Vancouver - Vacation Planning - 2

An Urban Nature’s Paradise

To wear off a good meal, my family heads to Stanley Park across Burrard Inlet, a vast natural oasis with 1,000 acres of trails, lakes, beaches and wildlife. It’s one of the largest urban parks in North America. We stroll among Douglas Firs, some more than 300 feet tall, and breathe in the scent of cedar trees. Horse-drawn carriage rides are also available to tour this nature-lovers park. Within its midst is also the Vancouver Aquarium, an aquatic delight complete with Beluga whales that totally captivate my children and me.

I don’t see much sun in our days in Vancouver; in fact, I have rarely seen the sun on any of my visits. But during the summer months is when it does peek out and Vancouver is at its most heavenly, a nature-lover’s paradise with kayaking along tree-lined fjords, a cornucopia of great hiking and biking opportunities through the region’s coastal rainforests and beaches at every turn along the city’s coastline.

Along English Bay’s beach, keep a lookout for the enormous Inukshuk stone statue, literally translated from the indigenous Inuit language to mean “stone man that points the way,” a directional beacon used for centuries by travelers seeking safe passage. An Inukshuk image is now the symbol for the 2010 Winter Olympics having come to represent cooperation, friendship and human spirit and an emblem seen time and again in Vancouver.

 

• Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Classical Chinese Garden.

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Historic Gastown, Chinatown and More

On another day, strolling around the corner just a few blocks from the Fairmont Waterfront, we find ourselves in historic Gastown, its red brick streets lined with gaslights, a hissing steam clock momentarily taking me back in time to when Vancouver began. The streets are a charming, eclectic mix of boutiques, restaurants, galleries (including one with enormous totem pole works of art) and souvenir shops. For a treat, stop in Gastown’s Old Spaghetti Factory and ride out the hearty lunch on the on-site trolley car inside.

Not too far from Gastown is Vancouver’s Chinatown, the third largest in North America. There, while my youngest children are back napping at the hotel, my 8-year old and I find respite along the busy main boulevard at lovely Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Gardens, the first such gardens built outside China, following the most ancient of horticultural traditions and worth a visit. It’s tranquil and exquisite, and my daughter becomes snapshot-happy trying to capture its beauty.

 

• Vancouver’s Gastown District is a popular tourist spot.

Squeaky Marmot

On our next days it’s a toss up between a floatplane ride—Vancouver has one of the world’s largest floatplane networks—whale watching or a walk across the Capilano Suspension Bridge. My family opts for the latter, 20 minutes outside of downtown Vancouver. We sway on the long suspended bridge high above a gorge over cascading river rapids, then wander its elevated walkways amidst the coastal rainforests until my children are out of breath but invigorated.

Vancouver most certainly does invigorate with a seemingly endless assortment of adventures in the city, and in its ‘cities within-a-city.’ But when all good things come to an end on a visit to Vancouver, consider the Fairmont Vancouver Airport to ease travels back home. It’s a favorite of my kids and the only hotel inside Vancouver International Airport. As I pack up for a long trip home, my kids don binoculars provided in-room to watch the planes coming and going over milk and chocolate chip cookies. For some reason, all the action makes the ending of our trip not so anti-climatic. It’s just one more adventure in Vancouver, where adventures never seem to end.