Home Exchange - Vancouver - In progress
 

Hi Everyone: I thought I'd try my turn at detailing our home exchange here in Vancouver, British Columbia. Although I've been reading Fodor's avidly for at least 4 years,and have made comments here and there and asked questions galore, I've never tried my hand at a trip report. So here goes.

First a bit about ourselves. We are not new to home exchanging. We have done 12 or 13 home exchanges. I've lost count, but always in Europe or Australia, never in North America. We usually exchange for a minimum of a month, sometimes two months, but usually average 5-6 weeks. This exchange will be one of our shorter exchanges, a little less than 5 weeks. Home exchanges gives us the flexibility to know an area a little better than a hotel dweller, plus we never feel bad about not using a day to see the top tourist sights, as you will see from today's experience.

We are from Southern California, and quite frankly though it may startle some of Fodor's European lovers, we were ready to explore a bit closer to home AND I must admit, also, I was tired of the long haul flights to Europe and Australia. Last Summer, we traveled to Argentina, though not on a home exchange,and though we loved it and were tempted to go again, we were not anxious to spend out summer again bundled in coats and gloves nor did we feel like another long airplane flight. So when a friend at work started telling me that Vancouver was like San Francisco with a European flair, I thought a three hour flight, how wonderful is that!Also, we had received several home exchange offers from Vancouver last year that made it appear so attractive and it started me thinking. . .

We left LAX yesterday at 2:15 (on time) on Air Canada on a surprisingly partially empty airplane and were met at the airport by our home exchangers, less than three hours later, after a short and quick walk through the airport. It was wonderful to have someone meet us, and not have to struggle with taxis or language barriers. E and D were very welcoming and gave us a tour of their home. They live in the Dunbar section of town. The homes are large and lovely. I imagine them to have been built in the 20s and 30s. Correct me Vancouverites. I'd love to know. The streets are full of these lovely overgrown trees and shrubs and everything is so green. What a treat for my Californian eyes. I even saw several beautiful Japanese maples today, something rarely glimpsed at home. They have to be my favorite tree, though I can't say I've ever seen an ugly tree!

to be continued. . .

We do not have a car here in Vancouver; We did not want to rent one. It may surprise some readers on this board, that there are some Southern Californians who glory in taking public transportation and are thrilled not to navigate traffic, hunt for parking, and worry about getting lost.(Although on the latter point, public transport did not save us that annoyance today.) So for $73 per person or some similar sum, we have a monthly transit pass.)

After stocking up on a few provisions at the local IGA market, walking back to our home, we decided to strike out for downtown. People were amazingly friendly and I can't remember how many people overheard us on the bus and told us when to get off and transfer. Unfortunately, I can only lay the blame on myself, because my husband did insist that the bus to downtown was on the other side of the street, thus because of my determination we ended up in Richmond. It had been on my list of things to do, IF we had time at the end of our trip, certainly not the first day. After wandering around a huge and pretty mall, that can be found in any large city, we decided, since it was almost 4:00pm and we still had not had lunch to take the bus to Kerrsdale (I could be misspelling the area's name and I apologize in advance!) since we remembered passing it on the way to Richmond and D and E had mentioned it to us in their house notes. It's a pretty little area with lots of little shops and small cafes, and even an independent bookstore. We were referred to some nice restaurants, but sadly instead of taking the good suggestions, we tried the local kabob place, and though I wanted to like it since the man running it was so nice, I'm sorry to say I can't recommend the fallafels.

Second day of home exchange. Today we visited Gastown. Not quite sure what the attraction is, however I did admire the pretty lamps with the flowers, but was underwhelmed by the all the tourist shops with the usual souvenir stuff, however I did find some great deals on postcards! We enjoyed the sea wall and walked to Stanley Park. It's a pretty walk, unencumbered with the usual souvenir stands and not particularly crowded on a Wed. afternoon. Used public transport again and again impressed with everyones' helpfulness and general friendliness. Had some very good sushi at amazingly inexpensive prices for lunch. We did a great deal of walking and are finding our calves a bit stretched from some of the uphill walking we have done. We had not realized how hilly Vancouver is, though hardly taxing, it was not expected.

Wonderful report-Thanks so much for posting!=D>

For a wonderful dinner in your own neighbourhood probably walking distance try http://www.spiceislandsindonesian.com

For your earlier question Yes there's some very old housing stock in Dunbar some exceptionally well crafted old bungalows still stand.

Thank you, Sam. I did notice that restaurant today out of the bus window and wondered about it. We will give it a try. Tomorrow we thought, we'd try our luck at Granville Island. to be continued. . .

Sam, we did pick up a real estate brochure at a house for sale near where we are staying. The house was built in 1929. The price blew us away, over a million and a half dollars. Real Estate in this town is really pricey!!

Great Trip Report, keep it coming!

Are you planning on any sidetrips? I am assuming Victoria,Whistler, or into the Okanagon? I know you don't want to have a car and I am curious how this will work...I am fond of Vancouver, too, but can't imagine 5 weeks to explore Van all on its own.

