VISITING VANCOUVER
I had fun visiting Vancouver, for some of the same reasons I enjoy visiting Holland and Europe. The people there are more relaxed than in the United States. Public transit is efficient, safe, and used by everyone. There are more tourist things to do than any one person could ever hope to cover, and the marine setting is beautiful. Because of it's age, Vancouver has some interesting older buildings, too. In some areas the architecture is remniscient of Europe.
Vancouver's location and geography make it splendid: the land is still forested in places, and the surrounding waterways, rivers, and ocean give the city a feel similar to Seattle. The city lies in a temperate Northwest climate zone.
Though it rains almost every day in Vancouver, the rain usually comes in and goes within a few hours, leaving some dry weather during the day. If you don't like rain, don't come here on vacation. Period. You can never expect to avoid it -- lucky for me I love being outdoors in the rain. Unfortunately rain and camera don't go together - either bring a waterproof backup camera, or be prepared to deal with rain when using a camera or camcorder.
When in downtown, if your not there for the pot scene, then you should avoid the eastern half of downtown, especially near the transportation terminal. More speficially, the areas of Blunt Bros, The Amsterdam Cafe, and the Cambie hostel are place to go only if you have a reason. A better place for tourists is Robson Street. On the Northwest end of Robson (by Denman I think?) is a Safeware, a 7-11, a place for Internet access, and around the corner on Denman is a good mongolian BBQ restaurant.
On Robson somewhere up by Burrard is the Vancouver Art Musuem, which was really neat. They were having a portrait show in August 99, and I loved the Dutch impressionist portraits.
Also I went to a Shakespeare play, Measure for Measure, which was put on in Vanier Park. This is across from downtown, and the park also has a marine museum and a planetarium with rock shows, for those so inclined.
I hope to add more formalized tourist information sometime in the future. For now, a good link to look at is:
DISCOVER VANCOUVER -- http://www.discovervancouver.com/ -- general tourist site, has a bulletin board, but not nearly as good as the Channels Amsterdam Forum
A good side trip would be:
Another good side trip is Northwest of Vancouver. Whistler is a ski resort, I didn't go there but I imagine it's a Canadian Vail.