Downtown and Capilano Park in Vancouver
If you have ever been on a repositioning cruise, you know they can be short and sweet; and our cruise in the Spring of 2023 was no different. We had one port day in Victoria (check out the details here!) and then we finished our journey in Vancouver, BC.
With disembarkation on Friday, we didn’t have a true port day in Vancouver, but we were able to stay the rest of the weekend and get a full Vancouver experience on our own.
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Table of Contents
- Arrival
- Downtown
- Granville Island
- Excursion (Capilano Suspension Bridge)
- Departure
Arrival
Arrival is not something we usually care much about, but this experience was very unusual compared to our prior cruises.
First, we were scheduled to arrive in Vancouver on Thursday evening, even though we were not disembarking until Friday. We had a similar experience in Amsterdam, so we were familiar with that concept. However, unlike Vancouver, we didn’t arrive until around 8pm, which meant there really wasn’t any valuable time to get off the ship and see a little bit of Vancouver before the weekend. Not the end of the world, but it was surprising.
Second, we spent all day Wednesday in Victoria, which is less than a mile from Vancouver (as the crow flies). Which meant that we left Victoria, had to sail back the way we came and to the ocean for the evening, and then sail back the same way to make it to Vancouver.
Normally this happens when they are trying to get out of a ‘country’ so taxes and laws prohibiting gambling don’t apply. Overnight this worked, but all day Thursday we were close enough to Seattle that USA taxes applied, and the casinos were all shut down.
Definitely something to remember if you are coming into Vancouver – your drink package might not be free anymore because you still have to pay tax, even if the drink is a $0 charge to your account.
Third, we learned Wednesday afternoon why the late arrival time. In order to get to Vancouver docks, you have to sail underneath the Lions Gate Bridge.
The NCL Bliss happens to be the largest ship (at least for Norwegian) that docks in Vancouver. Due to its size, this ship only fits underneath the bridge at one time each day!
It has to be the lowest point of the low tide, and even then you could reach your hand up and still touch the bridge. For Thursday, this window was at about 6:30pm. So while we could have arrived sooner from a schedule perspective, this was one only time the entire day we could have physically arrived.
After that, it was pretty smooth sailing (no pun intended). The views coming into Vancouver were beautiful. Thursday was great weather, so we got to see a lot of the downtown and surrounding mountains.
Downtown
Our cruise officially ended Friday, and we made our way off the ship. Canada Place (Vancouver dock) is a beautiful complex and had pretty good directions to get out of the port and into the ‘normal’ world.
We opted to walk to our hotel since it was only 10 minutes away. Which should have been easy, but you add suitcases, cold weather, and my crazy allergies that week, and I was in rough shape when we got there. Thankfully, that didn’t last.
The Hampton Inn Vancouver Downtown (website here) was a fun change of pace for a Hampton property. It was actually downtown and was in a high-rise (though not massive) building. It was also directly across from their stadium, which was a beautiful building, and it would have been fun to see an event there, but there wasn’t anything scheduled while we were in town.
The hotel was kind enough to hold our bags for the day, since it was barely 9am and way too early for check-in. That meant we were free to explore downtown to our hearts content.
Our first stop was super glamorous (not). Running out of allergy meds the day prior was kicking my butt, so we were off to a find a pharmacy. Thankfully we found one pretty easily, and they had similar meds, so I could at least reduce my allergy symptoms, even if I couldn’t eliminate them.
After I was drugged up, we made our way to a local café, Prado (website here) to warm up a bit and grab breakfast. Someone had mentioned that Canada doesn’t have a lot of chain restaurants, and local places like this café were much more common for coffee stops.
With this in mind, we made it a point to try multiple places throughout the weekend to get the full experience…
Tim Hortons was a must, and they came through with their selections. According to Nathan, it was better than Starbucks and WAY cheaper. I got the hot chocolate, and it was also better than what I had at Prado. Plus, we grabbed some timbits (donut holes) to snack on.
My preferred café turned out to be Waves (website here). They had a better all around menu, including non-coffee selections. Plus, their bagel sandwiches turned out fantastic.
It did remind me a lot of Starbucks. Maybe even a little better with their breakfast options and dine-in plates/cups if you wanted.
While my iced drink was delicious, I regretted it in the cold weather. We learned very quickly why coffee is so popular in this area. It’s a perfect way to keep you warm, especially walking around!