Thank you,LJ. To answer your question, how will we fill 5 wks in Vancouver, we will do what the locals do, find places we like and return again and again. We subscribe to the thumbnail mode of travel, put forth in a travel book on England (unfortunately I can't recall the author's name, something like Toth from Iowa) who puts her thumb on a map and explores only the area within that small region. This style of travel works wonderfully, if you are slothful like us, though I prefer to cover up and say leisurely, on a home exchange or renting an apartment. We managed last summer to fill 5 weeks in Buenas Aires, only leaving the city once for a day trip. We have done this for years and it works for us.

For example, we live near LA and love the LA Farmers' Market, a very, very popular tourist spot. We go often, probably several times a year and would go more frequently if traffic wasn't so horific since we live relatively close by. We have the advantage over the tourist who only gets to visit once. Here in Vancouver for 5 weeks, we are sure to find places that we will enjoy visiting several times. I am sure we will walk the sea wall again.

We do have an excursion planned to Victoria for a few days, but other than that, we have nothing major planned, except to visit some museums, try some of the restaurants recommended by Fodorites and enjoy a leisurely visit. I know there will be days that we will do nothing more than take a walk, eat a wonderful lunch and just wander a neigborhood. The Dunbar area of Vancouver where we are staying has some lovely gardens and homes and it is pleasant just to stroll the neighborhood admiring the trees and shrubs and flowers.

annetti,
I'm curious to know about the other end of the home exchanges.

Do you find that the people who are living in your home take good care of it? Do they have use of your car? Have you run into any problems? I'd love to try a home exchange in the future but I feel uncertain about letting someone I don't know live in my home.

Wonderful first TR, annetti. Vancouver's a old haunt of mine so it's fun to hear of others' impressions of the neighborhoods.

If you're inclined, check out the lovely University of BC campus. It's very walkable, has great trails to beaches, interesting gardens (Rose, Nitobe Japanese, etc.), and the Museum of Anthropology (IMHO a world-class museum).

I'll check back later for more posts. Enjoy-la!

Goddessto go: People have always taken good care of our home, that has never been a problem for us. They have always left it clean and we have never had damage, not even a broken dish. We, also do an extensive amount of e-mailing while setting up the exchange and this sets up expectations. We have been lucky to meet many of our exchangers at the beginning of the exchange as we did this time, and it eases your fears. It is a wonderful way to travel since you have the luxury of a home and you are not in a cramped hotel room, but of course this is not everyone's idea of a vacation. Some people love hotels. We don't. Perhaps, if we always stayed in 5 star hotels, we would feel differently!

We have not always been so lucky with car exchanges, though. People have had minor accidents in our car and one serious accident while sitting at a red light. Although no one was ever injured, there was incredible damage on our car, and major hassles with car insurance, repairs, and car rentals. I have given up on the car exchange part. For us, it is just not worth the aggravation. Other people think differently and we have found that many potential home exchanges have fallen through when we say we will not exchange cars. We rent a car if we want one, but on the last couple of trips to Europe, we found the rental car sitting unwanted in the home exchanger's driveway and relied on the excellent transportation systems.

Thank you, Klam, for the suggestions. Will do. It is on our list now! Your response must have appeared while I was replying to Goddess.

Annetti -- Loving your report, check out Chinatown, there is a beautiful garden there that is an oasis of tranquility.

Thanks, annetti. We hope to be going to London in 2010. It will be an extended stay (4 months) so a hotel is clearly out of the question. Exchanging or renting our own house in Toronto would certainly help with the expenses but both of us are wary. The only person we know who did that didn't have a very good experience with his tenant. One thing we're considering is renting it to someone we know who might need a temporary place, just for a small rental fee. That would give us a little income and someone living in the house as well.

Thanks for your insights.

Goddess: Exchanging for four months might be difficult -- it's a long time. You might try registering on one of the more popular home exchange sites and see what happens. It is inexpensive and if you decide not to commit, after fielding responses you would not be out much money. Four months in London sounds very nice to me!

Thank you, Shangainese for your suggestion. That garden is on my list, too.

Today's top event: Granville Island Market. We took the 7 bus straight from Dunbar. A woman passenger began a conversation with us -- something by the way that never happens when you are isolated in your car. It turned out she's a local theater director and we talked Shakespeare for the 30 minte ride, making it feel like 5 minutes. She gave me a few hints on how to enjoy the language. It's always been a mystery to me, no matter how hard I've tried to enjoy Shakespeare; I just don't get it.
It was great fun wandering the beautiful fruit and vegetable stalls and sampling the food. The food is beautifully displayed, though I thought it a bit much seeing one man bent over the cherries photographing them. They were beautiful, but how interesting can a cherry picture be taken from three inches away? Well, perhaps he has an artistic flair for this kind of thing?! (Just interrupted by our home exchanger's sister checking in to see if we were getting along okay!)

