﻿How I visited Vancouver in a day

18/1/2017 0 Comments

How I visited Vancouver in a day

Spoiler alert! I didn’t see everything in one day, that’s impossible. What happened is, my friend offered me to go to Disney on Ice with her on a Saturday night. I work all week so Saturday was perfect, but since she had to work, I couldn’t arrive in Vancouver until 5 PM. So I drove to Nanaimo, took the ferry and made it to her workplace at about 5:30 PM. That night, all we did was go to Disney on Ice (which was amazing by the way) so I didn’t start visiting Vancouver until the next morning at 6 AM when my friend dropped my off at her workplace before going back to work. She works in the middle of town so I was lucky! I had from 6 AM until 11 AM: when I had to take the bus to go back to the ferry terminal.

Tip 1: get a walking map of the city. Most of the attractions are only a few blocks from each other so you don’t need a car and you will save time and money by walking from place to place. Plus, all the important attractions are highlighted on the map.

My friend had told me the name of places I should visit and so had my dad. That included Canada Place, Gastown and the steam clock, the Chinese garden and Stanley Park.

At 6 AM, I left my friend’s workplace in West End and made my way to the Vancouver Convention Center and Canada Place by walking along the harbour. The seawall as a ton of boards that explain how Vancouver came to be and the major events in the history of British Columbia and I loved learning some facts about my new home for the year. I was too early to go on Fly Over Canada, but still walked around Canada Place and looked at all the different cities written on the ground.

So sorry for the bad quality of the pictures, but the light was not awake either at 6 AM! I promise better pictures in February!

Tip 2: If you plan on visiting Vancouver early in the morning or during the weekend, look up the opening times of the attractions you plan to visit as they might open later than usual on weekends and it will help you plan your itinerary so you don’t miss any fun activities.

After Canada Place, I walked to Gastown, which was my favorite neighborhood of the Vancouver that I got to see. The architecture reminded me a lot of Old Quebec and, even though nothing was opened this early, all the shops looked inviting. I also loved the steam clock (I really want to know how the thing works so if you have any idea please comment below) and the fact that you can see the whole mechanism through the glass.

My next stop was Chinatown and Dr Sun Yat-Sen Gardens. With my luck, it was of course closed when I got there, but it opened only 30 minutes later so I decided to walk around the area and check out BC Stadium (It is HUGE!), then walk back to the garden for the opening. It was worth the wait as the garden is beautiful and makes you feel like you are in a completely different continent and out of the busy city. Even in the winter, the plants were green, and even in the middle of a city, the place was silent and relaxing. I could have stopped for some yoga if I had had the time. I plan on bringing some pencils and paper to draw the next time I have a few minutes to spare in Vancouver.

And it was already time to walk back to West End and grab a bus to Horseshoe Bay. I opted to take Dunsmuir St and W Georgia ST to at least walk through the Business Disctrict and I ended my visit by the harbour where it had started less than 5 hours ago.

I can’t wait for February when I will have more time in the city to visit Stanley Park, Granville Entertainment District and maybe even go across False Creek to the Olympic Village. Anything else that I should not miss?