Visiting Vancouver

witch_ie

We will be visiting Vancouver (the one in Canada) to participate in medical tourism (one of us will be having eye surgery). We've given ourselves two days before the surgery to check out the city. For those familiar with Vancouver, where should we visit, and what form of transportation would you recommend we use to get around as tourists and also post-surgery?

Tourism
Looking at the Vancouver tourism site there seem to be a lot museums and gardens. Which ones are the best to visit given our limited time? Also, are there other areas we should check out? This is our first time visiting the city.

Transportation
We've heard that parking can be a challenge, so weren't sure whether we should rent a car (assuming we can do that), use a lot of taxis (probably what we would consider post surgery), or rely on public transportation.

TokyoV

For stuff to do:
-Stanley Park which is a very large, world renowned park. A bit of a better option when it's warm out, but still worth while.
-The Vancouver Art Galley is in the core of downtown and isn't super big, so it could be a great way to compliment a day in the downtown area
-Granville Island is a humble, niche shopping district which is also really close to downtown. It's also got some theaters.
-Chinatown. Basically like any other Chinatown I've been to
-Aquarium. Also basically like any other aquarium, but I did enjoy it enough to go both times I've been to Vancouver.

Transportation
-Taxi's in Vancouver are really expensive, and the transit system is pretty good, and quite simple. If you're flying in, there's a train that goes from the airport to downtown.

Kochikens

Skytrain for transit.

cmsamo

Bring wet weather clothes! This time of year can be pretty miserable and rainy Skytrain is reliable, and can get you to a lot of places. The buses are not so reliable. If you had time I would recommend a trip to Steveston Village (Skytrain out of downtown to Richmond, and then take a bus - about a 35 minute trip in total - the village has a historic cannery, and some quite nice places along the water.

bsjezz

see a canucks game

don't miss gastown, especially if you like funky vintage/hipster shopping. just be careful walking around the downtown eastside, especially the area between gastown and chinatown. it has zombies.

the stanley park seawall is non-optional. if you end up with a car, i also like white rock and horseshoe bay. watch some ferries depart into the great grey sea, and pretend.

Corvus

Where you are staying and what you want to do will determine whether or not you need a car. If you want to limit yourself to the urban core area, you are probably fine with busses and skytrain. Visit Translink.ca to check out the transit system. In fact, I would recommend *not* driving downtown if you can avoid it. Walking and transit is a much better way to actually experience any city. You can also try out the little harbour ferry boats. T

You should check out Granville Island, as noted, because it is awesome. Parking can be tedious there. The Aquarium is awesome. Belugas, dolphins, hand holding otters, orphaned baby harbour seals, etc. The UBC Museum of Anthropology is cool, and there is a Biodiversity museum there as well. I haven't been to the latter, but it does have a whole blue whale skeleton installed there, which is supposed to be pretty cool.

Edit: I forgot locations don't show any more, I live in Vancouver and if you have any direct questions you want to ask, go ahead.

Skylark

bsjezz wrote: »

see a canucks game

don't miss gastown, especially if you like funky vintage/hipster shopping. just be careful walking around the downtown eastside, especially the area between gastown and chinatown. it has zombies.

the stanley park seawall is non-optional. if you end up with a car, i also like white rock and horseshoe bay. watch some ferries depart into the great grey sea, and pretend.

To clarify, the Downtown Eastside/Skid Row is not particularly dangerous, just depressing as hell.

UrQuanLord88

rainy rainy rainy
please remember to bring some water proof gear

Also please enjoy the 9 million sushi restaurants in vancouver. In terms of food, I would say that Vancouver isn't a slouch in that area if you're into that sort of thing

Skylark

Corvus wrote: »

Where you are staying and what you want to do will determine whether or not you need a car. If you want to limit yourself to the urban core area, you are probably fine with busses and skytrain. Visit Translink.ca to check out the transit system. In fact, I would recommend *not* driving downtown if you can avoid it. Walking and transit is a much better way to actually experience any city. You can also try out the little harbour ferry boats. T

You should check out Granville Island, as noted, because it is awesome. Parking can be tedious there. The Aquarium is awesome. Belugas, dolphins, hand holding otters, orphaned baby harbour seals, etc. The UBC Museum of Anthropology is cool, and there is a Biodiversity museum there as well. I haven't been to the latter, but it does have a whole blue whale skeleton installed there, which is supposed to be pretty cool.

Edit: I forgot locations don't show any more, I live in Vancouver and if you have any direct questions you want to ask, go ahead.

I strongly recommend against parking on Granville Island, as it will waste a lot of your time, but luckily you can take the above-mentioned water taxis/harbour ferries to get there from a number of stops Downtown (and as people have mentioned above, try to take transit to Downtown if you can).

As for gardens, they close early in the Fall/Winter, and are not quite as lively as in Spring. If you are Downtown/Chinatown, the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is a nice detour; if you head out to UBC to see the Museum of Anthropology, I would strongly recommend the Nitobe Memorial Garden. Both are relatively small, and worth visiting if you are on a limited schedule.

Rikushix

Granville Island parking can actually be fine - if you get there early. By early I mean something like midday on a weekday, and midmorning at the latest on the weekend. There's plenty of free parking, but it fills up fast on the weekend and even the pay parking fills up too. Even if you do end up finding a spot, you'll often spend a significant amount of time just crawling around dealing with pedestrians and whatnot. Walking there or taking transit saves time.

Already mentioned, but Stanley Park is mandatory. I'm also a huge fan of the Vancouver Aquarium so I would recommend that. Granville Island is one of my favourite places to stroll.

As for museums, if this is your thing, MOA (Museum of Anthropology) at UBC has a Peruvian Silver exhibit going on right now, never mind the fact that they're one of the most prolific curators of First Nations totem poles and artwork in the world. Plus all their other stuff. I would highly recommend it.

edit: also already mentioned, but I have a huge soft spot for Nitobe Memorial Garden. Check it out!

witch_ie

Thanks all. We had a great time and made sure to visit Stanley Park as was suggested. It's gorgeous. Unfortunately, the need for multiple appointments for the surgery left us only with the rainy Tuesday afternoon for site seeing. We had rented a car though, so drove through the park as the rain was letting up. We also tried a lot of the great food that was around. We are hoping to visit again and will probably make use the public transit more if we go when it's warmer.