Vancouver & Vancouver Island 2005

Best Things Nearby:
The best thing in general about this resort was its location, right in the heart of Vancouver and within transit or a leisurely walk to all the Vancouver-area tourist attractions and restaurants. Gastown, Chinatown, Granville Island, Robson Street itself (the Rodeo Drive of Canada), Stanley Park, Canada Place, the waterfront, Yaletown, and the downtown UBC campus are all easily accessible.

Best Things About the Resort:
Location, location, location! The on-site Aviawest concierge was very knowledgeable and helpful, which made up for the fact that he was accessed through a separate building. The Rosedale is a shared facility, and the "hotel" services are not available to the timeshare guests, with the exception of fitness and pool areas. However, the Aviawest staff are available from 8am to 10pm.

Resort Experience:
The Rosedale is a high-rise metropolitan hotel, which houses both an actual hotel and suites for two different timeshare affiliates (Aviawest through RCI and another timeshare through Interval International). The Aviawest suites are comfortable but small - like a small hotel suite. The bedroom area had a queen-size bed, chest of drawers with TV, nightstands, and a comfortable chair, but with those in place, there was almost no room to lay down a suitcase of any considerable size. A small closet adjacent to the mini-kitchen had only six hangers and a tabletop ironing board with iron.

The kitchen itself had a bar-type fridge, large enough to hold cold drinks or the makings of a very basic breakfast, and was equipped with a toaster, kettle, one frying pan and pot, and china and glassware for four, but four people certainly could not have eaten in the unit. There was an apartment-sized stovetop and small oven, but really no counter on which to prepare foods to cook in them. The breakfast nook had a café-size table and two chairs, suitable for coffee or breakfast, but no more.

Fortunately, the location of the Rosedale, right on Robson Street across from the beautiful Vancouver Public Library building, meant that there was really no need to eat in the unit: there were restaurants of every cuisine and in every price range literally at your doorstep, and the Aviawest staff really knew their stuff when making recommendations for live entertainment, places to eat, and the best places to shop.

If you're staying in Vancouver for a few nights, it's the perfect pied-a-terre, but a full week in the small space left us feeling cramped (although there's certainly more than a full week's worth of things to see in the city).

• Unit Type: Studio
• Activities: Not Available
• Amenities: Good
• Unit Satisfaction: Good
• Family Friendliness: Good
• Service: Very Good

Capone's Jazz Club combines Italian food with fresh ingredients and West Coast flair with smooth live jazz and blues every night of the week. The restaurant is in Vancouver's trendy Yaletown, but is one of the more reasonably priced options in an area that can be very expensive.

Capone's is a long narrow space, romantically lit, with mostly tables for two and some bench seating, along with a long polished bar. The food ranges from Italian-themed appetizers to house specialties like the smoked chicken and tomato chowder and a beautiful house salad with cashews, fresh strawberries, and chevre. You can munch your way through appetizers and individual-sized pizzas alongside a fine wine list or signature martinis, or go for generously portioned entrees, featuring chicken, seafood, and pasta, and end with a decadent dessert. After 8:00 each night, the live music adds a wonderful cosmopolitan atmosphere.

Service is VERY relaxed - your needs are taken care of, but there's absolutely no rush to hurry you through courses or push you out the door when you're done. On most nights, it's not busy enough that there are people waiting, so you can linger with your drinks or coffee and simply bask in the wonderful music.

White Spot is the ubiquitous B.C. restaurant chain that started as a hamburger joint / diner and has morphed into casual family dining in most of its locations (there are still some diner-style White Spots around). The food is not adventurous, but you can be assured of good value, clean surroundings (a step above going the fast food route), good service, and at least some attempt to inject local produce and specialties into the menu.

While the bulk of the items are of the burgers, steak, fish and chips, nachos, and wings (you get the picture) variety, the salads are very fresh and nicely presented, the wine and beer list is almost 100% local vintage, and if you go in the summer, the fresh blueberry pie is worth the trip in itself: 2 inches of FRESH B.C. blueberries, held together by only the lightest glaze, piled atop a very thin, very flaky pie crust and garnished with a generous helping of unsweetened whipped cream - DELICIOUS!

