WWanderer

We're doing an Alaska cruise in May of next year, and we have a week to play with at the end of the cruise. We are ending the trip in Vancouver, flying home from there.

My husband has never been to Vancouver, I know it reasonably well. We want to spend several days in the city itself--I favour the West End, because of its charm, quiet and proximity to Stanley Park. But open to suggestions there, and for side-trips. Definitely will want to do the Anthropological Museum out at UBC, stroll around Kitsilano, perhaps Grouse Mountain,...

We also will have a day in Victoria during our cruise, so probably won't go back there.

We will spend several days in and around Seattle as well. Have friends north of Seattle. They have suggested we take Amtrak from Vancouver--there's a station near them. Not sure about this yet, since we also have a friend in Seattle who may or may not be available during our trip--if so, we might want to rent a car instead. The great attraction of the train is the ease of getting across the border. We would have to find somewhere in Vancouver to store our large cruise luggage, however, since I understand luggage space on the train is limited.

But I'm thinking we have a day or two for side trips from Vancouver--perhaps not worth going to the island in that brief time, but perhaps a drive up the Sunshine Coast, or into the mountains? Or maybe a day on one of the Gulf Islands? Alternately, I've never spent any time in Seattle, so we could stay there for a couple of nights.

Thinking of all these possibilities, 1 week doesn't seem very long at all. Any ideas or suggestions? I have lots of time to plan, but I love this part.

GBelle

When we did an Alaskan cruise several years ago, we stayed a few days in Portland, a few days in Seattle, and a few days in Vancouver before boarding our ship to Alaska. If you haven't been to that area of the Pacific Northwest, visiting the others cities is an option.

WWanderer

Thanks, that's an idea. But it's only a week.

I also should have said that our cruise actually starts in San Francisco, with a stop in Astoria on the way.

tomfuller

Find out if your flight home would be cheaper from Seattle.
2 Amtrak trains and 2 Amtrak buses from VAC to SEA every day.
No sense returning to Vancouver just to fly out.
Portland is only 4.5 hours down I-5 from Seattle so that might work for you as well.

WWanderer

I'm doing this trip on points and have already booked the flights. Problem with Seattle is you pretty well have to fly to Buffalo to get a cheap flight. Air Canada makes much more sense for us because we're flying back to Toronto. Thanks anyways.

And YVR is pretty easy to get to, I think. If we decide to rent a car, we'll just return it to the airport.

WWanderer

So, no bites. Okay. I am thinking that we'll take the train down to our friends--they say the scenery is gorgeous. And probably the train back. Not sure about the logistics of this. Does anyone have ideas about storing luggage? We may be able to arrange our stay so that we can leave our larger cruise luggage at the hotel where we stay in Vancouver, then come back to it, spend the last night there, and then fly home.

tomfuller

There are 2 HI Hostels in Vancouver. They have luggage storage rooms. My DW and I stayed at one and left our luggage for a few hours before we left on the train.
Take the early train. Have fun.

WWanderer

Ah, the early train! That's a good tip. That will work if we're doing our Vancouver stay first, but if we go straight south off our cruise, the early train won't work. Thanks for the tip about luggage storage. We won't be staying in a hostel, but maybe we can still use one for storage.

WWanderer

Not sure if anybody's interested, since there was so little respnse to this thread. But I thought I'd report on what we did.

When we got off our Alaskan cruise (great!), we rented a car from Avis, a 5 minute cab ride from the cruise port (Canada Place.) This was for our drive down to Camano Island, north of Seattle, for a three night visit. We stayed at a lovely B&B called the Camano Island Inn. Wonderful island, great visit. We also went by ferry to Orcas Island in the San Juans and had a picnic on top of Mount Constitution.

We then drove back to our hotel in Vancouver for four nights. Stayed at the Sylvia Hotel, which was a wonderful choice. It is right on English Bay, and the weekend weather was great so the area, and the city as a whole, was very active. We were just south of Stanley Park, away from the touristy areas, but with easy access to them by bus, and with Denman and Beach Streets right there with a great array of restaurants.

We kept the car for the first day, and drove out to UBC to see the Museum of Anthropology (wonderful), and drove around out there a bit. Drove up to Capilano, but chose not to do the suspension bridge. Mainly because it was very expensive, but partly because we didn't have the car for much longer and didn't think we could do the site justice.

Walked a lot, through Stanley Park, and over to Coal Harbour, very nice. Bought bus tickets and went to the Aquarium (good), Gastown, Chinatown. Went to the Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden, which was a real treat. Kind of pricey, but there is a tour included--highly recommented--our tour guide (Michael, I think), was a treasure and completely changed the way we looked at this place.

Beware that Chinatown and Gastown are both near the really terrible areas of Vancouver--East Hastings, etc. Fully of druggies, so don't wander too far. Although we wandered through Chinatown enough for good Dim Sum.

Our hotel was a wonderful haven--great bar, overlooking the bay, and really nice restaurant too. It's an older hotel, so don't expect something too glitzy, but it is a very well-run hotel in a terrific location. We would definitely stay there again.