Results tagged “Vancouver” from Intelligent Travel Blog

For you die-hard Olympic and soccer fans out there, it's not too early to start making travel plans if you dream of heading to Vancouver for February's 21st Winter Games or journeying to South Africa for next summer's FIFA World Cup.
   
In the Practical Traveler column in this weekend's New York Times, Michelle Higgins details the best options for both big events along with handy links and thought-through strategies. She asserts that despite the bad economy, demand is still quite high for both events and the best way of getting tickets and a place to stay is to work with a tour operator.
   
For the Vancouver Games, the third hosted by Canada and the first for the province of British Columbia, only one company, CoSport, is authorized to sell tickets in the U.S. and they're already sold out, though more tickets may be released for sale this fall.

The decline of honeybees--which are not native to the United States--has been a hot topic of research for some time. The bees are dying from colony collapse disorder, a condition in which worker bees suddenly disappear, and that has killed an estimated one in three colonies a year since 2006. Fortunately, many companies, from farmers to hotels, are working to save the bees.

Environmentally conscious group Fairmont Hotels has a swarm of new guests staying at the hotel chain's D.C. property. The hotel has installed three beehives on its roof, which house over 100,000 Italian honeybees. The bees are part of the hotel's culinary program, and sous chef-turned-beekeeper Ian Bens expects the bees to produce some 300 pounds of honey in the first year. The honey will be used in soups, salad dressings, ice cream, and pastries at restaurant Juniper, and eventually Fairmont hopes to turn the honeycomb into candles and soap. Canadian-based Fairmont has beehives at its Vancouver, Toronto, and New Brunswick properties as well.

In the past two years ice cream giant Häagen-Daz has donated some $500,000 to universities to promote honeybee awareness and to research colony collapse disorder. Blueberry farmers in Maine are also trying to help the dying honeybees. Jasper Wyman and Son, the largest blueberry producer in the United States, imports some 10,000 hives each year to pollinate its blueberry fields. According to president Ed Flanagan, there has been an 80 percent spike in cost of pollination in the past few years. The company just donated $50,000 to Penn State to research colony collapse disorder.

Even the 2010 Winter Olympics is doing its part. The Vancouver Convention Center, which is undergoing a huge renovation in preparations for the Olympic Games in 2010, has installed beehives on its 2.4-hectare green roof. The goal of the installation: bees bring business. According to TMCNET.com, "bees are the new 'it' endangered species and urban planners and architects across... are anxious to bolster their numbers in urban settings."

Photo: skb_inspirations via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool

Hello, city-lovers! Today's city is Vancouver, British Columbia, and it comes to us courtesy of Amanda Ryan.

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Vancouver is My City

The first place I take a visitor from out of town is Granville Island. The Public Market is always a bustling place to check out foods and ingredients from around the world, exotic florists, fresh seafood, West Coast artwork in all forms, and lots more. There's always something going on outside as well; no matter how bitterly cold or stifling hot it is, you'll find at least a handful of buskers playing lively music, juggling knives, performing magic tricks or simply entertaining a crowd. From Granville Island I like to take a foot ferry across False Creek to downtown, a much more leisurely and picturesque mode of transportation than the bus.

When I crave sushi I always go to Shin Ju on Broadway. We Vancouverites love our sushi. In fact, there are more sushi restaurants per block here than in Japan! Shin Ju's unpretentious atmosphere, excellent service, and affordable and consistently great food is what brings me back every week.

To escape after a busy week I head to the seawall. Winding along the coastline of the city, the seawall offers the best view of ocean, mountains, beach and great blue herons you'll get on this side of the country. It's also the best place to get lost in a crowd, and benches throughout offer top-notch people watching. Strolling the seawall with a coffee and a good friend is one of the most relaxing and refreshing things you can do here.

If you come to my city, get your picture taken with the Steam Clock in historical Gastown. It's kind of cliché, but the clock is truly unique in that it was the first steam clock to be made by Canadian horologist Raymond Saunders, who went on to build the clocks for cities around the world. Ours is fully functioning with the telltale plumes of steam, and whistles the Westminster Quarters every quarter of an hour.

When I'm feeling cash-strapped I go to the Vancouver Public Library. Probably the most controversial piece of architecture in the city (either you love it or you hate it), it's seven stories high and filled with 180-degree views of the downtown core. I love to sit and flip through magazines, wander the levels and shelves picking up books at random, shuffle through jazz CDs or check out whichever free lecture is being given in the conference room. VPL also holds a twice-yearly used book sale, an elbow-to-elbow affair where book rats like me can walk out with an armload of discarded treasures for a meager amount of money.

Photo ops in my city include a view of English Bay, the False Creek Olympic Village, Chinatown in the summer at night, Celebration of Light fireworks in the summer, looking across the water at the downtown skyline, Stanley Park Lagoon and the best vantage points are any high-rise apartment along Beach Avenue, the Shangri-La Hotel, anywhere along the seawall, Granville Island, Charleson Park, and (my favourite) a foot ferry across False Creek.

Traveler staffer Kimberly Calder offers a preview of the 2010 Olympics outside Vancouver, B.C., on the slopes of Whistler.

Whistler Blackcomb is epic. The terrain is endless, the powder is plentiful, and even the locals see the possibilities for adventure as infinite. In 2010, Whistler Blackcomb will be hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Alpine events; however, while it's still dumping snow in Canada (and probably will be until late spring), now is a great time to get a taste of this playground as it revs up to host the games.

One particular improvement done for the Olympics makes choosing your perfect ski adventure even easier. The Peak 2 Peak lift now links the two mountains in an 11-minute gondola ride. (The previous option included a 40-minute run to the base and, depending on lift lines, another 15-minute ride to the top.) Now mixing a little Jersey Cream (at Blackcomb) into your morning runs at Whistler is sweeter than ever.

No matter where you end up, you can easily spend all day on either mountain. While both have an assortment of skiing levels, Whistler has more terrain and can feel crowded because of its popularity. Blackcomb, on the other hand, has more advanced runs but tends to get icy first. One constant is the beautiful valley views from all directions.