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Condé Nast Traveler picks
 Best of Vancouver
It doesn’t take a genius to grasp that Vancouver, Canada’s third-largest city and the country’s gateway to Asia, has a breathtaking setting. Mountains and water cradle this metropolis of two million—man and nature irresistibly bundled together. The location is undeniably a boon to outdoor enthusiasts: Vancouverites will often leave work to go kayaking off Granville Island or at the foot of English Bay, to mountain bike in the North Shore mountains, or to ski Grouse Mountain, a 15-minute drive north of the city’s core. But fear not, traditional urbanites. There’s plenty to see and do right in the city that in 2010 will host the Winter Olympics.
Attractions & Activities For any shopper, the five blocks off Robson Street between Howe and Jervis are a rite of passage. This bustling drag filled with boutiques, American chains (Banana Republic, Gap, and their ilk), and reasonably priced restaurants has long been Vancouver’s main drag. But times are changing, and a new hub is forming one block north of Robson at Alberni Street, with the recent opening of luxury retail stores (Hermès, L’Occitane, Coach) and the imminent debut of a Shangri-La hotel in 2007. Many locals visit Granville Island for a mini-getaway. Once home only to factories, the “isle” (it’s connected to land) now has galleries, shops, and performance spaces. The Emily Carr Institute, an art school, fosters an atmosphere of creativity, with exhibitions open to the public (604-844-3800; eciad.ca). Studios include the New-Small & Sterling glass shop, which turns out souvenirs and large collectibles (604-681-6730). The Granville Island Public Market, open year-round, stocks meat, fish, and fresh produce, and each Thursday during the summer, trucks bring in fresh fruits and vegetables from the farms outside the city. Take the rainbow-hued Aquabus ferry from downtown to get there (604-689-5858; aquabus.bc.ca; from $2). Just over the Burrard Street Bridge, Kitsilano (or Kits, as the neighborhood is commonly called) has been the city’s hippie haven—hence the yoga studios, Mexican furniture stores, surf shops (Kitsilano Beach is a few blocks away), and casual cafés and restaurants along West Fourth Avenue. But with real estate booming and Kits’s strong stock of 1920s houses, the hood is enjoying a renaissance. Shops aimed at the young and the affluent are popping up: organic gourmet grocery stores, pricey kids clothing boutiques, and hip housewares outlets. Visit now to experience a neighborhood with a bit of the old and a bit of the new. East of downtown, the cobblestoned Gastown area is popular among locals and visitors for its various attractions. The streets are flanked by a quirky blend of boutiques, restaurants, buzzy nightclubs, souvenir shops, and galleries with First Nations’ art. Gastown is also where you’ll find the three-year-old Storyeum, a live theatrical show that traces the history of British Columbia. Southwest of Gastown, on False Creek, is Yaletown, which once comprised brick warehouses and a train terminus and has been undergoing a dramatic makeover in recent years. Now filled with loft apartments in soaring glass buildings, salons, spas, and the densest concentration of fine restaurants in Vancouver, Yaletown is where the achingly trendy live, work, shop, eat, and play. The jewel of the city is Stanley Park, a 1,000-acre peninsular refuge for bikers, walkers, and those who just want to put a little green in their lives. Many circumnavigate the park via the seawall that wraps around its perimeter, but to encounter an aquarium, restaurants, a cricket pitch, tennis courts, a miniature railway, totem poles, and more, take the numerous interior trails that wind through the fir, hemlock, and cedar trees. Lodging The city has an impressive range of hotels to suit all budgets, and a healthy nine properties are on Condé Nast Traveler’s Gold List of the best places in the world to stay: the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, a local landmark identified by its distinctive copper roof; its sibling, the Fairmont Vancouver Airport, a glass block near YVR; its other sibling, the Fairmont Waterfront, a high-rise on Burrard Inlet between Gastown and Stanley Park; the Four Seasons, atop the Pacific Centre shopping mall; the downtown Metropolitan Hotel, where guest and locals alike tuck into the regional cuisine at the restaurant Diva at the Met; the Opus Hotel, in the heart of Yaletown, where a hip crowd sips 16 types of fruit-laden martinis and north-of-the-border-legal absinthe; the waterfront Pan Pacific, with its sweeping views of the Coastal Range; the Sutton Place Hotel, a concrete tower near the city’s top museums and shops; and