Vancouver Things to Do Tips by tvor

At one end of downtown Vancouver you will find Stanley Park, acres and acres of open natural parkland. There are interesting areas in the park, with things for families to do and see including the Vancouver Aquarium. I never used to think much of aquariums until i went to the one in Boston and was very impressed. Vancouver's aquarium is wonderful, with outdoor tanks and indoor tanks and displays and a great underwater viewing area. Sadly the killer whale is no longer in residence though there are some minke whales.

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Address: Stanely Park, Vancouver
Website: http://www.vanaqua.org/

Smack in the center of downtown Vancouver is a tall tower with a lookout vantage point. It's the Harbour City center and you pay for the lift to the top. The views are spectacular and well worth a look if you like the bird's eye view of places like i do.

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Address: 555 West Hastings
Directions: corner of Seymour and Hastings

To get to Grouse Mountain from downtown Vancouver, i went skytrain to the seabus. Seabus to the terminal at Lonsdale Quay to pick up the number 236 bus that goes up Grouse Mountain past Capilano Suspension bridge park and on up to the ski resort. Lovely neighbourhood that the bus passed by too. The higher it went, the cooler the air got. Bought a ticket for the sky ride cable car and stood in line to go up. You do go up, too, straight up it feels like. It takes 8 minutes to travel up a mile and when you pass the other car on it's way down it looks as if you are going an astonishing speed but the gal that goes with you says you are both going the same speed which is only about 7 or 8 miles an hour. and what a fabulous view! The clouds are high and the view is a bit hazy but pretty spectacular. The chalet has a restaurant and a bar and a café in it as well as a couple of shops. There are large wood sculptures of mostly animals around the grounds and there was enough snow on the ground for some of the tourists to make snowballs. It's about freezing (end of April), 32 degress F. or 0 Celcius. I wandered a bit, took some pictures and had a cold drink before catching the gondola back down.

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Address: North Vancouver
Directions: From Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver, take the 236 bus
Website: http://www.grousemountain.com/

The Vancouver Museum is in Vanier Park next to the HR MacMillan Space Center. It's purpose is to bring alive the social history of the Vancouver area from the early days of fur trading and logging to the present. There are lots of great special exhibits as well. The day we went, November 2003, there were three termed "Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll", all about the opium trade, the history of underwear, and Vancouver in the 50's.

There is no cafe on the premises but the gift shop is very good. Lots of free parking. Gorgeous views across to English Bay.

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Address: Chestnut Street.
Directions: Not far from the other side of the Burrard Street Bridge, many busses will go there.
Website: http://www.vanmuseum.bc.ca/

Outside of Vancouver proper, near Aldergrove and Langley is the Greater Vancouver Zoo and it's wonderful! There are acres and acres of animals in mostly natural settings. They have a train that will take you around the perimiter (for a cost) and a free bus ride around one section to see some of the North American forest animals. They have hippos, giraffes, wolves, camels, lions and tigers. They have a daily feeding session of the lions and tigers that you can watch.

$13 per adult but they have family entrance fees as well.

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Address: 500 metres south of the Trans Canada Highway, at E
Website: http://www.greatervancouverzoo.com/

The oldest part of Vancouver is Gastown. The main intersection is Maple Tree Square and here the road is bricked too look like cobbles and there are banners on the old fashioned looking lamp posts. There's a statue of "Gassy" Jack who was the founder of Gastown. He was called this because he talked so much! There is a little café in the building just behind his statue , that's the cafe where the picture on my main Vancouver page was taken.

A little further along is the famous steam clock which is run by the steam. It "steams" constantly but blows a big cloud of it when it chimes every 15 minutes. There were a lot of souvenir shops along this street, including some that featured some amazing west coast native art, you could even buy yourself a totem pole for about $15,000!

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Directions: North-east corner of downtown Vancouver, along Water Street
Website: http://www.gastown.org/

Chinatown is the largest Chinatown outside of San Francisco. The street signs on the corners have sculpted dragons on the posts and ever business is signed in Chinese and English. The narrowest building in the world is there, an insurance company now. It's the length of the side of a building but only 1.8 meters deep. Apparently in 1908, the zoning by laws and land appropriations left the owner with almost nothing to build on and the owner was so ticked off that he decided to build on the narrow strip of land he was left with, just for spite!

There is a Chinese cultural center, fronted with an elaborate gateway and a Chinese gardens that I didn't take the time to explore. There were markets with bins of mostly unidentifiable items, one store that carried all sorts of kitchen goods, both Chinese and western. The area was a little run down and shabby, mostly just businesses lining the streets, some with flats in the buildings above the stores.

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Address: W. Pender Street, Vancouver
Website: http://www.vancouver-chinatown.com/