The beautiful Vancouver

Courtyard by Marriott Toronto Downtown

Hotel | "Courtyard Toronto"

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Me and my husband had been aving up for years before we finally could go to Canada to visit some old relatives that moved there over a little then 10 years ago. We also wanted to visit them but also thought it was a good excuse to visit this beautiful country with it’s large cities and beautifull nature. Although our relatives live in a small city we went first to visit the town of Toronto. Our relatives advised us to go here and they said it’s truly an beautifull city.We stayed at the Courtyard Toronto Downtown which is a three star hotel and located near the University of Toronto. It was good public tranposrtation access to the rest of the city due that there is a metro station only 100 ...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on October 19, 2012

Courtyard by Marriott Toronto Downtown
475 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario M4Y1X7
(416) 924-0611

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Pinnacle Hotel At The Pier

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Hotel

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The Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier is an upmarket accommodation and awarded 4 stars. Leisure and business travellers are equally welcome. The hotel also advertises that you can have here celebrations such as weddings. Several conference rooms and a grand ballroom for up to 400 people are available. The Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier has 106 rooms. There are a total of 8 floors and already from the outside you can see that this is a very modern building. There are many large windows and a high-rise architecture is very appealing. Under the hotel there is underground parking spaces, which can be hired for 10 CAD (approx. 7 EUR) per day. To set the car off at the right level of the garage, so you can...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on September 2, 2011

Pinnacle Hotel At The Pier
138 Victory Ship Way
North Vancouver, British Columbia
866-539-8117

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Gastown

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Gastown is a neighbourhood in downtown Vancouver. In 1867 the Scot Jack Deighton opened in the center of this neighbourhood a bar called the Deighton House. This bar was next to a sawmill and after a workday many of the workman find their way to the bar. Because of this the bar quickly became the centre of the city. The area quickly developed after a European town. Gastown is still a lively district with many shops, bars and restaurants. Gastown is very centrally located. From Waterfront station it is just a few minutes. Since Gastown is located in downtown Vancouver, it is also well reachable by buses. The three main streets of the neighbourhood are the Water Street, Powell Street and Car...Read More

Gastown is a neighbourhood in downtown Vancouver. In 1867 the Scot Jack Deighton opened in the center of this neighbourhood a bar called the Deighton House. This bar was next to a sawmill and after a workday many of the workman find their way to the bar. Because of this the bar quickly became the centre of the city. The area quickly developed after a European town. Gastown is still a lively district with many shops, bars and restaurants.

Gastown is very centrally located. From Waterfront station it is just a few minutes. Since Gastown is located in downtown Vancouver, it is also well reachable by buses. The three main streets of the neighbourhood are the Water Street, Powell Street and Carrall Street. All three meet at the old and the new heart of Gastown, the Maple Tree Square.

Since we had driven from the hotel by Seabus to Waterfront Station, we went from the station on our way to Gastown. First we arrived at the Water Street. It is a really nice street with cobblestone streets and many nice shops, cafes and restaurants. The cobblestone streets give the impression of a European town, but was postponed until 1970, when they wanted to give the neighbourhood a little more charm and historic ambience. Around this time the Old Spaghetti Factory opened, a restaurant chain in which it is mostly pasta dishes at very reasonable prices and even taste good, too. But there are still some of the most chic restaurants and designer shops on Water Street. Large main attraction in this street is an old steam clock, the Steam Clock. Every 15 minutes, it evaporated from the Clock and the pipes play God Save the Queen. The clock is five meters high and visually inspired by the Big Ben in London. Happy tourists gather here.

If you follow the Water Street to the east we arrive automatically to the already mentioned Maple Tree Square. Here is the founding father of a bronze statue in honour of Jack. Perched on a whiskey barrel Gassy Jack looks over the square. Another attraction right on the Square is the Flatiron Building of 1908, which houses a hotel and was the first reinforced concrete building in town.

From Maple Tree Square, we turned onto Carral Street, which is a normal road and has no particular charm, I think. Water Street is already the most beautiful street in Gastown. It's amazing how quickly one in this quarter of a nice, smooth road with more expensive shops suddenly changes in roads, which are anything but inviting. After a few minutes we reached the Victory Square, which until the early 20th Century, was the main artery was Vancouver. At this place in the First World War soldiers were recruited, so there is also a memorial for the fallen soldiers. The park around the monument is very well maintained, there is apparently also made sure that the homeless do not use park benches as overnight camps.

You take the road to the place of outgoing Cambie Street, we come back to Water Street. Is worth seeing on the Way to the Blood Alley, the right branches of the Cambie Street. The name comes from the fact that here in the past few slaughterhouses were located, also took place in the street, public executions. Today you can find in the alley restaurants, pubs and night clubs.

