British Columbia Family Vacation: Getting to know Vancouver, from Granville Island to Yaletown

Some thoughts and highlights from our first day in Vancouver:

Vancouver, B.C. is a gorgeous city
"Vancouver is a movie-star-gorgeous city." That's a line from a recent New York Times travel story on British Columbia's beloved city and I think it's a perfect description. I'm absolutely stunned by its magical beauty.

Vancouver is often compared to my hometown of San Francisco, and I think it's even more beautiful. Vancouver is cleaner and greener. Leafy trees line all the streets. The greenery continues all the way to the waterfront with expansive lawns falling right into the harbor. Window-filled sky scrapers grow from this urban garden.

 I haven't taken the perfect photo yet, but tomorrow we're going to Stanley Park and I hope to get that postcard image.

The Best Western Plus Downtown Vancouver welcomed us with open arms

The Best Western Plus Downtown is a busting hotel in the heart of the city. The staff welcomed us with open arms, helping us with our luggage, preparing our room long before check-in and directing us to nearby attractions. 

We checked into a room on the ninth floor of our the 11-story hotel. The room was comfortable and clean and the beds were topped with fluffy comforters. My kids were excited to have access to a ping-pong table and hot tub on the top floor.

The Best Western Plus sits in the center of it all. You can easily walk to Yaletown, Granville Entertainment District, Robson Street and the ferries that take you to Granville Island. We also discovered that the hotel is only steps from many parks.

Such as Beach Front Park...

which has great swings with views of Vancouver Harbour.

 

We also climbed the play structure at nearby David Lam Park

But my kids would tell you that the play equipment at Emery Barnes Park was even more fun...

 

Ferries to Granville Island are an attraction unto themselves

Look out over the Vancouver Harbor and you'll notice dozens of little boats zipping back and forth, like busy bees, between downtown Vancouver and Granville Island. A ride on one of these boats is a real joy. The size of a large hot tub, a boat seats only about a dozen people. You sit low on the water and get a close look at all the harbor action: seals playing in the water, birds diving for fish, yachts and sail boats maneuvering around. Plus, a round-trip ride is cheap, costing about $5 round trip, with steep discounts for kids. From our hotel, we could walk to several ferries, including the False Creek Ferry.

The Granville Public Market is a foodie's delight
In San Francisco, where I live, tourists and locals go to the Ferry Plaza Market, the city's beloved showcase for Northern California's organic, locally grown, sustainable food. This temple to food is housed in a beautifully restored building and the market stalls inside are tidy, practically sterile, presenting food as if it were being displayed in a museum. I'm practically afraid to touch the perfectly ripe $15 baskets of strawberries. Did I mention everything is overpriced?

Granville Public Market is the antidote to the Ferry Plaza — it's messy, chaotic, loud, and a bit smelly. The stalls are disorganized and piled high with produce, and there are so many people that traffic jams develop in its skinny pathways. Yes, it's a tourist trap but it also has an authentic quality and is the sort of place you'd expect to find in a bustling European city. And while there might be a few stalls hawking unpalatable food, there are many selling local Chinook and Rainier cherries and dishing up cuisine based on recipes of past generations.

 My kids opted for burritos

And ice cream from Pzaz, a pizza place that makes homemade gelato onsite. Pink bubble gum ice cream!

Yaletown is filled with fabulous-looking restaurants
Yaletown is a former industrial area that's now dotted with upscale lofts, trendy boutiques and hip-looking restaurants. The interiors of these restaurants are inventive and gorgeous, and rather than looking at menus, I found myself peering inside to get a sense of the ambiance. I took many photos like the one below...

 And I thought this place looked more charming than hip...

Urban Fare: Best Place for a gourmet dinner on a budget
With two kids and a baby, not to mention a tight travel budget, dining out at a fancy restaurant didn't make sense. Yet, we were craving fresh, quality food so we decided to check out the upscale grocery store in Yaletown called Urbanfare. (Great tip from Shannon Gu, the general manager at the Best Western Plus Downtown.)

The store is basically a temple to local produce and food products. 

Square watermelons? Yes, at Urban Fare. They were selling for $79.99 Canadian dollars so we decided to not buy them but we had to snap a photo. Have you ever seen such a thing?

Boxed water? I'd never seen anything like it and I loved the snarky message emblazoned across the packaging. We grabbed a box for our picnic.

 The kids picked out our dinner: Salami and Swiss cheese sandwiches, tomato and mozzarella salad, bananas, boxed water and sushi made with shrimp tempura, avocado and crab.  Random? Yes, but they were happy and it all only cost $17 Canadian dollars.

Dinner with a waterfront view
From Urban Fare, we walked along the sea wall to David Lam Park. The night was magical, warm and balmy with a couple puffy clouds floating across a brilliant blue sky. Skull boats, filled with teenagers rowing perfectly in sync, glided across the waters sparkling under a sun still hanging high in the sky.

We settled into our picnic spot right at the tip of David Lam Park, a pretty spot to take in this .

The perfect ending to a beautiful day.