Convention cities: VancouverDAVID WISHART

World travellers compare it to Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro and Sydney.

Of all the great Canadian cities,none has the astonishing location ofVancouver. World travellers com-pare it to Cape Town, Rio de Janei-ro and Sydney, but these farawayplaces cannot quite match the fas-cination of Vancouver's broad har-bour dotted with freighters, its spa-cious beaches, soaring mountainsand sky-high real estate.

West Coast homes, with theircedar and glass and giant mort-gages, are a hot topic for everyvisitor, and a genuine tourist attrac-tion. Few leave without the notion

David Wishart is a travel writer whoregularly contributes to CMAJ.

This article is the first in a series that willfeature a variety of convention cities:Saskatoon, Quebec City, San Francisco,Dublin, London, New Orleans and Manila.

to return and to live in Vancouver,so they take a drive by the cliffsedge $1 million houses on PointGrey Road, or along West Van-couver's scenic Marine Drive. Oth-ers amble among the mansions ofShaughnessy or the waterfront clus-ters of False Creek, where apart-ments are snapped up for $200 000.The other, not-so-hot, topic is the

weather. It does rain in Vancouver;in fact summer has been known tofall on a Thursday. A heat wave is ahot, dry morning followed by a hot,dry afternoon.

Between the house prices and theweather you'd think that visitorswould leave in a run, but every yearlarge numbers defect to what hasbeen called Canada's evergreenplayground.The secret is to use the weather

when you come to Vancouver. Inwinter you can always find skiingon the city mountains, or 2-hours'drive away at Whistler, and in sum-mer there are beaches and boating,fishing and hang-gliding. In be-tween, there are 5-hour non-stopflights to Hawaii.

But first, you need a place tostay. Most conventions centrearound three downtown hotelsthe Four Seasons, the Hyatt Regen-cy and the Hotel Vancouver. Thefirst two are modern, the third tra-ditional, and all first class. Nearbyis the Hotel Georgia, which is con-venient but past its prime.The Westin Bayshore is a little

removed from the Burrard/Georgiacore, but its superb location on thewater by Stanley Park makes itVancouver's most desirable hotel.

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Other good hotels include the Holi-day Inn Harborside, and the de-lightful ivy-covered Sylvia Hotel, aWest End waterfront bargain.The first-time visitor should get a

view of the city to see how the landlies. The handiest places are therevolving restaurants on top of theHoliday Inn Harborside and theSears Tower; North Vancouver'sHollyburn Mountain offers a pano-rama of the lower mainland all theway over to Vancouver Island, andthe Superskyride at Grouse Moun-tain is a thrilling way to look outover Stanley Park and the city,particularly at night.

The 1000-acre Stanley Park isVancouver's biggest attraction. Ona June day in 1792, Indians paddledtheir canoes from villages on Stan-ley Park to welcome CaptainGeorge Vancouver, the first whiteman to sail through the narrowsinto Coal Harbor. Today the park,which has an aquarium with whaleshows, a zoo and a very acceptablerestaurant at Ferguson Point, is anastonishing retreat so close to a bigcity centre.

Another good viewing spot isSimon Fraser University, which sitson top of Burnaby Mountain, 20kilometres from Vancouver. The

university itself is a striking moderndesign and has been called the mod-ern Acropolis.At the other end of town and

only a 15-minute drive (or easybus-ride) from the city, is the Uni-versity of British Columbia, whichhas 25 000 students, the NitobeGardens and a Museum of Anthro-pology. The museum has an intox-icating location and an equally in-teresting display of Indian totemartifacts, as well as archeologicaland textile collections.On a wet day you can always go

to the Centennial Museum in Vani-er Park, at the south end of theBurrard Street Bridge, wherethere's a good display of life inpioneer Vancouver. Nearby is theMaritime Museum and the home ofthe St. Roch, which in the 1940sbecame the first vessel to sail theNorthwest Passage both ways.And on a starless night you can

always go to the Planetarium, alsoin Vanier Park, which incidentally,is a good spot for taking photo-graphs of the city silhouettedagainst the North Shore mountains.

Don't miss the Queen ElizabethPark, whose Bloedel Conservatorydome encloses more than 300 spe-cies of tropical plants and 70 birds.Not far away are the Van DusenBotanical Display Gardens whereyou can walk by flowers, streams,shrubs and miniature lakes.Two other places of interest are

Gastown, where Vancouver had itsraucous beginnings as a hard-drink-ing sawmill town and Granville Is-land, a pocket of fun tucked underthe south end of the GranvilleStreet Bridge.Take a cab here and stroll among

the energetic redevelopments thatare taking place. Old factory build-ings are being restored or replacedand all kinds of specialty and craftbusinesses are moving in; there's abustling produce and seafood mar-ket, two theatres, an art college,restaurants and pubs.

Weather permitting, have lunchoutside at Bridges Bistro, where youcan sit on the old dock and watchthe water traffic slip by. It's themost entertaining meal in Vancouv-er after a picnic in Stanley Park.When it comes to food, the best

value is Chinese, and as Vancouverhas North America's biggest China-

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t. e ,.. ,.

