Posts by: WantsToTravelMore

So you’re stuck for ideas of where to eat in Vancouver.  There are many choices, but you might be wanting to impress a lady or man or boss or co-workers with your intimate knowledge of Vancouver. Perhaps you’re hopelessly stumped because you don’t want to do the same old same old. Here’s the list.  In no order with no attempt to rate anything because it’s up to you to decide what works for your situation. 1.  Hamilton Street Grill.  This is a Yaletown steakhouse plus more.  Owner Neil is always attentive as are his staff.  www.hamiltonstreetgrill.com.  Ask if he’s still […]

Read more

Located near Egmont on the Sunshine Coast, this is an unusual Provincial Park for a number of reasons.  When you think “park” one often thinks of nice spots to have a picnic or enjoy a view.  The view at the end of the trail is the ultimate purpose of the park. Visitor Centres and your accommodations will have a tide chart for Skookumchuck Narrows.  Plan to arrive shortly before the tide ebbs or floods or you won’t receive the full reward for taking the trail. The Skookumchuck Narrows Provincial Park’s parking lot is off Egmont Road, about 6 km (4 […]

Read more

Across the road from the entrance to Skookumchuck Narrows Provincial Park, which is on Egmont Road, you will find the Egmont Heritage Centre.  It’s a small museum with artefacts from Egmont’s pioneer and 20th century past. What’s refreshing about the museum is that it’s not so fancy that you can’t get up close to things.  For kids, they can play with old phones — dialling is a novel activity.   A lot of Egmont’s history is connected to Portuguese Joe, also known as Joe Silvey.  His rather busy life — which included whaling in the Azores, two wives, many children […]

Read more

Roberts Creek is smaller than you might think, but if you are running up and down the Sunshine Coast Highway, make sure to head toward the water along Roberts Creek Road. The key reasons are: 1. The Shops are quite quaint as is the architecture.  There’s a lost Hippy feeling to it that is unique. The stores include a General Store and a children’s clothing shop. 2.  The Beach.  At the end of Roberts Creek Road is a tiny parking lot (brace yourself for disappointment at finding a spot on a sunny day) where you can park and walk down […]

Read more

Cliff Gilker Park is the easiest of three walks we did on our Sunshine Coast vacation.  The problem for us was a three-year-old.  He was keen to walk his little legs off, but with roots and ups an downs, we were worried. Before I get too far into the details, Cliff Gilker Park, is at 3110 Sunshine Coast Highway near the Roberts Creek Road intersection.  The access to the park is on the east side of Hwy 101.  We took the upper parking lot.  At the same location were swings, a baseball diamond and well kept bathrooms. The key reason […]

Read more

Considering the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia is actually part of the BC mainland, it’s odd that you need to take a 40 minute ferry ride to get there.  BC Ferries provides the same sort of ships from Horseshoe Bay that they do when you sail to Victoria or Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.   You arrive in Langdale and then you drive the Sunshine Coast Highway (a.k.a. Highway 101) to your destination.  When driving this highway, keep in mind that it’s all two-lane undivided roadway, which isn’t what a lot of us consider a highway.  There are a lot of […]

Read more

Bowen Island is a contradiction.  It’s a 20 minute ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay but feels like miles and miles from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver.  In fact I suspect for most people, just getting to Horseshoe Bay makes up the bulk of the travel time. The island is about 6 km wide and 12 km long taking up about 49.94 sq. km.  Like the nearby Horseshoe Bay, which oddly is part of West Vancouver, it’s mountainous and lush.  There are about 3500 permanent residents.  There are both coniferous and deciduous trees on the island and when my family was […]

Read more

A fluke of timing (yes, I intended the fluke pun) allowed my family to partake in the Pacific Rim Whale Festival, an annual event that March 19-27, 2011 was the 25th anniversary. Significant restructuring of all the closets in our home led us to flee and we chose Tofino as our destination. As we reached the crossroads between Tofino and Ucluelet we say the big banner for the Whale Festival and we said to ourselves, “What whale festival?  Annual?  We live in Vancouver, not Bolton Ontario or some place … How clueless are we?”  Into the tourist office we went […]

Read more

The trip from Vancouver to Pacific Rim National Park, Tofino and Ucluelet is a significant drive but has benefits, most of them visual. When you think about traveling around an island, you don’t often think of mountains.  On Vancouver Island, mountains are very real and have an impact on your driving plans, unless you’re a nitwit like me and forget about the mountains. As you take Highway 19 from Nanaimo (follow the signs to Parksville as you leave the Departure Bay Ferry Terminal) it all seems fairly normal coastal Vancouver Island terrain.  To get to the Pacific Rim, watch for […]

Read more

Jamie Bray started out his whale watching trips out of Tofino in 1982, but on the day in March 2011 we wanted to go, we found out that the second office in Ucluelet had a family deal, which meant that the kids were free if there were enough adults.  It’s $99 per person for the whale watching tour.  If you have a child under 5 or a certain height, you are required to do the tour in a covered boat (not a Zodiac).  In this case, our vessel was the Lady Selkirk.  We were early in the season (the Ucluelet […]

Read more