Although the Sequoia Grill at The Teahouse in Stanley Park's main attraction is its wonderful location with a view of the park seawall in spectacular Stanley Park, the food is worth the trip as well. The decor is VERY West Coast - cedar outside, lots and lots of windows for viewing gardens, mountains, and water, and a classy taupe-and-cream interior with linens on the table and native art on the walls.

The menu changes with the season to feature B.C.'s best produce: fish and chips are not what you'd expect - I feasted on a selection of crumb-battered salmon, halibut, and sea bass (all delicious) with fresh thin frites (French-style thin, crisp French fries) after enjoying the warm, fresh butter and selection of breads provided after we sat down. The carrot-and-ginger soup was pronounced "yummy" by my husband, although his burger was only "okay" - the restaurant definitely excels with those dishes where they can be more creative. Wines and beers are all local (I wish more places would highlight their local vineyards the way B.C. restaurants do - it really makes the dining experience much more fun when you travel.) The restaurant also has a nice selection of juices, herbal teas, and lattes.

A nice touch was the children's menu. Although ours are long grown, I remember well having not much to choose from if we went somewhere "grown-up" - The Sequoia Grill offered not only chicken fingers made in-house from thin strips of chicken breast, but also grilled cheese on homemade bread and pasta with the option of tomato sauce, a cheese sauce, or "just butter" for fussy little appetites. Children's juice and milk was served in miniature stemmed glasses to make them feel just as special as the adults at the table, and the service we observed was friendly without being condescending.

The Back Stage Lounge is another of many Vancouver-area restaurants that offers live entertainment most nights along with a reasonably priced casual menu. The Back Stage Lounge has happy-hour specials every evening, and serves full dinners, but our experience was for lunch.

Our appetizer of Thai vegetarian spring rolls was crisp and tasty, served piping hot with a sweet Thai chili dipping sauce, all artfully arranged on a rectangular china plate. Lunch features a variety of unusual burgers: the "Extreme Burger" was a beef patty generously topped with bacon and hickory sauce, served with a large side Caesar salad; the salmon burger was an actual filet of fresh salmon (not ground or flaked fish), served with dill sauce on a ciabatta bread "bun" with spring greens on the side.

These burgers, at $10 Canadian, were filling, fresh and delicious - well worth the price - and served with class by a professional young waitstaff. It was a great place to stop and recharge after exploring the Granville Market and the Granville Island gift shops.

Vancouver has one of the most authentic Chinatowns in North America, and a long history with Chinese immigrants, so it's no surprise that they also have some of the most authentic Chinese dining experiences. Hon's is a large, loud, communal-style dining room that is a mix of hundreds of voices in many languages (tourists and locals alike) along with the spatter and sizzle from two large open wok kitchens at the back of the restaurant (one kitchen is completely vegetarian).

The menu is in Chinese with English translations and some pictures, and features Chinese dumplings, fried, steamed or in soup, lots of customizable soup and noodle dishes, and not much of what you'd find in a suburban Chinese buffet restaurant. Make sure your dining partners are adventurous and open-minded before you go - this is NOT a place for a "meat and potatoes" guy! Ask what's in an item if you're not sure - the special soup when we were there was pig’s ear and cabbage! If you love spicy, their Sichuan dishes pack some heat, and there's additional Oriental hot sauce on every table.

Green or jasmine tea is kept flowing, refilled into your plastic drinking glasses every time a waitress walks by, and chopsticks are available as standard on every table in addition to Western cutlery. Desserts are some of the nicest and most authentically Chinese we've seen in North America - lots of fruits (mango and lychee predominate), coconut jellies, and rice-milk-based jellies.

