The Rough Guide to Vancouver

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• ISBN:
  9781848367005
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Crescita personale
• Subtopic: Viaggi

The Rough Guide to Vancouver is the essential companion to one of the world's most majestic cities with clear maps and detailed coverage of all the best attractions. From soaking up some high-speed ice hockey at a Vancouver Canucks game to admiring the cities glorious panaramas by sea plane, discover Vancouver's highlights inspired by dozens of photos. Find detailed historical coverage of the must-see sights and practical advice on getting around the city whilst relying on up-to-date descriptions of the best hotels, bars, clubs, shops, cafés and restaurants for all budgets. The Rough Guide to Vancouver includes two sections on Eating Out in Vancouver and The Great Outdoors with insider tips on spectating and enjoying the countless sports opportunities on offer all year round. Rely on expert insider tips on where to find comedy, theatre and live music, ideas for entertaining children plus details for excursions out of the city to Victoria, The Gulf of Islands, Whistler and the Sunshine Coast. Explore every corner of Vancouver with clear maps and expert backgound on everything from Pacific Rim cuisine to Vancouver's aboriginal cultures.
Make the most of your holiday with The Rough Guide to Vancouver.

Listings

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Accommodation

Vancouver has plenty of central accommodation in all price brackets. At the top end are world-class Downtown hotels such as the venerable Hotel Vancouver and Four Seasons, and glittering high-rise palaces that command magnificent views of the mountains and Downtown waterfront. Mid-range and inexpensive options rarely boast such panoramic positions, but it’s still possible to find good central choices with plenty of character and quality for under $150.

The widest choice in all categories can be found in central Downtown, the most pleasant and practical base for exploring the city, so unless your budget is extremely tight there’s really no reason to stay in any other location. As a result, our listings are arranged primarily by price rather than location, though we have also given the best choices in some of the city’s more peripheral districts.

That said, if you want to explore Downtown, there are few persuasive reasons for staying in North or West Vancouver, for example, where there is only a handful of hotels and bed and breakfast options, or in any location south of Granville Island or False Creek, unless you’re headed for the youth hostel in Kitsilano.

Possible reasons for staying outside the Downtown core are if you wish to be close to the airport or a ferry terminal for an early getaway, want the peace and quiet offered by some of the excellent bed and breakfast options out of town, or are on a very tight budget, as there are plenty of cheap motels on the various strips in the city’s northern, southern and eastern suburbs – Capilano Road in North Vancouver and along Kingsway south of Downtown are key locations. Bear in mind, though, that Downtown hostels and the excellent YWCA offer rates to match all but the cheapest (and dowdiest) out-of-town motels; you simply have to plan and book ahead.

And if you want peace and quiet but still wish to be central, you might plump for one of the smattering of hotels in the quieter and more residential West End, the area adjacent to Stanley Park, as even here you’re still effectively in Downtown.

A central location doesn’t necessarily mean high prices: there are excellent inexpensive or mid-range options – but you’ll have to book ahead to secure a room in such places in midsummer. If you get stuck, there are two free reservations services to help out .

In the budget bracket, you’d be well advised to steer clear of the area east of Downtown between Gastown and Chinatown. On the face of it this district has a large number of inexpensive hotels, but most are flophouses of a dinginess and unpleasantness that make them options of absolute last resort. These areas are also not particularly safe at night, and the backstreets should be avoided at all times. There is a rash of especially dreadful places on Hastings Street a few blocks either side of Main Street: don’t be tempted into these on any account. Gastown itself has a couple of honourable exceptions, but these are often housed above a bar where live bands and late-night drinking may keep you awake till the small hours.

Again, if you really need to stick to the rock-bottom price bracket, you’re better off in the hostels, the YWCA or one of the marginally less dodgy hotels north of the Granville Street Bridge, still in part a tame but tacky red-light area but increasingly part of the gentrification process that is spreading from Yaletown.

Vancouver has three good Hostelling International hostels, plus a handful of other reasonable, privately run hostels. Relatively low-price accommodation is also available in summer at the University of British Columbia’s Vanier Hostel, though the campus is a long way from Downtown, and many of the rooms go to convention visitors. If you’re in the city for a longer period, check out the small ads in the Vancouver Sun newspaper for details of rooms and apartments to rent.

Surprisingly for a place so close to the great outdoors, Vancouver is not a camper’s city – the majority of the in-city campsites are for RVs only and will turn you away if you’ve got only a tent. We’ve listed the few places that won’t.