Simon Fraser University: Vancouver's modern Acropolis.

North America's biggest Chinatown after San Francisco.

town after San Francisco, there'slots to choose from.The Vancouver Calendar Maga-

zine - which along with VancouverGuideline, will tell you what's onwhen you arrive in the cityrecently uncovered four Chinese

restaurants where you can eat forless than $8 a head. They are theMiramar, Tsui Hang Village Sea-food Restaurant, Peninsula and Ja-nus. Only Janus, incidentally, is inChinatown, which has many othergood restaurants and is worth a

stroll just for the atmosphere.A flurry of Vietnamese restau-

rants all called the Saigon - andall good - has recently opened inVancouver. Equally interesting isthe Rumah Bali, an Indonesianhideaway that does superb pork inwine, and where a bottle opener isprovided.No visit to Vancouver is complete

without a visit to one of UmbertoMenghi's five restaurants, of whichthe original - Umberto's - is nowfamous; the rack of lamb alone isworth a trip to Vancouver. Theopen courtyard at II Giardino, nextdoor, is so delightful some peoplespend all summer there, and if amighty feast is called for I1 Palazzofits the bill.

For a fun night out try FrancescoAlongi's, where the boss himselflikes to grip the back of a chair andsing an aria as if to prove he's asgood an opera singer as a restaura-teur. Over at the Cafe de Paris,where the steak and chips is epic,patrons have been known to breakinto song, even - alors! - en-couraged by the management. It'scheaper than going to Paris and thetoilets are cleaner.As for the hotel dining rooms, Le

Pavillon at the Four Seasons issuperb, Truffles at the Hyatt Re-gency can be brilliant but also er-ratic, the Panorama Roof at theHotel Vancouver is solid, comforta-ble and comes with a live band fordinner-dancing, Trader Vic's at theBayshore is exotic food in a delight-ful location - and that's about it ifyou like a little panache with yourfood.On second thoughts, the Garden

Restaurant at the Bayshore is not abad compromise between the ex-pense of haute cuisine and coffeeshop ghastliness.And for exercise? Up front andcentre is walking or jogging in oraround Stanley Park. Then there'sswimming in English Bay - there'sa Polar Bear Swim on New Year'sDay - and also at the aquaticcentre in the West End or thespacious pool at UBC.

Windsurfers can be rented atKitsilano Beach, you might be ableto pick up a ride with the dinghysailors at the Jericho Sailing Cen-tre, and if you've got the reciprocitythere's the Royal Vancouver Yacht

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Gastown: recalling the days of hard-drinking pioneers of a sawmill town.

Club at Jericho and the VancouverRowing Club in Stanley Park. Thelatter club, by the way, has rowing,cricket, tennis, rugby, field hockey,boating and jogging sections; it alsohas one of the oldest and mostdistinguished clubhouses in Canada.You can't say the same thing aboutthe membership, which makes it agood place to stop by for a drink.

Golfers will find it easy to pickup a game at any of the privateclubs in town, although an introduc-tion is always useful. Capilano onthe North Shore is one of the bestcourses in Canada, and then there'sShaughnessy, Point Grey and Ma-rine Drive.

Public courses are considerablycheaper, but the only one thatcomes close in quality is University;it is often busy with Japan Airlinescrews, who regard its $7 green feeas the best bargain in the West.Few visitors see the city only.

Most make a trip to VancouverIsland, not 2 hours away by com-fortable ferry, after which theyhead up to Campbell River for theworld's best salmon fishing, or theydawdle into Victoria for tea andcrumpets at the Empress.The truly adventurous will head

over to the West Coast and thewilderness of Long Beach - al-though they will not be alone in thesummertime - while those wholike privacy and exhilarating cook-ing will spend a couple of nights atClayquot Lodge on Stubbs Island,just off Tofino.

Going northeast out of Vancouv-er there's the beautiful if treacher-ous Squamish Highway which leadsto Whistler resort and its Whistlerand Blackcomb Mountains, while adelightful getaway spot is southeastto Harrison Hot Springs.Due south in Washington there

are rewards to be had at several

comfortable resorts, such as theCaptain Whidbey Inn or Rosario.

If you wish to go farther afield,don't forget that Vancouver is abusy terminus for the Alaska cruisetrade. In 1982 there will be at least14 ships making week-long runs toAlaska and back, from the statelyRotterdam of the Holland AmericaLine to the all-Canadian excoasterPrince George, a delightful littlevessel that can penetrate TraceyArm and reach its glaciers.

From the airport you can pick upgood flights to California, Mexico,Hawaii, the Far East and Australia,and don't forget that passengersflying into Vancouver can oftencarry on to another destination for areduced fare; talk to a travel agent.

Lastly, don't bother to bring anumbrella. This is the place to buyone because they make them here.And if you're thinking about com-ing to stay - bring money. .

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