It's a question that comes up frequently on Vancouver travel forums. Despite the countless warnings and words of advice, way too many visitors end up walking down Hastings to get to Chinatown. They are often found complaining about it after on sites like TripAdvisor. Then there are others who don't even make it to Chinatown. Upon venturing too far down Hastings, they turn around after encountering what they must think is a zombie apocalypse.
Hastings is a long street spanning 13 km (8 miles) from the luxurious Coal Harbour condos overlooking Stanley Park all the way east to the foot of SFU campus on Burnaby Mountain. Most of it's completely fine. In fact, Hastings is rather upscale through most of downtown Vancouver. Chanel has a boutique on Hastings & Hornby, for example. And outside of downtown it's a major commercial strip, including an up and coming neighbourhood.
But as you head east down Hastings from downtown, it does get more seedy and sketchy, especially once you get to the few blocks around Main Street where it's downright depressing, smelling of urine, and lots - and by that, hundreds - of drug addicted, mentally ill, and homeless people on the sidewalks. It's not a violent place and in all honesty, if you were to walk through there, you'd likely be ignored by the people hanging around there, but the biggest tip I can give you is to NEVER take Hastings to get to Chinatown.
Take Pender Street instead.
You can walk down Hastings to Abbott Street. Once at Abbott it's probably best to walk the block south to Pender and continue east down Pender. It's just after Pender and Abbott when you enter Chinatown - that's where the Chinatown gates are located.
Note that aside from the Chinatown Night Market, Chinatown is otherwise not a very vibrant place to be at by evening/night as most stores are closed, locked, and gated. It's best to visit in the morning or afternoon.
So if you're going to walk to Chinatown from downtown, do yourself a favour and take Pender Street.
Instead of celebrating Valentine's Day on the 14th, my significant other and I made the following day - Sunday, February 15th - our special day. The weather cooperated. Sunday was glorious, sunny, and warm. It was 8 degrees Celsius (or 46 degrees for the Fahrenheit fans). There was no doubt about it - it truly felt like spring.
In the early afternoon we took a taxi 10 minutes down Pacific Blvd from Yaletown to the West End's English Bay. We had brunch reservations for 2pm at the Raincity Grill - a local favourite, famous for its local 100-mile radius cuisine. We arrived a little early so we took 15 minutes to go for a quick walk.
We first walked north along Denman Street - a relatively short street connecting English Bay to Coal Harbour - famous for its tiny hole-in-the-wall eateries and cafes. The sidewalks were packed with people as if awakening from the winter blahs for the first time this season.
Denman Street tends to portray the more human side to the downtown Vancouver peninsula.
You have green grocers selling fruit, flowers, and vegetables...
The cutest teddybear ever giving away free cupcakes!
Local neighbourhood haunts like Central (formerly the Brass Monkey), Legendary Noodle, and Nat's New York Pizzeria.
Local city buses (electric trolleys, really) make the rounds... a large percentage of people in the West End rely exclusively on walking/public transit.
There are cheap greasy diners and casual ethnic restaurants. You just stroll a few blocks and take your pick of cuisines: Greek, Malaysian, Ukrainian, Korean, Mexican, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, North African, Italian, Middle Eastern, Indian, etc.
At its southern end, Denman intersects with Davie Street - the West End's major commercial strip also home to Davie Village - the core of Vancouver's gay community.
And because the area's the heart of a residential community, you have many out simply walking the dog.
We made our way back to the southern end of Denman Street, crossed Beach Avenue, and walked down to English Bay. English Bay is a favourite downtown waterfront of mine for a variety of reasons. Primarily, English Bay doesn't feel like downtown - it really doesn't feel like you're in a high density city at all despite being steps away from giant apartment towers. English Bay is where you have the city intersecting with the beach, the seawall, and the entrance to Stanley Park. With the restaurants, cafes, and general local community vibe happening just seconds away, it's hard not to like the area. And I haven't even talked about the sunsets or the view!
As always, when the sun shines, people are out at English Bay. They're found jogging, walking their dogs, rollerblading, longboarding, cycling around the seawall, and just enjoying the rare sunshine. Saying that, the sunshine hasn't really been so rare for us this February. I can only imagine what the world will think of next year when they arrive in Vancouver next February for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. I'm sure the great majority from elsewhere, possibly expecting the stereotypical cold arctic Canada winter, will instead stumble upon ... this?
The other night I made an "enhanced" map of Downtown Vancouver's neighbourhoods and districts, just for fun. (Yes, I make maps for fun)!
(Click to zoom in)
So why did I bother?
Downtown Vancouver has a variety of neighbourhoods and districts, but their boundaries are fluid and non-defined.
Visitors often inquire about the best places to stay in Vancouver, where they should visit, where they should avoid, etc. The responses vary of course, but my typical reply is something akin to this:
Best places to stay (in my opinion) are around Robson Street, by English Bay in the West End, in Yaletown, by Coal Harbour, or along False Creek.
While the cruise ship terminal is located at Canada Place, it tends to be more of a business district and pretty much a dead zone after 5pm, which is why I rarely recommend staying there. Plus, the hotels there tend to be overpriced.
Gastown and Chinatown are fine to visit during the morning or afternoon, but due to the proximity of the Downtown Eastside, it can be rather gritty and especially uninspiring at night. Chinatown especially closes down at night (with exception to its Night Market in the summer months). Definitely avoid that stretch of Hastings Street in the Downtown Eastside - it's not so much dangerous, but it's home to the city's drug addicts, homeless, and desolute.
