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Travel Guide: Vancouver
Picking the best hotel location
This page helps you pick the best hotel location in Vancouver, BC.
You find out the pros and cons of various Vancouver neighborhoods with an emphasis on convenience and cost.
Your choices include
Vancouver International Airport
Priceline Vancouver Zone
Hotwire Downtown Vancouver West
Hotwire Downtown Vancouver Entertainment District
Hotwire Vancouver South
Coquitlam – Burnaby
Hotwire North Vancouver
Maps
Clicking on Priceline.com Hotels gives you general maps of the Vancouver city center and nearby hotel zones. Type in "Vancouver, Canada" and any future date. For Hotwire's neighborhoods, click on Hotwire.com
and also type in "Vancouver, Canada" and any future date. For individual maps, click on "Area details" or "See details."
Hotels.com offers specific hotel information and photos.
Vancouver International Airport - Richmond
If cheap is your mantra, the hotels around Vancouver International Airport in Richmond offer by far the best prices in the Vancouver area for comparable quality.
When checking for discounts on Hotwire.com, you may wonder how can these hotels be any good?
They are. It's just a matter of too many hotel rooms built for too few guests.
Typical hotels include the 4-star Marriott Vancouver Airport and 3-star Delta Vancouver Airport.
Airport hotels are a particularly good choice for auto travelers, as you avoid high downtown parking fees, yet have easy access to Vancouver Island ferries.
However, decide carefully before staying at Vancouver Airport.
The airport puts you some eight miles away from most Vancouver sightseeing, and no freeway connects you.
Priceline Vancouver zone
This area gives you best access to sightseeing, fine dining, entertainment, and shopping.
Priceline.com's "Vancouver" zone includes the city center and several immediately adjacent areas. With few exceptions, Vancouver's downtown is vibrant, clean, and reasonably safe.
Most Vancouver regular hotels (deluxe, first class, and moderately priced) are in this area, but not its less expensive motels.
The majority of hotels are in the northwest portion of this district, either in the very center of downtown or toward Stanley Park. Both areas are excellent.
Typical priceline Hotel hotels include the Westin Bayshore Resort & Marina and the less expensive Coast Plaza Suite Hotel, both near Stanley Park.
Nearer to the downtown core, you find the Hyatt Regency Vancouver, the Residence Inn Vancouver by Marriott, the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre, and the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel.
All of these are within walking distance of attractions and a short drive from the cruise terminals.
A few hotels—south of False Creek, the southern boundary of the core—put you within walking distance of the Granville Island Market and a short distance from Kits Beach and the famed VanDusen Botanical Gardens.
Hotwire Downtown Vancouver West
Hotwire.com divides the priceline.com Vancouver zone into three areas.
Hotwire's Downtown Vancouver West includes many of the city’s best hotels and most of its finest shops. This area takes in much of the city center and the area adjacent to beautiful Stanley Park.
Two hotels here are the Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Hotel (the former Delta Pennacle Hotel Vancouver) and the Hyatt Regency Vancouver.
Overall, this makes a very uplifting and convenient neighborhood and an excellent choice for your Vancouver trip.
Hotwire Downtown Vancouver Entertainment District
Hotwire's Downtown Vancouver Entertainment District includes the eastern half of the downtown business core, Chinatown, the combo Via Rail, Amtrak, and Greyhound terminal, and a large area of former warehouses called Yaletown converted into trendy restaurants and clubs.Portions of this area have adult entertainment and other non family friendly influences.
However, nearly all hotels here such as the the Westin Grand—used by both Hotwire and priceline.com—are actually in the downtown business core, not in the "club zone" (although they are close).
Hotels in this zone are reasonably convenient to places in Vancouver West.
Hotwire Vancouver South
Although Vancouver South is the least convenient of the three zones, you are nevertheless close to the downtown core and many of Vancouver's main tourist sites.There are relatively few hotels in this largely residential area and no truly luxury ones. Parking is less expensive here.
Nearby, you find the Granville Island farmer's market and restaurants and Vancouver's outstanding VanDusen Botanical Gardens.
NOTE: Vancouver residents never call this area Vancouver South. To them, South Vancouver means the very southern edge of the city, near the airport.
Save up to 75% on 4-star Vancouver hotels!
Save up to 75% on 4-star Whistler hotels!
Coquitlam - Burnaby
The Coquitlam and Burnaby zone also includes an area of less expensive motels and motor inns in the eastern part of the city of Vancouver.Burnaby has numerous corporate headquarters and the first class business-oriented hotels that go with them.
Because Vancouver lacks an extensive rapid transit system and no freeways penetrate the city, getting around can be time consuming in stop-and-go traffic.
Therefore, although you may save money booking in this zone, you spend considerable extra time commuting to what you want to see, especially if you end up in Coquitlam or much of Burnaby.
There's little of interest to tourists in this area, but again you can save money, and parking is usually free.
Hotwire North Vancouver
Directly across the harbor from downtown Vancouver, North Vancouver is not as convenient as it may seem on a map.Just one bridge links you directly to downtown Vancouver, and this becomes frequently clogged even on weekends. Moreover, no rapid transit connects you to the city center, although there is a passenger ferry.
North Vancouver does offer the most convenient access from the Vancouver area to the Whistler ski area. It is a very pleasant town.
A word about Hotwire and priceline.com
You CAN stay in the best neighborhoods and at quality hotels. There are two easy ways to reduce the cost of Vancouver accommodation and these are Hotwire and priceline.com.
Your savings can be fantastic.
With Hotwire.com and Priceline.com Hotels
, you pick a star-quality range in a neighborhood. This feature works well since most people want particular amenities, price, and neighborhood, rather than a specific hotel.
Learn more about bidding on priceline.com. You can reserve up to 6:00 p.m. Pacific time, if hotels are not sold out.
If you need to choose a specific hotel, Hotels.com offers excellent discounts in Vancouver.
Have a super trip!
