Pre-Cruise Tour Vancouver

[travelforfun22]

Has anyone done any of the pre-cruise tours in Vancouver. Wondering if it is worth the money? We will not be in Vancouver long and would like to see some sights. Just not sure if on our own would be better or with the tour.

[MDnOH]

Hop-on-Hop-off is the way to go, Vancouver is a neat city.

[Brigbound]

Definitely do on your own. Hit Chinatown during the evening and the beautiful parks nearby. Great restaurants/pubs in this area.

[Cruisingthesuitelife]

Personally, having only does this in May, I would recommend either a private tour if you have the money or the hop on hop off trolley.

 

I did a group tour post cruise and it was awful - badly run, rushed and impacted by others in the group. I didn't really see what I wanted either. So, the following day I did a 4 hour city tour with drop at the airport through Aerocar. The driver was fantastic and I put together the tour I wanted to do including stops where I wanted.

 

Research what is important for you to see and work out if it is feasible to do using the hop on hop off and if not, look at doing a private tour.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Cruisingthesuitelife

[BCguy100]

travelforfun22 - I'm a long time Vancouverite. If you have any questions, email me at bcguy100 at g mail dot com.

 

Good luck and have fun!

 

Morley

[xlxo]

Has anyone done any of the pre-cruise tours in Vancouver. Wondering if it is worth the money? We will not be in Vancouver long and would like to see some sights. Just not sure if on our own would be better or with the tour.

If you share your flight arrival time and cruise departure date.... we can help provide some suggestions. Vancouver is much larger than all Alaskan ports combined and it's currently sale with a currency collapse.

 

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[trinaM]

share your Winning Priceline bids for

 

downtown Vancouver , B. C. Canada..

 

Winter season December 2015

[martincath]

share your Winning Priceline bids for

 

downtown Vancouver , B. C. Canada..

 

Winter season December 2015

There's already a Sticky thread for this Trina. 78 pages worth of West Coast departure port priceline winning bids! You can Search that thread for Vancouver to see all the local rates.

[MOcruiserman]

We did the hop-on, hop-off in Vancouver and enjoyed it. Be sure to "hop off" at Gastown, Stanley Park and Granville Island.

[Putterdude]

HOHOs are a great way to see a lot of the city; I am inclined to recommend the Vancouver Trolley folks if only because they offer live narration instead of the canned variety. Land/Sea Tours (Vancouver Tours) also do an excellent job but are a bit pricy.

 

http://www.vancouvertrolley.com/tours/hop-on-hop-off

http://vancouvertours.com/

[SaguaroGal]

We took each of the tours Land/Sea offered and enjoyed them all. Comfortable sprinter-type bus, small groups and excellent guides. Our TA set us up with one and we booked the others on our own.

We did a walking Foodie Tour of food trucks after an Alaska cruise and really enjoyed that as well. Saw the downtown sights by foot and had some really wild tastings along the way.

[Putterdude]

I am glad that you enjoyed Vancouver Tours (Land/Sea), I have never read anything but glowing reports from cruisers who have used them. :)

[denatravels]

Question about the HOHO bus or trolley-- I will have two full days in Vancouver (and live in NYC so I am very comfortable with public transportation). But I like the idea of the HOHO because it gets you right there-- my concern is that they seem to stop SO early each day. Anyone have issues with this?

[martincath]

Question about the HOHO bus or trolley-- I will have two full days in Vancouver (and live in NYC so I am very comfortable with public transportation). But I like the idea of the HOHO because it gets you right there-- my concern is that they seem to stop SO early each day. Anyone have issues with this?

It is somewhat annoying that unlike many other tourist-focused businesses they have no extended hours into the evening in summer, when we have daylight until after 9pm. You can still get plenty of hours touring in if you start early though - and with two days, I believe if you prebook HOHO tix they still give you a second day free so you can divide up your route if you really want to get off at every single stop.

 

Transit of course runs for much longer, goes places the HOHO does not, and costs much less ($9.75 Day Pass; if you're an American it's almost like they're paying you to ride it with our dollar in the hole...) - if you're traveling with a smartphone it's also easy to find out routes and frequencies of service live rather than depending on printed timetables and maps. Frankly even the best HOHO driver I've ever had falls well short of the quality and range of info in a good guidebook like Rough Guide - so if you're comfy using transit and reading, you'll definitely get more out of doing that.

