Customer Reviews

What to Do in Downtown Vancouver: Map & Guide

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There just isn't a better way to experience Vancouver, it's like having your best friend, who happens to live in Vancouver, in your back pocket! Guiding you through all sorts of historical places and yummy eateries! Filled with useful hints, tips, and suggestions.

Thank you Pink Parrot's Maps ... now, can you do one for San Francisco, Seattle and ...?

My husband and I used this map during a recent weekend trip to Vancouver and absolutely loved it. It's really unusual. It's made by a local company and has lots of information on it that wasn't in my guidebook. Also all the info is in it's actual place on the map (rather than listed separately), so if you're visual like me, you don't have to cross reference to see what's near you. Fabulous! We followed the map's advice and had fantastic ramen at a tiny place called Kintaro, then rented bikes and rode all the way to Spanish Bank beach. The tide was out and we strolled on the beach watching skimboarders for hours. By the time we rode home we were tired (sad, I know!) and took a ferry back. Without the map we wouldn't have know you could bring bikes on the ferries. Then we had an excellent dinner at La Brasserie on Davie St. A perfect day! Over the next few days we tried several other restaurants from the map (O'Doul's for brunch, Guu with Garlic, Il Nido) and they were all great. Without the map, I doubt we would have found them. Highly recommended!

To me, the standard in useful downtown map guides in Canada have been the ones done by MapArt of Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. I tried to convince them that they needed to do a similar one of Vancouver, but it never happened. Now, Pink Parrot has filled that niche with an exceptionally nicely-done work. (I only wish that I had had it when I visited the city last August!) I'm hoping that they will be persuaded to do a similar publication on another nearby city that could use this treatment: Seattle.

We used this map and a Frommer's book for our first trip to Vancouver. The map is very large and easy to use. It was similar in style to some others we have used for Bangkok and Hong Kong. It is laid out so hotels are in one color, dining in another, shopping, sights etc. So it's convenient to figure out where you are and check around your immediate vicinity to see what's recommended.

Vancouver seemed to be all about dining and shopping. So every block most of downtown was filled with either. The map obviously doesn't mark every one (such as a Starbucks or Blenz-- Canadian Starbucks?-- which happen to be on every corner). But it does mark the ones recommended.

We tried out several restaurants, sights and were very satisfied with most of them.

However, we did spot one error in Chinatown. The location of the skinniest building was marked on the wrong side of the street. (Which btw, is not really worth seeking out this building bc it's attached to another big building so it doesn't really seem to be unique).

Overall, good map. Bit pricey... but easy to use. If you only have a few days in Vancouver, I would only take this as a guide.

Lastly, one side of the map has entire DT area. The other side has a detailed map of Stanley Park and Granville Island.