Hotel stay in Vancouver pre-cruise

Thanks for the great info martincath! A few years ago when in the area we stayed across the inlet and travelled all over the downtown area by bus and bicycle. There was one area we went through on the bus on the way to Granville Island that looked kind of scary but I have no idea where it was. The YWCA sounds great and I will be watching for them to open up reservations for our time.

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Thanks for the great info martincath! A few years ago when in the area we stayed across the inlet and travelled all over the downtown area by bus and bicycle. There was one area we went through on the bus on the way to Granville Island that looked kind of scary but I have no idea where it was. The YWCA sounds great and I will be watching for them to open up reservations for our time.

If it was across Burrard Inlet in North Vancouver, a bus would almost certainly have driven you over Second Narrows bridge and into town along Hastings, right through the Downtown Eastside - the poorest urban area in Canada. The only other option is across First Narrows (Lion's Gate bridge) and through Stanley Park then the West End/downtown business district.

Although the couple of blocks of Granville St north of the eponymous bridge are rather scruffy - and were even more so a decade+ ago - so if you were remembering a very compact scary spot the bus drove though it could have been there. I see you're in Ontario - if you're familiar with the GTA, East Vancouver is somewhat like Scarberia (a generally bad rep, but with many perfectly pleasant residential 'hoods).

These days Granville St is the city's official party district - many late-licensed nightclubs and bars, therefore many drunks rolling out of the clubs well after SkyTrain stops running who are competing for the limited supply of cabs. They're still mostly Canadians of course, so as drunken buffoons go relatively polite and not very stabby, but still loud so I never recommend hotels on the street unless you travel with earplugs;-)

They're still mostly Canadians of course, so as drunken buffoons go relatively polite and not very stabby,

Ok, you win quote of the week. 🙂

Avoid comparing Canada unfavorably to the US, and for the love of god don’t criticize Canadian beers and there should be no stabbiness at all. 😉

people in Vancouver do not really count as Canadians...hope my family there is not reading this

people in Vancouver do not really count as Canadians...hope my family there is not reading this

That reminds me of an old article from the Utne Reader written by E. B White (though the last line attributed to Robert Frost).

I've heard the last line also expressed as, "a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast with a knife."

people in Vancouver do not really count as Canadians...

Says the guy from North Texas;-)

We’re staying at the Days Inn Downtown before a July cruise and it is $$$$ for a Days Inn.

I thought about the Holiday Inn Express away from the airport but right next to the metro stop. It was it was 2/3 the price of the Days Inn. If I’d known about the shuttle to the pier I would have done it.

We’re staying at the Days Inn Downtown before a July cruise and it is $$$$ for a Days Inn.

Hope you are not staying on a Friday or Saturday night. The music from the adjacent bar can be felt until 3am.

Sunday night. Hopefully we’ll be good. The other (non-Ramada) options anywhere near the port were double the rate (which was outrageous enough). I did look into the YWCA and there were rooms. But a single toom twin bed shared bathroom wasn’t going to work with 2 adults and 2 kids.

Sunday night. Hopefully we’ll be good. The other (non-Ramada) options anywhere near the port were double the rate (which was outrageous enough). I did look into the YWCA and there were rooms. But a single toom twin bed shared bathroom wasn’t going to work with 2 adults and 2 kids.

2 adjoining room sharing the bathroom between them however is perfect for the 2+2 family described... and I'd wager that even two rooms at the Y would look pretty good price-wise against a single larger room in other hotels downtown in peak cruise season, even if you ignore the extra space and much-improved comfort of everyone having their own beds!

2 adjoining room sharing the bathroom between them however is perfect for the 2+2 family described... and I'd wager that even two rooms at the Y would look pretty good price-wise against a single larger room in other hotels downtown in peak cruise season, even if you ignore the extra space and much-improved comfort of everyone having their own beds!

Maybe I misread, but the result seemed to say one twin bed /room. I didn’t want us spread across four rooms.

Maybe I misread, but the result seemed to say one twin bed /room. I didn’t want us spread across four rooms.

I find the descriptions extremely clear, very much 'Plain English' for the Y - right here it explicitly says Twin rooms have 2 single beds and Double rooms have one double bed. I'm assuming from your other post that your current setup is one room, 2 shared double beds since that's all the Days Inn offers (well, that or a Queen Suite with one queen bed and a double sofabed).

To share the one semi-private bathroom would mean having to book 2x Double room, doesn't look like any Twin rooms have the semi-private bathroom option. Or if you're not in the Queen Suite at DI, a double-double at YWCA gives you exactly the same bed & bath setup 2 double beds, one bathroom, for a massive discount.

A Quint room in the Y would give also you more space and five single beds thus one spare for impromptu seating.

