My adult daughter and I will be visiting Vancouver in September. She wants to use her Marriott points for our lodging. We will arrive Sunday and depart Friday morning. We will not have a car and location is my most important criteria. She has never been here and I’m sure we’ll go to Victoria and perhaps the gardens. I want to be close to public transport and interesting restaurants, cafes and markets. With this in mind, which of the Marriott properties would you recommend… Residence Inn, Westin Bayshore, Sheraton Wall Center, The Metropolitan, The Douglas?

The good news is that all these hotels are located on the tiny downtown Vancouver peninsula. Anywhere downtown Vancouver is going to be walkable and within walking distance of hundreds of restaurants, cafes, bars, shops, and public transit. But each of these hotels are quite different in look/feel and will give you quite different immediate impressions of the city. So in reality, any of these hotels will do.

Here are my impressions:

The Westin Bayshore is my favourite. It's like a resort in the city and has the best resort-like location. It's located on the seawall (Vancouver's public waterfront walking/cycling path - a must). It overlooks the Coast mountains, Burrard Inlet/Coal Harbour (where seaplanes take off and multimillion dollar yachts are moored out front). It also overlooks the modern glass skyline of the city. Waterfront restaurants like Cardero's and Lift are right out front, and all sorts of excellent restaurants are located a 5-10 minute walk away, including authentic Asian restaurants on Robson Street and Denman Street that Vancouver's famous for. Stanley Park (the number one must see in the city) is steps away and you can walk 20 minutes down Denman Street to English Bay beach for stunning sunsets in the evening. A few minutes past English Bay are the water taxis to Granville Island (a waterfront marketplace - another must see). And the hotel's about a 20 minute walk to the nearest Skytrain station/Seabus station. But there are buses nearby and taxis/Ubers too. I personally think this is the nicest location of any hotel on your list and if you have a harbour-view room, it's gorgeous. If you want shopping malls and retail shopping immediately outside, it's not a good fit, but to wake up each morning and really be invigorated by the location? This is the best choice.

The Metropolitan is more of a traditional downtown location in a generic concrete tower surrounded by office towers, bank towers, and other hotels. At night, the immediate area will feel dead but you're a short walk away from more lively areas like Robson Street, the seawall by Canada Place (steps away) and you're steps away from major public transit hubs, so you can hop on the Canada Line or Skytrain and zip yourself to other areas. But it's a good 25 minute walk away from Stanley Park. It's a nice central location but just not waterfront. 20 years ago the Met was considered a really nice hotel in Vancouver. I think it's still nice, just overshadowed by newer, more contemporary hipper hotels. But the Met is still old world classy.

The Douglas is the newest hotel opened a few years ago, it's much more extravagant Vegas casino flashy than the others. I've only been here for a conference. The location is right next to the Cambie Street Bridge onramp wedged in tight next to a stadium and glass tower condos, but you can quickly escape the concrete jungle feel, as steps away is the seawall overlooking False Creek (the narrow ocean inlet on the south side of downtown) and you're a short walk to all the Yaletown restaurants. Yaletown is like a mini NYC Soho - lots of historic brick warehouses turned into lofts and "see and be seen" restaurants with busy bustling patios. Public transit is nearby. This might be my third choice.

The Sheraton Wall Centre is a tall glass tower right in the heart of a busy part of downtown on Burrard Street - better for if you want to feel like you're in a modern North American downtown city with retail chain stores, movie theatres, the local hospital, the local cathedral, etc. surrounding you. It's central to everywhere (you can walk to Yaletown in 10 minutes, to English Bay in 20 minutes, to Stanley Park in 30 minutes, to Gastown in 15 minutes, etc.) but you're not on the water and the immediate location can be any city anywhere in the US or Canada, so you kind of miss out on Vancouver's magic a little. Fourth choice.

Residence Inn is my least favourite choice, mainly because it's a generic tower on a non-descript sidestreet of downtown, although you're just steps away from the False Creek seawall with the water taxis over to Granville Island, and you're a very short walk away from Yaletown. You can also walk to the retail shops of Robson Street in 10 minutes. And public transit is also a short walk away. And around the corner of Davie Street, which is the heart of Vancouver's gay community. Davie Street spans from Yaletown all the way to English Bay and it has many casual restaurants, vibrant neighbourhood bars and pubs, and just feels more like a residential community. Staying here isn't horrible at all, just... the least memorable out of all the other hotels.

Have you looked at Google Street View to see what they look like? Or done a Youtube search for these hotels? You'll get a sense of them there.

Another thought: you mention going to Victoria. It's a LONG day trip - it takes about 4 hours just to get to Victoria one way by public transit and ferry, as the ferry terminals are located a fair distance outside of both cities (about an hour bus ride away). If you can spend the night in Victoria, it'll be a million times less frenzied and much more enjoyable.

If you like gardens, you'll also want to put VanDusen Botanical Garden, Queen Elizabeth Park, Nitobe Japanese Garden, and UBC Botanical Garden on your radar, all in Vancouver.

Thank you so much for your detailed reply! I’m going to take your advice and use Google and utube to get a feel for these properties. I very much appreciate your assessments.

You're welcome!

One quick update - I ended up at the Douglas last night very briefly. What a gorgeous hotel. Their rooftop bar is one of the nicest in the city. It's attached to a casino, but the hotel itself is just really beautiful and tasteful. I'd recommend that hotel if you haven't selected one already.

This was a very welcome update. As it happened we are booked at The Douglas because they were the only hotel that took their Marriott points! That was hard to fathom, but I was a little worried reading some reviews. I think noise can be a problem there with parties from the casino. We will try to get rooms on the higher floors and that should help. I really appreciate your perspective. I’m sure it will be wonderful. Thanks again.

How perfect is that!

A friend and I went to go check out their rooftop bar, as I had only been in the Marriott Parq lobby - the twin hotel attached to the casino. The Douglas is a separate Marriott in the same building, but more boutiquey, and it wasn't until we got out of the elevator to check out the D6 Lounge that I realized I hadn't actually been to the Douglas' lobby - I had been to the Marriott Parq's lobby, and their restaurant Salt, but the Douglas' D6 Lounge and their restaurant, The Victor, are gorgeous. It's a really unique setting in Vancouver - few hotels have those rooftop oasis spaces like the Douglas. I was impressed. I'm sure you'll enjoy yourselves.