Vancouver 6 (inglés) (Lonely Planet) Paperback – February 27, 2014

I find reviews most useful when I have an idea of where the reviewer is coming from, so here goes. I’ve been traveling all over the worldmostly solo, since the early 1990s, and first began using the Lonely Planet series in 1991. Since the steep deterioration in quality in LP in the last 5 or 10 years, my preferred guides have been Rough Guides or, if available, Blue Guides. That should give you an idea of my traveling style. I had heard good things about this book, so I decided to give it a try, and I used this book for an eight-day solo trip to Vancouver in July 2014. I find Amazon sometimes tends to lump reviews of different editions of a book together, so I want to make it clear that this review is only for the 2014 6th edition of the book. Warning, this is a very long review!Overall: For those of you who mourn the days of the old Lonely Planets, full of useful info and great maps and actual content, as opposed to the watered-down stuff they’re putting out these days, I am happily here to tell you that this one is kind of a throwback to the old days. Well done Mr. Lee!Hotels. I was using hotel frequent-stay points for my trip, so my choice of hotel was constrained, and I didn’t use this section at all.Restaurants. Wo! For about 75-80% of my meals on this trip, I used Lee’s recommendations, and this was the best I’ve ever eaten on any trip, ever (including Paris :-). I was mainly eating in the low-budget end of things for two reasons. First, I was traveling alone, and I don’t enjoy lengthy “fine dining” when I’m by myself. Second, I love street food and ethnic “everyday” food, and Lee made it clear there were great choices in this category. He was right. I went outside my usual comfort zone and ate things I would normally never eat. Every place he recommended, I had an outstanding meal. (One of the best meals I had on the entire trip was from the Railway Express food truck.) Important note: if Lee says that a certain restaurant is busy, hard to get into, etc., at a certain time of day - he’s right! Go at a different time if you don’t want to wait.Transport. A nice clear subway map is included, along with some of the bus routes you’re mostly likely to take (though by no means all of them). The directions for getting from the airport to downtown using public transportation were spot-on. In July 2014, Vancouver had not yet converted to the Compass system, so this area will change quite a bit as soon as that happens. Bus directions were generally good.Neighborhoods/maps. Vancouver doesn’t really have a lot of “sights” - it’s mainly an outdoorsy city, great for walking and hiking and exploration of neighborhoods. I did quite a few of Lee’s recommended walks, and loved the various neighborhoods that he recommended. There aren’t really things to “see” in neighborhoods such as Kitsilano, Main Street, etc. - just shops and restaurants and cafes, and in some cases, interesting houses - but it’s fun to explore, and he included the nice detailed block-level maps that used to be standard in LPs but have all but disappeared from them these days. The tear-out map was good as well, but really only covered the core city. Some of the maps were a little tricky to use as you had to flip back and forth between different maps, the legend and the map, etc. - I’d recommend putting legends on the same page as the map they’re for.Sights. That said, there are a few sights, and Lee makes sure you know what they are and (for the most part) how to get to them. Where he became suddenly and uncharacteristically kind of vague was on how to get to the Museum of Anthropology. Here is how. Take a Canada Line train to City Hall/Broadway. Get on a 99B bus (express bus) at the corner of Cambie and Broadway. DO NOT get on a 9 bus (local) or it will take you all day (it’s slow enough with the 99B). The 99B and the 9 buses both stop in the same general area but NOT necessarily at the same place. Check the signs to make sure you have the right stop; they are clearly labeled. Take the 99B west to the end of the line, which is at a bus parking/staging area near the northeast corner of campus (“UBC Bus Loop”). Either get on a campus shuttle there, or, start walking, bearing generally to the northwest. There are maps posted all over campus - keep checking them if you don’t have a good sense of direction. (I walked west down Student Union Blvd (south of the North Parkade), then bore north on East Mall, west on Crescent Road, north through the UBC Rose Garden (lovely! look for the flagpole with the Canadian flag on it), and down a bunch of steps to Marine Drive - museum is just to your left from there.) Eventually you will hit a busy perimeter road (Marine Drive) along the north side of campus. The MOA is on the north side of this road. It’s about a 15-minute walk from the bus parking area. Lee’s descriptions of the sights are good, and I found the practical info on the sights (such as opening/closing hours) to be excellent.Style. Ah yes, the days when LP had style! Lee has a quite distinctive style, and you may love it, or not. He has some favorite words, and you’ll be reading them again and again, and again. If any of the following list annoys you, you might want to select a different guidebook: Cool, fave, ‘hood, hipsters, indie, “cheap and cheerful”, perfect, scene, smashing, and... especially, “locals”. “Local” or “locals” shows up on just about every page, sometimes more than once. Typical phrases: “...neighborhood spot that’s close to the heart of in-the-know locals who flock here...”, and, “This legendary locals’ fave is the best place in town to...” and “...this smashing little store is a must for artsy, indie types...” and “....is beloved of local coolsters”... and “local hipsters have claimed this as their own....”. If you love this kind of writing, or if you fancy yourself a cool indie hipster, you’ll love Lee’s style. If you had a hard time making it through the above examples... you might want to reconsider your purchase!In summary I loved my stay in Vancouver, and I have to give a lot of credit to this book. One of the most recent LPs I bought (Iran) was so awful that I gave it away while I was still in the country, and many others I never bought in the first place. This one, I’m keeping.

