I visited Vancouver for the first time and made 5 mistakes I won’t repeat

I shouldn’t have spent $50 on a cab to my hotel when I landed in Vancouver, British Columbia. I also wish I’d had more time to explore the city.

From arrival to departure, my travel mistakes on my first trip to Vancouver thinned my budget and left me longing for more.

I spent three days there in May. The whirlwind trip went by so fast that I spent less time thinking and more time doing — from exploring coastal neighborhoods to hiking in parks and walking along the beach.

Now that I’ve had time to process my trip, I have a few regrets. Here are five things I won’t mess up on my next trip to Vancouver.

First, I packed the wrong sneakers.

If my trip is less than a week long, I typically travel with one pair of shoes. So, I wore my favorite sneakers for my trip to Vancouver. They’re my go-to pair for most activities, but they weren’t ideal for this destination.

The city is home to hilly streets and hiking trails that made my trip feel adventurous, but with little arch support, my feet ached at the end of each day. I could feel the bumps of the pebbles beneath my feet on coastal trails, and I longed for a cushier sole with more traction.

Next time, I’ll bring sneakers more suitable for walking and hiking.

I should have packed my own meal for the six-hour flight to Vancouver.

When I travel internationally, there’s typically a complimentary meal served on the flight, so when I flew with JetBlue from NYC to Vancouver, I didn’t pack any food for the six-hour journey.

I didn’t realize that the airline only serves meals at no cost on transatlantic flights, according to its website.

There were meals for sale, but I decided to save money and take advantage of the airline’s complimentary self-service snack pantry.

These snacks curbed my hunger but didn’t satisfy it. Next time, I’ll bring my own meal.

I wouldn’t book all my stays in the same neighborhood again.

I love a luxury hotel. One of my favorite parts of traveling is sampling an array of top-tier stays because it helps me develop my own taste in accommodations.

For my three-day trip to Vancouver, I spent each night in a different hotel — the castle-like Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, the more modern Fairmont Pacific Rim, and the historic Rosewood Hotel Georgia.

As I’d hoped, each hotel had its own take on luxury. Still, when booking, I didn’t realize that all were downtown within a six-block radius, and one was across the street from another.

The proximity made carrying my bags to the next hotel easier, but I missed the chance to stay in different parts of the city, like North or East Vancouver.

Using ride-share apps to get around was a mistake.

On the morning of my last day in Vancouver, when I stepped out of an Uber at Pacific Central Station to take an Amtrak train to my next destination, Seattle, I had an epiphany — I could have used public transportation throughout my trip.

I got around town on foot and with ride-share apps that ate up a chunk of my budget. I didn’t consider other transportation options, which include buses, rail lines, and ferries.

I later learned that Vancouver residents are increasingly opting for public transit over driving because it’s so well-connected. According to the TransLink 2024 Transit Service Performance Review, 420,000 people in Metro Vancouver commuted via mass transit each weekday in fall 2024, and annual ridership increased 3% from 2023.

If I’d taken the rails, buses, or ferries, I probably could have saved over $100 on transportation expenses.

My biggest regret was staying for only three days.

The biggest lesson I learned on this trip is that you can’t do Vancouver in three days.

I had time to explore downtown and the surrounding areas, as well as the beaches in the Kitsilano and West Point Grey neighborhoods, but I missed out on North and West Vancouver entirely.

I got to experience three different hotels, but one night in each wasn’t enough to use all the amenities.

I got to view small towns in British Columbia from the train, but I wish I’d carved out time to visit some of them.

Next time I go to Vancouver, I won’t rush my trip.

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