Exploring Vancouver

I moved to Vancouver in February for work. Having lived in the east coast in United States, mostly in Boston, for about five years, I know that I absolutely enjoy the changing seasons and especially all the snow! So, I was obviously apprehensive about moving to the west coast. But, Vancouver really took me by surprise.

It’s a very pretty, clean and organized city. My immigration, which involved activating my work visa, took about 15 minutes. Even the things that usually take about a week or more in the States or UK, such as getting a national ID (Social Insurance Number or SIN in Canada) or setting up a bank account, took me about half an hour to do in Vancouver.

Since my move to Vancouver was going to be temporary, instead of looking for an apartment, I ended up booking an Airbnb in East Vancouver. It’s a cute house in a lovely residential neighborhood, which is an absolute delight in the spring. I share the living space with the host and his wife. Both are very helpful and welcoming.

My daily work commute involves taking the bus and the skytrain to Downtown Vancouver, which takes about 40 minutes on any weekday. Having lived in Boston, the public transport in Vancouver has been a refreshing change for me. The bus as well as the train is crowded yet very clean. Although, traffic can get pretty bad in Downtown, the skytrains make it really easy to move around. Public transport in Vancouver is managed by Translink and ticket fare varies with the zones you are covering in your journey. Since my commute comprises of only one zone, I ended up getting a monthly pass for CAD $98. You can find more information about fare here.

Downtown Vancouver, like the rest of the city, is surprisingly very clean. Amidst the towering high rises that define Vancouver’s skyline, Stanley Park, which is right next to Downtown Vancouver, is literally called the urban oasis. It actually takes up approximately half of the downtown peninsula and is known to be bigger and more popular than New York’s Central Park itself. The park contains multiple trails and scenic spots. Seawall, one of the most famous feature of the park, is a 5.5 mile long paved route that loops around the park’s beautiful waterfront path.

Since my work place is in Downtown Vancouver, I get to explore more food options in Downtown compared to the rest of the Vancouver. This city is actually considered to be one of the healthiest cities in the world and so, naturally there are numerous salad bars, Tractor being one of my favorites. Vancouver houses one of the largest Chinatown in North America, and has numerous options when it comes to asian cuisines. I have spent a lot of my evenings, post work, walking down the streets and trying different restaurants and cafes.

On weekends, I try to explore the North Vancouver which houses all the beautiful mountains. There are two ways to get to the North Vancouver. You can either take the bus or the ferry (also known as the Seabus). There are two suspension bridges, the Capilano Suspension Bridge and the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. Capilano Suspension Bridge is 140 metres long bridge across the Capilano river. It’s really pretty in the evenings when the broad walk is lit with fairy lights.

Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge is a 50 meters high bridge in the Lynn Canyon Park. From the park entrance, you can either directly walk towards the Ecology Center to take a shortcut to the suspension bridge or take one of the many park trails instead. I visited the park in late February and still found it to be lush green, which was amazing!

Vancouver is also known for skiing or other winter sports. Grouse mountain offers the nearest and most accessible skiing spot from the Downtown Vancouver. I took my first ever ferry in Vancouver on my way to Grouse Mountain. The ferry or the Seabus takes you to a bus station from where you can take a connecting bus to the Grouse Mountain. You can hike up the Mountain to get to the top too, but, those trails are closed during winters for maintenance. There are cable cars, also called as Skyride, that can take you up to the top of the mountain. You need to buy the mountain admission ticket to get to the top and back. The ticket costs about CAD $51 and is good for one day.

The top of the Grouse mountain offers lot of activities for almost everybody. There is a rental store to rent gear for skiing, snow shoeing or skating. There is a food court which offers pizza or warm finger food, which actually turned out to be a life saver after spending half a day in the snow. Since I didn’t know how to ski, I chose to explore the mountain through one of its walking trails. I rented snow shoes for CAD $25 for the whole day and decided to take the longest trail, the Blue Grouse loop, that takes you up to the Dam Mountain top and back.

It took me about two and a half hours to complete the trail, including stopping frequently to take pictures as well as making a snow man (somehow I didn’t end up taking a picture of that, weird). The trail was pretty steep at quite a few spots. Climbing up, i realized the snow shoes were really helpful as they helped me avoid slipping. I had read that the top of the Dam Mountain provides amazing views of Vancouver city but unfortunately, the day I chose to hike, it was very cloudy and actually snowing. Nevertheless, it was still very pretty up there.

There is so much more to explore in Vancouver! I promise to write more about places I have or will explore in Vancouver.