Long Weekend in Vancouver: Activities

Friday

After checking into the hotel, we walked along the waterfront. It was a beautiful day! The highlight was watching the seaplanes take off and land. There were probably a dozen of them, and they seemed to be taking the same circular route. I read that most are sightseeing routes, but some people use them for commuting.

We used our first night’s $100 ($130 Canadien) at the Happy Hour in the Lobby Bar. We ended up going twice- after we checked in to plan the rest of the day, and then after our waterfront walk. We had the Mezze Spreads and the Charcuterie & Cheese Platter. Both were good values at the Happy Hour prices and were substantial enough for two. We had the former during Happy Hour, but the latter was reasonable at the regular price.

Saturday

The breakfast buffet was included as part of the FHR benefits. I guess I’m spoiled by the Chateau Frontenac buffet, because I was underwhelmed. I didn’t find anything to eat at the buffet itself, but we could order off the menu.

I’m a big fan of smoked salmon, and was able to order a side of just the lox. I also ordered a mushroom, spinach, and goat cheese- which was really good. I’ll probably do the same every day, unless I find something new at the buffet.

We bought tickets to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park from the Concierge and then used the free shuttle to get to the park.

The Suspension Bridge is definitely the highlight. It is suspended by cables above a river gorge. As expected, it swings and bounces. It has pretty high sides, so you really can’t fall off. But it is very bouncy! After the bridge, we went on multiple walks inside the park that are all “paved” with wooden planks, so it’s a very easy walk.

The second best part was on the starting side of the bridge called the “Cliff Walk”. This appears to be pretty new, and is what it sounds like. They have some pretty impressive engineering to make this possible.

The tickets weren’t cheap- about $60 US each, but it’s the sort of thing you only do once.

We took the 11AM shuttle to the Park, and the 1:30 shuttle back to the hotel. So we were there about 2 hours.

After the Park, we went to the Happy Hour again. I wanted to try the oysters and the “Crispy Mushrooms”. The oysters were fantastic- very clean tasting, and only about $1. The Crispy Mushrooms were actually tempura-fried. They were tasty, but I couldn’t finish them, and my wife doesn’t like mushrooms. She had the burger, which was quite good, and it came with a kale Caesar salad, which was the highlight- I would order that on its own!

We had a well-deserved nap, and then went back to the ARC for some specialty cocktails.

Sunday

Took a Lyft to the Museum of Anthropology. The museum isn’t huge but they have a dense display of artifacts from around the world, and drawers underneath each display that you can open with additional artifacts. But the reason I wanted to go was the Totem Poles. These are simply huge and amazing. What I didn’t know is that there are living artists continuing to create them. I would highly recommend a visit to his museum to see and learn about the Totem Poles.

Then, we took a Lyft to Granville Island, and directly to the Public Market. This is a market with fresh produce, all manner of sweets, and a variety of prepared foods. We wandered around but didn’t buy anything. We ended up eating a sit-down restaurant which had pretty good Yelp reviews: Tap and Barrel restaurant. We sat on the deck and enjoyed the view of the harbor while having some pretty good food.

Then, we took the Aqua Bus ferry to Yaletown. Yaletown has an amazing harbor with huge yachts. We didn’t get very far into the town because we found a restaurant offering a Happy Hour and a view of the harbor, Provence Marinaside. We spent several hours there eating, drinking, and chatting with the folks at the adjacent table. Food was good, wine was French and the people were friendly.

Back at the hotel, we walked around Canada Place, which looks like a cruise ship (see pictures above). It was pretty desolate, and parts still seemed to be under construction.

Since we still had the $100 FHR credit ($130 CAD), we ate a light dinner at the hotel.

Monday

At this point, we had really done everything on our list. So we decided to go back to Granville Island and explore it more fully, since we had really only touched the surface. We wandered around, went through the Public Market again, and went into almost all of the stores. P2 bought some souvenirs to bring home to our family. We had lunch at the Tap and Barrel restaurant again, and then took a Lyft back to the hotel.

That evening, we took a long walk along the water and enjoyed the evening views and ambience. We stumbled upon a restaurant with live music called Cardero’s. Really nice rustic interior, and clearly, a locals’ place. We had a drink and enjoyed the solo guitarist.

We ended the evening with a nightcap at the hotel bar.

Tuesday:

Our flight back home wasn’t until 3PM, so it was a chill day. There wasn’t any rush to get to the airport because the airport club after Customs (Security) is not good, at least per Reddit.

I did pick up our traditional souvenir Starbucks mug- Vancouver emblazoned.

Please see my separate post on Vancouver Flights & Hotels.