VANCOUVER for Beginners

Aquabus over to Granville Island and the other waterbus thing over to North Vancouver is worth using, too.

Have a great time!

I like the Yaletown sea wall in Vancouver- that's my favorite walk with my dog when we're up there. Free wifi coffeeshops so that you can post to ILX: http://vancouver.wifimug.org/

What about good places to stay?

I'll second a walk down the drive (and the good coffee (cafe roma esp), cheap produce and chill restaurants); a walk around Main and Broadway and up to Main & 28th or so (and if you need a haircut, go to Jen at the Beehive!); Kits (4th ave and the beach); Stanley Park and seawall, 2nd beach (there's a pool there, but it might be closed by the time you're there), English Bay. Queen Elizabeth park is also really nice and has a good view of the city and mountains - it's at Cambie & 28th or about. Granville Island market is nice too - go to Lee's Donuts! Proper doughnuts, I'm telling you. There's also a good fudge place, some good places to eat, lots of nick-nacky things, lots of produce, bread, flowers and places to sit outdoors and in.

Take the skytrain (skytrain!) from Broadway to downtown to sort of see the lay of the land (if you want to see a big huge mall, go to Metrotown in Burnaby.) Oh, you can also go out to Lougheed Mall and take a bus up to SFU/Burnaby Mtn (a good view and also a lot of tv shows us it as, like, FBI headquarters, for instance). Also, go up to Grouse Mtn (it's not free, but the view is good - you could hike up if you're in good shape). Go to Lighthouse Park - there's a bus from downtown on Georgia that will take you very close. If you ski/snowboard, the local mountains may (but prob not) have snow by late November, but you could go up the 99 to Whistler/Blackcomb, which is awesome and beautiful.

Go to Victoria for the ferry ride and cuteness (you can just take public transit if you're on a budget or the comfy bus from downtown/bus station to downtown if you have a bit more to spend) - from there you can also go to some gulf islands, like Pender, Saltspring, etc. Nanaimo isn't as picturesque but is a nice ferry ride and you can go from there to islands like Hornby (very nice) or even to Tofino (there's a van service called Tofino Bus that is cheap and fast - and lots of nice cabins/b&b's on the beach.) Also, from Horseshoe Bay (the same place you get the ferry to Nanaimo), you can go for a day trip to Bowen Island or go up to the Sunshine Coast. (For some of these you may need to rent a car.)

Record stores: Scratch (downtown on Richards, south of Georgia) and Zulu (in Kits on 4th, west of Burrard) are both cool and have show listings/tickets.

And, by November it's probably (okay, definitely) going to be pretty rainy, like all-day rain sometimes. (haha, so if you want a new (goretex) raincoat or outdoor gear, go to Mtn Equip Co-op on Broadway east of Cambie.)

As far as places to stay, since you're going to be there a while, I'd recommend not staying downtown - it's expensive and noisy - or downtown eastside - yeah, it's cheap, but, er, discomforting. And I wouldn't recommend the International youth hostel b/c it's way out past kits beach. Check the Vancouver Sun online for sublets - or craigslist or even university off-campus housing listings (UBC&SFU)?j

Okay, that's my wordy advice on a lazy Labour Day!

November is indeed the monsoon season (we don't have all these stately rainforests without a downside), and Vancouverites are well accustomed to doing everything (indoors, outdoors, whatever) in the rain for quite a large bit of the year.

For clubs/live music, see here. Or check out the Georgia Straight.

I don't post a great deal here, but if you add any more specific questions to this thread, I'll try to get back to it now and again and address them.