For those thinking about the YWCA Hotel I just thought I would confirm Martincath's description of the hotel and the area. I have a brother and SIL in the outskirts of Vancouver who gave me the names of several hotels in the downtown area to consider for the nights we want to stay in downtown and when I mentioned the YWCA Hotel my SIL didn't really know much about it and would never have considered staying there so she called her sister who works in downtown Vancouver and has lived in Vancouver for many years and she also highly recommended the YWCA Hotel and said it is a great area with easy access to everything and very close to the Yaletown skytrain terminal for the Canada Line that goes to Vancouver Airport. We will definitely be booking there.

Whatever mass market booking site I saw the Y show up in was not as clear. I looked at iterations of multiple cities/dates over multiple days over multiple booking sites.

Cest la vie. If we are ever in Vancouver again now I know. But the Days Inn res is non-refundable so we’re stuck where we are.

Whatever mass market booking site I saw the Y show up in was not as clear. I looked at iterations of multiple cities/dates over multiple days over multiple booking sites.

 

Cest la vie. If we are ever in Vancouver again now I know. But the Days Inn res is non-refundable so we’re stuck where we are.

We're picky about bedding so always check hotel websites directly, ever since a booked & paid for 'king' bed turned out to be a custom size bed that was plenty wide enough but so short my feet were hanging off the end (I'm 6'1" so even a regular double or twin gives me enough length normally) - it was a converted historic home that had custom beds in most rooms to maximise space, so their own website gave exact dimensions of the mattress in each room but good old Expedia just gave us the usual '1 King, 1 Queen, 2 Doubles' type description!

Days Inn, with earplugs, should work just fine - it is nice & close to the pier and good for downtown touring on foot. Unless you're in two cabins on the ship you'll need to get used to sleeping all in the one room anyway;-)

Double post

Days Inn, with earplugs, should work just fine - it is nice & close to the pier and good for downtown touring on foot.

We will be renting a car and will want to drive to whistler as well as see the touristy parts of Vancouver (Stanley Park, Granville, Capilano etc.) .

Any thoughts on the Hampton Inn in Surrey - we will be staying in Vancouver post-cruise for 2 days before flying home.

We will be renting a car and will want to drive to whistler as well as see the touristy parts of Vancouver (Stanley Park, Granville, Capilano etc.) .

Any thoughts on the Hampton Inn in Surrey - we will be staying in Vancouver post-cruise for 2 days before flying home.

You might be happier with the Vancouver Airport hotels. Check out the Raddison Vancouver airport with free parking and convenient subway access.

For what you are saving likely in hotel rates, you are paying more for gas, attraction parking, and time.

We will be renting a car and will want to drive to whistler as well as see the touristy parts of Vancouver (Stanley Park, Granville, Capilano etc.) .

Any thoughts on the Hampton Inn in Surrey - we will be staying in Vancouver post-cruise for 2 days before flying home.

Anywhere but here springs to mind! It's barely inside Surrey, which you have to drive all the way through to get to Burnaby/New Westminster/Delta/Richmond, and then through one or more of those to get into Vancouver, then virtually all the way through Vancouver to get to any of your mentioned destinations! xlxo flagged the location correctly - it's the only Hampton in Surrey - and unless you get started before 6am or after 9am you'll face an awful lot of commuters going your way. Plus from there you have no option but to cross multiple bridges, all of which are bottlenecks. In short, it's an absolutely godawful choice for seeing any of the places you want to. A cheap hotel in North Vancouver would give you MUCH more convenient access to all your mentioned places with free parking.

Ordinarily cars are more hassle than they're worth in Vancouver - if you stay somewhere sensible. With your stated goals though, especially Whistler, a car makes total sense. Recommendations with your own wheels:

• I'd swap Cap for Lynn Canyon since a car means you can visit this free, less busy, more natural park and actually learn something about the area from the Rangers (or at the very least, visit both this AND Cap to compare and contrast...)
  
• Stanley Park can be usefully visited by car (parking is charged once for ANY spot and you can move, so basically pretend you're a HOHO and move the car between car parks then walk around nearby sites, then repeat until done
  
• Queen Elizabeth Park is also a no-brainer attraction for those with a car available
  
• if you have an interest in any of the sites out at UBC like the superb Museum of Anthropology, or more good gardens/parks, it's also useful for there
  
• with only 2 days, that's plenty to take up all your time
  
• Granville Island is a hassle to drive on - one way, pedestrians everywhere, expensive & limited parking. We walk ~40mins each way from home rather than drive - and that's not even in peak summer when we simply avoid GI entirely in the day time as it gets so packed with tourists. If you still plan to drive, I'd check the opening hours of any particular stores you're interested in, then go as early or late as possible - we have nice long evenings in summer, so you can easily do the walking around and seeing the artwork at 8pm when there's much less foot traffic (theatres attract people, but evening shows are usually 7ish-9ish so all those folks are inside if you walk about 8ish). If you do flip to a North Van hotel, transit is cheap & easy - take Seabus over to Real Van then hop on the 50 bus (Google Maps is fully integrated so will show you how to walk between Waterfront, bus stops, GI).