So our tour was ended by Gastown, but for a first impression should be enough too, finally got even more on the program. Coming back to Gastown at night, so here you will find a vibrant area with many bars and restaurants.

Gastown is an area of Vancouver, which should not be missed if you're in the city. Not only that, here are some beautiful buildings and you can learn about the history of the city, Gastown is a vibrant area with nice shops and many restaurants and bars. I enjoyed our walk very well and I can only recommend to take a little time to stroll along the streets. Above all, the Water Street I liked. It is a real counterpoint to me, except maybe that one watch a while before the time of day, in which street or road you because not all corners of the neighbourhood looked trustworthy. Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on September 5, 2011

Gastown
Granville and Main Streets
Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 2K7
(604) 683-5650

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Stanley Park

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Attraction

Stanley Park Photo - Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia

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If you travel to Vancouver you will most likely spend some time in Stanley Park. It is not merely one of the main tourist attractions, but also the Vancouverites (people who live in Vancouver) actively use this park. With a size of 404 acres, Stanley Park is the largest urban park in Canada since 1889 and is now a recreation area under protection. There is even a bird sanctuary that is home to Canada geese. Stanley Park was named after the British governor, Lord Stanley. Stanley Park is not just a simple park but very varied. There are, of course, like in any park, landscaped gardens and large lawns, but also - and this makes it all - hiking through rain forest-like landscapes. The trails ...Read More

If you travel to Vancouver you will most likely spend some time in Stanley Park. It is not merely one of the main tourist attractions, but also the Vancouverites (people who live in Vancouver) actively use this park. With a size of 404 acres, Stanley Park is the largest urban park in Canada since 1889 and is now a recreation area under protection. There is even a bird sanctuary that is home to Canada geese. Stanley Park was named after the British governor, Lord Stanley.

Stanley Park is not just a simple park but very varied. There are, of course, like in any park, landscaped gardens and large lawns, but also - and this makes it all - hiking through rain forest-like landscapes. The trails are several miles long, so you even in the summer on a Sunday, when many families are on the road, you can enjoy the tranquility and escape the big city. Can also be 8.8 km long of a total of 22 kilometres around the city leading Seawall, a waterfront promenade (pedestrian and cycle path), on the one strolling tourists and Vancouverites jogging, skating or cycling sees running through the park every year the Park 8 million visitors recorded. Smoking is prohibited throughout the park. What exactly is there to see in the park, plus more, when I talk about our walk through the park ...

Stanley Park is located on a peninsula near the city centre and is easily accessible by foot from downtown. If you follow the Sewall from Canada Place on the waterfront leads automatically to the park there are also signs around the town, pointing the way. By the well-developed ways you can explore the park also wonderful with the bike or inline skates. If that's too strenuous, take bus 19 is driven directly into the park. There are also some streets to cars and parking only in the eastern part of the park, which is similar to a city forest opened up. The western part of the system is very original and one finds himself quickly in a jungle. Since parking is limited and the connection on foot, by bus or by bike is very good, I would do without a car. Although there are extra trails around the park by car to explore, but I find that somehow inappropriate. However, you can get from the cars with very little, if you look at something deeper is at the park, so do not disturb the streets.

The paths of the park system has an incredible length of 81 kilometres, it is therefore natural that I have not seen every corner of the park and therefore can not describe every little thing. In my report I can and will therefore not list everything, what to see and experience here, but I will only report on what I have seen. Everything else can be read in guidebooks or on the Internet and find itself naturally. The map of the park, I've uploaded, provides an overview and gives an impression of the size of the plant.
We reached the Stanley Park around noon. Previously we've been walking for several hours through to Vancouver to see us there a lot, so we decided to take the bus to the park to drive, because we would even walk in the park even more. Bus No. 19 brought us to a very central bus station, from which one can reach the so-called main attractions of the park well. There is a large information board with an overview of the way system, so that we could orient ourselves first, where we were and where we wanted to go.

First of all we headed to Vancouver Aquarium, we decided, given the crowds and our limited time, but to a visit, although it certainly must be beautiful and there are over 70,000 marine species to admire. But there are also aquariums and other places we looked briefly at the front of the aquarium located restrooms (which were incidentally free and clean) and continued our walk. After just a few meters from the nature we felt no longer in the big city, but it enjoyed under the large green trees to walk. Every now and then fluttered squirrel scurried across the path, butterflies and birds we have seen some that even though we are still staying in the busier part of the park.
Discovered in Stanley Park, there are also many beautiful picnic areas and plenty of opportunities to be active. So we came, among other things also pass a softball court, but there are probably a golf course, tennis court and swimming. Finally, the park also has beaches. Our route took us next to the totem poles, which are found near the waterfront. This up to 20 meters high, beautifully carved and painted poles are evidence of the Native Americans and are definitely worth seeing. The stakes often tell stories, but these are usually only known to the natives and included the family crest.

