Vancouver

[Tamara]

Don't forget that I live here and am very willing to help Alaska bound CruiseCrazies with anything to do with the city. (shopping and restaurants a specialty!)

[sailingrose]

Oh Tamara my daughter is in love with your city. Its the only reason she'd agree to do another alaska cruise! LOL. We have spent many wonderful days there and enjoyed each and everyone........well, not the trip into Chinatown. Pretty scary place even in the daytime.

I'll be back there again as I love Alaskan cruising but we'll be sure to stay a few days in Vancouver if my DD comes.

Nice of you to offer help to others.

[Tamara]

Chinatown is...interesting. I think Chinatowns in many cities are not in themselves scary, but are often near sort of not the best places in town.

Vancouver, as with many port cities and large cities, is plagued by problems with drugs. Our Downtown Eastside has the poorest population in Canada. In the city with the highest real estate prices and living costs in Canads, you can imagine what sort of contrasts we have here.

My bus home from downtown passes through Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside, and I often see people that are obviously tourists that have taken a wrong turn and wound up in not the greatest neighbourhood! Clutching their bags and looking bewildered and a bit panicky. It's an edgy place, to be sure, but not at all like some boroughs in large cities where you are definitely in danger if you find yourself lost there.

Chinatown used to be the only place to get a real Chinese meal. Now that we have such a large Chinese population here, you don't need to go to Chinatown for the real thing. Still, it's worth a visit. In the daytime.

[scapel]

We really enjoyed Scozzies

[Tamara]

Scoozie's is great, glad you found it. I always enjoyed having lunch there when I worked downtown.

[hazelson]

I live in Vancouver too - well more on the outskirts. My DH works right downtown and comes home with some real horror stories - but I imagine it is the same pretty much anywhere. It is a beautiful spot though - great scenery, fabulous people(Tamara and I for sure!!!) and sometimes it doesn't even rain lol - TTFN Jennifer

[Tamara]

Yes, Jennifer and I are definitely two of the highlights of the city!

There is a very easy way to predict the weather in Vancouver. If you can't see the mountains, it's raining. If you can see the mountains, it's going to rain.

[gogetter]

Hello,

Good for you Tamara.........

I too offered any help or rides to people coming to Port Canaveral. basically in general the feeling was not to impose. They said they would feel bad for asking.

they didn't have to ...i offered. Big difference in my book. So i took it personally. Dang i have been around a few boards for quite a while now. People may have some sort of idea about others on the boards.....

I really wanted to do it so i could get an idea for starting some kind of shuttle service ..exclusively to the port.....my marketing test failed......i better keep my night job. If people want to pay extra money............. :grin:

[Tamara]

I definitely wasn't offering to shuttle people around, especially since I take the bus everywhere!

I do think it's helpful for people to be able to ask someone that lives in a destination city about hotels, restaurants, activities, etc.

Glossy brochures present hotels as all being bits of paradise, when in fact a local might know that certain hotels are not that great, have reputations for certain activities, etc.

People might hear about the newest, expensive "in" restaurant, when a local might know that there is a little out-of-the way place that has been around for ever and serves better food than any trendy spot.

Travel books might tell you about the best shopping areas - places that locals would probably stay away from. For example, in Vancouver, Robson Street is on the "must-see" list. There are at least a half dozen more interesting places to shop that you may not read about.

That's the sort of information that I always appreciate getting from locals when I travel and is the sort of thing that I'm very willing to share here for people that are travelling to Vancouver.