David A, those are great links, thanks. We'll prepare ourselves for the weather. (As a child I was led to believe that a monsoon was a variety of tall moose). I'll keep this thread open for more specific questions / drunken rants etc.

phil-two, it's actually more like 2 years 9 months (or more specifically exactly 1000 days). We're quite open to the idea of never returning, however (though oddly I'm missing Walthamstow already)

the vag
big one downtown, beautiful old bank, free thursdays, naughty pun potential.

the emily carr school
underneath the granville bridge, near granville market, good student stuff.

tracey lawerence
first right after the bridge, back of the postmodern steel and glass building, private space, usually supplies kasel, etc

bau xi
four blocks down granville proper. (south granville is good art tours anyways)

the vancouver contemparary art center
email me for the proper address, really good, adventrous, and conceptual peices. (downtown)

the two new artist run spaces on the corner of hastings and main
gentrfied slum. (email me for the name), but the one on the west side of the street, has one small central room, and really really good shows, and small projects.

their are others i can give you a list.

also worth saying
fag village on davies.
little sisters
sophia books
the art book store across the street from the big chapters on granville.
lonsdale quay
old china town
the venus theater
the sea bus
new lebanon on north van.
the modernist apartments towards beach street
the pool near beach street
stanley park
the skyscrapers near the maritime building
the maritime buidling
others im missing

email me

Anthony, I've e-mailed you - sterling work, thanks.

Fifth Avenue Cinemas are usually playing the good new movies.

There are many good restaurants in Vancouver. I don't think the Naam is overrated and their miso gravy is fantastic. I've eaten at Kalamata on Broadway often and enjoyed it every time. I think there is an even more consistent selection of restaurants to be had in Victoria: Hernandez (Mexican), Baan Thai (Thai), Futaba (Japanese), and the Blue Fox (breakfast) are all varying degrees of culinary delightfulness.

If you go to Victoria, trek out to the University one night and see a movie at Cinecenta too.

The Irish Heather doesn't get any love from me. It's a standard Irish Bar in the tourist district. However there are good bars downtown. The Railway Club on Dunsmuir St, The Marine Club on Homer St, Lamplighter on Water St, all have excellent live music, decent prices and a good atmosphere. Most of the ones on Granville are totally heinous and should be avoided at all costs. A famous Vancouver haunt is the Cambie Hotel. This is just round the corner from the "pot" block where you can procure and consume BC's most valuable resource at leisure.

Good cheap things to do:

Walk around the sea-wall at dawn (it's too busy later on). Comedy night at El Cocal on Commercial Drive on Wednesdays ($3 for about 8 comics). Wreck Beach, the clothing optional hangout is essential if the weather is at all clement.

Listen to CITR 101.9FM while you are there. It's the university station and is easily the best thing on the air.

I have family there. It's really just a cozy, rather conservative town with a very visible and vocal minority of street kids.

The Parliament building in Victoria is easily the best capitol building in North America... It's stunning. Some may say it's gaudy, but I love the look of the Christmas lights all over the building at night. (I say this without having visited D.F, Mexico or any country south of it, granted.)

For the record geeks... interestingly enough, Goldie Records moved from Vancouver to Victoria over the past year or so. Almost all the records there used are the ones they used to play at the Luv Affair, which was the bar for many a scene of The X-Files. I kinda wish that place was still around.. we need more clubs with chain link fences. More clubs today that are wanting to get all nostalgic should follow the example of Club Berlin from the movie After Hours. Anyway, I found lots of great stuff at Goldie. Ditch Records is great for it's small size. A&B is alright, although it jut doesn't compare to Zulu, Scratch, Beat Street, or Active Pass in Vancouver. Lyle's is a great place to find really cheap CDs where you're likely to find that one $100-on-eBay find for $3 or so.

If you go to Victoria (and have drivers licences), rent scooters! (or just bikes!) You can ride around on the road next to the beach from downtown and all the way to the university. I went to UVic - I spent a lot of time riding my bike and studying/working and really liked (but not loved) it. The town is slow, quiet and very pretty. As with any town like that, there's gotta be some creepiness under the surface - but as a tourist (and a Londoner), you'll barely see it.

As with any town like that, there's gotta be some creepiness under the surface - but as a tourist (and a Londoner), you'll barely see it.

So very true. I keep forgetting these folks are coming from London. In that case, may I add VANCOUVER HAS NO PROBLEMS PLEASE STAY FOR THE OLYMPICS, INNIT.

Back to Vancouver:

The Sha Lin Noodle House is very nice.

(Also I second the recommendation of The Railway Club upthread.)

