Lonely Planet Vancouver (City Guide) [Paperback]

John Lee (Author)

Book Description

Series: City Guide | Publication Date: April 1, 2008

Discover Vancouver

Go out on a limb and step onto the world's longest, highest suspension bridge
Mingle with myriad local artists as you make your way around the studios of Granville and Salt Spring Islands
Claim a spot on a Commercial Drive patio and introduce your tastebuds to some standout BC beers
Glide through reflections of mountains and glass towers on a sunset kayak tour of English Bay

In This Guide:

One resident author, 500 hours of research, 31 detailed maps, 39 bars tested and reviewed
Special Green Vancouver chapter to help you plan an eco-friendly visit to the city
The inside work on the hotel, dining and music scenes, from locals in the know
Content updated daily - visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler insights

Editorial Reviews

Review

Lonely Planet guidebooks are, quite simply, like no others.' --New York Times

From the Publisher

Who We Are
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travelers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.

What We Do
* We offer travelers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
*We update our guidebooks by visiting thousands of places in person to get the details right and tell it as it is.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travelers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travelers; not clouded by any other motive.

What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 4 edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740598369
• ISBN-13: 978-1740598361
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #371,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > Travel > Canada > Cities > Vancouver
  • #54 in Books > Travel > Canada > Provinces > British Columbia

More About the Author

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This guide consistenly failed on its recommendations, July 22, 2010

By 

M. Somerville "Enjoying Life" (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Vancouver (City Guide) (Paperback)

We just recently made a 2 night/ 3 day trip to Vancouver from Seattle. We pretty much depended on this guide 100%, having not really planned a great deal until the day before our trip (we planned using the book on the 4 hour Amtrak ride up). I'll break down my review by reasons NOT to buy this book.

Reasons not to buy this book:
1) It's outdated. Twice, we traveled to two recommendations that no longer provided what the book explained it would. We tried going to one of its restaurant recommendations - Social at Le Magasin, which turned out to have closed down. Second, the book recommend we pick up sandwiches at this one restaurants to-go window on our way to Stanley Park and it turned out the place only sold fish and chips. Fortunately, we Yelped a great delicattessan nearby (that the guide did not mention at all).

2) It's restaurant reviews are awful. For our main restaurant outing in Vancouver, we decided on the books recommendation of Goldfish - a "$$-$$$" place with supposedly great food. First off, the place was extremely pricey, second, the food was horrible. At least the wine was good. Then, again, we went to one of its recommendations on Granville Island called Bridges. This place turned out to be a complete tourist trap with over-priced crap. I realized, when sinking my teeth into wiggly "fried" calamari that everyone there was a tourist. Later, we realized there was a fantastic public market nearby with all kinds of wonderful food. This guide tends to recommend restaurants that are VISIBLE, not necessarily good places.

3) It just doesn't print a good picture of Vancouver. It consistently states that you can spend the better part of the day in certain places (Granville island for example), and that just isn't true. Granville island can be done in 3 hours while moving at a snail's pace. Also, it never warned us about the panhandlers in Gastown and Chinatown. We're from San Francisco and don't mind bums asking for money, but they could have warned us that this Canadian panhandlers would jump into a story and end it with a request for a loaf of bread and peanut butter. If the guide had warned us, we wouldn't have spent time listening to this random stranger and would have told him off. C'mon! 500 hours of research and you never mention this to an unsuspecting traveler? 500 hours of research my a**!

I was going to end the review here, but I will say SOME good things about it.

It lead me to Irish Heather (a cool pub)and recommended riding bikes in Stanley Park. Those are the only two good things it lead us to.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Upbeat take on the city, March 1, 2010

By 

Inabeth Vonn (Renton, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Vancouver (City Guide) (Paperback)

As other reviewers mentioned, this guide is disorganized but we used it more for their overall opinion of the city and used plenty of their recommendations for must sees. For the price, it did its thing.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You do it again Lonely Planet!, May 18, 2010

By 

Katrina A. Kaszpurenko "kkasz" (Durango, CO 81301) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lonely Planet Vancouver (City Guide) (Paperback)

I LOVE the Lonely Planet, I think they do amazing country guides when traveling, I swear by these books! I was pleasantly surprised to learn they do many city guides and equally so when I saw Vancouver, BC was one of them--perfect timing for my upcoming trip!

The guide was well-written, easy to follow and was clearly composed by someone who has spent an enormous amount of time in the area. All the recommendations were spot-on: restaurants, walking tours, recommended activities.

What more can I say then, The Lonely Planet--You succeeded once again!