Area to avoid in Vancouver, BC
 

Are there any unsafe areas to avoid in Vancouver, BC?

Yes, the area known as downtown eastside is best avoided (East Hastings). It might be helpful for you to post where you're thinking of staying.

To be a little more specific, the stretch of Hastings Street east of Carrall and west of Gore is seedy and grim, home to lots of mentally ill drug addicts and homeless people, but it's not truly dangerous in the sense that it's a violent area. It's just not a pretty area (alleys smell of urine, locked/gated doorways/windows). This area exists between Gastown and Chinatown - 2 of Vancouver's popular tourist areas, but you'll know when you approach it because it'll be obvious. Again, not dangerous as in violent - the reality is that the people who live there and hang around there aren't interested in tourists and won't likely even approach you. Hastings Street is otherwise quite a large street and the blocks outside of that strech is completely fine.

Here's a map that specifically points out this area:

http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/v5/con...dtesmap532.png

I WOULD say the Downtown Eastside area can be dangerous. As in, I know 2 people who were mugged there, lots of people whose vehicles were broken into, someone who was assaulted (punched) walking on the sidewalk... these are all co-workers who were in the area working in daylight hours.

It's just about the grimmest area one could find in any affluent North American city. You see things there that break your heart at the same time as they are frightening you to death.

Where are you planning to stay? Let us know and we can tell you what the area around is like.

Thanks for your help. I have the opportunity to exchange my house in Atlanta for a house in the McKenzie Heights area and before I agree, I want to make sure it is in a safe place.

McKeznie Hts is a great area! West side, older established neighborhoods, houses start at about $1 million, so I'd love to live there...but.....gotta win a lottery!

I'd stay in McKenzie Heights in a heartbeat - close to the
downtown core, not far from beaches and lots of great shopping.

Mackenzie heights would be considered one of the high end areas of vancouver to stay. Great neighbourhood, some places have great views(i.e. heights). If you book it let us Know and can give you lots of recommendations on restaurants, places to go, etc.

We did a home exchange last summer in Vancouver. Absolutely loved our five weeks there. Although I can't vouch for MacKenzie Heights, we stayed in Dunbar, which was on the west side (I think!?), we had a fabulous time. You cannot go wrong with an an exchange in Vancouver. We managed to fill up our time very pleasantly. How long will you be there? Annetti

"""To be a little more specific, the stretch of Hastings Street east of Carrall and west of Gore is seedy and grim, home to lots of mentally ill drug addicts and homeless people, but it's not truly dangerous in the sense that it's a violent area. It's just not a pretty area (alleys smell of urine, locked/gated doorways/windows). This area exists between Gastown and Chinatown - 2 of Vancouver's popular tourist areas, but you'll know when you approach it because it'll be obvious. Again, not dangerous as in violent - the reality is that the people who live there and hang around there aren't interested in tourists and won't likely even approach you. Hastings Street is otherwise quite a large street and the blocks outside of that strech is completely fine."""


Hey, Carmanah gave this a very authentic, true representation, unlike so many on this website tend to do. (although I might move the eastern boundary a couple of blocks farther east from "Gore"). When tourists come from the USA, and especially larger U.S. cities, they just scoff at something so much a non-issue as the downtown east side.

annetti: Dunbar is close to McKenzie Heights - you were on
the west side of Dunbar St. and this place would be on the
east side between Dunbar and Arbutus. Both great areas.

Dunbar was absolutely beautiful, each home and garden more beautiful than the next one. Just walking the streets and admiring the gardens was a holiday in itself!

And you are close to Jericho Beach, Spanish Banks, University of BC (an it's museums and gardens)
Are you sold yet.....lol........

NorthwestMale, I live and work here. You visit. I'm not fear mongering. The fact is, that area is something we should be ashamed of, and is home to about the worst human misery in Canada. Tell the journalists I work with who were investigating the Picton murders that the area is a non-issue. It isn't to them and it isn't to the international media people I deal with on a daily basis either.

Off the soapbox now... Lalylori, the house you're considering is in a very nice neighbourhood. You're close to the beaches to the north and also some interesting destination shopping. South Granville is a bit to the east and north and has some nice shopping from about W16 to Broadway. And W41st around Arbutus in the Kerrisdale area has some nice stores and cafes too.

Thanks you all! I am going to accept the offer to exchange. I know it will be a great time.

No doubt about it! You will enjoy Vancouver!!

Taggie,

... precisely!

You clearly have no grasp whatsoever on the standards previously possessed by those who visit Vancouver. You are absolutely crazy (and dead wrong) to say that "(The downtown east side of Vancouver)...is just about the grimmest area one could find in any affluent North American city."

Your statement reads like a JOKE !!! (thank heaven)

You also seem to have no clue from where it is that most of your foreign visitors come. If so, you'd have a (more near to) realistic handle on "North American Cities".

Stop giving people MISinformation which affects the plans and lives of others, when you clearly have no frame of reference to make your absurd statements.

Here's an idea, why don't you ask "Cheezz's" daughter (on another thread) IF she has EVER seen any area "more grim" than the downtown eastside of Vancouver. By the standards of the rest of North America, the downtown eastside of Vancouver is a laugh! Foreign and domestic tourists walk around there every day, and the foreign-to-Canada tourists from larger cities don't even bat an eyelash at a silly place like that.

Can anyone tell me if the Patricia Inn is a safe hotel and area? We are having trouble getting a hotel because of the soccer tourney and so far this is the only place that has room? Please, any info would be helpful.

Welcome to Fodors Soccermum. Not sure if you noticed, but this thread is six years old.

You will do better if you start a new thread of your own instead of topping an old one. See the "Post New Topic" orange button up top . . .

Hmmmmmmmmmmph, Soccermum, I thiiiiiiiiink I would lean toward staying somewhere in <b>outlying areas</b> vs. staying at the Patricia Inn.

In fact, find something convenient to SkyTrain, and/or to a park-and-ride for Sky Train, for strategic visitation during such a big event.


LOL @ coming back to this thread. What in the world was somebody thinking when trying to compare the D.T.E.S. to <I>real</i> ghetto areas in the largest U.S. cities?

Notice how <I>Taggie</i> went from ""just about the grimmest area one could find in any affluent North American city""


to "something we should be ashamed of" and to "about the worst human misery in Canada"... <b>which is old news (much older than this thread)</b>. <I>Everyone knows</i> that the D.T.E.S. is home to <b>"The poorest postal code in Canada"</b>.

But that is <u>nothing</u> by North American Standards.

Can anyone imagine <I>Taggie</i> in the slums of Tijuana or Juarez? Let alone NYC or Chicago?


For those who stumble onto this thread later, <b>Vancouver's absolute worst areas are just silly little eyesores compared to "the grimmest area one could find in any affluent North American city"</b>.

You're probably in more immediate danger near the Bacon brothers in Surrey than you are in the D.T.E.S.