SOBO (short for "so bohemian") may be the only gourmet restaurant in North America run out of a purple truck. The truck is parked near the entrance to Tofino Botanical Gardens - a unique tourist attraction in its own right - and provides interesting and delicious West Coast B.C. fare, focusing heavily on vegetarian dishes.

Food is served in $4 to $6 portions. The restaurant suggests one choice for a snack, two for lunch, or three for a full-dinner appetite. Almost all items are suitable for sharing. The truck "chef" creates beautiful salads featuring organic greens supplemented with sprouts, raisins, a variety of nuts, pickled beets, and more, with a selection of fresh salad dressings. Side dishes range from stir-fried vegetable combinations to crispy polenta fries (there are no french fries to be had from this truck!) with a tangy dipping sauce. The paper boat of cornmeal-crusted oysters is also offered with a tasty cumin-spiced dip. Wraps feature locally caught fish or organic chicken (one of the few meat-based offerings). Freshly made chowders and soups are also available.

Combine your choices on a tray and eat them at picnic tables near the truck, or take them to the main garden building, where you can buy B.C. wines and beers to go with your meal.

The main building (where it's cooler on sunny days) is also where you can pick up dessert: the house key lime pie is one of the best north of the Florida Keys! Sitting at the main-gate tables also gets you the company of several very friendly chickens, which roam between the tables and are more than happy to be hand-fed your polenta fries if you can't finish them yourself. All in all, it was a unique and enjoyable experience!

The Rain Coast Restaurant is like many other west coast B.C. restaurants every day until 8pm, serving fresh seafood and a range of local specialties at a reasonable price from an open kitchen. At 8 every night, though, things change with the arrival of live music (usually local musicians) and a change to the restaurant's tapas menu.

The food is artfully presented and offers a nice selection of tapas: an Asian bread basket with cumin-scented papadams, fresh naan, and warm, coarsely ground hummus; smoked salmon on triangular pita wedges with wasabi mayonnaise, thinly shredded sweet onion and ginger; duck slices glazed with sweet cherry pan juices served over two perfect tiny roasted potatoes; Japanese beans with toasted sesame seeds; or slices of grilled salmon with a smoky glaze, to name just a few of the selections. The only disappointment were the lettuce wraps with hoisin chicken and vegetables - the wraps were do-it-yourself, using iceberg lettuce leaves, too crisp to allow rolling and too messy to really be finger food. They would have been better using a soft Boston lettuce, or better yet, wrapped in the kitchen and ready to eat.

The evening's featured dessert, a caramelized apple crepe with brandy sauce and whipped cream was delicious, and espresso blends and coffee were perfectly brewed and served. The noise from the open kitchen, though, was not conducive to listening to live music - the guitar and keyboard players on the night we visited were often drowned out by the sizzle of woks and the steam from the cappuccino maker. Perhaps the kitchen could have been silenced during the performance and a longer intermission allowed for food preparation between sets?

Overall, it is a nice place to eat, but not great if you're looking for entertainment or a quiet conversation backed by live music.

This is a picturesque and tasty spot for lunch or a snack, with a full selection of specialty coffees and teas, freshly baked muffins and desserts, wraps, quiche, and pizza (until they run out of the day's flavours!), as well as homemade soups. Take your tray of food from the counter and then sit inside or out. The food is great, but our experience was spoiled by the fact that the restrooms were appalling - clearly the staff was too busy to attend to them, but it was a real turnoff, especially considering that Tofino is a tourist town above all, and almost everyone who stops for food is also looking for restroom facilities before heading back out to hike trails or whale-watch. We may simply have hit a bad day, but...