If you can stay closer to the West End or Stanley Park as much as possible, you'll experience more of the local community/leisurely experience. Not only that, but there are beaches nearby and the seawall. The best sunset can be experienced from English Bay.
Robson Street (between Seymour and Bute) is home to the mainstream retail shopping and dining experience. Davie Village is the heart of the city's gay community in the West End and has many restaurants, shops, and services for the locals. Denman Street is great for hole-in-the-wall ethnic eateries. Granville Street (between Drake and Robson) is home to the city's generic nightclubs/cheap pizza joints/tattoo parlours/hostels/alternative shops... and tends to be a bit seedy, especially around Helmcken. Nightlife tends to cater to college kids. Don't stay there unless you want to be awake until 2am. Yaletown is great if you're after a more trendy, yuppy, upscale boutique shopping/dining experience - the nightlife there caters to 25+ age range.
But often these neighbourhoods aren't often depicted on maps, so people know where they should visit and where they should avoid, but they don't know what streets and intersections these neighbourhoods encompass.
So as a former geography student, I figure there was a need for a map that truly outlined these areas. Using Google Maps, I took the map into Photoshop and roughly outlined the core of these neighbourhoods.
Perhaps somebody out there will find it useful. :)
Kitsilano (aka "Kits") is a popular Vancouver neighbourhood. It's located south-west of downtown Vancouver and is bordered by Alma Street to the west, Burrard Street to the east, W 16th Avenue to the south, and Burrard Inlet to the north.
Kitsilano's neighbourhood boundary (in red)
Kits is often thought of as a trendy beachfront community which is home to many environmental and health conscious folk, yoga and fitness buffs, yuppies, university students, and middle class families. These are huge generalizations for sure, but you get the idea. And hey, David Suzuki lives there!
David Suzuki
Kits used to be the heart of Vancouver's hippy counter-culture in the late 1960's. While some places, like The Naam - a 24 hour vegetarian restaurant - are still around from that era, Kits has undergone a lot of gentrification since then. But if you're interested in Vancouver's hippy era, this video is slightly amusing:
Hippy culture in Vancouver, 1967
People like Kits because it's close to downtown but you don't have to deal with the noise or the hustle and bustle outside your bedroom window. While it has many small apartments, the residential side streets are mostly lined with beautiful houses with lush, mature gardens. In April the trees along the streets are in bloom with delightful pink cherry blossoms. The average Kits house sells for about $1,200,000 these days, but if that's too much, you can always rent a small basement suite for around $1000 a month.
I think Kitsilano really gives people a sense of what living in Vancouver is all about. Here are the places I think would be the most interesting to a visitor:
Kits Beach
Located along Cornwall Avenue, this is one of Vancouver's most popular beaches. In addition to the sandy beach, it has an outdoor swimming pool, beach volleyball nets, outdoor tennis courts, outdoor basketball courts, and lots of green space. It tends to be one of the busiest beaches in the summer months and can be a bit of a meat market as far as Vancouver's beach culture goes. It's an excellent people-watching location as it's a popular hangout for locals, especially on summer evenings - the sunsets are spectacular. And when you're feeling peckish, there are pubs, cafes, and restaurants across the street along Cornwall and Yew.
Kits Beach on an April afternoon
...and a sunset later that day
The pubs, cafes, and restaurants across the street
West 4th Avenue
This is the commercial heart of Kitsilano. It has a good selection of restaurants and boutiques, including some local institutions such as Zulu Records, Skull Skates, Duthie Books, and Bishop's. There are also some notable grocery options along W 4th including the locally-founded organic and natural foods specialty store, Capers Community Market. W 4th is also known for its cluster of snowboard and skateboard shops which are located just east of Burrard.
Vanier Park
This is a large and relatively nondescript grassy park immediately north-east of Kits Beach at the mouth of False Creek (the body of water that separates the downtown peninsula from Kitsilano). Vanier Park's home to three small museums which are worth visiting on a rainy day: the Vancouver Maritime Museum, the Vancouver Museum, and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (otherwise known as the Planetarium).
In the summer months Vanier Park hosts the annual Bard on the Beach Shakespeare festival. There's also a "dog beach" along the west side of Vanier Park where people can take their dogs off-leash (which is typically not permitted on city beaches otherwise). And for those venturing across False Creek, you can catch a water taxi from the dock at Vanier Park.
Vanier Park
Vanier Park's dog-friendly beach
West Broadway
This is the second commercial heart of Kits located along Broadway west of Macdonald. This particular stretch of Kitsilano feels more like a village in atmosphere, and since it's about 10 blocks away from the water, it lacks the beachy vibe. Because it's closer to UBC (and along a major bus route), it has a large student population. W Broadway is not as self-consciously trendy as W 4th, but that's precisely its charm.
What I like about this area is its slower pace and its mix of smaller, independently-owned boutiques and services. While there are some fantastic shops like the über high end men's boutique Mark James Clothing, and some great restaurants like the cozy and exotic East is East, I quite enjoy the neighbourhood's locally-owned bakeries, delis, and cafes. My favourites is Notte's Bon Ton Pastry & Confectionary which is possibly Vancouver's longest-running pastry shop. And finally, Kitsilano is the traditional home of Vancouver's Greek community, so you'll find a few Greek restaurants and speciality shops, like Parthenon Importers. In the summer, they close down entire blocks of Broadway so that the neighbourhood can hosts its annual Greek Day festival.
