We will be in BC the last 10 days of August. After 3 nights in Whistler and 6 in Tofino, we plan to return our rental car and spend 2 nights in Vancouver before returning to Florida.

What I'm looking for is a recommendation on a luxury or near-luxury hotel that is located centrally enough to allow us to see most of the "good" stuff in Vancouver on foot or using taxis. I know this may have been covered before, but I had trouble finding a recommendation in another thread with these specific details.

Also, any recommendations for dinner would be nice, looking for something unique to the Pacific Northwest, one night fine dining and one night local flavor. Lastly, any high-level must-do's from a sightseeing perspective.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Bill

Next week we'll be spending a couple nights in Vancouver at The Wedgewood. I'm hoping it is still as wonderful a boutique luxury hotel as I remember it from 10 years ago. By the awards it wins, I'm assuming it is. We were surprised by lower rates than we expected --AAA of $268 Canadian a night. We walked to everything we wanted to see from there.

See the website.
http://www.wedgewoodhotel.com/hotel.html

The Westin Bayshore, the Wedgewood, the Sutton Place or the Four Seasons would all fit your requirements for a hotel. The Westin is a bit outside of the main downtown area (needs a quick cab or a longer walk) but is right on the water and very close to Stanley Park.

For fine dining, West, C or Lumiere would be good choices - very Pacific Northwest in their ingredients but french in technique.

For local flavour, try either one of the city's many asian restaurants, tapas restaurants, or perhaps Vij's (indian-pacific northwest fusion and one of the city's best places).

6 nights in Tofino and 2 in Vancouver? Surely you jest! My wife and I just returned from Tofino and unless you plan on hiking the Pacific Trail, (which takes about 3-4 days), Tofino really doesn't require more than 3 days and if you don't like cosmopolitan, beautiful big cities than you shouldn't give any time to Vancouver but two nights, (and I assume one full day), is really next to worthless to really experiance Vancouver,

Don't get me wrong - Tofino is breathtakingly beautiful even if ithe weather is rarely ideal. The opportunities to enjoy as unspoiled a wilderness as you can find while at the same time having world class hotels and restaurants available are rare finds indeed. But 6 nights? I would have thought 3 was enough for anyone. We stayed at the Wikanninish Inn which is one of the finest hotels we've ever stayed in and we have stayed in some of the best. The food is amazing - very West Coast Natural - and the service is absolutely A-1. But again 3 nights was enough.

Whistler also is good for three nights tops and has great hotels and restaurants but definately very touristy - albeit jet set touristy - and the scenery is very different from Tofino though not nearly as dramatic as the mountain scenery of Banff or Jasper.

So that gives you 4 nights in Vancouver. Just enough to really enjoy one of the top five most gorgeous and cosmopolitan cities in the world. definately in the same class as Sydney, Australia, Hong Kong, Rio or Capetown SA. I agree with Cat's reccomendations although if you're prepared to spring for about $50-100 more a night the Pan Pacific puts you right in the middle of the Harbour atop the main cruise ship terminal. And while you're in Vancouver you have to sample some of the best Asian food, (Cantonese, Mandarin, Szechuan, Japanese, Vietnamese, East Indian and Indo-African to name a few), in North America.

Anyhow - that's my 2 cents worth.

OK, folks everyone keeps raving about the great Asian influence in food, so how about a couple specific recommendations? We'd like some nice atmosphere too. Not just another sushi place, but a really good anything Asian influence. It would be nice to walk from The Wedgewood.

Not far from the Wedgewood at the Royal Centre which is adjacent to the Hyatt Regency is a very good, reasonably priced restaurant, Victoria Chinese. Not much as far as atmosphere goes, but very popular at lunch for dim sum with a predominantly asian clientle. No rolling steam carts here, you order off a menu and each dish is prepared fresh in the kitchen and arrives piping hot.

A bit further down Burrard Street towards the harbor is the Imperial Chinese Restaurant, fantastic view from the beautiful dining room. Well prepared food but expensive.

