Vancouver Hotel Info

[algriff]

We will be going on an Alaskan Cruise in Jul 15 on Radiance and will leave from Vancouver. I assume the ship leaves from Canada Place, so is it better to try and find a hotlel near the cruise terminal or get farther away and find a more moderately priced hotel and figure out how to get to the port on departure day. Also have any of you used the Vancouver Trolley to tour the city and what are your recommendations? Is the trolley a viable way to get to the cruise port or is there a better way. Thanks for any help with all these questions.

[emilygrace]

Your best bet is to check the Port of Vancouver website after the first of next year to see which pier your ship will be. If there are several ships in port that day, Royal Caribbean is usually at Ballantyne, not Canada Place, and not easily accessible by public transportation. You would have to take a taxi.

[lovelife]

We left from Canada Place on Radiance to Alaska last year. We stayed two nights prior downtown at Westin Grand (got on Priceline for a great price). It was a fairly short taxi ride to Canada Place. We did the hop on - hop off trolley both days (got two for one tickets on line) and it was great fun.

 

I understand Canada Place and Ballantyne are within two miles of each other so it shouldn't make that much difference.

 

Vancouver is AMAZING.

[PompeySailor]

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency

They had a shuttle to the port

Very nice and well located, where you can walk around without having to use any transportation.

Address: 655 Burrard St, Vancouver, BC V6C 2R7, Canada

The club level is amazing and the lounge has spectacular views of the city

Happy Days!

Edited July 9, 2014 by PompeySailor

[Jocko97]

We sailed on the Radiance this past May out of Vancouver. The ship left from Ballantyne Pier. Although it was a short ride from the downtown area, I wouldn't dare stay anywhere close to it. The bars on windows and lines outside the detox clinic were night and day compared to the beautiful downtown area. Basic cab ride was $20 with tip.

 

We stayed at the Shangri-la Hotel, which was absolutely fantastic.

 

Another cruiser mentioned that next year Ballantyne will no longer be used for cruise ship departures, however I do not have first hand information to the topic.

 

Morning of our departure we walked over to Canada Place to see the ships that had returned that morning.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Jocko97

[AmberCascades]

If you end up leaving from Canada Place then the Pan Pacific is a beautiful hotel to stay in. Just take the elevator down to the cruise terminal and there you are.

 

We did the hoho trolley. You can't bring luggage on board so I wouldn't recommend it as a mode of transportation for that purpose. You can see the highlights of the city in about 2 hours. We hopped on and off and spent about 5 hours. It would have been longer if we'd spent more time at Stanley Park, but we had to go meet friends for dinner. It was a great way to see the city though. I would recommend it for sightseeing purposes.

[CVU]

http://www.tourismvancouver.com/

Hotels are listed.

Perhaps cheaper--- Richmond by YVR, has hotels and shuttles to YVR where you could get a Day Pass to town and use the Train.

 

http://www.portmetrovancouver.com/about/cruiseandtourism/cruiselineschedules.aspx

 

Radiance has left from both and above is the port schedule. They are close together and a short cab ride from downtown or Canada Place.

 

The hop on off Trolley is very good. Has a person and not a recording for the tour.

Free shuttles to Capilano Suspension Bridge from the Info center across from Canada Place or the Trolley at the Library. Buy your ticket with them and not wait in line.

 

Canada Line train leaves directly from YVR to Waterfront Station by Canada Place, 1 block walk to CP, leaves every 7 min. takes 26 min.

From YVR $9 or $7.75 for SR. Back to YVR $4 or $2.75 SR. [$5 Transit surcharge at YVR]

http://thecanadaline.com/

Edited July 9, 2014 by CVU

[pmjnh]

If you can, stay at Pan Pacific. They had excellent AAA rates and we got a package deal, one night and breakfast. the breakfast buffet is outstanding.

 

We struggled a bit with the decision but in the long run, it was totally worth it, especially when the bellman came to our door to collect the luggage which they brought directly to the ship. What a treat!

 

We hired a limo at the airport..they are located just outside the baggage claim. there were 2 couples and we split the bill. It was much more reasonable than we expected, although I do not recall the cost at this moment.

 

Enjoy your Alaska cruise, it will be amazing!

Edited July 9, 2014 by pmjnh

[2calgarycruisers]

I've spent quite a bit of time in Vancouver and really like the Fairmont properties, especially on the club floor - well worth the extra money. Also have spent quite a bit of time at the Hyatt, also on club floor. Shangri-La is also great but if you can swing it, IMHO Pacific Rim can't be beat. If you aren't staying there go have a drink and the seafood tower in the main lounge or visit the amazing roof top spa. Joe Fortes is great for oysters and seafood - great rooftop patio. Rent a bike and go around the seawall and Stanley Park, visit the aquarium, Granville Island, Capilano Suspension Bridge .... public transportation is great - you've got me missing Vancouver now! Not travelling there on business anymore :(

[2calgarycruisers]

If your hotel is close to a skytrain station it's an easy and cheap way to get to and from the airport.