OK, I admit it. I'm a United Statesian, and Vancouver is the only city I've ever visited that has made me feel, literally, jealous. How can a city, only 20 miles over the border, be such a paradise? How can such a paradise have sprouted in only 100 years? How can such an city have the most nearly perfect blend of authenticity, diversity, urban sophistication, geography and culture? Well, this excellent guidebook answers those questions.Vancouver gets rave reviews from travelers the world over, and there's good reason for this. The city is an absolute modern playground. This is an excellent, comprehensive guidebook that introduces the traveler to the incredible diversity of attractions that this city offers. About the only thing you can't find much of in Vancouver is European history, but this is a city that revels in and celebrates its youth. The baggage of time is simply not a factor here. Vancouver is about the beauty of the present and promise of the future, and it is utterly oppossed to the monotony of mass production.This book is typical Lonely Planet quality. Since there are 300 pages here dedicated to just one city, you get remarkable depth that is not typical of an encyclopedic travel guide. The listings are surprisingly complete, and each major neighborhood in Vancouver gets its own chapter. The chapters are arranged around the listings for each neighborhood, but they are introduced by brief essays which give the reader an historical and cultural flavor for the area. The layout is all very conventional, which means it's familiar and easy to use.The writing style of the author is particularly engaging and witty. This is no "just the facts" book. That can be a plus or a minus depending on what you like, but the reviews are definitely subjective.There are brief chapters for excursions to Whistler and Victoria, both of which are worth your time if you have extra.Up in the Pacific Northwest for a cruise to Alaska? Live south of the border in Seattle or Portland? Want to see the best of what North America has to offer? Vancouver is worth a journey. Take this guidebook with you.

For a recent trip to Vancouver, I bought two guides, this Lonely Planet guide, and a Fodor's guide. The Fodor's guide was dry as dust and while you get your standard history, and lists of places to stay and eat. It really doesn't motivate you to want to visit there. The Lonely Planet guide on the other hand really brings the city to life with lots of things to do and see, yes you also get the history and the lists of hotels and places to eat, but this Lonely Planet guide makes Vancouver a place you really want to see! Skip the Fodor's buy this one!

This really helped us know exactly what to do with the day and a half we had before our cruise to Alaska.

My wife and I purchased this book for a week long stay in Vancouver and am I glad that we did. We found ourselves consulting the book on a regular basis not just for maps but on suggestions of where to eat dinner and places to see. I don't think we were once disappointed by a restaurant choice we made based on the book.I would absolutely recommend that if you are going to Vancouver you pick up this book, you won't regret it.

This is the one book that I took with me on my trip. I found it very informative, and useful.

It helped us out during our trip to Vancouver, but did not use it as much as I though we would. These guides are more helpful when travelling to less developed parts of the world or travelling to countries that speak another language than what one speaks.

Great book to take around the city. We used the map to navigate.