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Vancouver shoulders deserved reputation as year-round destination

By Jay Berman, special to Travel Watch

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- There is no bad time to visit Canada's most beautiful city.

Predictably, tourism reaches its peak in the summer, when the weather are warm and the sun doesn't go down until nearly 9:30 p.m. And of course skiers, making Vancouver their base for a trip to nearby Whistler, come here in the winter. Even then, it isn't all that cold, with daytime temperatures seldom falling below freezing.

But the spring and fall -- the so-called shoulder seasons of tourism -- should not be ignored. In fact, these may be the best times to come here. Midsummer crowds have not yet materialized, hotels are less likely to be filled, restaurant tables more likely to be available. Many hotels have rates that may be 25 to 35 percent lower than their summer prices.

Vancouver residents, after a monochromatic winter marked by late sunrises and early sunsets, can't wait for the spring. They put the tops down on their Miatas and BMWs when the thermometer hits 45; they show up at Stanley Park's tennis courts as soon as there is a possibility of an hour or two without rain; they jog or walk along the seawall at English Bay.

Yes, the spring can be wet in Vancouver. The area is known for that, but the precipitation usually comes in the form of gentle showers, not downpours, and it often only lasts for a few hours.

Rain can't dampen flow of newcomers

In any case, there is nothing to fear from a little rain, and it certainly doesn't keep the locals from going about their regular work-and-pleasure routine.

This is a city where pleasure has a high priority. Vancouverites do a lot of shopping, they eat at an impressive variety of restaurants, they go to movies, concerts and plays. Many go skiing or snowboarding and, except in the dead of winter, they get their boats or kayaks out and head for one of the area's well-protected bays or inlets.

More of them are doing all this than ever before because Vancouver is growing like never before. One estimate indicates that the metropolitan area's numbers have more than doubled since the city was host to a world's fair in 1986. At the time of Expo '86, Vancouver had about 1.1 million people. Today, the figure is about 2.3 million and growing rapidly.

More than half the new arrivals have come from Asia, giving the city an international look and feel, as well as some great Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese restaurants. From a period of earlier immigration, Vancouver already had more than its share of good Indian restaurants. It is, like Toronto, Chicago and New York, a city known for its diversity of cuisine. One of Vancouver's best ethnic restaurants for the past three decades, in fact, is Afghan. Nearly every part of the world is represented.

West End ideal for first-time visitors

A first-time visitor probably should plan on staying in an area called the West End. It's a great location, with plenty of those great ethnic dining spots, a variety of hotels, some great walks and fascinating neighborhoods.

The West End is bounded by Stanley Park on the west, the Burrard Inlet on the north, Burrard Street on the east and English Bay on the south. Geographically, it's not unlike San Francisco. Both are densely populated peninsulas linked to surrounding communities by a network of bridges.

Vancouver has plenty of hotels, although most of those built since Expo tend to be of the luxury variety. Numerous films and television shows are shot in and around Vancouver, and many of the newer hotels appear to have been built and priced for film-industry budgets.

Staying in the West End puts a visitor within walking distance of downtown, Robson Street's shopping, Granville Island, English Bay and other significant sites, but that doesn't mean you don't need to rent a car. While the aforementioned areas are convenient to one another, a number of others aren't, and you could spend hours getting around on the city's so-so transit system.

Car rentals don't cost any more than in most U.S. cities. Gasoline will be a little higher. Confusing things for U.S. visitors, it is sold by the liter, and it will cost the Canadian equivalent of about $20 U.S. to fill most cars.

Shopping, mountains and the occasional coyote

OK. You have a West End hotel room and a car. Where should you be going and what should you be seeing? Let's take a look at some of the destinations we've mentioned:

Stanley Park. It was opened in 1888, just two years after Vancouver was founded. Once a logging site, it has thousands of cedar, hemlock and fir trees and 22 miles of beautiful hiking trails. The wildlife includes raccoons, great blue herons, geese, ducks, swans and an occasional coyote, which should not be petted or fed no matter how harmless it may look.

Much of Stanley Park doubled for rural locations during the years "The X-Files" was taped in Vancouver.

Robson Street. About 30 years ago, some chamber of commerce types tried to build support for calling the Robson Street shopping area Robsonstrasse, apparently to suggest a European flavor. At the time, bakeries, small delicatessens and ethnic food stores dotted the area.

By the 1980s, it could more accurately have been described as T-shirt store strasse, but quickly escalating rents in the past two decades drove most such outfits out of business.

Since then, Robson has become more of a Fifth Avenue or Rodeo Drive north, as upscale retailers like Virgin Megastore, Giorgio Armani and Roots -- the Canadian apparel retailer that made a splash during the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City -- have replaced the smaller shops.

The best way to see Robson is to walk it east from Denman to Granville, then crossing the street and heading back from east to west. It's only about a mile each way. Robson does continue east past Granville, but there isn't a whole lot happening there.

Granville Island. It isn't an island, and it isn't on Granville, but this small area is good for an interesting afternoon. It was a largely deserted industrial area as recently as 30 years ago, but it's so close to downtown that the unused land soon became too valuable to ignore.

Some of the best views of the city are from its north side, adjacent to the Granville Island Public Market. Any view to the north, except on the darkest of days, will include the mountains. Of them, Vancouver Sun columnist Kerry Gold says:

"I think Vancouver's beauty is largely due to the mountain backdrop to our north. I always tell tourists to look for them whenever they lose their direction."

The market is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. It's a real market, more for locals than tourists, featuring Okanagan Valley produce, meats, bakeries, coffee and tea.

Near the market are restaurants, the Granville Island Brewery -- British Columbia's first microbrewery -- bookstores and specialty shops. Most of the stores occupy buildings that once held construction- or marine-related enterprises.

Although some free parking is on Granville Island, there is not enough, especially on weekends. A better plan is to take the Granville Island ferry from Sunset Beach. Walk down Beach Avenue to the Aquatic Center and catch the ferry at the waterline. It's less than a five-minute trip and a lot nicer than competing for parking with hundreds of others who have the same idea.

Not long ago, maybe as recently as 1970, Vancouver was considered quaint and still a bit colonial. Not anymore. You can't see all of it in one visit, but you can see enough to begin to understand what it is about this area -- surrounded by mountains and trees, bays and inlets -- that is attracting people from all over the world to live there.

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