Vancouver Metro
What to do with kids in Vancouver, British Columbia, including B.C. hotels, restaurants and fun activities.
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Hiking with kids in Vancouver, BC
Writer-broadcaster Jack Christie is one of Canada’s most trusted sources on travel, recreation and sport. And he did a quick Q & A on hiking with kids in Vancouver, BC. We should consider ourselves very lucky! As the outdoors columnist with Vancouver’s Georgia Straight newspaper (Canada’s largest circulation weekly) since 1986, he has filed over 500 reports, many of which are posted on line at straight.com. Jack, along with his partner in creativity, photographer Louise Christie, is the best-selling author of a series of 17 adventure guides, including 52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver, The Whistler Book: All-Season Outdoor Guide and Best Weekend Getaways from Vancouver: Favourite Trips and Overnight Destinations (Greystone Guides). Does he have…
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Families Travel! Taking the Kids to Vancouver on Amtrak
Canadian-born Seattle resident Connie Wanklin-Iskra, her husband Matt, son Makhno (almost 3) and daughter Naomi (6 months) decided to enjoy a car-free weekend in Vancouver, BC. So, over the long US Memorial Day weekend, they decided to take the Amtrak train‘s route to Vancouver for a two-day trip. “We wanted to stay longer, but felt we might need a day to recover when we returned,†Wanklin-Iskra says. “Which was definitely the case.†They boarded the Amtrak in Edmonds, Washington at 8:07 a.m. and arrived in Vancouver, BC, almost four hours later. The train was $70 round trip for each adult, half-off for Makhno and free for her daughter (and other children under age 2). Once in Vancouver, it was…
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East Meets West: Richmond’s Aberdeen Centre
Over the past 100 years, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Filipino and Laotian immigrants settled in Washington, Oregon and BC. Often, families move back and forth over the U.S.-Canadian borders, so there’s a nice multi-generational, multi-cultural intermingling at this point. Cascadia kids grow up eating sushi, pad Thai and dim sum; they attend cultural festivals with roots in Japan, China or Vietnam. This cultural coalescence is obvious in Richmond, BC, where 60% of the city’s population is of Asian descent. You’ll find the Chinese-influnced Aberdeen Centre, the Taiwanese-style President Plaza, the pan-Asian Yaohan Centre (featuring a large Japanese supermarket) and the Hong Kong-style Parker Place. Aberdeen Centre offers many kid-friendly…
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10 Family-Friendly Vancouver Restaurants
I’m going up to Vancouver, BC, this weekend and thought I’d spill the soup on our favorite kid-friendly restaurants, those places we miss when we return home. Vancouver’s restaurants exhibit amazing Eastern flair, unsurprising for a Pacific-Rim city. Here are my 10 favorites – find even more places to eat in my new book, Northwest Kid Trips: Portland, Seattle, Victoria, Vancouver. 1. Little Nest Cafe serves honest breakfasts and lunches to parents tired of lame-o kid meals and half-effort adult dishes. Fresh West Coast fare, super-cool décor and a kids’ play area filled with retro toys. Read my full write-up here. 2. Here’s how to enjoy downtown Vancouver’s Sciue. Get in…
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Four Family-Friendly Markets in the NW & BC
We have markets by the bushelful here in Casadia and traveling families are always welcome. Bring the kids, $30 and a sense of adventure to these farmers’ markets. It’s a cheap vacation solution and a memorable excursion, all rolled into one afternoon. Here are my favorite four markets — indoor and outdoor, large and small. Don’t miss them when you’re visiting! Portland Farmers Market, Portland. This weekend, the Saturday Portland Farmers Market reopens for the growing (and grazing) season. The outdoor, downtown market features dozens of local-vendor booths, great food trucks (I like Pine State Biscuits) and musical performers. Chefs put on cooking demos, and children’s cooking classes take center…