the Wedgewood Hotel & Spa, an old-world charmer kitty-corner to the Vancouver Art Gallery. As its name suggests, the European-style Hotel Le Soleil is decorated in warm hues. At the two-tower Pacific Palisades, the pastels—orange and yellow wallpaper, lime-green bedcovers—recall South Beach more than West End Vancouver. Each evening at five o’clock, the hotel hosts a complimentary wine hour for guests. Art is the defining theme at the comfortable Listel Vancouver, which exhibits pieces from the nearby Buschlen Mowatt gallery. Those who want to overnight on Granville Island have but one choice: the Granville Island Hotel. It isn’t fancy, but it’s in the thick of things, next to one of the many theaters, and it has an on-site micro-brewery that offers water and skyline views. Dining With the riches of the Pacific at its doorstep, fruit and vegetable farms an hour away in the Fraser Valley, and some of the country’s premier meat from the neighboring province of Alberta, Vancouver has access to first-rate ingredients. Thankfully, that quality is not lost on its way to the table, and the list of worthy restaurants in Vancouver is blessedly long. Yaletown, the undisputed hot spot heavyweight, has some of the best choices. Coast reels in the catch of the day from shores as distant as Algeria and New Zealand (1257 Hamilton St.; 604-685-5010; entrées, $23–$25). With three bars (two for drinking and one raw) and a sparkling open kitchen, the Blue Water Cafe and Raw Bar has a spacious interior that blends exposed-brick walls, wood beams, neo-industrial piping, and soothing wall lamps. The seafood’s pretty good, too (1095 Hamilton St.; 604-688-8078; entrées, $29–$40). Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill and Cioppino’s Enoteca are the places to go for fine Italian (1133 and 1129 Hamilton St.; 604-688-7466; cioppinosyaletown.com; entrées, $20–$40). Hipsters drop by Glowbal for the international bites and the bar scene before slipping into the Afterglow lounge out back (1079 Mainland St.; 604-602-0835; entrées, $15–$32). Notable Vancouver chefs include Montri Rattanaraj, who—having earned his toque cooking for the King of Thailand—opened his popular, low-key, 20-table Montri’s Thai, on the west side of town (3629 W. Broadway; 604-738-9888; montri-thai.com; entrées, $7–$13); Hidekazu Toju, who lures gourmet countrymen from across the Pacific to Tojo’s for sublime sushi (777 W. Broadway; 604-872-8050; entrées, $6–$25); and Andreas Wechselberger, a native chef who conjures Mediterranean dishes at CinCin (1154 Robson St.; 604-688-7338; entrées, $18–$34). Noteworthy, too, is native chef Rob Feenie, whose decade-old Lumière is understandably regarded as one of Vancouver’s best restaurants (2551 W. Broadway; 604-739-8185; lumiere.ca; prix fixes, $110–$142); it now has a bistro annex, Feenie’s, with a different menu (2563 W. Broadway; 604-739-7115; entrées, $10–$22). On Granville Island, The Sandbar serves fresh seafood and local specialties such as cedar-plank salmon (1535 Johnston St.; 604-669-9030; entrées, $10–$24). West pulls in crowds and plaudits with its modern regional fare (2881 Granville St.; 604-738-8938; entrées, $30–$40). At the Vintropolis Wine Bar & Bistro, discerning palates can choose from 150 wines—at least half of which are available by the glass—and nibble tapas such as fresh oysters and grilled oyster mushrooms (1809 W. First Ave.; 604-732-8877; entrées, $15–$28). C Restaurant, under the Granville Street Bridge, is a local fave for the seafood plucked from pan-Canadian waters (2-1600 Howe St.; 604-681-1164; entrées, $16–$26). Over the past couple of years, there’s been a surge in izakaya (Japanese tapas) eateries, where small plates are served with sake. Vancouver’s foremost proponent is the youth-filled Hapa Izakaya (1479 Robson St.; 604-689-4272; entrées, $9–$18). Given the sizable Chinese population near the airport in Richmond, Vancouver can rightfully claim that it produces some of the most authentic Chinese food in North America. The best places are on or near Richmond’s No. 3 Road. Ping’s Chinese Bistro, just off that thoroughfare, is lauded for its dishes from Shanghai, Beijing, and Lu (8280 Granville Ave.; 604-231-9135; entrées, $8–$26). Truth in Travel is the guiding principle for all content published in Condé Nast Traveler. Other travel publications often accept free travel and accommodations. Condé Nast Traveler does not. It is independent of the travel industry. The magazine always pays its way, and, as far as possible, its correspondents travel anonymously. By doing so, they experience the world—both the good and the bad—as other travelers do, and their reports and recommendations are fair, impartial, and authoritative.
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