[sapphireblue]

According to the information on this link:

 

http://www.portmetrovancouver.com/about/cruiseandtourism/cruiselineschedules.aspx

 

the Radiance will be at Canada Place Pier on July 11 and 25th.

 

Any of the above suggested hotels are excellent. You will love Vancouver!

[emilygrace]

I think the OP is talking about July 2015 and I don think the port schedule is out yet for next year.

[Northern Aurora]

While I also enjoy the Sutton Place, if your cruise departs from Canada Place take a serious look at the Pan Pacific. We stayed there last fall, and it was great. Wonderful staff, incredible view from our room, and as already noted, having the bellman pick up our luggage from our room was just perfect.

[scottbee]

Two reasons it will be Canada Place:

1. Ballantyne is only used on beginning/ending season when the Seattle boats make an extra stop in Vancouver; and Vancouver gets extra ships; never in July
   
2. Port Metro Vancouver have announced they're closing Ballantyne for good, after the 2014 season.
   

[5soccer9]

Does anyone know anything about the L'Hermitage Hotel. Sounds like a nice hotel and close to everything. Does that sound right?

[martincath]

Does anyone know anything about the L'Hermitage Hotel. Sounds like a nice hotel and close to everything. Does that sound right?

It's basically a super-fancy condo hotel - if you can afford it, it's one of the best places in town to stay (tripadvisor ranking has been No 1 in Vancouver for several years). My wife's company always puts visitors up here.

 

NB: the downstairs resto seems to be a bit cursed - it's gone from a fancy French to a fancy Italian to a fancy Tapas to closed within the last 3 years. Their Orangerie resto upstairs is still open for guests though (breakfast served here), and you have all of downtown Vancouver on your doorstep for other fancy restos

Edited July 16, 2014 by martincath

[5soccer9]

It's basically a super-fancy condo hotel - if you can afford it, it's one of the best places in town to stay (tripadvisor ranking has been No 1 in Vancouver for several years). My wife's company always puts visitors up here.

 

NB: the downstairs resto seems to be a bit cursed - it's gone from a fancy French to a fancy Italian to a fancy Tapas to closed within the last 3 years. Their Orangerie resto upstairs is still open for guests though (breakfast served here), and you have all of downtown Vancouver on your doorstep for other fancy restos

 

Thanks so much. I was hoping to use Hilton or Marriot points but seems most places don't take the points at the time we are going. I really would like to be close to Canada Place as well. I would love to stay set Pan Pacific but that seems very pricey. What do you think at that hotel? Thanks again for the information.

[martincath]

Thanks so much. I was hoping to use Hilton or Marriot points but seems most places don't take the points at the time we are going. I really would like to be close to Canada Place as well. I would love to stay set Pan Pacific but that seems very pricey. What do you think at that hotel? Thanks again for the information.

You can't get more convenient for cruising than the PP, but I have no personal or close friend/colleague experience to draw upon for it. Vancouver has a very compact downtown though - a $10 taxi ride gets you to Canada Place from basically any downtown hotel.

[5soccer9]

You can't get more convenient for cruising than the PP, but I have no personal or close friend/colleague experience to draw upon for it. Vancouver has a very compact downtown though - a $10 taxi ride gets you to Canada Place from basically any downtown hotel.

 

WOW thanks. You have been so helpful. I really do appreciate it. Any other hotels you can recommend and good ideas of what we should do for just the one day we are there? I have Stanley Park on my list.

[martincath]

WOW thanks. You have been so helpful. I really do appreciate it. Any other hotels you can recommend and good ideas of what we should do for just the one day we are there? I have Stanley Park on my list.

Since I live downtown I have very limited personal experience of local hotels other than their location and some of the better in-house restaurants - tripadvisor & Expedia reviews are my go-to (the latter especially since only confirmed guests can put a review up of the property).

 

We did stay in the YWCA hotel on a visit years ago before we moved - it's located right by BC Place, same as the Hampton/Georgian Court/Sandman. At the time it was the best bargain in the city and it still is unless you use Priceline/Hotwire type bidding services - absolutely no fripperies, but it's clean and safe with practical amenities like full kitchens and you can get private rooms and large family suites as well as the more dorm-style rooms with shared baths.

 

If you want a guaranteed view at a more reasonable price than the PP, Fairmont Waterfront/Pac Rim area, try Blue Horizon - lots of love on these boards. Costs extra for a high floor, but they have very little between them and the mountains so it's one of the best hotels for a good view. Good dining options within just a few blocks walk, a HOHO stop outside, and closer to Stanley Park than almost all the other hotels downtown.

