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Italian family back from British Columbia.

Italian family back from British Columbia.

Old Sep 11th, 2007, 06:58 AM
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Italian family back from British Columbia.

Long Trip report. Sorry. Thanks, thanks thanks to all who helped organize this with us.
We are: a family of four (boys 19 & 21) from Rome.
We travelled to Vancouver, Victoria, Cambell River, Minstrel Island (Knight Inlet), Tofino and Whistler.

Part 1 Vancouver
After an uneventful flight via Amsterdam (19 hours!) we checked into the Carmana Plaza in Alberni St. Great place. We had a huge suite on 30th floor with 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms, fully fitted kitchen, balcony. Very nicely furnished. Although we were pretty tired we managed to wander around Coal Harbour and enjoy a wonderful sunset. Our meal at the Old Mill Granville Brewery was not a good start however! It wasn’t on our list but the tables outside and the view were very tempting. Early to bed.
Next day we woke early and strolled to Gastown and Chinatown. Neither particularly inspiring and a lot of places were shut at around 10am which made it pretty quiet. We were surprised by the number of beggars! I had read about them in various posts but though it was an exaggeration. But no, there are really a lot!
The weather was wonderful and we took a bus to Granville Island. Here we got our first taste of Canadian hospitality. We didn’t have the right change – no coins only notes so the driver couldn’t sell us tickets. So he said never mind, as you’re from abroad, I’ll give you the ride for free. That was really nice! The Open market was full of life and lots of fun. We had our second bad meal at Keg’s and decided from now on we would only go to places recommended by our fodorite friends! We took a little boat across to Yaletown and explored a fantastic supermarket and the neighbourhood which is very smart and sparkling new. In the evening we ate excellently at last at Joe Forte’s .
On day 3 we changed hotel as we were booked at Times Square Suites. It seemed a bit of a pity as we really liked Carmana but I was also curious to see this place which gets such super ratings on Tripadvisor. The location is very nice and quiet though not as convenient for shops and nightlife. The suite was also not as nice in my opinion and had one bathroom. It did have a washer though which was useful. From here it was a minutes’ walk to Stanley park so that’s where we spent the afternoon enjoying the sun and the rascal raccoons. The kids also saw a skunk later in the evening. We had a nice lunch at the Sequoia Tea House and a very nice dinner at LIFT which is very chic and trendy right on the waterfront. It was our son’s 19th birthday luckily as they ask for ID everywhere and you have to be 19 in Canada to get into pubs even if you don’t drink. We drank a couple of bottles of BC wine and I saw lots of seals…...or were they otters…Day 4 we headed out to Kits by boat after grabbing a take away lunch at the Raincity Grill (good). Walked around admiring the lovely homes and shopped. We then went to pick up our car at the downtown branch of Budget. We had got a very good deal for a car on the internet and obviously the salesman wasn’t happy about this. First he tried to upgrade the car with several different models saying the price was almost the same when in fact it turned out to be double and after we wasted lots of time refusing his suggestions he succeeded in selling us an insurance which he said was $5 a day extra but turned out to be $30. We only realised this after we’d left by which time it was too late and of course it was our fault for not reading carefully. But for sure this guy was trying to cheat us. He also wanted us to pay extra for the spouse driver which was included in our contract. We refused and so my husband had to do all the driving. The director of Budget at the airport confirmed this shouldn’t have been so. So beware of Budget on Georgia!!
In the evening we had tickets for a Blue Rodeo concert in Stanley park. The band had been recommended on one of the posts and it was a fun experience. We ate a good burgher at Cordero’s.

Next day BC ferries to Victoria in part 2!
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Old Sep 11th, 2007, 04:07 PM
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I'm awaiting the next installment!
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Old Sep 11th, 2007, 04:25 PM
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Great report. SO sorry you had such a bad experience with Budget. It just shouldn't happen.
I'm glad you saw Blue Rodeo. Truly Canadian.
I'm looking forward to reading more.
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Old Sep 12th, 2007, 01:36 PM
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BC Trip report Part 2
Victoria

