What's the best way to walk to Chinatown from downtown Vancouver?

Hastings = Bad.
Pender = Good.

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.

Robson Street

Robson Street is often promoted in tourism literature as Vancouver's Rodeo Drive, a tired cliché if there ever was one. This ain't Beverly Hills, but it's consumerism at its finest. Robson Street is Vancouver's outdoor shopping mall... with traffic.

Robson Street by night

Robson Street is located in the heart of downtown Vancouver and is arguably its most famous shopping district. With this kind of reputation, Robson has a lot to live up to. However, context is key.

While Robson is glamorous compared to suburban shopping malls, it can be generic and underwhelming to those that already live in large cities. While Robson's peppered with Canadian retail chains like RW&CO. and Aritzia, and even fewer independent shops like El Kartel and Plen+y, the majority of Robson consists of global retail chains like Bebe, Club Monaco, The Gap, Armani Exchange, Zara, HMV, Lush, Tommy Hilfigger, H20, Levis, FCUK, BCBG, Banana Republic, Esprit, Aldo, La Senza, The Body Shop, American Eagle Outfitters, Guess, Nike, etc. Only along the side streets around Burrard and Alberni does shopping go haute couture and you begin to find boutiques for Lacoste, Coach, Louis Vuitton, Betsey Johnson, Gucci, L'Occitaine, Tiffany & Co., and Hermès.

Robson Street is certainly not the be all end all to shopping districts in Vancouver. If you're looking for a unique only in Vancouver experience, Robson won't give you that. As far as local character is concerned, it is probably the shopping district with the least. Of course, it wasn't always this way. Robson Street once used to be a residential street flecked with German delis and shops. Prior to the 1990's, the area was called Robsonstrasse - a name you can sometimes still find on outdated maps. However, the German characteristics have disappeared entirely and have been replaced by what I described above.

There is a bit of a "see and be seen" element to Robson Street, especially on evenings and weekends. And it is not unusual to spot suburban kids driving their souped-up Hondas along Robson on Friday nights. The demographic is definitely a mixture of tourists and locals window shopping and seeking a night on the town. After all, many of Vancouver's popular restaurants such as Cin Cin and Joe Fortes are located on Robson. Even the trendy Canadian restaurant chains like Earls, Cactus Club, Moxie's, and Milestones have prime Robson locations.

Savvy locals wanting to get from point A to point B typically avoid walking down Robson. It's nearly impossible to walk down its sidewalks without tripping over the ankles of lollygagging window shoppers. Driving down Robson is no better.

For others, Robson Street represents soulless gentrification and mainstream commercialism devoid of community spirit. There are even blogs devoted to showing people that there is life to Vancouver beyond Robson.

But Robson's not necessarily all about shopping.

You can almost break Robson Street down into 4 distinct areas. I've created a map which should help illustrate my points. You can see that I've highlighted Robson Street its entirety in red.

Click to zoom in

So far I've only really talked about Robson's shopping district which exists between Seymour and Bute. I've highlighted this part in a darker red on my map. As you head west of Bute Street, you notice that the big name retail chains disappear and are replaced by hotels, small restaurants, and cafes. In fact, it almost feels like a local neighbourhood! There are grocery stores, tiny Asian specialty shops, and ethnic eateries. Even some of Vancouver's famed izakaya restaurants like Hapa Izakaya, Gyoza King, and Guu with Garlic are located down this way.

Robson's restaurants and cafes are in abundance all the way until Denman Street. While Denman Street continues this trend, if you head west down Robson for the remaining blocks, you realize that it's essentially 100% residential with older apartment towers and beautiful mature trees - a far cry from the shopping frenzy many blocks up. At the very western end of Robson is Stanley Park.

Now if you were to walk east of Robson's shopping district, you'd notice that the feeling changes. While there are still stores, the vibe is less in-your-face shopping but instead more businessy. Robson east of Seymour is home to a mixture of office towers, residential condos, and hotels. Some may argue that it's the north end of Yaletown. You can find grocery stores like IGA Marketplace and the Korean H-Mart along this part of Robson. The east end of Robson's also home to a few of Vancouver's landmarks such as the Moshe Safdie designed Vancouver Public Library Central Branch, and at the very end of Robson Street at Beatty, BC Place.

Kitsilano: a neighbourhood overview

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.