 

With one day in town, if you want to see as much as possible the HOHO tours are a safe bet - routes have expanded for this year so now regardless of which one you use there are several stops inside Stanley Park, and now Science World and Vancouver Urban Winery have appeared on the routes.

 

The Trolley is smaller - may have to wait at busy times for the next vehicle - but more frequent and no need to change vehicles in the park unless you want to get off somewhere. The others use bigger buses, so you have to get off and onto a different one for the stops inside the Park. Big Bus has Groupon offers now & again. They also all throw in a one-way ferry ticket to Granville Island so you can avoid the most boring bit of the HOHO loop and get there quicker, picking up the bus on the other side.

 

GI is a very popular shopping stop, with the Public Market and lots of food options. Kids love the Kids Market - nothing but toy stores, indoor jungle gym place, ball pits and whatnot. Grownups can cross the alley to Granville Island Brewery for a tasting, or one of the very few Sake makers outside Japan, then head down to the brewpub in the GI Hotel if they aren't liquored-up enough yet;-)

 

If the park is your priority then the Park Shuttle is the laziest way to see the most possible - 15 stops if memory serves, for $10pp (less for kids) - but stops running Sep 1st. Lots of people hire bikes for a few hours to ride around the Seawall and park trails - a great compromise between speed and still being able to get anywhere you can on foot.

 

We have a ludicrous amount of attractions in Vancouver - parks & gardens up the wazoo, museums & galleries, one of the few aquaria with whales (at least for now, political hot potato!), etc. etc. Have a scan around the Canada and West Coast forums and look for BCHappygals posts - she has an extensive list of attractions with brief notes in her Signature, it's a great start if you're not sure what kind of stuff your party wants to do.

 

Always have a Bad Weather backup plan - right now we're just leaving a heatwave and summers have been unnaturally hot & dry the last three years, but it is the PNW, rain is a fact of life even in mid-summer. Shlepping around a thousand acre park soaked to the skin is nobody's iea of a good time!

[5soccer9]

Since I live downtown I have very limited personal experience of local hotels other than their location and some of the better in-house restaurants - tripadvisor & Expedia reviews are my go-to (the latter especially since only confirmed guests can put a review up of the property).

 

We did stay in the YWCA hotel on a visit years ago before we moved - it's located right by BC Place, same as the Hampton/Georgian Court/Sandman. At the time it was the best bargain in the city and it still is unless you use Priceline/Hotwire type bidding services - absolutely no fripperies, but it's clean and safe with practical amenities like full kitchens and you can get private rooms and large family suites as well as the more dorm-style rooms with shared baths.

 

If you want a guaranteed view at a more reasonable price than the PP, Fairmont Waterfront/Pac Rim area, try Blue Horizon - lots of love on these boards. Costs extra for a high floor, but they have very little between them and the mountains so it's one of the best hotels for a good view. Good dining options within just a few blocks walk, a HOHO stop outside, and closer to Stanley Park than almost all the other hotels downtown.

 

With one day in town, if you want to see as much as possible the HOHO tours are a safe bet - routes have expanded for this year so now regardless of which one you use there are several stops inside Stanley Park, and now Science World and Vancouver Urban Winery have appeared on the routes.

 

The Trolley is smaller - may have to wait at busy times for the next vehicle - but more frequent and no need to change vehicles in the park unless you want to get off somewhere. The others use bigger buses, so you have to get off and onto a different one for the stops inside the Park. Big Bus has Groupon offers now & again. They also all throw in a one-way ferry ticket to Granville Island so you can avoid the most boring bit of the HOHO loop and get there quicker, picking up the bus on the other side.

 

GI is a very popular shopping stop, with the Public Market and lots of food options. Kids love the Kids Market - nothing but toy stores, indoor jungle gym place, ball pits and whatnot. Grownups can cross the alley to Granville Island Brewery for a tasting, or one of the very few Sake makers outside Japan, then head down to the brewpub in the GI Hotel if they aren't liquored-up enough yet;-)

 

If the park is your priority then the Park Shuttle is the laziest way to see the most possible - 15 stops if memory serves, for $10pp (less for kids) - but stops running Sep 1st. Lots of people hire bikes for a few hours to ride around the Seawall and park trails - a great compromise between speed and still being able to get anywhere you can on foot.

 

We have a ludicrous amount of attractions in Vancouver - parks & gardens up the wazoo, museums & galleries, one of the few aquaria with whales (at least for now, political hot potato!), etc. etc. Have a scan around the Canada and West Coast forums and look for BCHappygals posts - she has an extensive list of attractions with brief notes in her Signature, it's a great start if you're not sure what kind of stuff your party wants to do.