Nobody mentioned the beautiful Bouchart Gardens on Victoria nor the really fun coaster sled thingy on Grouse Mt. Gas town has good eats.

Salt spring Island is wonderful to explore and canoe around and has a quint little town with some pretty good food and local entertainment.

Have a fun and safe trip.

I prefer staying in the Hyatt Regency Burnaby outside the city and taking the train in. Its usually not all that tough to get a room there on Priceline for under $50, parking isn't too expensive, and the station is a 5 minute walk. Plus, if you get there early enough for checkin, they clean top down, so the only rooms available are on the executive levels (which gives you access to the lounge on the top floor, plus the oh so cool keycard only accessable levels on the elevator). There's also an asian market downstairs, where I was able to buy some cool toys and eat cheap breakfasts of pineapple rolls and Goya every morning (and a karaoke bar at night).

Playland Park, the one amusement park in Vancouver, is kinda dumpy, but the wood roller coaster there is top shelf. Unappreciated ride by the general public, but has a huge reputation in coaster enthusiast circles, with some fear that it may not be long for this world (as Playland prepares to move to a larger lot elsewhere in the city).

Any more tips or places to stay, or particularly forthcoming events / clubs / gigs in November please also let us know here.

This thread is so incredible: I can't believe there isn't an I Love Travel board.

That's actually $8CAN now for an all day trip... which is still a deal compared to paying $2.25CAN for a 90 minute transfer. (Seattle has weekday $5US all day passes, $2.50US on the weekends.. maybe that was the source of the confusion?)

But true, at least between early morning and midnightish you can go anywhere within concentrated greater Vancouver -- even North Van and West Van... bus, Skytrain, SeaBus, etc.

AFTER that, you'll have to take a cab though... but no big deal there. I imagine a neighborhood-to-neighborhood cab ride costs $10-12CAN?

http://www.translink.bc.ca/

VANFAP!!

I wanna hearre LeCoq say that out loud, goddamit!

After Vancouver we're driving through the States for a month (or two) down to Mexico and Guatemala, so we'll be coming through Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, LA, Vegas, Tucson etc anyway, so perhaps even a FAT* or FAC** would be on the cards.

(* Fancy A Thanksgiving)
(** Fancy A Christmas)

(You mean the same block as Beat Street?)

who's got a great apt. for under $1000/mth coming open in early fall?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 17:03 (3 years ago)

will keep an eye out. seems to be lots of 1 br apts available right now.

vancouver apt-hunting tip: don't use craigslist unless you enjoy cattle calls. Try the classifieds in the newspapers, because then you eliminate as competition all the people too cheap to invest $1 in their housing search.

^^^ OTM 4 any city in the world tbh

not necessarily!

i should read this thread. my friend recently moved to vancouver so now i have an excuse to travel there once i'm making some money!!

flipside is that yr more likely to find apts run by vast property management conglomerates in the newspaper leaning toward the more expensive side of rentals. Use both.
Also, walk around neighbourhoods you want to live and look for "For rent" signs. That's how we found our current sweet-ass only-slighty-too-expensive pad.

i just like craigslist for the sheer volume. but, yeah, feel you on that. i'm going to look at a place at 15 and blenheim this week, for $950. when i say i want to live in point grey or kits, everyone i know in vancouver says i'm crazy and i should move to richmond.

i kinda resent the no out-of-towners vibe in vancouver apartment ads-- sometimes it's not so much a vibe as someone specifically stating, "no out-of-towners." i don't really want to give people an employment reference or get a credit check or sign a one year lease, either. fuckin vancouver.

those are not things you have to do normally???

how do they figure out how to approve people for apartments?

i am exposing myself as backwards and provincial. where i come from, we shake hands, sign a hastily prepared contract.

the crucial problem is that i don't have any credit and or a real job!

in my experience, most of the places that ask for CRAZY info never get back to you. Or maybe that's just because I refused to give out my SIN to any old property-owning creep. Dream big, there are good, reasonable places in every neighbourhood, but it can take a lot of legwork to find and secure them. But also, be open.
There's no reason to live in Richmond (tho now there's a train).
Have seen lots of FOR RENT signs on buildings between Oak and Granville between Broadway and 16th, which is sorta my hood, which I love. Close to Kits & Granville Island, easy access to downtown, UBC, lotsa nice heritage-y buildings.

thanks for the information and everything. (dr. superman, just read ur canlit piece in pd).

i've found lots of places! just gotta go see them. i've rented apartments in cities bigger than lil vancouver, and honestly never experienced a credit check as part of an apartment rental. still think that's some kinda bullshit.

it ran this ish? aw geez, I shoulda made a better effort to find a copy before I left on Thursday.

