After our trip to Banff and Drumheller, it was time to head back to Vancouver. We had a few days back in the city and we explored Granville Island.
In part 1 of our time in Vancouver, we were mainly in the Davie Village area as we were staying by Burrard Street. This time around we were closer to Granville Island area.
For this part of the trip, we stayed at The Parker Hotel.
We chose The Parker Hotel because it has a rooftop bar and we wanted to explore a different part of the city.
The Parker Rooftop bar was closed on the first night we were there so we went the next night and availed their happy hour. We had a few drinks and snacks and enjoyed the vibe upstairs. Our room was pretty basic and the smallest out of all the hotel rooms we were in but the location was nice and it was enough for our short stay.
The only downside I could think of from The Parker was they took a month before they returned the hotel deposit upon check-in. Usually hotels return the deposit back after checking out but The Parker took a month or so. It was crazy long and I’ve never had that before. I even chased them up but I received no response from the hotel. Eventually it cleared and was returned to my account but we found it weird it took ages.
Anyway, here was our time back in Vancouver:
Granville Island
The main thing we did during our time here was to check out Granville Island especially the market.
It was quite chilly when we went back to Vancouver. We walked from our hotel down to Hornby Street Dock which was less than 10mins away and waited for the aquabus.
I don’t know if the aquabus is only in Vancouver but I’ve not seen it elsewhere. It’s pretty much a small little ferry you can take from Vancouver CBD to Granville Island. There are other stops too but we only took it to cross False Creek to get to the Granville Island market. The trip on the aquabus from Hornby Dock to Granville Island is super quick. I think it took around 5mins.
I liked the aquabus. It wasn’t the cheapest mode of transport but it was a fun way to travel to Granville Island especially as a tourist. You can take your bikes and pets on it too.
I thought the Granville Island Public Market was quite cool. It’s an indoor market with heaps of food stalls.
Our first stop was Siegel’s Bagels. Max and I shared one and it was delicious. They had so many types!
There were a lot of food stalls inside the public market. Not all of them were ready to eat though. The pasta places looked so good but you can only buy fresh pasta to cook later and we couldn’t get those. I didn’t take that many photos inside either as there were so many things to look at especially fresh produce. It was a bit overwhelming and a sensory overload.
At this point we haven’t had a ‘proper’ coffee yet so we ventured out and found a cafe.
We ended up at this cute little coffee shop next to a Mexican restaurant. They had Filipino chocolate on display which was a random find. Sadly the coffees were not great. Can you see the colour of Max’s long black?!?! Hahaha
Afterwards, we checked out the shops. Granville Island has a lot of boutiques and artsy shops too.
We enjoyed perusing the bookstore. Max spent some time in this one called Nooroongji Books inside Net Loft.
There were also stores full of art especially glass works and ceramics. It was great for Max especially for ceramics inspiration. This was at Circle Craft Store.
Upstart & Crow was another cool bookstore.
We basically checked out most shops. It’s a great place to get souvenirs. One of my favourite and affordable souvenirs to get are postcards. I got some in Europe and I’ve put them up in a frame as art and a good reminder of our Europe trip. I got a few from Hilary Morris at the Beaver Pond Creative store. I really liked her prints of Vancouver.
Granville Island definitely gives an artsy vibe. After walking around, we went back to the Public Market area to grab some lunch. We chose german sausage from Kaisereck and then had chocolate mousse from one of the stalls for dessert. I also couldn’t resist and brought back some Lee’s Donuts to take with us.
Here’s Granville Island from my digicam:
Afterwards, we took the aquabus back across.
We saw this old villa nestled between tall newer buildings. It’s like the Up house! Also can confirm Lee’s donuts are good! Then we rested back in our hotel.
We didn’t have specific plans for this part of the trip besides checking out Granville Island. So we basically just winged it and depends on our mood and what we felt like on the day/night.
For dinner one night, we looked what’s close by and decided on Italian.
We ended up at Autostrada Osteria Vancouver House which was close to our hotel. This restaurant was fancy without feeling pretentious or uppity. We really liked it. As per usual Canadian hospitality, the customer service here was superb.
Our server noticed my ring and complimented it and when she found out we were recently engaged, she brought over complimentary limoncello which was so lovely We had bread and pasta here and they were great. We had a lovely meal here and slowly walked back home.
The next day was quite gloomy. We initially wanted to bike around Stanley Park as our hotel have cute bikes free to use but we didn’t want to do it if there was any chance of rain.
We ended up walking towards Yaletown area and went into OEB Breakfast for some brunch to start our day. The gold digga breakfast poutine that we shared was delicious. Our coffees weren’t too bad too. Max’s long black was better and the crema looked the best too. Mine was okay.
On the way back, we walked along the water through David Lam Park and George Wainbron Park.
The sun didn’t come out BUT the autumn colours and leaves through the park were so pretty!
We don’t really get these vibrant autumn colours here in Auckland.
We didn’t end up cycling around Stanley Park as it did rain a bit so we ended up shopping instead. We don’t have any domestic flights within Canada anymore so we could shop. We ended up checking out Marshalls and Winners that afternoon. We don’t have these stores here in NZ and it was quite overwhelming. Some of the prices and discounts were pretty good though! I found 100% wool and 100% cashmere pieces in there for a great price.
For our last dinner, Max found this yakitori restaurant Sake Dining HASHIGO by Zakkushi. It was a small restaurant but had really high ratings.
We weren’t that hungry as we has a drinks and snacks at our hotel rooftop bar so we ended up just trying a selection of their yakitori. We had a yakitori tasting for dinner and they were good! I liked the cheese mochi maki.
Afterwards, we grabbed a post-dinner treat at a convenience store. I got a rolo ice cream which I haven’t seen over here and we strolled towards the waterfront.
I think this was the night we also checked out a dispensary. Weed/Cannabis is legal in Vancouver. I noted in my first Canada trip post that the city smells like weed everywhere. Since it’s legal over here, we checked it out. The union was actually on strike so their supply in stores were limited. I’m not into it at all so it’s not my thing but while over there, it was interesting to check out and see what they have over there.
The next day, we checked out of our hotel and picked up a rental car as we were off to another little adventure to Whistler. That will be my next travel post.
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