 

Always have a Bad Weather backup plan - right now we're just leaving a heatwave and summers have been unnaturally hot & dry the last three years, but it is the PNW, rain is a fact of life even in mid-summer. Shlepping around a thousand acre park soaked to the skin is nobody's iea of a good time!

 

Thanks again so much. You have been more than helpful. I really do appreciate all the suggestions, advice, etc. We are now trying to decided to stay one or two nights. Seems like there is so much to do there. Thanks again so much. Have a wonderful weekend.

[Cheryl H]

I've enjoyed reading the information on this post. For those of you who recommended the Pan Pacific, I was reading that there's an elevator down to a food court. Any idea what restaurants are down there? Any possibility there's a store down there that we could get a loaf of bread? Also is the food court area relatively safe?

 

(We have a 10 year old along with us and we bring a loaf of bread on the ship for an occasional Peanut Butter sandwich on the cruise. )

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Cheryl

[martincath]

I've enjoyed reading the information on this post. For those of you who recommended the Pan Pacific, I was reading that there's an elevator down to a food court. Any idea what restaurants are down there? Any possibility there's a store down there that we could get a loaf of bread? Also is the food court area relatively safe?

 

(We have a 10 year old along with us and we bring a loaf of bread on the ship for an occasional Peanut Butter sandwich on the cruise. )

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Cheryl

Most important things first - yes, it's safe! At the end of the day there's nowhere entirely safe from whackjobs, but in terms of average levels of crime it's probably one of the safest parts of an already very safe city.

 

This link goes to an Urban Spoon list of restaurants in and nearby Canada Place - all within two blocks. It's the most comprehensive list I've found of what's in the area.

 

As to bread - the Rexall Pharmacy at Granville & Pender is probably the closest place to get basic groceries including PB&J fixin's. If it doesn't have what you need, the closest full supermarket would be Urban Fare about 10 minutes walk away.

[Cheryl H]

Thank you so much for the information. I printed it all off. By chance, have you ever eaten at the Elephant & Castle, Lions Pub, or the Flying Wedge Pizza? Those all sound interesting to me. We were also thinking of eating at the Loggers Grill burger place at the Capilano Bridge place.

[martincath]

Thank you so much for the information. I printed it all off. By chance, have you ever eaten at the Elephant & Castle, Lions Pub, or the Flying Wedge Pizza? Those all sound interesting to me. We were also thinking of eating at the Loggers Grill burger place at the Capilano Bridge place.

Yes, No, and Yes.

 

E&C is a chain of IMO pretty bland British pubs. Until the last few years when the craft beer scene exploded I used the chain fairly regularly, simply because they reliably stocked a few beers that were nigh-impossible to find on draft anywhere else. None of them were great, the food has always been consistently mediocre, but Vancouver was far and away the worst of the bunch for service - and consistently so. A large group of UK expats met here regularly for a long time; I never heard a good word about the staff from anyone else; and I thought they were pretty crappy myself.

 

If you have no frame of reference for what a British pub is actually like you'll enjoy it more than I did - but while I wouldn't say "stay away!" from the Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, Chicago or Washington branches I simply cannot think of any reason to recommend Vancouver other than the building it's in (the Marine building is beautiful and architecturally unique, with a pretty interesting history - well worth popping into the lobby, mezzanine & elevators to take pics. E&C has a lot of historic photos inside of the building over the years - buy a coke, walk the room, leave without guilt!)

 

Lion's is the pub part of the rather swank Terminal City Club. Since it's frequented by wealthy members as well as the public I would expect a pretty high level of service across the board, but you're paying for it - the menu is a buck or two pricier than other pubs around downtown.

 

If I were to recommend a pub-type dining experience near the PP I'd always plump for Tap & Barrel at the convention centre. Views, solid menu, not-too-pricy-by Vancouver-standards for a very good range of beers (and full 20oz pints - a rare thing here). Kids are welcome too.

 

Flying Wedge is a well-regarded local chain of pizzerias. They don't try for authenticity - no Neapolitan charred thin crusts here! - but they do have a wide range of flavoursome toppings. I've never failed to enjoy their product but they are more expensive than the run-of-the-mill chains like Pizza Hut, Dominos etc. so their perceived value to you will very much depend how picky you are about your pizzas.

 

Loggers Grill I can't help with - our only Capilano visit was a long time ago and we didn't eat. My rule of thumb for dining in 'captive audience' scenarios is assume decent food but jacked-up prices...

 

Another couple of places nearby that are very popular with the 'sweet teeth' of young'uns are Mink chocolates and DeDutch Pannekoek House.