While I am sure there are many more, I was sad that we missed out on Trees (website here). We passed multiple, but we weren’t able to stop for one reason or another. They are a Cheesecake and Coffee café, and I don’t think I can think of a better combination for Nathan!
Also, while it wasn’t a coffee stop, we continued our one trip long tradition of stopping by McDonald’s in another country to find the unique menu items.
Canada did have Poutine and Nathan’s burger was slightly different.
I thought the little maple leaf was a cute too! We were actually surprised that the logo was modified everywhere. Made us wonder if there are more variations to the logo that we don’t see often.
Beyond our snacks, we had a decent time exploring downtown. Honestly, we expected more; but it is shocking how small Canada cities really are. You would assume that since Vancouver is referenced in the same way Seattle is, that its size would be similar. That is not the case.
There wasn’t much to do downtown, and after we had visited a few of the main highlights, we got a little nervous about having all Saturday to fill with something to do. Good news is we figured out a great solution that ended up being the best part of the trip, but more on that below.
Our first sightseeing stop was at the gas powered steam clock, which was pretty cool. Every 15 minutes a small chime occurred, and every hour there was a longer one. We only caught it for the smaller chime but still a nifty attraction.
A funny surprise was the underground Costco entrance we passed. We still have no idea where the actual store was because we were in the heart of downtown, but they had one!
Also, it wasn’t more than a week after getting home that we signed up for Costco at home. Next time we visit, we will go and figure out where they are hiding Costco!
Up next was the narrowest commercial building in the world. The Sam Kee Building is located in Vancouver’s Chinatown, so we had to stop by as we walked through.
They were closed, but it looked like it was basically a museum that you could walk up a set of stairs 1/2 down the building to access the second floor.
According to Wikipedia there is a little bit of drama with this building, if you want to learn more check out this link.
Things went a little downhill after this. Now, thankfully this was just a small part of our trip and there was no real danger…. but … it wasn’t fun.
Chinatown was only a block or two from our hotel, so very easy to get to. Since we didn’t have a specific destination, after this, we just started walking. Normally this turns out pretty good for us to just see life in the city.
Well, this time we ended up right in the heart of sketchy Vancouver. Complete with drug deals going down on the corner and streets lined with homeless. While nothing bad happened, it was the first time in our travels that I was glad to have Nathan with me and my Travelon (theft resistant) purse.
It also took us a surprising amount of time to make our way out of this area and back to familiar streets. Really, it was just a sad reminder of the reality of any major city, especially those without extreme weather. Phoenix is no different, but you generally aren’t in those parts of town to see it.
After all of that, we decided to be a little more intentional about our wanderings. We found a section of downtown that had a lot of name brand shops and figured it would be similar Mag Mile in Chicago.
We made our way to the area pretty easily, but it just looked like a bunch of office high-rises. After walking down the road for a bit, we saw an entrance to a set of stores and made our way ‘inside’ which we didn’t know existed.
It’s only now that I am doing research to write this that I realize we made our way into the Pacific Centre without realizing it! Sadly, this means we missed out on the iconic entrance, but it was still pretty cool. The mall is basically integrated into the downtown buildings below ground and the first one or two floors of the buildings. As we experienced, you wouldn’t know it was a mall from just looking at the outside.
This put us directly on the path to head across the water over to Granville Island and visit the popular Public Market.
Granville Island
Another lesson we should have learned by now is that map distance and reality are very different. 10 minutes, no big deal. 20 minutes, ok that’s not close, but we can do that!
Quick reminder, this is late afternoon. We have already spent all morning walking around downtown, and it’s not exactly warm.
We knew that we wanted to make our way to Granville Island to check out the popular Public Market. We were already walking, and it didn’t seem too far, so we decided to just start walking.
This shot is about 1/2 to our destination, where we had to walk over a bridge and a major highway to get to Granville Island.
It was so cold with the wind in our faces and to be honest we weren’t even sure that pedestrians could make it across the bridge, so if we had to turn around, we were not going to be happy.
The good news is that the views were beautiful, and we got some great pictures of a parallel bridge.
That was quickly replaced again by bad news (luck was not on our side this trip!). Maps just wanted us to ‘turn right’ and head into the Granville island once we were next to it.
Sounds simple. No. No it wasn’t.
There was no ‘right’! We were still on the bridge!