Most of the highly rated Chinese restaurants are down in Richmond which would require a taxi ride both ways, but these two are walking distance from your hotel.

I'm not the best source for Chinese rec's but I have a few suggestions for you on Asian places:

For a very unique asian place I would suggest Hapa Izakaya on Robson Street. It is a Japanese small plates place in a very authentic style seldom seen outside of Japan. The food is great - lots of sashimi type dishes as well as cooked. The atmosphere is very hip, modern and urban but still comfortable, although it can get loud sometimes when they're really busy. It's on Robson Street towards Stanley Park at Nicola.

For really high end Japanese sushi you can try Tojo's which is on West Broadway. You'd need to cab this one.

Vij's (as I mentioned previously) is another excellent choice. You can do a search online and find out lots about it.

Finally, Umami on Davie Street is another Asian small plates bistro-style restaurant. It's much quieter than Hapa Izakaya and a bit higher end but still comfortable. Their speciality is in combining ingredients to elicit the "umami" flavour which is a Japanese notion. The food is great and you could walk from your hotel.

Thanks. Meanwhile I spotted Phnom Penh on another thread. I'm thinking the atmosphere idea went out the window and if we want Asian we just concentrate on the food.

Hapa Izakaya does sound interesting for lunch. One of our party doesn't eat fish (or meat) and another doesn't do sashimi (or anything raw), but the menu there does look quite diverse and lots of vegetarian options. Same with Phnom Penh.

Another vote for Vij's here. Yes it'a about a $12-15 taxi ride from the Wedgewood and they unfortunately don't take reservations but if you get there before 6 on a weekday you shouldn't have to wait long. But it is truly marvelous food and if you're a party of four or more you can order a whole variety of mouth watering stuff that you'll never find the like of anywhere else in North America. Ask your server for suggestions. You'll be glad you went.

Oh and for your friend who doesn't eat fish or meat - the East Indian vegetarian restaurants are probably a real treat. Some of them are so completely meat and seafood free that Orthodox Jews have no hesitancy in eating there. I have no specific reccomendations because veg is not my thing but perhaps someone else can give you advice or you can check online the way you found Pnom Phen.

Gary, thanks for the comments, but you've pointed out our real problem. Often for the one of the four of us we might be forced to go to one of those total vegetarian places. But that's not the point. Three of us could go into withdrawal eating only vegetables. We seek places that have lots of meat, fish, or poultry, but offer GOOD choices for those who don't as well -- not just one thrown together vegetarian of the day special, which is often the case.

Hey patick, you hijacked my thread!

I'm surprised not to have heard soem of the familiar "big" name hotels mentioned, such as the Pan Pacific, Fairmont, and Pacific Palisades. Is that because they are not centrally located?

wahayden, I've stayed at the Four Seasons and found the central location very convenient, it sits above the Pacific Center Mall close to everything in downtown Vancouver. I would rate it a near luxury property, since I heard it was originally planned as a condo development with the hotel plans coming later. Great service and staff.

Wayhayden - amopngst my rant yesterday afternoon I did mention the Pan Pacific which has the most outstanding location for harbour views but definately charges above the others for it. It's also one of the three 5 diamond hotels in the city, the others being the Four Seasons and the Sutton Place both of which are more centrally located but have restricted to no views because of other buildings blocking them.

I would stay at the Fairmont downtown Vancouver. There are 2 in Vancouver (one on the waterfront and one centrally located downtown.) They are both nice... however, the downtown location will allow you to go places w/in walking distance. The service was excellent and the accommodations were wonderful.

Regarding the vegetarian requirements...my daughter is also a vegetarian. I've found that when we have reservations at an upscale restaurant, often a phone call several days prior (or when making the reservations)to give the restaurant a heads up, allows the chef to come up with something much nicer than the standard steamed veggies or pasta. A good restaurant will make the effort.