We set off bright and early in our Corolla and drove around Richmond admiring the lovely homes and gardens before going to Tsawassen. The ferry ride becomes really interesting after about 40 minutes as you snake around the Gulf Islands.
Once on land we took the highway straight to Victoria which is not very picturesque. I was imagining Vancouver Island to be much wilder and less inhabited so I was a bit disappointed by the seemingly endless succession of shopping malls and taco bells, dairy queens etc Victoria was also a shock as I was expecting a smaller quainter town with a Disney-ish prettiness instead it’s big and busy, noisy with all those float planes. If you don’t want to take a plane or a boat and go away there’s not much to do except shopping. Believe it or not my 3 men were perfectly happy shopping for 2 days but I was hankering after some wild nature experiences and fretting in Gap. I managed to drag them to the museum which I found very interesting especially since it tied in so well with all the BC books I’d been reading.
We stayed at Swan’s Hotel and Brewery which is probably the prettiest building in Victoria (ok the Empress too!). We had a large unusual room which was very comfortable. Our meal at swan’s restaurant Saffron Bistro was a bit pretentious and not very tasty, I found, though good value and good atmosphere. The kids roamed the streets at night and enjoyed the pubs and music. They made friends with one of the homeless people who was apparently an amazing drummer!
The next day we wandered off to Fisherman’s wharf which is really fun with all those little multi-coloured house boats and more seals. Good fish and chips and real fishing boats. In the evening we had a pretty good steak and burghers with a good view at the Wharfside Eatery.

Day 7 we fly to Knight Inlet – some wild life at last I hope. Part 3 coming soon.
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Old Sep 12th, 2007, 02:34 PM
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Glad to hear you had a fine meal at Joe Fortes. It is our favorite stop when we go to Vancouver -- which is not often enough, since we live in Florida.

Looking forward to hearing more about your trip.
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Old Sep 14th, 2007, 01:27 AM
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BC Trip Report part 3 Knight Inlet

This morning we left the hotel early to make the 280km drive to Campbell River. We stopped in Parksville (glad I didn’t make it an overnight stop!) and Qualicum Beach which was pretty. Campbell River struck me as one huge shopping mall. Again, my expectations were wrong I was scaling everything down to something along the lines of Telegraph Cove which we visited later.
We boarded our Vancouver Air float plane at 3pm and enjoyed a spectacular flight up to knight Inlet. This is more like it! What an amazing flight, how beautiful the scenery. And our tiny lodge – perched on the water was unforgettable. We were booked into Sailcone’s Knight Inlet Lodge – not the bigger one which is reviewed more often in the web. Thanks to a poster (hi Judy!) who helped me sort out this confusion we decided to go for this smaller lodge. We got to see the other one too though only from the outside. It is closer to the bears but miles away from everything else. If anyone wants any more information on these two lodges do contact me.
The moment we landed we saw two huge eagles who posed for us for hours. Then we were served delicious steamed crabs before we went off looking for brown bears. A lovely family atmosphere with just ten guests made all this really special. I won’t get carried away otherwise this report will never finish. I’ll just say that we saw pods of orcas close enough to scare me, a lot of grizzly bears fishing,running and swimming feet away from our viewing platform, we ate very well and thoroughly enjoyed this part of our trip. It was very expensive but absolutely unique. I have about 300 bear photos to turn into calendars and other gadgets!
The only negative side to this lodge experience was the size of their boats – admittedly we were not lucky with the weather and sea conditions but those boats are tiny and only take 2 guests so we were split up and the going can be very very rough especially for someone with a bad back like my husband. We also got very wet and for long hours. But it was worth it!
We left Knight Inlet on another even tinier float plane so my son got to sit at the front next to the pilot. We got even better views from this plane and flying up the inlet is definitely one of the highlights of the trip.
In Campbell River we stayed at Painter’s Lodge which is very nice and comfortable and not so boring and corporate as I had imagined. The pub food was good and the kids went fishing in the early morning and came back with 7 salmon of which 2 over 7lb one Coho the rest Pink. They packed the 2 bigger ones for us and we took them off to Tofino with us. No more eating out for us!
Next installment Tofino.
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Old Sep 14th, 2007, 08:38 AM
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Hi Carrom

We have considered visiting Knight Inlet and have a couple of questions.

What did you do with your hire car while you were there?

How much luggage can you take with you on the float plane?

And can you give me an inisght on what the lodge was like?

Thanks so much

Diz01
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Old Sep 16th, 2007, 04:54 AM
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Hi Diz,
we left the car at Vancouver Island Air car park. They put our extra suitcases and stuff in a safe locked up container. When we came back we flew in on a different airline and just walked two minutes to pick up our stuff and car. All this was free of charge.
I think 20lb was the max weight allowed for each piece of luggage. I know for sure that some other passengers had more though so it may depend on the plane - 4 or 8 seats and how full it is.