 

Oh, one exception - Stanley Park. Transit gets you to just outside the entrance or one bus bay in the middle. HOHOs get you to at least half-a-dozen stops inside the park - more if you use the Trolley. If you're here when the Park Shuttle is running a I STRONGLY recommend it - it's a bargain at $10pp, with 15 stops around the park. The only thing better is biking.

Edited January 30, 2016 by martincath

[denatravels]

It is somewhat annoying that unlike many other tourist-focused businesses they have no extended hours into the evening in summer, when we have daylight until after 9pm. You can still get plenty of hours touring in if you start early though - and with two days, I believe if you prebook HOHO tix they still give you a second day free so you can divide up your route if you really want to get off at every single stop.

 

Transit of course runs for much longer, goes places the HOHO does not, and costs much less ($9.75 Day Pass; if you're an American it's almost like they're paying you to ride it with our dollar in the hole...) - if you're traveling with a smartphone it's also easy to find out routes and frequencies of service live rather than depending on printed timetables and maps. Frankly even the best HOHO driver I've ever had falls well short of the quality and range of info in a good guidebook like Rough Guide - so if you're comfy using transit and reading, you'll definitely get more out of doing that.

 

Oh, one exception - Stanley Park. Transit gets you to just outside the entrance or one bus bay in the middle. HOHOs get you to at least half-a-dozen stops inside the park - more if you use the Trolley. If you're here when the Park Shuttle is running a I STRONGLY recommend it - it's a bargain at $10pp, with 15 stops around the park. The only thing better is biking.

 

 

Thanks. I won't have cell service in Canada, but I manage on public transit when I'm in Europe and at least this time I speak the language! I'm leaning towards two days with the transit pass, and a precruise tour to capilano and grouse, which also eliminates the issue of getting from the hotel to the pier (apparently I'm too cheap to pay $15 for a cab, but I will entertain the idea of paying $145 for the tour!!) go figure....

[martincath]

Thanks. I won't have cell service in Canada, but I manage on public transit when I'm in Europe and at least this time I speak the language! I'm leaning towards two days with the transit pass, and a precruise tour to capilano and grouse, which also eliminates the issue of getting from the hotel to the pier (apparently I'm too cheap to pay $15 for a cab, but I will entertain the idea of paying $145 for the tour!!) go figure....

Were you unaware of the free shuttles to Cap & Grouse? With a day-pass you can even save time by jumping on the bus that runs between them, instead of having to come back to town then return to the other one (two different shuttles...) - it's about the easiest bus trip in the whole area.

 

If it's the 'peak and canyon' LandSea tour the value is HORRIBLE - you get less than two hours in each place. Cap you can probably just about do justice in that time, but Grouse has far too much stuff to see - while LandSea get generally very good reviews, this tour is inherently craptastic (because they have to be able to squeeze it into a short enough time to get folks to the pier in time to board, not because LandSea suck!)

 

Personally I'd do them on one of your full days, and on the morning you board look to do walkable-from-the-pier things like some Seawall wandering, Gastown (Steam Clock, Gassy Jack statue, pretty historic buildings) and maybe FlyOver Canada.

Edited January 30, 2016 by martincath
spelling

[denatravels]

Were you unaware of the free shuttles to Cap & Grouse? With a day-pass you can even save time by jumping on the bus that runs between them, instead of having to come back to town then return to the other one (two different shuttles...) - it's about the easiest bus trip in the whole area.

 

 

I haven't been to Vancouver in 30 years, so yes, I was unaware of any free shuttle.

[martincath]

I haven't been to Vancouver in 30 years, so yes, I was unaware of any free shuttle.

You can find pickup locations and schedules here and here (Grouse should update with frequency info some time before May, but pickup point is consistent - always right outside Canada Place, like the Cap Red service). Mostly we recommend folks visiting both to do Grouse first - you can then ask the shuttle bus driver to drop you off at Cap when they drive past. If you do Cap first, the Grouse bus isn't going to stop so you can't do that in reverse.

 

Since you plan to get Day Passes though, I'd do it the other way around - IMO Cap is better than Grouse first thing as the reduced numbers of people really help with the bridge itself (a total bottleneck and the only way across to some of the other attractions on site). Plus lots of people means really unpredictable bounciness! So going when there are as few other folks as possible, early or late, helps quite a bit with maximizing your Cap experience.

 

Grouse OTOH has many more things to do so crowds can spread out more - and there are multiple dining options unlike Cap, so it's preferable for lunchtime. First Red shuttle to Cap gets you there for 9am when they open, two or three hours there plus say a half hour in case you have to wait a bit for a bus up to Grouse means arriving at the perfect time to grab some lunch.