With only 22 indoor and 28 patio seats and hours that vary with the tourist season, reservations are recommended to get a taste of Blueberries' version of west coast B.C. cuisine. The restaurant also serves breakfast and lunch whenever their cook is available, so call ahead or watch the signs in the window for applicable hours. B.C. beers and local wines are featured - the pour is generous, with C$4 to C$7 getting a larger than usual 6-ounce glass of wine. The house salad is a selection of organic greens with the signature blueberry vinaigrette dressing. In addition to chowder (available in some version at every restaurant on Vancouver Island - a tribute to the fishing industry and wealth of seafood available), there is a daily soup available. The fish-and-chips features halibut, but on our visit, were somewhat over-battered and not as crispy as the best we'd had on the island. The evening's special, though, was wonderful: grilled halibut with a chili cream sauce, served with roasted red-skinned potatoes, over which shredded parmesan and rosemary had been sprinkled, and a lightly sautéed mix of broccoli and carrots. The other feature was a whole Alaskan crab with melted butter, fries, and a Caesar salad. Desserts are made in-house, including a multilayer, rich chocolate cake, but quantities are limited and the selection depends upon the mood of the kitchen. We tried and enjoyed the blueberry-white chocolate cheesecake served drizzled with both white and dark chocolate sauces.

Storyeum is a unique museum experience suitable for adults and children. The museum entrance is at street level near the famous statue of "Gassy Jack" in Vancouver's Gastown district, but after perusing the ground-floor displays, patrons enter a huge circular elevator (holds up to 400 people!) and descend two floors below street level to the museum itself, which is made up of seven tableaus.

Each area features a combination of film clips, live actors with scripts that involve both words and music, and elaborate sets. You move from Area 1, which shares the native legends of creation, through native civilization, the West Coast explorers (a great scene with a stage that includes a boat on a real water "sea"), the struggle for British vs. U.S. sovereignty over B.C., the coal and lumber industries and Chinese immigration, the arrival of the Trans-Canada Highway in B.C., and finally the events of WW II and how they impacted the Vancouver area.

The whole "show" takes about 90 minutes, after which you ascend in a second huge elevator surrounded by a two-story movie screen featuring modern-day B.C. and Vancouver scenery and events. At a cost of $14 Cdn. per person, it's a worthwhile summary of British Columbia’s history, and a great deal of fun as well!

The 2005 Folk Music Festival, held on July 16 – 18, is a treat both for the wonderful wealth of Canadian and imported talent that is showcased, and also for the picturesque location. It's hard to imagine a better setting for a folk festival than a park alongside an uncrowded beach, with a view of mountains across the water.

The festival has five small event tents and one large main stage for evening performances, with at least four shows per tent during each day. The crowds are what you'd expect - a mix of young and old music lovers, many of the older ones tie-dyed and reminiscent of the ‘60s, very friendly, very tolerant, and very appreciative of the different musicians' talents.

Once you pay your entry fee (a little pricy for a "folk" event at almost $60 Canadian per day), you have the run of the grounds, including a very diverse food area with everything from Canadian fries to Thai, East Indian, Jamaican, Chinese, and Greek food and freshly roasted corn on the cob. It's a no-alcohol event, so the crowd never gets rowdy: children run wild between the stages, young moms breastfeed, and older folk dance on the lawns undisturbed.

If you're in the area during Folk Festival weekend, it's well worth catching the music, and, if you're of the appropriate age group, reminiscing about Woodstock and an era of peace and love.

Located just north of Hope, B.C., about 2 hours from Vancouver, Hell's Gate is an area of the Fraser River where an avalanche caused during the construction of the Canadian National Railway almost blocked the flow of the river, narrowing it to only about 30 feet wide (and 150 feet deep!). As a result of the blockage, salmon "ladders" have been built to allow the Fraser River salmon to continue to spawn in their historic breeding grounds.

An air tram that costs $10 per person takes you over the rapids from the west side of the river to a touristy set of shops (fudge, ice cream, souvenirs) and a fish museum on the east side. You also have access to a suspension bridge from which you can take wonderful pictures of the rock face of the river canyon. The entire experience takes only about an hour, so if you're in the area, it’s worth doing, but if you're driving out specifically to go to Hell's Gate, plan to stop at Minter Gardens on your way back to Vancouver and round out your day with a tour of their beautiful botanical garden as a break to hours of driving.