Vancouver: The Jewel of the Pacific Coast
The first time I visited Vancouver was the spring of 1987 when I was 13 years old, just a year after the World Exposition. I remember going down Robson Street with all of the stores aligned on the street with restaurants littered. Exploring Stanley Park for the first time, walking along the seawall with the wind chilling my face. I recall taking a ferry boat across the water to North Vancouver to eat at an English style pub with meat pies topped with mash potatoes.
Since then, I have visited Vancouver many times throughout the years and with the mountains cascading down into the inlets and ocean, Stanley park jutting out into the water and the beautiful city itself, along with the bicycle and pedestrian paths, I am convinced that it is the most beautiful city on the west coast of North America…..hands down.
For our four-year anniversary, Dawn and I decided that Vancouver would be a great weekend trip to redeem our very first point redemptions! We decided to fly out of our local airport in Bishop, California with a connecting flight in San Francisco. It was going to be a very short time in Vancouver, yet we were able to see many amazing sights in 24 hours!
Travel Details
Our Flight
From Bishop (BIH) we were able to get onto a United Airlines flight destined for San Francisco (SFO). Once arrived, we had a brief layover before embarking to Vancouver (YVR) on our connecting United flight.
Booking with Points
The United Airlines one-way ticket cost from Bishop to Vancouver was $423. As a member of the Star Alliance, United is partners with a myriad of airlines including Air Canada. Using points for redemption for flights, this flight is 39,100 points through United compared to 12,500 points for the same flight by redeeming the points through Air Canada.
39,100 Points
1.08 Cents/Point
12,500 Points
2.86 Cents/Point
Not only is the Air Canada point redemption a better value in this scenario, there are multiple credit cards (Chase, AMEX, Capital One) that offer Air Canada as a transfer partner. Whereas with United, there only transfer partner is Chase Bank.
Our Itinerary
With limited time in Vancouver, we made an amazing trek through the City with much walking, taking a water taxi and Uber’s to maximize our day. Here are the highlights of our journey:
Granville Island
In the morning we headed to Granville Island, an island that harmonizes the industrial elements of the island with boutique shops and the famous Granville Island Public Market. From the shore of the island, there is a perfect view of downtown Vancouver across False Creek.
I love this public market. On a lazy, overcast Saturday morning, this was the perfect location to get breakfast as one of the many food stalls. We decided to get breakfast croissants at Market Grill. The croissants were a great choice and I really don’t thing that you can go wrong with any of the food stalls here.
Chinatown
From Granville Island, we took a water taxi across False Creek where we walked for about 20 minutes along the waterfront to Chinatown..
The thing that I appreciated about Chinatown is it’s laid-back atmosphere and how comfortable the neighborhood felt with the older brick buildings from the past centuries.
We stopped for lunch at Chinatown BBQ (130 EAST PENDER ST, VANCOUVER BC V6A 1T3) for bbq duck & crispy pork along with some greens. Perhaps my favorite highlight was our server, David. A very generous and knowledgeable man who provided us with complimentary tea and a lychee fruit dessert, once he found out about our anniversary weekend.
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden
I think that this garden was the highlight of this trip. The spectacular urban oasis called the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden is Ming Dynasty style garden that first opened to the pubic in 1986.
I can spend half a day here easily wandering through the gardens. There are two segments of the garden: the public portion that is open to the public and a second area that is a private garden that has an entrance fee. I do recommend seeing both gardens.
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden (578 Carrall St., Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 5K2 Canada)
Gastown
After our time at the gardens & Chinatown, we headed northwards to Gastown. This is the original neighborhood of Vancouver.
A very busy and touristy area, we explored this little stretch including the steam powered clock on the corner of Cambie and Water Streets.
There are many cute shops to explore that specialize in jewelry, native artwork and much more in this area.
Stanley Park
The crown jewel of Vancouver: Stanley Park.
Many years ago, back in University, I had the opportunity to row here in a regatta and spend time at the Rowing Club.
Adjacent to downtown, a person could spend days wandering this little peninsula of dense forest, trails, beaches and features.
We spent a small fraction of time here walking a small portion of the sea wall trail as well as going through the Totem Park.
The park is a beautiful respite from the city and is absolutely worth spending time here.
Travel Details
In Vancouver, there are many great hotels that you can stay at from Hilton to Mariott to Hyatt and beyond. For this trip we decided to stay at the Hyatt located in downtown Vancouver.
Booking with Points
We chose the Hyatt Regency Vancouver in downtown Vancouver. The nightly cost at time of booking was approximately $397 CAD ($285 USD) for a high ceiling room. On Hyatt’s website, we were able to redeem this for 12,000 points per night, using 24,000 points for two nights.
Hyatt Regency Vancouver
12,000 Points/Night
2.38 Cents/Point
As of right now, the only transferrable program available to transfer points to Hyatt is Chase. The process is very straight forward and clear to transfer the points and, in our case was instantaneous, and the points were in our account to make the reservation within moments.
In Conclusion
If you are looking for a fun getaway that includes beautiful coastal surroundings along with urban culture, Vancouver is a great place to be.