Credit checks are total bullshit. With vacancy rates what they traditionally are in this town, though, I guess they can get away with it.

yeah, our landlords be some ass-gougin' motherfuckers. but kits is awesome to live in, forget the east van snobbery. (point grey otoh is pretty boring, but hey close to wreck)

Vancouver-proper is small enough geographically that as long as you have a bike, you're fine.

got a 1 bdrm suite @ trimble / west 1st ave, $1000 util includ, month-to-month rent, am going to be broke but watch sunset from locarno beach everynight.

getting around vancouver by bike sounds very annoying!

NB: It's very easy and common to combine bike & transit, ie, Sometimes I "ride" my bike to the Sunshine Coast (ride, bus, bus, ferry, bus, ride; rince, repeat)

places i like in vancouver so far (food)：

王哥牛肉面 -- on cambie, around 41st, across from the mall (j2 shoes has a good sale on, got some pf flyers for $14), seats like 10 people, best beef noodles in the world, choose between 红烧 hongshao or 麻辣 mala and thin or wide noodles. not greasy at all and just spicy enough and the beef is in big chunks and falling apart but not too falling apart and it's got pickled mustard greens inside so it's just a bit sour. fucking good. they got some other little dishes, too... like, a little thing of 蒜泥白肉 suanni bairou for like 2 bucks.

barefoot kitchen -- 1725 davie street, yoshoku... my friend took me here. it's like, "japanese-style western food" but that doesn't really fully explain it. it's like the food the kid in earthbound would eat, if that explains it.

和平饭店 -- #110-532 west broadway went there just for 凉皮儿 COLD SKIN NOODLES gross, cause i think it's the only place you can get them in vancouver (wrong?). it's got good central chinese style noodles dishes.

hey vancouver,
i am so excited to come to your city, but i've got here and it is a monstrosity. i hastily arranged some accommodation and i guess i picked wrong; if anyone can tell me areas or even better places to stay, i'd be real appreciative and would no doubt re-write my snap judgement of your city. i'm roaming and broke so hostels/options that aren't in this downtown mess much appreciated x.

Are you downtown-downtown or Downtown Eastside-downtown? I don't know shit around hostels, sorry.

i am ... downtown like, granville-homer-nelson streets. it's like this cordoned off bullpen of neon bullrings and drinking holes. i'm going to go roam around and find like a park and something nice to see for a while but i'm still generally terrified. i'll work it out. any expertise about things to do appreciated anyhow; i dug your lists upthread (or on whichever thread they were on).

don't worry vancouver, everything's cool, it turns out your city was beautiful all along

was actually around homer/nelson this morning, with work. looked for you, but I don't know what you look like. So I figured I probably saw you.

go stay at Jericho Beach at the Hostel there. it's a great place to be, nice walking trails, close to UBC and the 4th Ave. shopping area. The weather should be nice this week so go walk the beaches.

yeah that bit of granville is no fun at all but it's easy to get away! take the SkyTrain in either direction, go to the West End or Kits or UBC or Commercial drive or Main Street or anywhere else.

re:　apartments again. why is everyone horrified when i say i'm moving to richmond? is the canada line ----->>> 99 bline commute to ubc that horrifying? my neighbor was even like, "one day, that thing [canada line] is going to break down, mark my words, i would hate to be stuck over there. i even hate going there," etc.

cons: commute will change from 10 minutes to ~45 minutes, won't be able to see ocean, walk to jericho beach, play in tidal pools.