It didn’t matter which maps software we used, they all wanted us to simply turn right and jump off this bridge, swim to the island, and voilà, we made it!
Don’t worry, I am shaking my head at myself as I write this. 😀
So no surprise we are exhausted at this point and had to just keep walking and take random roads until Maps could recalculate a valid route.
No fear though, we did make it and it was worth it! Though, I may not recommend our methods to anyone visiting on their own ;).
We stopped for dinner at the Tap & Barrel (website here), which was a great selection. After our unexpected workout, we opted for a lighter meal and drinks. I ordered the Tuna Ceviche and Truffle Fries, and Nathan got a 1/2 pot of mussels. I had already made a good dent before I remembered to grab a picture, so sorry it’s almost gone!
After we rested and our stomachs were full, it was time to explore the island. The Public Market was the main draw, but there were a ton of shops and a little park to explore too.
We started with the Public Market. Which is a giant warehouse like building that reminded me of a cross between a farmers market and a grocery store.
The first shop we stopped at was Northern Bars (website here) which end up being one of my favorites.
They make Nanaimo bars, a British Columbia favorite, which I believe we heard about in Victoria. I wanted to try them on principle as a nod to Nathan’s nickname.
This version is like a brownie with a layer of coconut filling/cream and topped with a hard chocolate. SO GOOD. We got the 4 pack, and I wish we would have gotten more. They don’t ship to the USA, so I anytime someone is going to Vancouver, I am forever going to ask them to pick some up for me!
Right next door was La Bise caneles (website here) which Nathan choose as his treat.
He quickly consumed the few bites of desert and reported back that it was good. I didn’t try it for myself, so I can’t speak in detail, but they were at least cute!
After that, we just went exploring. There were butchers, fresh pasta booths, fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms, pie shops, and so much more in between.
The fruit bins were very entertaining as they were piled so high, I’m surprised people didn’t lose 1/2 their purchase anytime they picked one up. They also looked incredibly good, and the bin (full or not) would end up empty before you had a chance to get back to your car.
After we had seen all the shops, and were disappointed we couldn’t really buy anything since it required somewhere to go and use it, we figured it would be best to get an Uber back to the hotel instead of trying to walk again.
The other shops on the island are more artsy, and since that doesn’t provide a huge draw for us, we opted to explore a park and dock area while we waited for an Uber to arrive. Then it was a nice, comfortable ride back to the hotel and time to turn in for the evening and let our feet rest!.
Excursion (Capilano Suspension Bridge)
We had one more day to spend exploring Vancouver, and we knew that we had covered all the downtown sites and then some. We thought about visiting Stanley Park as a popular tourist site, which kind of reminded me of Central Park. Unfortunately, it was scheduled to rain all day, and my idea to bike through the park didn’t sound as much fun with that forecast.
After a few quick searches, we found some excursions you could book directly with the touring company and selected Discover Vancouver Tours with the excursion ‘Discover North Vancouver & Capilano Suspension Bridge’ (website here).
They picked us up downtown at Library Square, and turned out to be a nice small group of 9 people. Which made it easy to communicate with the guide and have plenty of time without dealing with a massive group.
As we started our drive, the guide gave us some details about downtown. We quickly realized that we missed a lot of the newer areas and buildings, but thankfully we didn’t miss much as far as sightseeing is concerned.
He also gave us some really good insight into the First Nations people and the respect Canadians have for them, their history and their culture. This may be skewed to the tour guide industry, but even in Victoria the efforts the Canadian people and government go into supporting them and their culture were brought up on more than one occasion.
This felt so drastically different from our experience in the USA. First, for anyone not familiar with term (like me), Americans would traditionally say Native American, and I personally like the First Nation name better. Second, without getting into a politics conversation, we simply don’t have the same level of respect for them and their culture. Or at the very least, it is never discussed which is sad.
As we discussed the history of the city, our drive took us through Stanley Park. We were happy to at least get a quick glimpse, but this will be another item on our to-do list when we come back. It was a beautiful park with an Aquarium there too. I think you could easily spend a day there enjoying nature.
It wasn’t long until we made it to our first stop, Shipyards District. With it being early in the travel season combined with the rain, it was not a super busy area.
We walked around for a few minutes and then made our way inside the Lonsdale Quay Market, another public market. This one was much smaller, but they were still an ‘up and coming’ area, so that is to be expected.
