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Go Canada!

Seven tips for visiting Vancouver, B.C.

Croissants and a latte at Beacoup Bakery & Café. Photo credit: Christian Carvajal

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For some of our readers, international travel may seem cost-prohibitive. A car trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, however, is well within most budgets, assuming you know a few economizing tips.

Tip #1
If you drive your own car, Vancouver's just shy of three hours north of Lakewood. You'll need a passport or enhanced driver's license to cross the border. Don't bring guns, pepper spray or a Taser. Canada's gun laws are stricter than ours, so your property could be confiscated and never returned.

Tip #2
There are gorgeous hotels in Vancouver, but I saved serious bank by using AirBnB. It's a great way to make instant friends, too, who love their hometown and offer smart recommendations of their own.

Tip #3

Buy Canadian money from your bank before you leave. Take several loonies ($1 coins) and toonies ($2 coins), as you won't have one of the cards Canadians use for parking meters. When you arrive in the city, you'll find it looks and feels much like Seattle, with Northwestern cloud cover but its own eye-popping architecture. Flashing green traffic lights mean "go but be careful," as there may be pedestrians in the street. (There are usually pedestrians in the street.) Vancouver's relatively compact, but each trip requires a number of scary left turns.

Tip #4
Meet your hosts and drop off your bags. Then, visit Granville Island in the center of town. It'll help you get acclimatized and remind you of Pike Place Market, with its exceptional bakeries, fruit stalls and restaurants. While you're in this touristy area, check out the fine art galleries, especially Crafthouse and Equinox.

Tip #5
For lunch, it's tough to beat Meat & Bread (370 Cambie St.) with its killer porchetta sandwich. For dinner, there's no better restaurant in town than Vij's (1480 W. 11th Ave.), home of Amritsar-born Vikram Vij. If, however, that internationally-revered destination restaurant's out of your price range, despair not: Vij runs a more affordable eatery, Rangoli's, just a few doors down. If you're in Chinatown - and by the way, Vancouver's so ethnically blended you may not realize you're there - enjoy the dim sum and hubbub of Kirin Seafood Restaurant (201-555 W. 12th Ave.) or Hon's Wun-Tun House (1339 Robson). The next morning, line up with the locals at Beaucoup Bakery & Café (2150 Fir St.) Simply put, this small boulangerie is doing the Lord's work by crafting the finest croissant in the Pacific Northwest.

Tip #6
Take a roll for the road and start seeing the sights. The unfortunately-acronymed Vancouver Art Gallery (750 Hornby St.) is well worth your time, with major works by Marc Chagall and Canadian modernist Emily Carr. The Vancouver Aquarium hosts tens of thousands of critters from belugas to glowing jellies. My wife was enamored with Walter, a blind rescue otter. Take a stroll through Gastown and have your picture taken in front of the famous steam clock. The view from the Stanley Park seafront can be absolutely magical, with the Lions Gate Bridge stretching over a mile into North Vancouver. I met one of Canada's famously friendly citizens there, who offered unsolicited directions to the nude beach (Wreck Beach, if you're curious) and regaled me with stories of her libertine youth in Amsterdam.

Tip #7
Budget permitting, you could try a harbor cruise, a horse-drawn tour of Stanley Park, the infotaining Science World and OMNIMAX Theatre, or the multisensory attraction FlyOver Canada. Popular outdoor activities include the 230-foot-high Capilano Suspension Bridge, Grouse Mountain aerial tram, and Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival. To relax afterward, grab an Okanagan Springs lager at the Local Public Eatery (2210 Cornwall Ave.) and settle in for a Canucks game. You'll feel like a seasoned world traveler in no time.

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