pros: i kinda hate the whole vibe of 4th avenue, fair trade thai handicraft stores and new age bookshops and ubc fratboys and everyone has a porsche, and it's a fucking terrible, terrible place that sums up everything that sucks about vancouver. when i escape from that weird fourth ave/broadway corridor and get downtown or go to richmond, or even burnaby, i love the city. i mean, fucking love richmond, cheap food and good food (best food in canada is in richmond [and burnaby]), lots of pretty girls, good grocery stores (t&t and yaohan and lots of smaller places), good chinese bookstores (三联 in the aberdeen mall which has lots of hk shit, bought an hk published version of feidu on the weekend, and the one under superstore [the only entrance is from the superstore parking garage and it smells like car exhaust but], you can get pick up caijing magazine there or buy softcore porn), i know tons of people that live in richmond and i don't know anybody that lives on fucking dunbar street, CRUCIAL:　MY RENT WILL BE $400 CHEAPER, MY RENT WILL BE $400 CHEAPER, MY RENT WILL BE $400 CHEAPER. right across from parker place mall, right beside a canada line stop.

dude who cares if they're horrified, that's their problem. you seem to be pretty stoked on the idea of being in Richmond, it's affordable, and you know people there. give it a try and if it turns out it's as awful as everyone else seems to think it is, you can use all the $$ you've saved to move back to some other place that's more Vancouver-based.

they can't let any lines break down until after the Olympics, anyway. right?

i know i know, right, i'll let them be horrified. but i was just wondering what was at the root of it all, you know? richmond->van transit links are pretty good, i think. i'd hate to have to drive there everyday.

Coworker just asked if Vancouver is east or west of us (in Toronto). We were all shocked, so we asked her 'is Calgary east or west of us?' and she said west. And then we explained Vancouver is west of Calgary. Then she asked to clarify 'so does that make Vancouver east or west of us'

I don't know whether to hit her or hug her. She furthered clarified that she 'knows it's north of us' and when we kept laughing, she said she meant British Columbia, not just Vancouver. 0_0

hello! i'm visiting Vancouver (B.C.) for the first time next summer and am interested in seeing some shows.

what are the best venues in the city (or region, if need be)? big to small, punk to classical, mom & pop to Local Bank Group Amphitheater ... all are welcome.

thanks!

Best venue for 5 local scene bands doing 20 mins sets is Red Gate imo.

Lana Lous for 2 local bands playing for too long. Nice room.

Pats Pub have credible punk and jazz bills but otherwise the bands are hit and miss.

Best mid-sized venue for popular tourung bands is the Biltmore.

Pat's seems to have shitty bridge and tunnel metal bands playing half the time,or it did before I stopped going there to watch hockey because they would try and make me pay to see the shitty langley metal band that was going to play.

I like the biltmore ok,the rickshaw is fine (and close to me)

punk: black lab

toast collective my personal fav venue

Toast is great except it has no stage, no sound system, no lights, nowhere to sit down & the worst toilets and bar ever.

other than that!

it’s an underground venue *shrugs*

where are u seeing noise shows that has any of those things

the toilet at 333 was the worst in the city (rip)

so Red Gate, Lana Lous, Pat's Pub, Biltmore, Rickshaw, Black Lab, Toast

these all sound like indoor venues to me ... any killer outdoor spots that regularly have music (even if summer/good weather only)?

what's the best music festival or two in town?

there are some shows at the malkin bowl in stanley park in the summer. there are also shows in the suburbs in dear lake park in burnaby sometimes. i don't think there's any festival of interest in the greater vancouver area if you mean the big outdoor thing. there's a really awful looking thing called FVDED In The Park which takes place in surrey (another suburb)

The two outdoor music fests which come to mind are Khatsalano in July, and Victory Square in September. Both free. There are others - mostly local events. Eg. There are decent bands on car free days on main St. Not sure what the schedule is next year.That big fest in Stanley park (sasquatch?) is coming back next year. And the folk fest is a great time but pricey. Kinda worth it though.

Oh yeah folk fest

Xxxpost I wasnt too serious about the Toast. Very happy it exists but they could hugely improve things for the audience and the performers without much effort.