The lodge was very pretty and comfortable. 4 double rooms and 2 shared bathrooms upstairs and 1 double or triple room downstairs with a bathroom that is also used by some of the staff. This may not sound ideal but in fact our family used one of the bathrooms and the other 2 couples shared the other one so it was ok. Downstairs may have been a bit less private. There was hot water in the shower and electricity from a generator at all times in rooms.
We ate breakfast and dinner round the same table with the other guests and some of the staff. The cooking was very good and well presented with fresh ingredients and wine was included. You couldn't choose from a menu though I'm sure a chat with the cook beforehand could solve any problems. Breakfasts were delicious with plenty of freshly baked cakes, bread etc. Lunch was always a packed pic-nic and very good too.
Beers were always available from a cooler on the porch for $1.50 I think, soft drinks free.
On the negative side there is nowhere you can walk to from the lodge. The only way out is by boat. This applies to the other lodge as well. This means you never get any exercise and do a lot of eating....for us 2 nights max 3 is perfect I wouldn't stay longer.
All the excursions are by small boat - 2 people for each boat. It takes 2 hours to get to telegraph cove and approx 1 1/2 to get to the bear viewing platforms. From the other lodge it takes 2 minutes to see the bears and 4 hours to telegraph Cove for the whales.
If you get a good sunny day and flat sea the small boats are great as you get right up close to everything but if it's cold and rainy and rough....it's another story! We were given waterproof warm inflateable suits which we wore at all times.
I would definitely recommend Knight Inlet if you want to see bears up close, orcas and beautiful scenery.
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Old Sep 16th, 2007, 11:06 AM
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Part 4 Campbell River to Tofino

A lovely drive to Tofino despite some roadworks with a stop in a spectacular creek for some picture taking. We arrived at Long Beach Lodge late afternoon just in time for a quick look at the town and a stroll on the beach at sunset and low tide. It is truly lovely and we are so glad that everyone on this post convinced us to come here. We would have skipped Tofino completely if it hadn’t been for Fodor’s.
We ate in the so called Great Room in the hotel which is really worth it for the view, the atmosphere and the excellent (though very expensive) food. It is the best part of the hotel.
We were not that impressed with Long Beach Lodge. The cottages are comfortable but they are literally in the parking lot and "forest view" is a joke. The architecture of the Lodge is modern and uninspiring and the lobby is very ugly. It looks much nicer on the web site! Furthermore they are building a condo right next door and we were terrified it was going to be noisy. Luckily it wasn't but the builders were right outside our window.

In the morning the boys hired surf gear and set off and we went to Uclulet (very pretty and less touristy than Tofino though maybe less fun). And then watched them struggle for a while with the waves before going off to cook the Coho in our kitchenette. Despite the mess I made covering the huge fish in 4 kgs of coarse salt, the result was excellent. We made sandwiches with the left overs to eat next day during our trek round the Pacific Rim National Park. The park has a lot of easy trails. We are used to different woods and forests without trails so it is a different experience to walk in parks like this for us. Sadly we didn’t see any birds or mammals but it was good to get out and walk after so much driving, boat riding and eating!
Our last day was spent doing more beach walking, salmon bbq-ing, surfing and eating an interesting meal at Rainforest Café .

On our 12th day we drove a long way from Tofino to Whistler – if anyone is still reading, this will be part 5 the last!
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Old Sep 16th, 2007, 04:40 PM
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I'm still reading! We went to Tofino this summer as well and enjoyed it. We stayed at Middle Beach Lodge. I have a feeling this is more what you had in mind. It is secluded, rustic and the views are wonderful.

So, on to Whistler. What happened next?
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Old Sep 16th, 2007, 09:11 PM
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Great report so far - happy to see you pop back up after reading your posts preparing for the trip.

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Old Sep 16th, 2007, 09:27 PM
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Thanks for the feedback, here is
Part 5 Whistler
My husband comes from a ski-ing area in the Dolomites (Alps) in northern Italy so we were particularly interested in seeing how Whistler compares with our resorts. Our conclusion was very favourably. For a start our Italian resorts are mostly horrid in Summer without the snow whereas Whistler is not. Secondly our pistes are used just for hiking and often the gondolas and lifts are shut down whereas here it’s mountain bikers’ paradise! Also everything is so rational. No cars but no problems with loading and unloading as all hotels etc can be reached from the back.. Of course it’s all new but so what! We enjoyed our short stay at the Adara which is a great modern hotel with really funky decor and our meal at the Barefoot Bistro (except for no bottle of red wine under $80!!!) . The kids had fun in the evenings as the place is full of young people and we enjoyed riding up to the top of mount Whistler (though sadly and stupidly I dropped my camera – luckily I saved the memory card!).
All in all I’m glad we went and I would recommend it to European skiers. Oh I almost forgot! One evening we were in one of the smaller squares and the police came running in screaming "get out!" and we thought my god we’re gonna be caught in the only gun fight in the history of Whistler – instead they were chasing two little brown bear cubs out of the village! The mother was there too but we didn’t see her. The bears were so cute!

