Bosc wrote:
So we are looking to head out West for a week, maybe a bit longer, in June. Likely Vancouver. What advice can you all give me for navigating Van with a 1.5 year old? How many days should I rent a car for and to see what?
Will also hopefully have a meetup once dates are finalized.
Looked into flying in Van, taking the Rocky Mountaineer to Banff and then flying home from Calgary. However, the Mountaineer is hideously expensive.
Really would need to know more about you and your wife Bosc.
1.If you're into hiking, the Grouse Grind is a great challenge, especially with a toddler but there are fit parents who do it all the time with child in back pack. Get to the top and have a beer and bite to eat on the deck looking over the city.
2. A little less physically demanding would be a bike rental and ride around Stanley Park.
3. Coffee and whatever for brunch at Granville Island.
4. Most definitely drive the Sea to Sky highway listed by AAA as one of the 5 best drives in North America. If you want you can do the circle tour through Whistler, Lillooet, Fraser Canyon (Hells Gate) then back to Vancouver or out to the Okanogan (cherry season, wine country)
5. Circle tour, Vancouver to Victoria, then to Nanaimo to Tofino and long beach (make sure to stop at Cathedral Grove and the (Maclean Sawmill and train trip is a great half day in Port Alberni). Depending on how much time you have you can go back to Vancouver from Nanaimo or head up island to Comox and cross on the ferry there and tour down the sunshine coast. If you do the longer route see if you can time the tides in Skookumchuk narrows.
Vancouver is an outdoor city so I'm a bit stumped what to recommend to do with a 1.5 year old which is why I lean towards suggesting the two possible circle tours. In Whistler drop the kid in day care and mountain bike down the mountain all day, lots of other stuff as well.
If you wanted to say the hell with Vancouver, you could put both of those trips together and get to view 5 really distinct areas in BC. Vancouver Island (crazy huge rain forest), coastal mountains, interior, Okanogan (desert) and the Fraser Valley.
Or drive to Calgary, lots of options on that one I can discuss with you.