vancouver

Grab your winter coat! We’re headed to Canada’s warmest city!” This quote is from a Simpson’s episode when they were taking a trip to Vancouver. It’s not really accurate as Vancouver’s weather is generally pretty good compared to most places. It rarely snows in winter and in summer it’s pleasantly warm, but not hot. Although there is always a chance you may get some rain. But, whether the weather is good or bad, there will always be something to keep you busy in this beautiful city.

There are a few cities that are famous for their juxtaposition of the urban environment on raw nature. Vancouver rightly joins Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong and San Francisco in this regard. The city sits on a peninsula that juts into a spectacular harbor. All of this is surrounded by jagged, pine covered mountains that retain a snow cap into the early summer. Get a hotel room facing the harbor, or pick one of many cafes that line the waterfront. Enjoy the beautiful panorama as cruise and cargo ships pass by and sea planes take off and land right next to you. You get all of this with those beautiful mountains and trees in the background.

Gastown is the oldest part of the city and contains a high concentration of restaurants and bars. Yaletown also has some good restaurants and a few of the city’s other older buildings. But, for the most part Vancouver is daringly and spectacularly new. It seems as if three-fourths of the city consists of angled glass condo towers that are less than 20 years old. It is the striking contrast between these angled and twisting glass towers and the natural beauty that makes Vancouver such a pleasant place to visit. Plus the streets are narrow, traffic seems to be controlled to make life easy for pedestrians and most of the towers seem to have a coffee shop, restaurant or high end retail in their bases to give you something to go inside for.

I’m not sure if it’s because they’re always hiking, or if they just never take the elevator to their 30^th floor apartment, but Vancouverites may have the best calves I’ve ever seen. Plus they’re endlessly polite. They even form lines for busses based on whether they need to purchase a ticket or already have a transit pass. So, even if nature and modern architecture aren’t your things, you can pass the time meeting new people (or at least staring discretely at their legs). For the best of both, head to nearby Stanley Park. If you walk along the seawall path you have gloriously scented pines on one side, the harbor and skyline on the other, and all of those calves jogging by.

If there is one area where Vancouver doesn’t shine, it may be with its nightlife scene. It isn’t bad, but it does pale in comparison to many cities of its stature. There are clubs, fun pubs and the standard bar scene. There is a sports bar with amazing staff. But, it has restaurant style table seating and standing generally isn’t allowed. This is great if you’re with a small group as you can talk and not be jostled. But, it’s tough to meet anyone who isn’t sitting next to you. Many of the other bars have their own quirks too, but we did have fun at many of these places. When you book with us we’ll fill you in on the scene so you know where to go that fits you. Davie village, the gayborhood, is conveniently located next to the harbor, beaches and downtown.

What Vancouver may lack in nightlife it more than makes up for with its food. The restaurant scene is very good and that’s how many people spend their evenings. It has a strong farm to table culture. With the temperate climate and Pacific at its front door its produce and seafood are much better than most. I could spend days with a drink and a plate of oysters and be perfectly happy. It also has a large Asian population (third largest Chinatown in North America). But in addition to Chinese, Southeast Asian and Japanese cuisine are well represented. It came as I surprise to me how large Vancouver’s Indian population is. But, I was happy to find that these immigrants have opened many top notch restaurants in the City. I was also happy to see that food prices weren’t outrageous for such high quality. With $1.00 US worth about $1.28 Canadian, as of the time of this writing, everything is even more of a bargain. With this exchange rate there has never been a better time to visit this amazing city.