Vancouver 3 day itinerary

I started off my Pacific Northwest trip by spending three days in Vancouver, which was just about right. I really enjoyed it here – everyone was really friendly and it was so easy to get around. There are lots of public transport options and you can just use contactless payments on the bus routes which saved a lot of hassle.

A word of warning though – if you’re wanting to stay at a hotel in Vancouver it is incredibly expensive. I ended up using Airbnb which was much more affordable.

With that out of the way, here’s my Vancouver 3 day itinerary. Upon reflection I’d recommend seeing a bit of Vancouver first before visiting Grouse Mountain, but due to a cancelled flight and a lot of stress I’d had to rearrange my whale watching tour and so I had to swap round my Day 1 and Day 2 itinerary. 

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Day 1: Day trip to Grouse Mountain

Take the cable car up to Grouse Mountain to explore. See Grinder and Coola the rescue bears(!), watch some shows, and take the chairlift to see some spectacular views. 

You can find out more about my day trip to Grouse Mountain in my blog post. You can buy tickets on arrival but if you want to purchase them in advance you can get them on their website or you can get tickets here.

 

Day 2: Gastown, Granville Island, and Whale Watching

Start off the day by visiting Gastown and seeing the steam-powered clock. In the afternoon, take the bus to Granville Island and explore some of the shops before going whale watching.

 

Day 3: Stanley Park and downtown Vancouver

Explore Stanley Park before having a quick look around the shops downtown. (I probably won’t be writing a blog post for this one as I just walked around Stanley Park rather than doing anything in particular, but it took me about 3 hours to walk around the perimeter. I really enjoyed seeing the totem poles as constructed by Indigenous artists. The Prospect Park café, which is halfway around Stanley Park’s perimeter, was also much needed and very nice indeed!)

 

Options for a longer trip

If you have an extra day in Vancouver you can also visit the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park which I sadly didn’t manage to get to. Again, you can buy tickets on arrival but if you want to purchase them in advance you can get them on their website or you can buy them online here.

Spending a few days in Seattle!

Following Vancouver, I took the bus to Seattle which took around 4 hours. You can take either the Amtrak or use one of the bus services that specialises in cross-border travel (I used Quick Shuttle which had various pick-up points around the city). There is loads to do in Seattle -you can find my Seattle 4 day itinerary here!