Vancouver is an excellent west coast city and seaport in British Columbia. It is Canada’s most ethnically diverse city. My husband, Jon Katz, and I flew to Vancouver non-stop from John F. Kennedy International Airport and round trip on JetBlue. It is approximately a five-and-a-half-hour flight westbound.
We spent the first night downtown at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Center. We stayed at a different Bonvoy Hotel each night. Our plan for the first day was to rent a car and take a ferry to Vancouver Island. British Columbia Ferries provides all passenger and vehicle ferry services for coastal and island communities in British Columbia. We drove to a port in Tsawwassen and took our car on the ferry to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island; our ultimate destination was Victoria. The ferry ride was very scenic and took about an hour and a half.
The capital of British Columbia, Victoria, is located on the southern end of Vancouver Island; we stayed at the Marriott Inner Harbour Hotel. Jon and I spent the afternoon walking downtown on Government Street, which has a lovely outdoor pedestrian mall. Nearby, the Marriott Inner Harbour Hotel is very scenic and a worthwhile walk.
On our second day, we drove to the famous Butchart Gardens on our way back to the port of Swartz Bay. These gardens are a National Historic Site of Canada and are not to be missed. They cover about 55 acres and consist of a mixture of rare and exotic shrubs, trees, and flowers. The area is divided into the Sunken, Japanese, Rose, Italian, and Mediterranean Gardens. We thought that the Sunken Garden was the most spectacular area of them all.
We took the ferry that evening back to Vancouver and checked into our last Bonvoy Hotel, the Westin Bayshore Hotel, near the famous Stanley Park. The view from most rooms is magnificent and overlooks the North Shore mountains and Coal Harbour. It has a resort-like atmosphere in a city setting, with a beautiful outdoor pool for winter swimming.
On our final day, we went to Granville Island, under downtown Vancouver’s south end of the Granville Street Bridge. One of the highlights of this area is the Granville Public Market. It is an enclosed area where visitors can purchase fresh produce, meat, fish and seafood, cheeses, and other products. Also, there are Mexican, Asian, and Greek stalls and candy and snack shacks. A large outdoor eating area overlooks downtown Vancouver and several artist studios, boutiques, and the Granville Island Brewery.
Back at the hotel, we decided to walk around Stanley Park, a public park surrounded by the Burrard Inlet and the English Bay. We did not walk the 9 km around the park because it takes two to three hours. However, we walked for an hour to capture the beautiful views of this urban setting.
That evening, we returned to the Vancouver International Airport. We decided to try the mass transit system and took the Sky Train at the Vancouver City Center, a ten-block walk from the hotel. The train ride to the airport took 26 minutes and cost $8.25 Canadian currency. The exchange rate for the U.S. dollar is excellent in Canada. One U.S. dollar is equal to approximately 1.37 Canadian dollars. A taxi from the airport to the downtown costs about $34 Canadian.