Our snack was an easy choice as we passed the Craffles booth (website here). They had a unique selection of crapes or waffles, and we choose three dipped waffles with Oreo, kinder egg, and sadly I can’t remember what the third one was.
They were pretty good, though super messy being 100% dipped in white/milk chocolate.
This wrapped up our time at the the ship yard and we were on our way again!
Our final, and best, stop was at the Capilano Suspension Bridge park (website here). This was up in the mountains just 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver, but we might as well have driven for hours with how quickly and different the landscape was. In the blink of eye we were surrounded by massive pine trees and ‘deep’ in a mountain.
After you enter the park, you walk through the history of the area and the bridge development. As with most things it’s always interesting to understand how something came to be.
Then it’s time to walk across the main suspension bridge! It’s about a quarter of a mile long and takes about 5 to 15 minutes to cross, depending on how easy you take it.
Now if you don’t already know this about us, we don’t like heights. Like not at all. Of course, it wasn’t until we were on the bus that I realized what we were about to do and how high we would be, on a bridge that moves no less.
It also happened to be a wonderful day with non-stop rain. Which meant that while we were suspended across the tree tops, but it was soaking wet and slippery. Thankfully, this is Vancouver and rain is a given, so the park did a great job preparing the walkways, so there was very little danger of slipping.
Our first time across was nice and slow, holding onto the railing the entire time. After the initial discomfort you got use to the feeling of the slight sway and by the time you were at the middle it wasn’t too bad. Plus, you earned yourself some beautiful views!
Once you made it across the main bridge, you entered the main park with 7 smaller bridges and just over a mile of nature walk trails. Honestly, there weren’t stories for this part of our trip, just non-stop beautiful views.
I don’t know the last time I saw Nathan so happy. With rain, overcast, mountains, pine trees and being out in nature, it couldn’t be a better setup for him to relax and just enjoy the moment.
After we enjoyed the nature path, we made our way back across the main bridge and walked over to the Cliffwalk. This was a small single person walk-way that took you around the cliff of the mountain for more beautiful views.
Some areas had glass or grate floors installed so you could see all the way down down and down some more! While the suspension bridges moved, this was a little worse for a height-adverse person. Especially when they designed the bridge to curve out in one place so it was a couple feet from the mountain!
This was truly a unique and memorable experience that I would highly recommend to everyone, regardless of a fear of heights! It was the perfect ending for our Vancouver trip.
After the park we made our way back home, grabbed a bite to eat, and then we were off to bed for an early flight the next day.
Departure
Since we were downtown, we knew we wanted to try out the public transit. So early Saturday morning, while its still dark outside with the now expected constant drizzle, we started our walk to the nearest train station.
Fair warning, I wouldn’t recommend this approach to just anyone. However, it always works really well for us to just walk everywhere, though it is much less enjoyable when we have to deal with suitcases.
It’s always fun to see the different ways cities solve for transportation payment. Chicago is still one of our favorites with multi-day passes, but I thought Vancouver was a pretty good alternative.
While they had multi-day passes, we knew we needed one way, one time. In all honesty their website and instructions were confusing so we weren’t confident how it would work. Thankfully we didn’t run into any issues once we arrived.
When you get to the turnstiles, they have the option to scan a ‘traditional’ pass, or you could use your Wallet app (Apple/Google Pay) and scan your payment card. They charge you the ‘max’ one way amount and then when you arrive at your destination you scan the same card again, and it refunds any amount you didn’t use. I did have a little trouble with Amex being accepted, but I easily switched to my Mastercard and it accepted no problem!
From there, the train ride was pretty standard and we were happy that the stations and trains were clean and well maintained.
The airport was pretty standard, but we were happy to be able to use our TSA Pre-check and Global Entry to make check-in speedy quick!
Our flight was nice and easy (they actually fed us, but it didn’t feel like a long flight at all!), and we were able to get our car and head home. Unfortunately, we did have a rough drive home, with issues at charging stations and tons of traffic at the stations. It turned a 6-7 hour drive into 9 hours, and by the end we were just ready to be home.
We are so happy to have finally made it to Canada, which should have happened a long time ago! Our trip provided a few new great memories, and more reasons to come back and continue to explore. It was a reminder of how much we miss the pine tree mountains and making sure we visit them more often, any way we can.
If you want to check out our other adventures on this trip, here are some quick links for you!
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