I know, this post on Rishil and my vacation from July is embarrassingly late. It’s no longer summer (or fall for that matter); holiday parties are in full swing, the thermostat reads 35 degrees when I leave for work in the morning, and daylight is dwindling every day. In a way, I’m glad I waited to post this so I can remember what a great summer we had, and hopefully you all take a few minutes to relive any vacations you had.
I contemplated keeping Vancouver to ourselves and not taking the many hours it usually takes to write up a post on everything we did, but then I remembered the baskets of fresh fruit from Granville market, the bike ride along Stanley Park through staggering trees, the most invigorating massage I’ve ever had, and the jaw droppingly beautiful train ride from Vancouver to Seattle, and I knew I couldn’t not share this. The itineraries take us so long to plan, so if you’re considering traveling to Vancouver we’ve got you covered with every activity you could want!
Rishil and I arrived in Vancouver after a short flight from Portland, and went straight to our Airbnb downtown. I think if we were to do it again we would have stayed in Gastown (more on that later), but our downtown apartment was centrally located so we had no complaints.
For our first day in the City we walked to Granville Island, since Rishil learned that they are known for a massive market.
We arrived at Granville Island Public Market and found fresh pasta, exotic fruits, flowers, and my personal favorite, the salmon jerky. Do not leave without trying this! The salmon candy may sound bizarre, but it’s the perfect combination of sweet and salty.
The restaurants inside the market are amazing as well. This platter of German sausage, pierogies, and sauerkraut filled us up for an adventure packed day ahead.
Next we cabbed over to the gorgeous (and massive) Stanley Park. There’s a bike rental app available, which I highly recommend, as we were able to bike around the island and see everything on our list.
There’s a bike path that goes around the entire island, so we took that the majority of the way around and were rewarded with incredible beachfront views. We took another path into the center of the park to see the trees and head for happy hour (surprise surprise).
This also gave Rishil a chance to show off his sweet moves on the bike, please see above.
We biked over to the Rose Garden inside the park, spent a few minutes there, and then had happy hour at Stanley’s Bar and Grill.
After a beer we were hungry and biked over to Miku for dinner since we saw it had fantastic reviews.
They’re known for their pressed sushi and the green tea opera cake, but unfortunately the former didn’t impress us. The pressed sushi had the rice to fish ratio as way off, but the green tea cake was definitely worth trying.
There’s also fantastic waterfront views if you happen to get a table by the window.
We decided to explore Vancouver a little more and head to Gastown for a night cap. Gastown is known for the steam clock, and has an impressive selection of cocktail bars.
We went to The Diamond and enjoyed the view while sipping on cachaca with pineapple and jalapeno honey, but if you’re in the area also check out Prohibition and Revel Room. After a very full day we dragged ourselves home and slept very well!
The next morning we grabbed an acai bowl and decided to follow up on our pact we made in New York City to try a massage place in every new place we visit. So, after a quick search we ended up at Leelawadee Thai Spa.
We decided on a couples Thai massage and it was heavenly. The Thai women who performed our massages were so kind, and it was the best blend of traditional massage as well as stretching. We emerged blissfully relaxed and ready for a snack.
Rishil and I love oysters (especially happy hour deals!) so we walked over to Fanny Bay Oyster Bar and had the best time with the bartender learning about the differences between the different kind of oysters. He taught us about shell shape, color, how to shuck them, and what we should be tasting with each kind.
Oysters, fries, and wine, what more could you want?? By this point it was about time for us to take the train to Seattle, so we rounded up our bags and headed to the Amtrak station.
The train ride was honestly one of the highlights of our trip. I’ve never seen views like that and getting to experience them as the sun set was magical. If you can, ask for a seat on the right side of the train so you too can experience them.
PS, I love this picture of Rishil ^^
As the sun finally set, we pulled into the Seattle train station sleepy but ready for our next adventure!
For those of you that have been to Vancouver, have you tried the things on our itinerary? Was there anything we should go back to try?