Over in Canada in Feb will be in Van for a couple of days with my girl friend. Any suggestions. I’ve been before years ago, Girlfriend has never been.

Will be there mainly as a break from riding up north so not going to bother riding the locals unless its a really nice night in which case will ride Grouse mountain at night. Usually pretty icy at night i know but the flood lit slopes looking down onto van are pretty cool.
Just looking for suggestions from anyone who’s been recently things to do and places to eat.

Go to the fish market on Granville Island, eat candied Salmon and wonder where it’s been all your life *drools*

The Steamworks microbrewery in Gas Town worked out nicely as well from what I can remember

People spotting on East Hastings Street.

Go to Earls restaurant. “Earl’s Girls” as we subsequently called it. Oh, with the girl friend? Hmmm.

If you can, get a reservation at Cardero’s for dinner – you sit in the harbour, and can see out over the bay and up to the mountains.

+1 for Granville Island. Do the brewery tour of the Granville Microbrewery if you’re into that. I really enjoyed that.

Climb the Grouse Grind if you’re into walking up hills.

Mooch around the bars in Gastown if you want bars/clubs.

Eat lunch at The Bread Garden on Denman St. After walking the Stanley Park sea wall – Best. Lunch. Ever.

Hadnt thought about visiting the brewery had only been thinking about how quickly after landing i can start drinking granvile winter ale. Brewery is a good shout.

I can recommend the quality of the intensive care unit…

Will be there mainly as a break from riding up north so not going to bother riding the locals unless its a really nice night in which case will ride Grouse mountain at night.

?? Riding as in mountain bikes or riding as in snowboards?

There’s a country park with massive aerial walkways around there somewhere. Haven’t been myself but my brother and sister-in-law live there and we got them tickets for it last Christmas, and they said it was great. ‘Around there somewhere’ might be relative mind.

Granville Island. Walked there from gas town. Pub next to the ferry terminal in Gas Town is great.

Stanley Park is a must. Bike or skate hire is available.

Capilano suspension bridge

Do NOT have a romantic meal to end your honeymoon at a revolving restaurant if it makes your other half feel queasy eating on the move. 🙄

+1 Stanley Park
met this family there:

Granville island- shops, market, brewery etc
Gastown steamworks pub is good.
A wander round the seawall by the convention centre and seaplane terminal is nice for the views and info boards on the history.
Capilano is the park with suspension bridges etc which is cool.
Deep cove was one of my favourite places to head to relax- there is a great restaurant there- cant remember the name. Ditto horseshoe bay in the other direction. Not actually much in either place apart from nice views and cafes/ restaurants.

Granville and Robson streets if you want to go shopping (along with the underground pacific centre)

Go to Tomahawks in North Van for breakfast. AMAZING

Take the ferry to Vancouver Island, go into Victoria and visit the Royal British Columbia Museum and head straight for the native American section, which is outstanding.

If you were there after May and had four or five days to spare, you could walk the entire amazing West Coast trail, reckoned to be one of the best walking trails in the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Trail

Just come back from a short hol. Stanley Park and Granville Island are nice places to wander. We saw otters in Stanley Park (at the Lagoon) and bald eagles (though there are loads of them when you venture out of the city). The Grouse Grind will be closed, but I guess you know that. An alternative to Capilano is Lynn Canyon which is free but a lot smaller. Unfortunately February is out of season for whale watching, boats trips are still offered but no guarantees. There are also lots of museums (science, maritime, anthropology) if that’s your kind of thing. The aquarium is quite small but has ‘shows’ regularly and Beluga whales which is a rarity. And as suggested, you could do a brewpub tour of Gastown and Yaletown. If you have a few days, I would recommend the ferry to Swartz Bay, Victoria’s harbour is pretty and there is plenty of wildlife to see about.