Compared with the totem poles, there is a nice gift shop and more toilets. The souvenir shop in the course are not exactly cheap, but appeared quite high, not like in some other souvenir shop, we got to face later. But we have bought nothing, it was just the first real vacation.
Then we went down to the waterfront and walked on the seawall towards the lovely Lions Gate Bridge. Park benches are located at regular intervals and are perfect for relaxing with a view over the water. While it was pretty quiet on the trails in the park and the visitors are mainly staying in front of the aquarium was a lot going on on the waterfront. Many walkers were out, but also joggers and cyclists. I liked that at the points at which cross-walk and bike path signs and ask the cyclists to dismount the short piece but please, was kept to it. Along the promenade there is a nice water park for children where they can splash to their heart's desire wet. It is an oversized hair dryer to free use also makes it easy to enter. At the water park has restrooms and a snack again, where we treated ourselves to Fish and Chips, but the breakfast was quite a while ago. But there are probably several restaurants that are spread over the park.

Even before reaching the Lions Gate Bridge leads from a small seawall enchanted way to Beaver Lake. We beat this one and arrived at a beautiful, idyllic lake with a lot of reeds, a family of ducks and beavers, which were not, however. You can pass around the entire lake, which is really a nice walk. At sea, two young women were so busy with walkers questions to the lake, the flora and fauna to answer. But you can also just go for himself and gets on information boards also provide information.
Finally we reached the rose garden a beautiful garden with lovely flowering plants. From there we returned to the bus stop and drove back to downtown. We stopped about 4 hours in the park and really enjoyed my time there. One can also spend days in Stanley Park could I imagine that one is not boring, because we have only seen a fraction. Should I come to Vancouver again, I will certainly go back again and still spend more time there.

Those who come to Vancouver and did not at least staying a few hours in Stanley Park has missed something. The park is a beautiful blend of gardens, haunted trails, recreational opportunities and the jungle. Although there are many visitors, everything is going well and you also corners where it's quiet and it is more for themselves. But even if you do not want to just relax, here you have a lot of sports and leisure facilities. For sustenance is also ensured by seeking one of the restaurants or the snack or make a picnic. Since there for me at the park is nothing to criticize, he gets a recommendation and the full score. Read Less

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on September 2, 2011

Stanley Park
843 Avison Way
Vancouver, British Columbia V5K 1A1
(604) 257-8400

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Vancouver Aquarium

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Attraction

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Vancouver is a large city but many great attractions and much to do for tourists. I was surprised the first time I visited the city I was amazed by the size of the city. There is truly a lot to do in this city and you can easily spend two weeks here. We only stayed here for one week but we took some time to visit the aquarium of Vancouver.Although you wouldn’t really expect it the aquarium is a very popular tourist attraction. It’s located in the beautiful Stanley Park and that’s how we came across it. Stanley park is a beautiful park, especially on a beautiful sunny day. We decided to go to the aquarium because it came highly regarded.There are several areas at the aquarium as...Read More

Vancouver is a large city but many great attractions and much to do for tourists. I was surprised the first time I visited the city I was amazed by the size of the city. There is truly a lot to do in this city and you can easily spend two weeks here. We only stayed here for one week but we took some time to visit the aquarium of Vancouver.

Although you wouldn’t really expect it the aquarium is a very popular tourist attraction. It’s located in the beautiful Stanley Park and that’s how we came across it. Stanley park is a beautiful park, especially on a beautiful sunny day. We decided to go to the aquarium because it came highly regarded.

There are several areas at the aquarium as you have an outside and inside area. There are animals from different kind of regions as the Arctic Canada, Wild Coast, BC Coast but also the Amazon Rainforest. There are simply too many animals to mention them all but a few examples are starfish, dolphins and octopus.

The aquarium is considered the best in North America and when wondering around we noticed there are a lot of options for children to learn more about the animals in a very entertaining ways like little games that they can play. For the more adults there is information all throughout the aquarium. You can read all about all the animals and their habitat.

I think for everyone the highlights of the aquarium will differ but for me it was one of the shows and my favorite was the dolphin show. The entire show took half an hour but was full of action and great entertainment. Also for me it was very important to see that the animals were cared with love.

The aquarium is very large and I think you can easily spend a good few hours here with all the different kind of shows. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to see all the living habitats of the animals. Everything looked clean and the animals looked very healthy.

I think the aquarium is absolutely one of the best I have seen so far and would highly recommend it. The entrance price fee might scare of people off a bit and I can understand it might be especially expensive when you go with the whole family but it’s worth it in my eyes. For me five stars.
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Member Rating 5 out of 5 on November 22, 2012

Vancouver Aquarium
845 Avison Way
Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 3X8
(604) 659-3474

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