Some college friends and I went to Vancouver for a weekend. We spent a little less than 48 hours in both areas. I took a GoPro with me and filmed our entire trip, so I’ll be releasing a video of what we did. Instead of describing what we did, I thought it’d be a bit more fun and helpful to make a one day in Vancouver itinerary for you or anybody whose interested in visiting Vancouver.
This’ll be part 2 of 2 posts I had on my trip to Vancouver.
One day in Vancouver Itinerary Small Details
Before I jump into the details, I do want to mention that I am assuming you’re living in downtown Vancouver. That’s where my friends and I lived. A lot of the events are timed based on you leaving from and to downtown Vancouver.
This itinerary is based on what my friends and I did. With the exception of the Richmond Night Market, you can do most of these things year round.
You’ll be spending no more than 2.5 hours at each location. There is a small break late afternoon/early evening.
If you’re okay with those small details, then let’s jump into this one day itinerary!
Itinerary
I’ll split this up by time. Day starts at 8AM and ends at 11PM.
Here’s the list of activities:
- Granville Island Public Market
- Stanley Park
- Squamish Gondola
- Richmond Night Market
Here’s the list of restaurants or food spots:
- Café Medina
- Mello Donuts
- Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba
8AM – 9AM – wake up & prep
Day starts at 8AM. Wake up and get ready for fun! Wherever you are, get yourself over to Café Medina.
It’s a very popular spot for breakfast. Fun fact – it has earned Michelin stars in the past. We got to the café around 8:45AM and there was already a line.
They do take reservations, but you have to donate to their charity in order to make reservations. I noticed quite a number of people did, but majority of the people waited in line as walk-ins. I think we ended up waiting in line for about ~15 minutes.
9AM – 10AM – Medina Café Breakfast
Eat at the café.
The Liege waffles are a must get – they have a limited quantity. I would pair it with their milk chocolate lavender or maple syrup toppings. My friend got a yoghurt topping, but it was pretty underwhelming. It felt like I was putting some Chobani yogurt on my waffle.
My friends and I all got different dishes. They were all good, but if I had to choose one, it would have to be the Les Boulettes. The meatballs were so flavorful. I got the Le Complet, which was good, but the cheesy foacaccia bread was not for me. My other friends got the Fricassee. Solid choice. Can’t go wrong with any of them.
10AM – 11AM – Chinatown & Mello Donuts
Finish up breakfast and make your way over to Mello Donuts in Chinatown.
This Korean bakery is definitely a hidden gem in Chinatown. Their donuts are filled with different flavor custards. I’m normally not a custard filled donut person, but the donut was extremely fluffy and the custards were quite light. It was just the right amount of sweetness and heaviness.
They have a standing table where you can eat your donuts inside. Since it was a great day outside, my friends and I waited until we got to Granville Island Market to eat them.
11AM – 1PM – Explore Granville Island Market
Make your way over to Granville Island and explore the Granville Island Public Market.
There is a lot to do on this island. Its got restaurants, dessert shops, small stores selling random trinkets or clothes, coffee shops, and an open supermarket. So much you can do. You’re also right next to False Creek and have a nice waterfront view of Vancouver. You can easily spend 2+ hours here.
I got coffee at JJ’s, which is a coffee shop inside the supermarket. Solid coffee. I also got some dragon fruit! It was super fresh and super good.
Parking is quite difficult, especially on the weekends. I’m not too sure where to park because my friends and I got lucky and found one right in front of the public market.
1PM – 3:30PM – bike through Stanley Park
After eating and walking around Granville Market, make your way to Stanley park. You can either walk or bike around the park. I highly recommend biking around it to see more of the park and the incredible waterside views. My friends and I biked a majority of the Seawall, which is the outer loop or boundary of the park. The park itself has a TON of attractions.
We stopped at the Totem poles and the Lions Gate Bridge.
At one point, my friends and I ended up cutting through a portion of the Seawall and biking on some of the roads that run into the park rather than around the waterfront. There are uphill portions, but they aren’t hard. The uphill portions are just long so if you don’t bike often like myself, you might need to take a couple of breaks or so.
I recommend coming here in September. The weather is perfect and the trees are starting to change color. The views are incredible.
3:30PM – 5:30PM – Capilano Suspension Bridge Park
Drive over to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. Assuming there’s no traffic, you can get there in like 15 minutes. The main attraction is the Capilano Suspension Bridge, but the park has a ton of other things you can do. I’d say you can easily spend 2+ hours here.
My friends and I ended up not doing this because we were pretty gassed from biking (when I say we…mostly I and one other person).
Note that this place is not free. You do have to pay tickets to get into the park.
5:30PM – 6:30PM – break & prep for dinner
Get back to the AirBnb and take a short break. That’s what we did before we went to dinner. Traveling is a lot about relaxing and having fun. So take a break – you’ve been running around the entire morning and afternoon 🙂
If you want, you can also spend some time at Creekside Park near the Science World Dome. You can get a nice waterside view of the sunset.
6:30PM – 8:00PM – dinner at Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba – Downtown
The next place to go after this dinner place is the Richmond Night Market. There’s a bunch of food (both meals + desserts) at the night market so you can have dinner there or you can get dinner before hand. My friends and I got dinner before hand at Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba in downtown (they have multiple locations). They have great Japanese food. it’s decently priced!
Some of their noodle dishes offer a free size upgrade. The only thing you get is more noodles.
8:00PM – 10:30PM – head over to Richmond Night Market
This is the one thing that isn’t in Vancouver, but if you’re in the area from Apr – Oct, you should totally checkout Richmond Night Market. It’s one of the largest, if not, the largest Asian night market in North America. It was definitely the largest Asian night market I’ve been to in North America.
There’s food, games, and stalls that sell a variety of merchandise. It was bustling when we got there.
If you bring 5 or more people, you can save $5 on the entrance tickets. We didn’t know about this until we got there. Some night market staff people were handing out these special entrance tickets. We honestly thought it was a scam, but they showed us that it wasn’t. There’s another entrance for these special tickets. We bought the special ticket and got into the night market really quick.
The market opens up until 12AM so you can stay for a long time. My friends and I stayed from ~8PM – 11PM.
10:30PM – 11:00PM – head back home
Head back to the AirBnb or hotel.
I hope you enjoyed this one day in Vancouver itinerary!
We thought the things we did gave us a nice introduction to what Vancouver has to offer. As a fun fact, we drove to Vancouver from Bellevue. Assuming you don’t hit much traffic, it takes about 3 hours to get to Vancouver. You can totally do a one day trip to Vancouver from Seattle or Bellevue.
There’s so many things to do in Vancouver so one day is definitely too short to explore Vancouver; however, that doesn’t mean you can’t get a sample for what the city offers. It’s a very vibrant city filled with modern architecture and food.
If you go in September like we did, the weather is absolutely gorgeous. You’ll want to spend more time outside than inside.