Out of season, hotels in all categories offer reductions, and you can reckon on thirty percent discounts on the prices below. Many hotels will also offer discounted weekly rates in both high and low season. Remember, too, that the prices below are for doubles, though even the smartest hotels will introduce an extra bed into a double room at very little extra cost if there are three of you. As another way of saving money, or if you intend to be in the city for some time, it’s also worth noting that many hotels have kitchenettes or fully fitted kitchens if you want to cook for yourself.

Accommodation services >
Downtown hotels >
The North Shore >
South Vancouver >
Hostels >
Campsites >

Accommodation services

Vancouver is a busy city between June and September, and you should book rooms weeks, preferably months, ahead, especially if you hope to stay at one of the better-known bargains. If you leave it until the last minute, have trouble tracking down a room, arrive in the city without a bed, or simply wish to browse accommodation in advance, the Vancouver Touristinfo Centre (604/683-2000, www.tourismvancouver.com) offers a free accommodation reservation service and extensive online listings.

Also invaluable is the official Super Natural British Columbia reservation service (1-800/435-5662 or 604/435-5622 within Greater Vancouver and 250/387-1642 outside North America; www.hellobc.com), which has access to a large database of rooms and can sometimes offer better last-minute rates than those listed by the hotels themselves.

Bed and breakfasts

Vancouver has a host of bed and breakfast options, but very few are cheap – expect to pay $95-plus for a double – or central enough to make useful bases for sightseeing. However, if you choose well, you can have access to beaches, gardens, barbecues and as little or as much privacy as you want. Watch out for places in Downtown that describe themselves as B&Bs; in most cases these are just small hotels – they’re often very nice, but rooms can cost as much as or more than those in Downtown hotels in the mid-range and expensive price brackets.

Bed and breakfast accommodations tend to close and open from year to year, so it’s safest to book a room through a reservation agency that knows which ones are still around. However, most agencies offer phone services only and require two days’ notice – fine if you’re planning ahead, but not much use if you need to find a place on arrival. In the latter case it’s best to visit the city’s main infocentre at the foot of Burrard Street, where you can browse through folders containing details and pictures of dozens of bed and breakfast options and use the centre’s accommodation service. In either case, make sure you know exactly where your B&B is located and how far you’ll have to travel to see the sights.

If you need to use an agency, the following have accommodation throughout the city and in Victoria, the Gulf Islands and beyond: Best Canadian Bed & Breakfasts (www.bedsandbreakfasts.ca), www.bcsbestbnbs.com and www.wcbbbcanada.com).

Accommodation prices

All accommodation prices in this chapter are in Canadian dollar rates unless otherwise specified. Prices are for the least expensive double room in each establishment in high season, excluding special offers. Note, however, that many hotels in all categories have frequent off-season, weekly or weekend offers and that virtually all will introduce a third bed into a double room for only a few dollars. Many hotels will also allow children under a certain age – usually 12 years – to sleep free if they share their parents’ room. Always enquire about deals.

Note, too, that room prices are quoted without BC’s eight percent provincial hotel tax levied on hotels and other establishments with more than four rooms and added to your bill when you check out. The federal five percent goods and services tax (GST) is also levied: refunds for visitors are no longer available.

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Downtown hotels

Hotels are dotted across Vancouver’s Downtown peninsula, so wherever you stay you won’t be more than a few minutes’ walk or a short bus or taxi ride from the main sights. The quietest and most peripheral places lie in the West End, which, despite their distance from the main core, have the advantage of being close to the beaches and green spaces of Stanley Park. East of here, Robson Street houses several hotels, many of them former high-rise apartment blocks that have been converted into big, bland but serviceable mid-price accommodation. These are reasonably convenient for both Stanley Park and the Downtown shops and galleries without being especially close – relatively speaking – to either. There are also hotels in all categories at the heart of the peninsula, with a great choice of upmarket options on or close to the waterfront.

On the area’s southern and eastern fringes – Gastown and Granville Island – there are only a handful of hotels, but as gentrification takes hold, the old flophouses on the southern end of Granville and Howe streets are being converted by the mid-market hotel chains into functional places to stay.

Inexpensive

Budget Inn-Patricia Hotel 403 East Hastings St at Dunlevy 604/255-4301 or 1-888/926-1017, 254-7154, www.budgetpathotel.bc.ca. This 92-room hotel is well known among backpackers and budget travellers, and is widely advertised across Vancouver. However, the six-storey building is located a long way from Downtown in the heart of Chinatown (certainly too far to walk comfortably). This is an exciting or grim location, depending on your point of view, though some feel distinctly unsafe in the area and you wouldn’t want to walk the surrounding streets in the small hours. The h...