Vancouver - please suggest an affordable nice hotel in July! So expensive

[Sunbeds]

Hi,
We’re going to Vancouver/Vancouver Island in July this year and land around 7pm (their time). I need to find a hotel in a nice part of the city for a couple of nights before crossing over to the island but so far they seem horrendously expensive!
We need two rooms (me, DH, DS22 and DS9). Ideally handy for Stanley Park but just don’t want to blindly stumble into a rough part of the city.
Have any of you ladies been? Would love to hear from you 😊

I also second doing the gondola or even still whistler even if you don’t ski. The ski lifts are great even for pedestrians- go up, have a mess in the snow, drink a beer and head down. It was simply incredible.

Upvote this!

I really like River Rock. It's close to the sky train station, so it's really easy to get around. The Richmond night market on Friday night is very closed and one of my 'must do's' in the summer.

I always say this but it's good advice, I promise. If you are coming to the island, book your ferry crossing . Bookings open up 3 months in advance. It's no fun being stuck at the terminal for hours. bcferries.com.

The first time I eent to Vancouver we stayed st the YWCA, small rooms but absolutely fine! Right by the stadium and near to gastown so not quite by the park but it was eminently walkable. We've also stayed at the Hotel Rosewood Georgia which was insanely good.
Now to the Island. We LOVE the island. Oddly we have never been to Victoria on VI but i have been to Tofino, Ucluelet, Campbell River, Nanaimo and Port Alberni. I would heve loved to have visited Telegraph Cove but I do believe it completely burned down on New Year's eve. Definitely book your ferry well in advance. The west coast of the Island has pretty well one road in and one road out so you also must check highways website. One time we nearly got stuck as the road was actually closed all day, it was sheer luck we heard that we had to reach a certain point before 9am. Don't scrimp on the car if you can if you can, a 1l automatic is not going to cut it getting over the hills and mountains, ideally you'd get a 4x4/off-road capable vehicle too because many places are only accessible by dirt track. Frankly, the best bits!! I loved Campbell River (eastern coast) for strathcona park, for bear and whale watching, for helicopter rides, for the dramatic scenery. Tofino and Ucluelet are perfect for surfing, for cycling, for adventures such as kayaking and in winter, storm watching. Tofino is busier and has more choice of hotel and restaurant but I preferred the small town feel of Ucluelet. Port Alberni was really just a one horse town but was pretty cute and a great place to rest. Nanaimo was not for me! A bit too ugly but Nanaimo bars are absolutely delicious!! I'm sure you'll have an amazing time! We cannot wait to return!

Sorry, I made a mistake. Campbell River is by Elk falls provincial park not Strathcona Park, but Strathcona is accessible from there too. However it was Elk we went to!

Whilst I am adding on, share driving because you will want to stare and visit the rainforests near Tofino too. 😃

We've stayed in the Victorian Hotel in Downtown Vancouver before, but this was several years ago. Was nice though!
Such a fab place! We also love Duncan on the Island, and Tofino.

I second Duncan on Vancouver Island and if you get the chance get a ferry over to other smaller islands ,we went to Salt Spring Island and sons went kayaking.

How long are the whale watching trips approx?

An only recommend one on the island and that's Wickininnish Inn. They have rooms with hot tub style baths next to the window for amazing views. Loved every minute there.

We stayed here twice sylviahotel.com/. It was a bit faded when we last stayed, but it's an amazing location and hopefully not too expensive.

Avoid Chinatown! Vancouver has an enormous drug problem and apparently it’s centered around china town (they legalised fentanyl and it’s rife) We unknowingly decided to walk to China Town to find a restaurant and I have honestly never seen anything like it. Literally hundreds and hundreds of people totally comatose in the street. Others fighting, vomiting, eating food off the pavement. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it, it looked like a film set…but wasn’t. Awful. We’ve travelled a lot to Africa, India, all over. I have never seen anything like what I saw in Canada (Vancouver and Toronto). In the pricy waterfront areas of Vancouver it is less obvious but still incredibly sad to see so many people obviously so unwell. Much much worse than I’ve seen anywhere else.

Thank you sooo much! Incredible amount of information for me to read and reread.
I will certainly book my ferry crossings asap but can you not book for July yet? I was wondering if we might see whales en route to VI. Is that possible or are they way out?
Thanks for the heads up about the drug problem.
What kinds of things did you get up to in VI?
I think one of my best memories of Alberta was getting up just before dawn to go along the Bow Valley Parkway outside Banff where we saw so much wildlife waking up - big moose by the side of the road etc. I loved Moraine Lake because it was as pretty as Lake Louise but much quieter even in August. I am hoping to similarly find those lesser known spots on this holiday.

No reservations are not open yet for July. If you're looking for something different for a night or to look at Soule Creek Lodge in Port Renfrew. Beautiful yurts overlooking the ocean. You can hear the Elk in the early morning. The food is fantastic. From there you can drive to Botanical beach. It's a lovely hike, and if you're lucky, you'll see Black bears & eagles. It's no unheard of to see Whales on the ferry crossing, but I've not been lucky enough yet.

