabeth Park, then the Chinese garden with food afterwards.

I will probably use your suggestions for the rainy day activities for a second alternative itenerary.

In my opinion unless you are real garden fanatics I would skip Dr Sen Yat's garden - his gardens are in many cities of the world and unfortunately Vancouvers is not the largest or nicest....

I would defintely do Stanley Park, Grouse Mountain, Capilano Suspension Bridge and if you have a rental car drive thru GAs Town and China Town... The best chinese restaurants are not in China Town but in Richmond...

Timing - get off the ship and once you have yoru rental car head to Capilano Suspension Bridge - (time there allow 1.5 hours) next is Grouse Mountain - have lunch on top of the mountain enjoy the Loggers Show, Birds of Prey Show, visit the 2 Grizzley Bears (allow min 4 hours) (add in driving time round trip Vancouver outside of rush hour 1 hour) on the way back drive around Stanley Park stopping at the totem poles and various lookout points ...

Time permitting drive thru GAs Town and China Town - allow 35 mins driving time from downtown Vancouver to the airport.

I think the above totally fills your day.

In my opinion unless you are real garden fanatics I would skip Dr Sen Yat's garden - his gardens are in many cities of the world and unfortunately Vancouvers is not the largest or nicest....

Going to have to disagree strongly here BCHG - according to National Geographic (and published in an actual physical book just three years ago, not just some 'best of the year' web article) Sun Yat-Sen is the best city garden of *any* style in the world. Multiple sources also credit it as the finest example of a traditional Chinese garden anywhere outside China; it was also the very first Scholars style garden built anywhere outside China; and it's still the largest outside Asia.

As to your comment about there being many of "... his gardens..." there is just this one. It's dedicated to him, not built by him, and all other memorials are statues or parks, not gardens.

Thank you again for the great information. Any suggestions for a great place to eat in Chinatown?

Depending on what I'm in the mood for I usually eat in one of three spots in Chinatown (well, for Chinese food - there are several excellent restos of other genres here too):

Bao Bei - modern, lots of small dishes and larger sharing style plates. Think of it as Chinese Tapas. Flavour profile is mostly influenced by Shanghai/Taiwan/Szechuan - some heat, but balanced with aromatics rather than just a ton of chili peppers.

Foo's Ho Ho - truly old school. A bit of a dive inside, and service can be spotty, but the house Egg Fu Yung is to me the definitive version of this dish. Ridiculous value too. You'll be familiar with most of the dishes from Cantonese restos.

Hon's Wun-Tun House - also pretty old school, and while they do have an extensive menu it's all about the noodles & dumplings for me. Hong Kong style noodles & broth, but Northern dumplings abound.

OP... How did your day in Vancouver go? I'll be on the NCL Pearl near the end of September for their Alaska cruise and we end in Vancouver. It sounds like we have the same flight time out of the city and I've been trying to figure out how to spend the 10ish hours we'll have there. My biggest question was if the ship/port had a service where they would transfer your bags from the ship to the airport, and it sounds like they do. Can you let me know if you used that service, how it worked and how much it cost?

Thanks!

Littleengine - You will be docking at Ballantyne Pier and not Canada Place so keep that in mind when you are making inquiries.

Cheers!

Dennis

OP... How did your day in Vancouver go? I'll be on the NCL Pearl near the end of September for their Alaska cruise and we end in Vancouver. It sounds like we have the same flight time out of the city and I've been trying to figure out how to spend the 10ish hours we'll have there. My biggest question was if the ship/port had a service where they would transfer your bags from the ship to the airport, and it sounds like they do. Can you let me know if you used that service, how it worked and how much it cost?

 

Thanks!

We ended up with our itenary changing at the last minute and needed to be at the airport by 5:30, but it was still a lovely experience. We rented a car from Canada Place (book in advance and request a GPS ahead of time if you need one - remember no cell service or roaming charges for some of us). There were bag services for the ship for like 37 dollars per 2 bags, but the car was only 48 dollars - so thought we got the better deal. We traveled to Stanley park and visited the highlights and then to the Chinese Garden and lunch in China town. We had then planned to go to the botanical gardens, but unfortunately did not make it. If we were repeating I would skip the Chinese garden, it was interesting, but very small - its actually a representation of a scholars house instead of a larger japanese or chinese garden like Portland has. I was not that put off by the traffic, although there was some on the 1A/99 going to the airport, but overall it was easy to get around (fyi - originally from Atlanta and can deal with traffic). Would add the botanical gardens to the list of things to see and then gastown probably. Best of luck on your trip - it was amazing.