When you friend’s invite you for a weekend getaway to Vancouver, you don’t say no! I was blown away by how beautiful the streets were. It wasn’t like any other city I’ve been to where the streets smell like piss and it is covered in garbage. The extra taxes in Canada seem to be doing them justice. I also have a special place in my heart for Vancouver because they have free healthcare. In my opinion, health care is a right, not a privilege.
When we first arrived, we took the train to downtown Vancouver. I bought a day pass thinking that we would need to use the train for all our transportation, but that was a mistake. If you buy a train card, make sure you select the option where you can use one of your own cards, otherwise you’ll have to pay a $6 card deposit. I thought that I would return my card at the end of the trip but never got around to it.
I realized that everything was pretty much walking distance in downtown Vancouver. I was however annoyed that there was no Uber or Lyft. There were a couple days that were rainy and it was extremely difficult trying to find a taxi. At one of the restaurants we ate at, it took them over 45 minutes for the taxi to even arrive. We spent four days in Vancouver but that was almost too many days as there is only so much you can do. I am more of a beach town kind of gal so the rainy weather was not my scene.
We first ate at the Cinema Public House, which had the most amazing Poutine. It was probably over 1,000 calories, but I ate the whole entire thing with no shame. I pulled the “I’m on vacation” card way too many times that trip. After we ate, we walked to our Airbnb. I am not a fan of Airbnb’s. I have had too many bad experiences with them. The keys were supposed to be locked in a box for us but they were not. We spent 30 minutes waiting for the cleaning lady to come let us in. When we finally walked into our room, the place was sooooo hot. I love the hot weather and it was even too hot for me. The AC was broken and we were about ready to find a new place to stay. We realized that moving all of our stuff again would be too much of a hassle and just decided to stay.
The following days we were able to air out the house and the rainy weather helped cool down the apartment. On the second day, we went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. I wasn’t too stoked on going to see a suspension bridge, but it actually ended up being way more fun than I thought it would be. The park is $35 with a student ID. If you do not have your student ID with you, then log into the portal website and they will accept it. It was a beautiful park and fun to climb all the bridges.
Each night we were in Vancouver, we went out to various clubs and bars. We went to Celebrities, which was your typical mainstream house music club. It was a $20 cover but I managed to sweet talk us in for free. We also went to Numbers next door, which is a small gay club. I really enjoyed the music they were playing but the place was completely empty. I put us on the guest list for Aura for another night but we arrived too late and they wouldn’t honor us on the list so we ended up walking to other bars nearby. Something that surprised be about Vancouver is that their liquor is so expensive. We tried to buy a bottle of Jameson and in America it would be about $20 but in Vancouver, it was $40 just for the small bottle. The clerk advised us that we would need to buy liquor from a government operated store in order to save on liquor.
Each day we slept in since we went out every single night. The third day we rode these bikes that you can rent on the street to Gas Town, which is the cutest area of shops and restaurants on an island. We ate at the Market, which was cafeteria style, where all of us could order whatever we wanted. It was delicious. I had the Asian food and my friend’s had the Italian. You definitely want to spend some time in Gas Town! It has a lot to offer.
My favorite restaurants in Vancouver were the Twisted Fork, Revolving Restaurant and the Elbow Room (Update* It is now permanently closed). Twisted Fork and Elbow Room have some tasty brunch. I wanted to order everything on the menu! The Elbow Room is one of those restaurants that are sassy. When I asked for a glass of water, they told me to “get off my ass and get it myself”. It was pretty hilarious how witty and saucy the waitress was. The Revolving Restaurant has the most beautiful view of Vancouver. It looks like the Space Needle in Seattle. The restaurant literally turns in a circle as you eat. It is pricey but we just went for drinks and desserts. That sums up the 96 hours I spent in Vancouver. If you live on the West Coast, Canada is a great place to get away for the weekend!
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