As most of you know, I used to live in the greater Vancouver area and so I love to go back and visit once in a while. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I was just there, but only for a short time. We arrived in Vancouver at around 1:30pm on the Friday and left around 1ish on Saturday to go to my hometown in Maple Ridge to see some friends and then went home on the Sunday. I went with my boyfriend and it was very exciting because this was his first time seeing Vancouver! Even though it was a very short trip, sometimes that’s all you have time for! A short trip is better than no trip!
FRIDAY
Drove from Kelowna to Vancouver
It’s approximately a 4 hour driveto Vancouver from Kelowna. We left at 9am and got into Vancouver around 1pm and dropped off all our stuff at our hotel and then started our little adventure. We decided to stay at the Ramada Limited Downtown, which was about a 5 minute walk to Gastown! It was a great price since we were only just sleeping there!
1:30pm – 6pm
We caught a cab from our hotel to English Bay Beach which was about $15. Even though we did have a vehicle, it was a giant king ranch truck and that would not be very fun to drive through downtown and then park, so we decided to take a cab.
We then started walking down the Sea Wall from English Bay. We didn’t walk the whole Sea Wall because that would be 10km and we didn’t have the time or the energy for that! But it was very pretty to walk by the water. The only thing I would advise is BRING A WARM JACKET! It is
incredibly windy and it really bothered my ears too, so be prepared for that type of weather by the water. We walked past second beach and third beach and then cut through Stanley Park by the Teahouse Restaurant. We walked down some trails through the forest of Stanley Park and saw some very pretty flowers along the way back to English Bay! I highly recommend doing this little walk if you’re visiting Vancouver, even for a short period of time.
6pm – 9pm
At 6pm we made it to Cactus Club Café on English Bay Beach for our reservation for 10 people! I was meeting some old friends from high school and it was so much fun and very much needed! We got sat a beautiful table and got to sip on bellinis while watching a gorgeous sunset. We then cabbed back to our hotel to prepare for our busy morning in Vancouver the next day!
SATURDAY
9am – 10am
Our hotel had a complimentary breakfast included, so we went and took advantage of that. Then it was time to do some walking and explore Gastown which is just a 5-10 minute walk from our hotel. We also put all of our bags in storage with the hotel before we left since checkout is at noon!
10am – 11:30am
It was time to explore the legendary Gastown of Vancouver! Gastown is known for the giant Steam Clock! It’s super unique and pretty much everyone is taking pictures of it when you walk past, it’s definitely a famous spot for the tourists. I’d recommend taking a look if you have the time. There’s also tons of shopping, restaurants and little coffee shops down the main strip of Gastown.
They also had the cutest building that reminded me of a miniature version of the flatiron building in New York City! I thought that was so cute!
Can you guess which one was New York City and which one is Vancouver LOL
11:30am – 1:30pm
We then walked from Gastown down to the Canada Place area and met up with some of my friends at the Fairmont to have lunch at Arc. We were expecting their brunch buffet but they only serve it on special days at certain times, so I’d call ahead of time to check! But, the food was delicious! I highly recommend their Clam Chowder, it’s definitely award-winning!
After lunch, we walked around the downtown area for a little while before heading back to our hotel to pick up the truck and start heading to Maple Ridge (my hometown – about an hour away from Vancouver).
It was a super fun little trip to Vancouver and showing the city to my boyfriend! I will definitely do another post about my visit to the Abbotsford Tulip Festival and my time in Maple Ridge! Stay tuned for that!
