"Vancouver, Eh?" a Vancouver Travel Page by Ewingjr98

We spent just two days in Vancouver and really enjoyed this unique and interesting city. We had a great, but expensive hotel room at the Tropicana Suites on Robson, and visited many of the major attractions in the city including Stanley Park, Chinatown, Gastown, Grouse Mountain, and the Waterfront. My favorite areas were actually Robson Street and Chinatown, but I also enjoyed the grizzly bears at Grouse Mountain, as well as a difficult hike there.

At the same time, the city has the largest open homeless and/or drug abusing population I have ever seen anywhere in the world. People sitting on the main shopping streets, obviously high as a kite on something strong just begging for money, some of them in their teens. We were offered drugs on at least one occasion. We were targets of local con artists. We were overwhelmed by the rough neighborhoods just blocks from the major tourist locations like Gastown and Chinatown. I'm a seasoned traveler, but Vancouver's problems are worse than I have ever seen, especially as they were concentrated in the touristy and rich downtown area.

The city obviously has its good and its bad, I only wish we had more time to spend here to explore the more off-the-beaten-path areas in and around Vancouver.

In 2004 the Project for Public Spaces named Vancouver's Granville Island the best neighborhood in North America!