|
Even though the US dollar has lost a significant amount of
its value over the last few years, making a vacation to
Canada not quite the great bargain it once was, you can
still make your travel dollars stretch farther in Vancouver
than they would if you were traveling Stateside. Based on
current exchange rates (which fluctuate daily—check xe.com/ucc),
your $250 American will get you $307 Canadian to spend up
north. (Note: All prices in this article are in Canadian
dollars.)
You and a partner can stay at the charming Buchan Hotel
in the West End (1906 Haro St, buchanhotel.com) during the
low season (October 1-April 30) for only $45, if you’re
willing to share a bathroom down the hall. The rooms are
quite nice and the hotel is in a beautiful residential
neighborhood. Be a diva and have a room with your own
bathroom for only $70 a night. Either way, it’s a bargain.
For daytime trips, you can’t beat a relaxing picnic
lunch on English Bay or a walk through the large Chinatown.
The aquarium in Vancouver’s Stanley Park (845 Avison Way)
is one of the best I’ve ever been to. You can see baby
Beluga whales, otters rolling in the water and what has to
be the largest aquarium in the world, filled with hundreds
of species of animals. It’s a bit pricey at $16.50 (open
365 days a year), but it’s a beautiful place and well
worth the long, leisurely stroll through Stanley Park it
takes to get there.
Eating well in Vancouver is easy to do on the cheap. If
you’re on the touristy Robson St head to the west end to
find Hon's Wun-Tun House (1339 Robson St; also at #108-268
Keefer St). This nondescript authentic Chinese restaurant is
more like a noodle factory—there are about a half dozen
kitchen-like cooking stations ready to fill up hundreds of
customers with amazing homemade noodles of every size, as
well as wontons to die for. A steaming bowl of noodles and
vegetables will set you back about $6. For sweets lovers, no
trip to Vancouver is ever complete without a trip to
Cupcakes (1116 Denman), a mini-Taj Mahal dedicated to
nothing but big, fluffy, pastel-colored cupcakes ($2-5).
They are amazing and their mounds of icing (lemon, peanut
butter, cream cheese) can work wonders for obtaining that
late-night, post-drinking rush of energy needed to keep the
party going.
For a good, cheap time (and I certainly mean cheap in
every possible way), then you can’t do better/worse than
the Dufferin (900 Seymour). If you’re into sketchy hustler
bars filled with lecherous old men, dirty young men,
toothless bar maidens threatening to pull their knives out,
frightening striptease shows and cheap mugs of beer (and, of
course, I am), then this is heaven for you. Seriously, you
just haven’t lived until you’ve witnessed a skinny white
guy in black-face, stripping to a Sammy Davis number while
twirling a cane and a top hat. It’s a great mix of ages
(20 and 80, and me), sexual preferences (paid and unpaid,
that is), and a whole room dedicated to karaoke, when
singing along to the seedy music of life in the other rooms
gets too much for you. But don’t be a baby—dive in and
have a great time; you can always be wholesome tomorrow at
the aquarium.
BOTTOM LINE: FISH AND CUPCAKES, HUSTLERS AND WONTONS AND
SHARING YOUR BATHROOM ARE ALL YOU NEED TO HAVE FUN IN THE
CITY UP NORTH.
|
