Stick around for summer staycation
LESS STRESS: Think like a tourist and you’ll find plenty of fun things to do
It’s the dog days of summer, and there’s still time for a getaway that’s stress-free and won’t dip into your savings. Technically a staycation means staying at home, but with the money saved by not venturing far, leave work on Friday afternoon, check into a swanky hotel and within an hour your staycation has started.
Like any vacation, planning and a few general rules are key to making a staycation as memorable as a faraway excursion.
First, think like a tourist and you’ll find there’s a lot you have never done before. What would you normally do on a vacation? Visit an art gallery, cycle parks, make new friends?
A walking tour is a great way to discover a city, even if you have lived here for years.
Amber Sessions, communications manager with Tourism Vancouver, recommends Forbidden Vancouver walking tours. Discover the history of Gastown and Stanley Park. Take a riotous behind-the-scenes tour of notorious adult entertainment hot spots, where speakeasies lined the Granville Strip during prohibition.
Foodies: Sessions says foodies love “Off the Eaten Track” and “Vancouver Foodie Tours.”
“Flavours of Vancouver” from Tours By Locals explores everything from food trucks to juice shops, popups to bakeries and a multitude of ethnic cuisines.
Take an evening hands-on cooking class at the superb Dirty Apron. Stroll over to Chinatown for dim sum, and for cheap eats, a bowl of ramen at lower Robson and Denman can’t be beat.
More upscale, Forage restaurant at the Listel Hotel offers exceptional local cuisine.
Arguably the best seafood restaurant in town is the Blue Water Cafe in Yaletown.
Sip a nightcap on the Sylvia Hotel’s patio with a killer view overlooking English Bay.
Soft Activities: Rent a bike and circumnavigate Stanley Park — the paved seawall is flat and easily done in an hour. Cycle City tour guides provide excellent commentary.
Paddleboard in Deep Cove or take Grouse Mountain’s Skyride Surf Adventure — a new way to go up and down the mountain.
View the city from the sea on a Zodiac. The Sea Vancouver Tour leaves from the Westin Bayshore.
Nat Bailey Stadium is a great place to spend a sunny summer afternoon eating hotdogs and cheering on the hometown boys.
Culture: The Vancouver Biennale is an open air museum for contemporary art in Canada.
Tours By Locals offers “Artful Vancouver,” a three-hour walking tour that explores public art, street art, First Nations art and unique galleries.
Popular with visitors is “Vancouver’s Exquisite Gardens,” a driving and walking tour.
Uninterrupted is an amazing 30-minute cinematic event depicting the journey of salmon in B.C. rivers projected nightly on the underside of the Cambie street bridge. You can see the show in Coopers’ Park.
Staycation in Style: There are three rules. Act like home is thousands of miles away, don’t run home because you forgot your toothbrush, and don’t tell co-workers where you are.
At the Fairmont Pacific Rim, you may not want to leave the building. After taking in live music and cocktails at the Lobby Lounge and dining at Botanist, Vancouver’s hottest new restaurant, next morning you’ll require a massage at the 8,500-sq.-ft. luxurious Willow Stream Spa.
There’s no need to book a room at The Westin Bayshore to enjoy its outdoor pool, with the seawall just outside the gate. For $100, a VIP day pass gets you a reserved chaise longue and changing cabana, cool perks, liquid yoga and a $25 food and beverage credit. Top your day with a treatment at the Vida Spa.
The Loden Hotel supplies stylish cruiser bikes to circumnavigate Stanley Park or a Lincoln Town Car that will take you anywhere downtown. The second floor is dedicated to yoga and wellness.
Balance wellness with indulgence at the award-winning Tableau bar bistro adjoining the hotel lobby.