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Travel Guide: Vancouver
Picking the best hotel location
This page helps you pick the best hotel location in Vancouver, BC.
You find out the pros and cons of various Vancouver neighborhoods with an emphasis on convenience and cost.
Your choices include
Vancouver International Airport
Priceline Vancouver Zone
Hotwire Downtown Vancouver West
Hotwire Downtown Vancouver Entertainment District
Hotwire Vancouver South
Coquitlam – Burnaby
Hotwire North Vancouver
Vancouver hotel neighborhood maps
For general maps of the Priceline Vancouver area neighborhoods we will discuss—
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Then fill in "Vancouver, BC" for the city and any future dates. You'll see typical hotel rates in the Vancouver area.
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Then, for links showing Vancouver hotel zone maps, click on the "Name your own price" option at the top of the page.
For general maps of the Hotwire Vancouver area neighborhoods we will discuss, click on Hotwire.com and type in "Vancouver, Canada" and any future date. For individual maps, click on "Area details" or "See details."
Vancouver International Airport - Richmond
If value is your mantra, the hotels around Vancouver International Airport in Richmond offer by far the best prices in the Vancouver area for comparable quality.
When checking for discounts in Vancouver, you may wonder how can these hotels be any good?
They are. It's just a matter of too many hotel rooms built for too few guests.
Typical hotels include the 4-star Marriott Vancouver Airport and 3-star Delta Vancouver Airport.
Airport hotels are a particularly good choice for auto travelers, as they avoid high downtown parking fees, yet have easy access to Vancouver Island ferries.
However, consider carefully before staying at Vancouver Airport. The airport puts you some eight miles away from most Vancouver sightseeing, with no freeway connection.
Priceline Vancouver zone
This area gives you best access to sightseeing, fine dining, entertainment, and shopping.
Priceline.com's "Vancouver" zone includes the city center and several immediately adjacent areas. With few exceptions, Vancouver's downtown is vibrant, clean, and reasonably safe.
Most Vancouver hotels (deluxe, first class, and moderately priced) are in this area, but not its less expensive motels.
The majority of hotels are in the northwest portion of this district, either in the very center of downtown or toward Stanley Park. Both areas are excellent.
Typical Priceline hotels include the Westin Bayshore Resort & Marina and the less expensive Coast Plaza Suite Hotel, both near Stanley Park.
Nearer to the downtown core, you find the Hyatt Regency Vancouver, the Residence Inn Vancouver by Marriott, the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre, and the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel.
All of these are within walking distance of attractions and a short drive from the cruise terminals.
A few hotels—south of False Creek, the southern boundary of the core—put you within walking distance of the Granville Island Market and a short distance from Kits Beach and the famed VanDusen Botanical Gardens.
Hotwire Downtown Vancouver West
Hotwire.com divides the priceline.com Vancouver zone into three areas.
Hotwire's Downtown Vancouver West includes many of the city’s best hotels and most of its finest shops. This area takes in much of the city center and the area adjacent to beautiful Stanley Park.
Two hotels here are the Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Hotel (the former Delta Pennacle Hotel Vancouver) and the Hyatt Regency Vancouver.
Overall, this makes a very uplifting and convenient neighborhood and an excellent choice for your Vancouver trip.
Hotwire Downtown Vancouver Entertainment District
Hotwire's Downtown Vancouver Entertainment District includes the eastern half of the downtown business core and a large area of former warehouses called Yaletown converted into trendy restaurants, clubs, and condos.Portions of this area have adult entertainment and other non family friendly influences.
However, nearly all hotels here such as the the Westin Grand—used by both Hotwire and priceline.com—are actually in the downtown business core, not in the "club zone" (although they are close).
Hotels in this zone are reasonably convenient to places in Vancouver West, with the exception of several of the least expensive, which frankly are near Vancouver's least pleasant area toward Chinatown and the combo Via Rail, Amtrak, and Greyhound terminal.
Hotwire Vancouver South
Although Vancouver South is the least convenient of the three zones, you are nevertheless close to the downtown core and many of Vancouver's main tourist sites.
There are relatively few hotels in this largely residential area and no truly luxury ones. Parking is less expensive here.
Nearby, you find the Granville Island farmer's market and restaurants and Vancouver's outstanding VanDusen Botanical Gardens.
NOTE: Vancouver residents never call this area Vancouver South. To them, South Vancouver means the very southern edge of the city, near the airport.
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Coquitlam - Burnaby
The Coquitlam and Burnaby zone also includes an area of less expensive motels and motor inns in the eastern part of the city of Vancouver and part of New Westminister along the Fraser River.Burnaby has numerous corporate headquarters and the first class business-oriented hotels that go with them.
Because Vancouver lacks a truly extensive rapid transit system and no freeways penetrate the city itself, getting around can be time consuming in stop-and-go traffic.
Therefore, although you may save money booking in this zone, you'll spend considerable extra time commuting to what you want to see, especially if you end up in Coquitlam.
There's little of interest to tourists in this area, but again you may save considerable money, and parking is usually free.
Hotwire North Vancouver
Directly across the harbor from downtown Vancouver, North Vancouver is not as convenient as it may seem on a map.
Just one bridge links you directly to downtown Vancouver, and this becomes frequently clogged even on weekends. Moreover, no rapid transit connects you to the city center, although there is a fast passenger ferry.
North Vancouver does offer the most convenient access from Vancouver to the Whistler ski area. Moreover, it is a very pleasant town.
