Ever since my laptop ran out of battery at the coffee shop in Seattle I have been meaning to pull together a few thoughts on Vancouver and my time there. The first thing to note about
Vancouver and Canada is that it isn't that different from the US. They've
definitely been buying road signage in bulk to give the place that all-American feel, and I have already blogged on the domination of US television.
The city of Vancouver itself is a nice city with plenty of green areas and some great views. It is undergoing a lot of development currently - it has the Winter Olympics in 2010 and related to this there is a lot of building going on. How much of it is
officially related, and how much is purely private development I do not know, however it certainly felt like there would be a much bigger legacy in Vancouver (for doubtless a smaller investment) than it looks like there will be for all the money being spent in London. There will even be a new line on the
Skytrain which goes out to the airport. The
Skytrain sounds exciting, but generally is just a version of the
Docklands Light Railway. Ticketing is
fairly inexpensive
compared to London - $2.50 for a one zone ticket which is totally
transferable between train, bus and boat within a 90 minute period - quite impressive.
As for my trip there I had a good time. Despite it being a very last minute arrangement, the hotel - Park Inn & Suites - was quite comfortable for what I paid although I would have appreciated an armchair in the room. Whilst the location wasn't downtown, it was walkable if you wanted and as noted above public transport was quite good. It was also on the right side for areas such as Granville Island which was probably my favourite place of the places I visited. Overall I think I had the right amount of time there - whilst there were other places to visit around and about (I could have gone further out) I had plenty of time to see that which I wanted to see.
Ever since my laptop ran out of battery at the coffee shop in Seattle I have been meaning to pull together a few thoughts on Vancouver and my time there. The first thing to note about Vancouver and Canada is that it isn't that different from the US. They've definitely been buying road signage in bulk to give the place that all-American feel, and I have already blogged on the domination of US television.
The city of Vancouver itself is a nice city with plenty of green areas and some great views. It is undergoing a lot of development currently - it has the Winter Olympics in 2010 and related to this there is a lot of building going on. How much of it is officially related, and how much is purely private development I do not know, however it certainly felt like there would be a much bigger legacy in Vancouver (for doubtless a smaller investment) than it looks like there will be for all the money being spent in London. There will even be a new line on the Skytrain which goes out to the airport. The Skytrain sounds exciting, but generally is just a version of the Docklands Light Railway. Ticketing is fairly inexpensive compared to London - $2.50 for a one zone ticket which is totally transferable between train, bus and boat within a 90 minute period - quite impressive.
As for my trip there I had a good time. Despite it being a very last minute arrangement, the hotel - Park Inn & Suites - was quite comfortable for what I paid although I would have appreciated an armchair in the room. Whilst the location wasn't downtown, it was walkable if you wanted and as noted above public transport was quite good. It was also on the right side for areas such as Granville Island which was probably my favourite place of the places I visited. Overall I think I had the right amount of time there - whilst there were other places to visit around and about (I could have gone further out) I had plenty of time to see that which I wanted to see. 
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