Vancouver, Consistently in the World’s Top Three Most Livable Cities

Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver's  Chinatown

under Granville Bridge

On this five-week road trip, our visits to family and friends were actually built around our week in Vancouver. British Columbia. While we were RVing, we briefly passed the city twice. And, while we were living in the Seattle area, we drove to Vancouver (two hours plus border time by car) simply to eat and buy comfort food. This time, we stayed a whole week. We wanted to discover why the city has been ranked as one of the top three most livable cities in the world, five years in a row.

Our Favorite, Granville Island

As usual, our first stop was Granville Island. It is our favorite Vancouver stomping ground. A haven for food, arts, and entertainment, it is a microcosm of everything the city has to offer. A reclaimed area across False Creek from Downtown Vancouver, it was built under the south end of the Granville Street Bridge. In recent years, it has become the #2 tourist attraction of Canada, second only to Niagara.

For us, the highlight of every Granville visit is food, especially at the Public Market. We chose fine savory crepes for lunch and gelato for snacks and regretted forgetting the pot pie outlet. Five hours were not enough to wander around the thirty-five acres occupied by 275 establishments. We bought soaps, bags, and home décor. We wished we had more car space for more!   

  

The Famous Stanley Park

Third Beach in Stanley *ark

We had never made it to Stanley Park, the more than 1,000-acre public park that borders downtown Vancouver and is mostly surrounded by the waters of Burrard Inlet and English Bay. This time we made time. There are reasons it’s famous. Its features include the First, Second, and Third Beaches, the Lost Lagoon, the Marina, a Rose Garden, an Aquarium, the Totem Poles, a Lighthouse, a Lion’s Gate Bridge viewing area, a Hollow Tree, and a Seawall you can walk for three hours or bike for less.

Totem Poles in Stanley *ark

We spent the most time at five places. I always love photographing beautiful flowers so the Rose Garden was a favorite. The Totem Poles area has explanations of the First Nations’ involvement in the founding and the maintenance of the hallowed federal grounds. That is also where Bill bought for me a Native American top for just C$55. 

Lion's Gate Bridge

Hollow Tree

At the Lighthouse, we noticed many tourist floatplanes that hovered over the area. Then at Prospect Point, we got great views of the Lion’s Gate Bridge. We missed the parking area for the Hollow Tree so, at the Third Beach, we hiked the trail that led to it, giving us a good feel for the woods around the Park.

At the Stanley Park Information Booth we found out how we could easily drive the Park. The parking fee for a day is good for all the parking areas. The Stanley Park Drive is one-way around the park so one would not get lost at all. There are two other roads that trisect the Park so one could go back to some points without having to go through the whole loop, just like we did when I went back to the Marina/Yacht Club for more photos. There are Trolley and Hop-on/Hop-off Bus Tours. Or one could walk or bike the Park one section at a time.

Around Downtown

Our timeshare was so well-located we could easily walk to two landmarks. The first is Gastown, an upscale shopping district whose claim to fame is not just the familiar light fixtures reminiscent of the one in San Diego. The main draw is the Gas Steam Clock Tower that, every fifteen minutes, emits steam and the sounds of a train. It was a delight to be part of the crowd that waited eagerly for the next one. We did it twice! It was amazing to see the mechanics of a steam clock at work through the glass cabinet.

The second is ChinaTown. We went principally to buy my favorite steamed pork buns, brown sugar rice cakes, and red bean mooncakes at the famous Newtown Bakery. But we also bought two bamboo steamer baskets so I can serve dim sum the authentic way at home. But the highlight of our little trip to one of the best Chinatowns in North America was our visit to the Chinese Cultural Center which featured a Chinese Arts Store and a small but beautiful Classical Chinese Garden (see headline photo).

Around West Vancouver

public urban tree at Spanish Banks

I do love Facebook. One of the perks, as we travel around, is that a Facebook friend, upon seeing that we were in his/her area, would message me to see if we could spend some time. In Vancouver, one such friend asked us to reserve a day to visit the off-the-beaten-path places in West Vancouver where she lived. We rearranged our schedule so we could. She picked us up with her cute Mercedes and drove us first to the Spanish Banks Beach where there were “public urban trees.” These are the great creations of the Brazilian sculptor Hugo Franza who fashions his art from fallen trees.

Dundarave Beach

At West Vancouver, locals frequent the many beaches like Dundarave. But we were disappointed at Lighthouse Park. Point Atkinson was closed so we could only partially view the sixty-foot lighthouse, featured in the movie Needful Things, from a viewpoint where a tree has unfortunately grown to hide it. Then we went to Horseshoe Bay and had seafood at the quaint village built around one of two ferry terminals connecting Vancouver to Vancouver Island.

Horseshoe Bay

Our stops the whole day allowed us to drive through not only the Lion’s Gate Bridge that connects Vancouver to West and North Vancouver. We also crossed the three bridges that connect South Vancouver to the suburbs over False Creek: the European style Burrard Bridge that brought us back to the area of the University of British Columbia, Granville Bridge that brought us to Goldilocks, the Filipino restaurant and bakery chain, and the Cambie Bridge that brought us to the Olympic Village that housed the athletes of the 2010 Winter Olympics. The buildings have been converted into an upscale residential condominium complex.

Olympic Village

Our week in Vancouver definitely showed us why Vancouver has consistently been ranked as one of the top three most livable cities in the world (Mercer). It is very diverse (Filipinos are the fourth largest minority group behind the Chinese, the First Nations’, and the South Asians) and this creates a multicultural environment buzzing with eclectic arts, food from all over the world, and tons of entertainment options. And all these are set amid an evergreen natural setting of water, beaches, and mountains. There are four seasons but winters are mild and summers are simply heavenly.  

Burrard Bridge, designed after a French bridge

PREVIOUS POST
An Eventful Road Trip through the Canadian Rockies

FOR MOBILES, click "View Web Version at the end of the post past comments and share buttons will appear.

CLICK THIS TO PIN THIS IMAGE

CLICK THIS TO PIN THIS IMAGE