Get away without going far
Start your vacation by thinking like a tourist, see the art gallery, cycle parks
Summer is in full splendour, and there’s still time for a getaway that’s stress-free but 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 is 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’ve 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. Amber Sessions, communications manager with Tourism Vancouver, recommends to visitors Forbidden Vancouver 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.
Sessions says that foodies love Off the Eaten track and Vancouver Foodie Tours. Tours by Locals’ Flavours of Vancouver explores everything from food trucks to juice shops, pop-ups 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 breakfast, and for cheap eats a bowl of ramen can’t be beat at lower Robson and Denman. More upscale, Forage at the Listel Hotel offers exceptional local cuisine, and arguably the best seafood restaurant in town is Blue Water Cafe in Yaletown. Sip a nightcap on the Sylvia Hotel’s patio with a killer view overlooking English Bay.
Rent a bike and circumnavigate Stanley Park — the paved seawall is flat and easily done in an hour. Cycle City Tours provides excellent commentary. Paddleboard Deep Cove; 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: 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, and next door is the Hillcrest Community Centre with an ice rink.
The Vancouver Biennele is an open-air museum for Contemporary Art in Canada. A-maze-ing Laughter at English Bay is their legacy, and check out more installations at their online exhibition map. Tours with 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.
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 coworkers where you are.
At 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.