What to do in Vancouver

[CB2@disney]

Hello,
We are going on the Alaska cruise in Aug. We will be arriving the day before at around 10:30 am and our hotel is 2 miles from the Port. Anybody have favorites in the port area we should check out. I know we want to do the Fly Over Canada but since we've never been to Vancouver I don't know what else we need to see. We will be 5 adults and a teenager. We want to stay pretty close to the hotel and port so no treks out to the national parks or anything like that we will be tired. Maybe when we come back before flying out.

Thanks for any ideas you want to share.

Carie

 

[Ralphlaw]

There's a very nice Science Museum, and they have open air bus tours around the city. Our favorite time was going up Grouse Mountain on the cable car thingy. You can catch a taxi or bus to the foot of Grouse Mountain. The views are spectacular, and they have a bird show with Eagles and other flying things as well. Lots to do up there.

 

[ChuckElias]

My family stayed close to the port area and walked through Gastown, which is kind of a historic district near the water. It's a lot of shops and galleries, but we enjoyed taking it at a leisurely pace. If you walk it, be sure to find the steam powered clock:



If you like historic buildings, there's an Anglican cathedral right in the downtown area as well. It has some interesting things to see inside, including all the regimental flags of British Columbian troops that served in WW2, and a funky sculpture made of the pipes from the old pipe organ.



The Vancouver Art Gallery is also right there. I wanted to go in, but we just didn't have time:



You can rent a car or take a taxi out to Stanley Park, which is just beautiful; but not within walking distance from the port area. I don't have pictures b/c we didn't have time to get there on our last trip. And my pictures from 1998 haven't been scanned into Photobucket. Oh well. It's worth a trip. If you're not familiar with Stanley Park, it bears the name of Lord Stanley who also had the NHL's Stanley Cup made. The gardens in the park are recreated in miniature at the Canada Pavilion in Epcot.

 

[CB2@disney]

My family stayed close to the port area and walked through Gastown, which is kind of a historic district near the water. It's a lot of shops and galleries, but we enjoyed taking it at a leisurely pace. If you walk it, be sure to find the steam powered clock:

The clock is something we want to see and the Church is right up my Mom's alley. We lived in Italy for two years and I think she dragged us into every church in the country.



If you like historic buildings, there's an Anglican cathedral right in the downtown area as well. It has some interesting things to see inside, including all the regimental flags of British Columbian troops that served in WW2, and a funky sculpture made of the pipes from the old pipe organ.



The Vancouver Art Gallery is also right there. I wanted to go in, but we just didn't have time:



You can rent a car or take a taxi out to Stanley Park, which is just beautiful; but not within walking distance from the port area. I don't have pictures b/c we didn't have time to get there on our last trip. And my pictures from 1998 haven't been scanned into Photobucket. Oh well. It's worth a trip. If you're not familiar with Stanley Park, it bears the name of Lord Stanley who also had the NHL's Stanley Cup made. The gardens in the park are recreated in miniature at the Canada Pavilion in Epcot.