@Onesailwait Soule Creek Lodge sounds amazing! We will certainly go there! Any more suggestions 🙏

We will go over to Victoria ferry port from Vancouver but is there a better car ferry port on VI to use for the return trip to be better placed for a trip up to Whistler?

I would like to do a tour on VI where we don’t double back on ourselves too, I think.

I'm afraid you have to double back on yourself, the roads on the island are in a backwards t shape, there's no circular route. Regarding a better ferry port for Whistler, as long as you land at horseshoe bay back in Vancouver you are very well placed for your drive up the sea to sky highway to Whistler.

It's a complete lottery, and you have to try to get your pass at 8am sharp 48hrs before, but do try to get the pass for Joffre lakes since you're heading up to Whistler because it is absolutely incredible. Especially since you enjoyed lake Moraine over in Banff, I have to assume this will blow your mind too. I woke up to get my pass three days in a row before I managed to secure mine so leave some days flexible.

Regarding the rest of VI, I have already given you some suggestions, but it's a good idea to get on instagram and look up some tourism accounts, hellobc, tourism cowichan, tourism uclulet and also some individual providers such as discovery west adventures, 49north helicopters and so on.

Drive down to Point Roberts, which is a very interesting exclave of the US dangling down below Canada. Petrol is sold in litres (because all the customers are Canadians, although the prices are in US$), and local legend has it that a lot of the residents are in the witness protection programme because it's quite hard for Big Vinny to get there from the Bronx to bump anyone off (so ask before taking pictures of anyone) You will need a US ESTA to enter at the border crossing, or you can just go here https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@49.0022174,-123.0396985,3a,48.9y,163.63h,84.04t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sTPZlmPO_B-WFFs4eJ3BzcA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D5.955400450044593%26panoid%3DTPZlmPO_B-WFFs4eJ3BzcA%26yaw%3D163.62996167556597!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDEyNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D and take a cheeks step over the fence to say you set foot in the US (there are no snipers, for the moment anyway).

You can get the Canada Line train from the airport to downtown Vancouver - it is really simple and frequent and has a fair few stops so anywhere you stay should be in easy walking distance. We stayed near the library and were able to hire bikes from an outlet there and cycle to Stanley park to spend the day there. You definitely need to book your ferry crossing which you can do online. You may be lucky and see whales on the crossing (we didn't) but the Price of Whales trip from Victoria was amazing and was worth the ££. We enjoyed the feel of Victoria and visited the Sooke Potholes Park for some lovely swimming (45 min drive from Victoria.) Along with the Whale watching the other highlight was visiting Joffre Lakes (1hr from Whistler - we saw black bears on the drive there). You do need to book a visitors permit though (free) and these go quick so you need to plan when you are going and book as soon as the tickets are released

@samarrange that would be an unusual trip! I will see what DH says 😁
@Tealfish thank you for the information! When we cross over to VI, I think we’ll need an overnight stop somewhere en route to Tofino. I don’t think DS9 will endure the ferry crossing plus the longish drive up there two days after a long flight from the UK. Is there anywhere en route worth staying at?

We're going to Vancouver in May and we're staying at the Moda hotel which is fairly close to Stanley Park. This thread has been great for info and ideas of things to do. I really want to go to Whistler, not sure if we're going to hire a car or stick to public transport. I'm really excited, it's our first trip to Canada!

We stayed in WestinBayshore which I think someone else mentioned, they had free bikes to borrow when we went for going round Stanley park.

We stayed in a VRBO place in kitsilano when we went to Vancouver. It was lovely, the beach is really nice and lots of buses into the city centre.

We liked grouse mountain and capilano

We actually did see a whale on the way to Vancouver island! You could just see it from some distance away.

On Vancouver island we did bear watching from Tofino which was amazing but also on a boat. We did the whale watching from Victoria. Tofino was lovely, I could have stayed a good week or so there.

We stayed at Sooke Point before heading to Tofino, we were in an amazing apartment on a cliff looking out to sea.

If you want to break up the journey to Tofino, you could detour off the road ever so slightly to Parksville / Qualicum beach. I don’t recommend staying in either Nanaimo or Port Alberni (the only two towns on the way).
From downtown Vancouver to the Island I would take the Horseshoe Bay ferry. It goes to Nanaimo. If you wanted to go to Victoria first then you would have to drive to Tswwassen and get the Duke Point ferry to Victoria.

if you are going up to Whistler after the Island then you will want to take the Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay ferry. You come off the ferry right on Highway 99 to drive north to Whistler.

And I did see a humpback whale once from the ferry - you might get lucky depending on the time of year 😄 You have a solid chance of seeing bears on the road to Tofino, Sea to Sky Highway, and in Squamish and Whistler.

Feel free to message me if you have any specific questions, we live in Vancouver.