After Whistler we spent one more night in Vancouver at the Pacific Palisades Hotel (very nice!) where we also had dinner at their Zin restaurant because we couldn’t get a table at Hapa Izakaya. This was the only time I hadn’t booked a restaurant the day before!
We noticed how everywhere we went, even the ultra expensive restaurants on week days were always full. Our kids got the impression that everyone in Canada must be very rich. The number of millionaire yachts moored in the harbours were amazing by our standards and we found the price of drinks and wine but especially bottled water exorbitant. The kids were also surprised by the Help Wanted signs in the windows – almost not a shop or bar without one.
We enjoyed our trip to Canada very much. It’s not always easy having fun as a family with kids of this late age but here we had a lot of variety both of scenery and of things to do. If anyone would like any more details on restaurants or hotels do ask away.
Thanks everyone for your advice and time in helping us prepare this trip!
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Old Sep 17th, 2007, 01:15 PM
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A very enjoyable report.
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Old Sep 17th, 2007, 09:58 PM
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Wow - thanks for sharing! It was truly enjoyable reading about your experiences and how your expectations were met (or weren't).
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Old Sep 18th, 2007, 02:39 PM
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Thanks for a wonderful trip report. I am glad you had a good time, even though it was Canada and I'm from the US. We love the Pacific NW, which we obviously share with BC.

Just a couple of observations, you frequented wealthier areas - Tofino, Whistler, downtown Vancouver, hence the image of wealthy. Though I'm sure the income of Canadians is more centered around the average than in the US, it has its share of poverty and related problems, many of which are in the rural areas. (And you did note the homeless in Vancouver.)

We have help wanted signs everywhere in Seattle as well. I was talking to my husband about this last night, speculating it may be because the cost of living (especially housing) is so great that many of the people who might work service jobs, cannot afford to live here. Vancouver is at least as expensive as Seattle (perhaps moreso), and prices in Whistler must be out of sight.

Canadians are welcome to correct me on any observations I have made that are incorrect, of course.
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Old Sep 23rd, 2007, 12:24 PM
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Hi thank-you all for your comments.
I definitely agree, Orcas, we did visit mainly up-market areas and that is not representative of the whole. We wondered if the beggars are so numerous because the social services are better. A bit of a paradox. Of course we have a lot of beggars in Rome but they tend to be either out of luck immigrants or professionals out to catch the tourists. In Vancouver (and even more in Victoria) we noticed they were all white canadians. In a way they make the cities more real - unsurprisingly there were none in Whistler!
As for the help wanted signs I suppose we notice them because of the chronic unemployment we suffer in Europe.
I have been all over the States but not Seattle. Hope to make it there one day!
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Old Sep 23rd, 2007, 01:59 PM
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carrom, Hope you come to Seattle, as well! The Pacific Northwest in the US is also quite beautiful. When you are planning your trip, post on Fodors and we will help you with your itinerary.

My guess on the homeless in Vancouver is that climate is a factor. It is one of the few spots in Canada with a mild winter, where it rarely goes below freezing.

We have many homeless in Seattle as well. Again, the weather may partly be a factor. The US has a lot sunnier places than Seattle, but it's a lot colder in winter just east of the mountains. I don't think our homeless are known to be as agressive as those in Vancouver, but they are quite visible. Most of ours are White, though there are plenty of Native Americans in the mix, at least downtown.

I think alcohol and drugs are a major factor in homelessness in the US and Canada, plus the US has closed nearly all the mental hospitals in the last thirty years. I think Canada has had similar policies of closing mental hospitals. Of course there are the homeless who are down on their luck, and with a little help are able to get back on their feet, but I don't think these are the people one sees begging by the roadsides and downtown.

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Old Sep 23rd, 2007, 02:26 PM
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With a minimum wage of $8 in British Columbia and the average price of a one bedroom apartment at around $800-1000 a month (and that's just one bedroom in shared house across town), Orcas is right - those who work for minimum wages can't afford to live in Vancouver. Or if they do, they're living with their parents, or they're living on welfare, or they're sharing a house with 5+ others. Most of the jobs in demand are those that pay minimum (or barely above) wages - like coffee shops, restaurants, and retail.

The homeless just isn't white in Vancouver - it's a mix of races and ages and it's the result of a large variety of issues - poverty, hard drugs, HIV/AIDS, mental illness hospital closures, a lack of affordable housing, a lack of options for those seeking help, and a century long history of this segregated to the downtown eastside.

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