We stayed in a beautiful AirBnB in North Vancouver for a week to chill out after the motorhome experience! It was easy to get to; on the seabus to North Vancouver and then a bus to our destination (using our compass cards still, which are so cheap – $2.50 for 90 mins travel).
North Vancouver has a very different vibe to Vancouver city – lots of gorgeous houses and the gardens are stunning at this time of year (May/June). Lots of colourful peonies, bright, blousey rhododendrons and scented roses. Overall, it has a much more genteel feel about the place – oh and has LOTS of hills!!!! We also loved the pedestrian crossing alerts – when you press the button, a voice says ” WAIT”.
It was easy and felt safe to walk around; we even managed to sort out some emergency dental issues and a repeat prescription for Andy without too much hassle. We took a bus up to the beautiful Lynn canyon area and did a gorgeous loop hike, over the suspension bridge (this one is free but a little smaller than the famous Capliano bridge) and past the 30 foot pool which some very brave (or foolhardy) kids were jumping into – freezing – and then back to the “End of the Line” store for lunch.
Next day we walked 10 miles along the Spirit Trail to Dunderave in the west – lovely walk where we spotted a sea otter playing in the seaweed, passed beautiful houseboats, saw Stanley Park from the other side and watched huge tankers make their way under the Lions Gate Bridge and spotted 2 bald headed eagles on an apartment block being harassed by a crow!
After that, we tried to find the other end of the Spirit Trail over in the east at Deep Cove – only to discover it had not been completed yet!!! Still Deep Cove turned out to be a beautiful village with several trails around it (we were walking on one of them and saw a sign saying that a cougar had been spotted in the area a couple of days before – we didn’t hang around!!!!). Lots of water sports in this sheltered Cove.
Then finally, on our last day, after doing some admin, we headed to Esplanade Avenue and tried a few breweries out (Braggot Brewery, who specialize in honey beer from their bees in Delta, The House of Funk, that lean towards more sour beers, Beere and Windfall cidery, just for a change) followed by a delicious burger and chips at The Rusty Gull to soak up the beer!!!!
