Travel in Vancouver

So SWMBO and I are planning a trip to Vancouver, BC for her birthday in June. She and I are very excited about it, but I was just wondering if anyone was from that area or has frequented the area and knows some "must stop" places for drinking pleasure.

We are staying at a hotel that apparently has a brewpub on site. She knows all of the details, and isn't here at the moment otherwise Id post them (ie the name of the establishment)

Also, more so than just beer, what are some cool things to do in the Vancouver, I figure its usually better to hear from someone who has been there instead of some tourism website.

Thanks

go to the aquarium, walk down Robson street, go to Chinatown. If you have several days, think about going over to Victoria, it is bitchin also.

Best beer store is on Main and 15th. All types of imports. Though Russel, RB, storm are local. Phillips from Victoria is great.

Let me know what hotel and I'll tell you where to go from there.

Oh and you have to check out the cobalt on main. Bring your metal spiked jean jacket.

If you do pop over to Victoria, go to swans hotel near the water. Downtown. Best brewpub I've been in. Vic is full of breweries and brewpubs. I think at one point Swans had 24 brewpub beers on tap, including 4 -6 cask conditioned ales served witha beer pump. Great food too. God, I need to movbe back to that city.

Vangroovy! Excellent!

First ... the beer. My recommendation is to hit the Alibi Room in Gastown (http://www.alibi.ca/) @ 157 Alexander St. It has keg upon keg of local microbrewed ales - some aren't available anywhere but there. The best brewpubs, IMHO, are Steamworks in Gastown and Dix in Yaletown . As for liquor stores, we have government liquor stores (varied selection, but no cold beer - grrrr!) or privates, like Brewery Creek, that Denny was talking about (15th ave and Main St.). There are a few others that you can check out here - CAMRA Vancouver: Campaigning for Real Ale, Pubs, and Drinkers' Rights - Guide.

As for attractions, aquarium, Gastown and, if you're looking for funky and laid-back, check out Commercial Drive, especially Stella's (Commercial and William St.) - great selection of Belgians. Check out the north shore mountains and Victoria is a great spot - British-style, great restaurants (Pagliacci's!) and brewpubs (Swans and Spinnakers). If you go to Spinnakers, have an IPA. it was the first IPA that I ever had, and I have been trying to mimick it ever since.

Please feel free to PM me with any other questions.

The weather has been great lately and it's looking good from now on.

Never been to Vancouver, but I used to live walking distance to Victoria (via a 90 minute ferry ride) and can't recommend it more. Great place. When I was younger there was an ice cream shop on government street we'd go to to sit, eat ice cream and watch the hookers work outside. There'd be one on each corner and we'd place bets on which one would get picked up first.

Victoria is also great if you are a single male. 7 to 1 hot girl to guy ratio.

So it sounds like this WILL be a good place to go. I guess my impression of Vancouver was just "that place the olympics will be next year"

SWMBO has picked a good destination, I am super excited. Thanks for all of your advice.

What are laws regarding home brewing in Canada like anyway? Also, what about the number of microbreweries? I guess I have never thought about the laws being different. Are there more breweries or less due to favorable/unfavorable alcohol laws?

Brewing homebrew is regulated by the province. As long as you're not distilling moonshine, the laws are suprisingly straightforward. This is shocking since stupid bureaucracy regarding alcohol is a Canadian pastime. Pop into Dan's Homebrewing on Hastings St., if you have time.

There are some great microbreweries in Vancouver (R&B, Storm, Granville Island [a bigger microbrewery]), plus brewpubs (Steamworks, Dix, Yaletown, Central City [in a suburb outside of Van.]). A lot of smaller restaurants have R&B and Storm on tap, especially on the eastside. Check out the CAMRA Vancouver guide for some good beer spots. The Alibi Room is the place for microbrew variety, and it's more or less in the downtown.

Lots of patios in Vancouver, and the weather has been pretty good lately. Finally, in the past two-three years, you can sit on a patio and enjoy a few tasty microbrews without having to order food.

Enjoy your trip!

Go to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.

Depending on the weather... Wreck beach (our famous nude beach) also at UBC.

Go to Granville Island (not actually an island, and in the middle of Vancouver) home of the Granville island brewery, the Market (all kinds of fresh food) and craft stores and restaurants - touristy yes, but very good. Take a water taxi from there downtown or vice versa.

x2 for the Aquarium (Better than honolulu, or Sydney, Aus.) walk around Stanley park when you're done.

-1 Robson street. (Ooo, Levis store... Aaah, the Gap)

The Chief is a huge monolith of granite an easy 1hr drive north of Vancouver
Stawamus Chief Park - Squamish British Columbia (BC) - StawamusChiefPark.ca You can walk to the top for free too.

Vancouver has an extremely diverse culture of citizens and therefore food. (English is probably a three way tie as the most common language with Chinese and Punjabi. You'll often hear 5 or more languages on a busy street or coffee shop!) Don't miss out on the food. Too many to list...