We split a bagel sandwich and tried the smoked salmon. I loved it, then over stimulated by people eating and enjoying themselves, we couldn't stop thinking we were missing out on all sorts of delicious food.We split some Indian food at the stall that advertised "Indian Comfort food." I can't recall its name, but since there's only one Indian place , locals are sure to know. Very good, too! The woman seated next to me claimed it was better than Vij's and began a 10 minute commentary on Vij's delights. Since Vij's is high on Fodorites' recommended restaurants, I hoped my husband missed the part of the conversation that included the average hour and a half wait to get into the restaurant. He hates waiting. We, also tried Siegel's bagels, good outer crust, but didn't care for the onion outer flavoring, but am not deterred and will try again. Also had a great hummentashen. (I tried that phonetically since I have no idea how to spell it.)

Coming back to Dunbar, we had trouble finding the 98 bus stop, however one of the friendly locals, told us she was going that way and to follow her, however, it was not entirely true, she took us to the stop, then ran across the street to catch her own bus. I thanked her loudly for going out of her way, as she ran to catch her bus. I hope she heard me. The friendliness, helpfulness, and politeness here is really extraordinary. Thank you Vancouverites.

On the way back, we stopped at Kerrisdale, had a coffee at Bean Bros and caught up on the local Canadian news. Also, found a NY Times and read that Obama and Clinton are uniting -- but still no clues about his VP choice! My husband really likes the ambience, coffee, and service there. We've been there everyday, thus far.

Totally wiped out now by our day of eating and walking, we returned home to some wine and smoked salmon for a light dinner. What could be better? My husband has parked himself in front of the plasma tv and here I am at the keyboard.

By the way, I mentioned LA Farmers' Market earlier on this board as being one of my favorite places in Southern California, Granville Island is a worthy competitor here in Vancouver. We plan to repeat the day's agenda again.

Stanley Park tomorrw?

To be continued. . .

Enjoying your report.

We've been discussing home exchanges for years and it's nice to hear positive stories.

Look forward to reading more.

It's great to hear you are enjoying your home exchange.

If you are interested in theatre and arts events, pick up a free copy of the Georgia Straight. It's available online here - www.straight.com - but the print version is easier to follow, at least for me.

Another option for cheaper culture is www.ticketstonight.ca .

Visit the Sylvia Hotel, for sure.

My favorite bakery is Solly's Bagelry (several locations, but the original is at 28th and Main).

You're in a posh area right now, but you might want to branch out a bit. Commercial Drive is interesting, but it's a bit hyped by now. Main Street, starting from about 8th Avenue and proceeding southwards, is quite interesting too.

I'm sure you'll visit Granville Island one of these days.

I'm sure you will have no problem keeping yourself just as busy as you want to be. This sounds like a great vacation.

I love the Public Mkt too - some ideas for your next trip to GI:

- walk around the island as there are a few interesting, small working artist galleries

- if you want to go out for a paddle, there are kayak rentals available

- there used to be a well developed professional theatre group, Arts Club Theatre, and one of their stages was on GI. I haven't been there in years but I can't imagine them having gone under. Fun to have a drink and catch a show there.

- one of my fave things to do is take the little ferry, Granville Island Ferries, from the GI dock across the inlet to the Burrard Beach side. Enjoyable scenery in good weather and when you get to the beach, it's a fun way to walk off the GI gastronomies. You can walk all the way to Stanley Park if you had LOTS of time - but I think you would need to stop for ice cream sustenance along the way ;)

Hope the rest of your trip is as fab as the start - enjoy-la!

Thank you, Traveljunkie28.
Willtravel: What is the Sylvia Hotel? And thank you for your ideas. Some thanks go to Klamchowder,too. All these suggestions are really appreciated.

Our home exchangers made it today to Southern California; they had opted to drive rather than fly. They left for SoCal about an hour after meeting us at the airport and showing us around their home. They e-mailed us that they are settling in our home and will meet our neighbors. On previous home exchanges we have kept in touch by e-mail; I have always found it intriguing to learn what our guests have done, what sights they choose, and their reactions. I hope they will be good correspondents and tell us a bit about their trip.

Our day at Stanley Park. We couldn't have chosen better weather to explore the park. The park itself is beautifully cared for and the facilities (restaurants, snack bars, bathrooms) are clean and well-maintained. We took the free shuttle bus around the park which unfortunately was the only downer to an otherwise lovely day. The buses are packed out the door with passengers, but once you leave the bus, the park is quiet and uncrowded. The rose gardens are pretty and larger than expected. There was a wedding party in brightly colored dresses taking photographs and it added to its charms. Later we walked the Sea Wall again and tried to find a restaurant for dinner downtown, but we had no Fodorites' suggestions with us and nothing looked appealing, so we ended up in Kerrisdale at a small Italian place recommended to us the other day. I can't recall the name, something with an M, but the menu cover stated they have been there since 1975 and it felt like an old established neighborhood place with lots of locals who were know to the owners. The pizza was good as was the Cesar salad which I enjoyed with my first glass of BC wine!

Our legs are sore and we have decided that tomorrow we will do something low keyed, perhaps visit Kitsilano.

To be continued. . .