Mum and I set off on our long-planned trip to see a small part of Canada in the fall.  Our flight from Sydney on Air Canada Flight 34 was uneventful and quite comfortable l, lucky enough to have two seats at back to ourselves.

 

After arriving in Vancouver and clearing customs in record time we in back of a cab and head on the x mile ride to downtown Vancouver. Vancouver definitely hadn’t woken up yet and our first glimpse was of a bit of untidy shutdown city. It may just have been the streets we were on to avoid traffic as we never saw this side of Vancouver again.

It proved to be a very pretty green city that is easy to navigate. Out lodgings were the Pan Pacific Hotel at number Canada Place.

A lovely hotel which was home for next 3 nights. After a walk down to Old Town (checked out the steam clock, it nice area but very touristy) and had a coffee while we waited for our room to be ready.

 

After our coffee, we headed back to finish our wait in the comfortable lobby. The hotel had us checked as soon as they had a room free which was a couple hours early which we both appreciated and head straight to shower before settling in to watch the coming and going of the seaplanes on Vancouver harbour and relaxing.

With help of concierge, I booked the hop on hop off bus for day two and a tour to Grouse Mountain & Capilano Bridge Tour for the following day. Dinner was in-house at the restaurant which was very nice and it wasn’t long before we turned in for our first night on Canadian soil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After breakfast at Tim Horton’s, we set out to board the Hop on

Hop off the bus and set off for Stanley Park. Designated a national historic site of Canada, Stanley Park is a magnificent green oasis in the midst of the heavily built urban landscape of Vancouver.

Explore the 400-hectare natural West Coast rainforest and enjoy scenic views of the water, mountains, sky, and majestic trees along Stanley Park’s famous Seawall. Discover kilometres of trails, beautiful beaches, local wildlife, great eats, natural, cultural and historical landmarks, along with many other adventures.

We had a full but enjoyable day which includes a small ferry ride across to Granville Market I mean a short ferry ride is a small ferry. The markets were well worth the visit and we lunched there and wandered around for an hour or so before heading up the hill to rejoin the Hop on Hop off bus on the other line to continue our journey. This took the rest of the day with one more hop off at the Chinese gardens in china town. Back to hotel for a rest before heading out cheesecake factory in the old town for dinner. We fell into to bed feeling like we had good look at Vancouver in one day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning we decided on a hotel breakfast before our full day tour to Capello Suspension Bridge, Grouse Mountain and the salmon hatchery. Wow so glad we did this tour. It was great to see a couple of bears up close which was a highlight.

The lumberjack show was great despite the very poor visibility due to heavy fog. It was a shame when coming down in the cable car we could actually see more than a few inches in front of us. The sights going down the very steep mountain would have been amazing. The suspension bridge was good to see and experience. It had cleared a bit by then and so views were pretty amazing. After an hour or so on the bus ( we didn’t mind needed to the rest) we arrived right back at the hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner was a few goodies and coffee from Tim Horton’s before packing the bags ready for our early taxi to the airport for our short flight to Prince Rupert.