Pick up a copy of the Georgia Straight (free weekly newspaper) available almost everywhere. Has restaurant, concert, gallery and other info.

Nugent said:

Brewing homebrew is regulated by the province. As long as you're not distilling moonshine, the laws are suprisingly straightforward. This is shocking since stupid bureaucracy regarding alcohol is a Canadian pastime. Pop into Dan's Homebrewing on Hastings St., if you have time.

There are some great microbreweries in Vancouver (R&B, Storm, Granville Island [a bigger microbrewery]), plus brewpubs (Steamworks, Dix, Yaletown, Central City [in a suburb outside of Van.]). A lot of smaller restaurants have R&B and Storm on tap, especially on the eastside. Check out the CAMRA Vancouver guide for some good beer spots. The Alibi Room is the place for microbrew variety, and it's more or less in the downtown.

Lots of patios in Vancouver, and the weather has been pretty good lately. Finally, in the past two-three years, you can sit on a patio and enjoy a few tasty microbrews without having to order food.

Enjoy your trip!

Click to expand...

Do you know if you can bring homebrew equipment back to the States?

finn_ethan said:

Go to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.

Depending on the weather... Wreck beach (our famous nude beach) also at UBC.

Go to Granville Island (not actually an island, and in the middle of Vancouver) home of the Granville island brewery, the Market (all kinds of fresh food) and craft stores and restaurants - touristy yes, but very good. Take a water taxi from there downtown or vice versa.

x2 for the Aquarium (Better than honolulu, or Sydney, Aus.) walk around Stanley park when you're done.

-1 Robson street. (Ooo, Levis store... Aaah, the Gap)

The Chief is a huge monolith of granite an easy 1hr drive north of Vancouver
Stawamus Chief Park - Squamish British Columbia (BC) - StawamusChiefPark.ca You can walk to the top for free too.

Vancouver has an extremely diverse culture of citizens and therefore food. (English is probably a three way tie as the most common language with Chinese and Punjabi. You'll often hear 5 or more languages on a busy street or coffee shop!) Don't miss out on the food. Too many to list...

Pick up a copy of the Georgia Straight (free weekly newspaper) available almost everywhere. Has restaurant, concert, gallery and other info.

Click to expand...

HAHA, ill see what she thinks about a nude beach!

+1 on Granville Island and the brewery. Great place, lots of things to do and see!

If you're able, Grouse Mountain is a great summer attraction that will give you breathtaking views of the city and surrounding landscape.

I don't see why you couldn't take homebrew equipment back - maybe not a full CO2 tank. Grain and hops may be weird at the border if they are worried about bugs or things - you can't bring some foods across, like apples etc for that reason. US customs probably has a website and list of what is ok.

With the exchange rate US/Can $ you'll probably have some good spending power here!

FYI: Wreck is more properly a clothing optional beach, toplessness and full nudity are accepted, but probably 50% are in normal swimwear. All shapes and sizes, and I mean ALL, take advantage of being nude. Best skim boarding beach in Vancouver too, or so I'm told.

I know a hop distributer and he has said in the past that it is a royal pain to bring hops into the US.

You have got to check out the cobalt on main.

Might be a bit cold for wreck beach right now.

Dan's homebrew supply might be worth a visit.

I think EIGHT YEARS might be my record for resurrecting a dead thread.

I'm heading up from Boise to catch a band playing at the Rickshaw in March. Could do the drive up, see the show, drive right back and do it in about 24 hours... but I'm old. SO, I'm thinking about hanging out a couple days and seeing what's up.

Any new suggestions other than the ones listed above?

ETA: I also need suggestions for awesome brews I can't buy over here. I can bring back a case duty free, apparently... so if it ends up being 24 separate brews, so be it!

Wow congrats on the epic necro thread post!

I am not sure I would recommend Granville Island Brewery anymore (the island is great, some interesting things to see and do) since it was bought by Molson Coors in 2009.

The craft beer scene in Vancouver is growing and changing quickly with so many amazing new breweries opening all the time. There are a couple decent map sites you could have a look at though they are not fully up to date with some of the newer additions.

http://craftbeervancouver.ca/breweries/

http://beermebc.com/bc-breweries/
(map seems not working but a great list there)

I can recommend Parallel 49 Brewing Company, they always some great brews.
http://parallel49brewing.com/

Looking back it seems I am only suggesting breweries, maybe others will have more ideas.

The Rickshaw has some great shows, have a great time in Vancouver!

Strange Fellows brewery: Great sours, great everything else.
Storm Brewing: samples and growler fills only, but the most inventive beers anywhere
St. Augustine''s Pub: great local tap selection.

These are my 3 top picks for Vancity, all in the Commercial Drive area.

Vancouver is beer'd up, no shortage of local breweries and bars with great tap lists.

Try The Growler local beer guide, they've got a list of what's open, what's coming, and who's brewing what.