Cruises From Vancouver

Vancouver’s cuisine is very much influenced by the ocean and its multicultural community. You’ll find seafood everywhere, from fresh oysters to Dungeness crab and juicy spot prawns. Chinatown is the place to go for a Chinese banquet or dim sum, while JapaDog’s Japanese-inspired hot dogs, made from Kobe beef, have a cult following. Try a B.C. Roll, a sushi roll encased in chewy salmon skin, and smoked salmon glazed with maple syrup. Or sample Indigenous dishes like fiddlehead greens and elk. The food court at Granville Island Public Market is the place to head to try a little of everything.

Vancouver also has a thriving coffee culture and more than 70 craft breweries. While you’re in town, try local wines, too; Metro Vancouver alone has 16 wineries.

What’s now Vancouver was inhabited for thousands of years by three groups of First Nations people. The first European settlement was established in 1827 at Fort Langley, at the mouth of the Fraser River. After gold was discovered in the banks of the Fraser River in 1858, tens of thousands of gold prospectors came to the area. It wasn’t until 1886 that the city of Vancouver was incorporated, named after British explorer George Vancouver, who arrived here in 1792. But only a few weeks after its incorporation, the city of Vancouver was burnt down by fire, with just a handful of buildings spared. 

The city was quickly rebuilt. With the introduction of the California Pacific Railway and the opening of the Panama Canal, Vancouver became a major exporter of grain and lumber and positioned itself as a major economic hub in Canada. Today, it’s Canada’s third-largest city after Toronto and Montreal and is known for its multicultural population. Vancouver’s wealth comes from forestry, tourism, oil refining, mining, and film and TV production.

The Canada Place cruise ship terminal is located in Vancouver’s downtown area, where you’ll find the upscale CF Pacific Centre Mall and Robson Street, which is full of stylish boutiques. In Gastown, you can look for unique and authentic pieces of Northwest Coast Native and Inuit art at the Inuit Gallery. There are no shops in the cruise terminal itself, although the small Waterfront Centre Mall adjacent to Canada Place has a food court and shops for essentials and souvenirs.

Vancouver is easy to get around. The Translink service incorporates bus, SeaBus, and the rapid transit SkyTrain, all of which can be managed by a single app. There are public bicycles to rent, and the city has plentiful bike lanes, so cycling is well managed. Uber and Lyft are both available. For a treat, take a seaplane ride and admire the city and mountains from above.

The currency in Vancouver is the Canadian dollar. Although there is no foreign exchange service at the cruise terminal, you will find several ATM machines. There are exchange services throughout downtown Vancouver, as well as ATMs in hotels, banks, drug stores, and other venues. Canadian restaurants seldom include gratuities in the bill, and it is customary to tip an additional 15% to 20% of the total bill before tax.