Take kids to Victoria or Vancouver BC in winter?

In article ,
Lee Choquette wrote:
We've lived in the Seattle area for almost three years and we still
haven't been to Canada.

Lots of WAers/USAers haven't.

January may not be the best time to go (other
than for winter sports, which we are not good at), but for certain
reasons we are going now anyway.

Winter Olympics 2010.
^^^^^

What are the pros and cons of going to Victoria vs Vancouver, in the
winter, with kids? (Whichever one we don't go to now, we may perhaps
visit later, probably in warmer weather.)

How old are they?

Going fishing is one thing, sight seeing is another (e.g., whale watching).

For some reason the kids seem much more interested in taking the train
(Seattle-Vancouver) than the ferry (Port Angeles-Victoria). Until now
they have only taken 15-minute train rides and 30-minute ferry rides.

Well if they are interested in trains (US trains are barely functioning),
let them. I did a summer car ferry from Victoria to Seattle down town 2
decades ago. It was amusing. Vancouver's roads are not great at rush
hour.

We'd also appreciate any suggestions for hotels in either city that can
accomodate large families at low rates.

Cassandra was OK for me last year.

For Victoria there are 10 Traveler's Inns. City Centre was quite reasonable.

I'm doing this trip again in 2 weeks over 4 days. This time after
administrating a scholarship, I plan to drive up the Sunshine Coast
across at (I have yet to decade but North of Nanaimo maybe) then down to
Victoria (last year I went to Port Hardy).

3 days is not long enough for any great trip more than say a recon to a
longer future trip. The Island is heavily logged. Traveling on water is
interesting. And I do plan to take the float plane one of these days.

--

Looking for an H-912 (container).

On Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:09:06 GMT, "Sharx35"
wrote:


Aside from weekends, I wasn't aware of any school holidays IN JANUARY. What
are they doing out of school? What kind of message does that give them? As
adults,
they will expect to bugger off whenever THEY want to, regardless of their
vacation entitlement.
Many of us plan our vacations for when school is in session so we don't have
to fly or share
our vacation spots with spoiled, poorly supervised children.

Martin Luther King holiday. Some places have inauguration day as a
holiday the next day.

Eugene Miya wrote:
In article 09,
Joe Makowiec wrote:
On 12 Jan 2009 in rec.travel.usa-canada, Lee Choquette wrote:
with three beds plus a sofabed, but such rooms seem to be rare in
downtown Vancouver (not unexpectedly). Is there a suburb of Vancouver
that might have hotels like this with good transit connections to the
tourist areas (as we will likely arrive by Amtrak)?
When we were in Vancouver over the summer, we stayed at the Cassandra
Hotel on Kingsway.
http://www.cassandrahotel.com/

Yeah, I can second that endorsement.

The feedback on tripadvisor is largely negative however.

On Jan 12, 9:26*am, Lee Choquette wrote:
What are the pros and cons of going to Victoria vs Vancouver

I was probably ten, certainly younger than twelve, when we took the
ferry Chinook from Seattle to Victoria returning via train from
Vancouver.

Vancouver did not stick in my young mind but the images of Victoria
remained vivid and, fifty years later, proved to be accurate.

Same was true for Hawai'i, forty years separating my visits.

In article 09,
Joe Makowiec wrote:
When we were in Vancouver over the summer, we stayed at the Cassandra
Hotel on Kingsway.
http://www.cassandrahotel.com/

I wrote:
Yeah, I can second that endorsement.

Mike O'Sullivan wrote:
The feedback on tripadvisor is largely negative however.

The recent feedback is.
I just took a look at their database.

Things change. Normally, I commonly prefer to move around a bit.
My experience was OK. This wasn't a vacation for me, and I wasn't
staying there except to sleep. I myself have run into the "we only have
smoking rooms," or the smoker who violates policy, and I'm not certain
what the city's or province's policy is. I never ate at the Thai
restaurant which might account for the one TA comment about strange smell.

Suggest some place else.

I have to make decisions later this evening. So maybe I'll skip
Cassandra. I can certainly wait to see what akair comes up with.
They certainly offered me more than Pension Stoi in Innsbruck on the
other side of the Atlantic.

--

Looking for an H-912 (container).

http://www.cassandrahotel.com/

I didn't chose this hotel for my BC trip next week. I took an Alaska
Air recommended hotel (3*) next to the airport because:
1) Direct Alaska Air flights between SFO and VBC discontinued. I am now
going SJC -Sea-Tac- BC. Problematic.
2) Major cost savings if I leave just before 8 PM. But that means I
arrive 1159pm. Ugh. Driving into town is delayed until the next day.

After admining a scholarship, I plan to split up the Sunshine Coast
cross over to Comox, back to Victoria and back. Just regular reading
surprised me and noted a CSE listening post on the Island. And also
formerly in the Queen Charlottes, independent of the various Canadian
defense force bases and museums, etc.

--

Looking for an H-912 (container).

On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:26:07 +0000 (UTC) in
rec.travel.usa-canada, Lee Choquette wrote:

What are the pros and cons of going to Victoria vs Vancouver, in the
winter, with kids? (Whichever one we don't go to now, we may perhaps
visit later, probably in warmer weather.)

I'm not visiting Victoria until they start behaving like a
civilized community and stop dumping raw untreated sewage into
Georgia Strait. Victoria is the only coastal city in North
America that doesn't have a sewage treatment plant.

Until they start treating their sewage like everyone else does,
I'm not visiting Victoria.

"Dennis P. Harris" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:26:07 +0000 (UTC) in
rec.travel.usa-canada, Lee Choquette wrote:

What are the pros and cons of going to Victoria vs Vancouver, in the
winter, with kids? (Whichever one we don't go to now, we may perhaps
visit later, probably in warmer weather.)

I'm not visiting Victoria until they start behaving like a
civilized community and stop dumping raw untreated sewage into
Georgia Strait. Victoria is the only coastal city in North
America that doesn't have a sewage treatment plant.

Until they start treating their sewage like everyone else does,
I'm not visiting Victoria.

I'm in no hurry to go back there, either.

Dennis P. Harris wrote:

Until they start treating their sewage like everyone else does,
I'm not visiting Victoria.

The other bad boy, Halifax, has finally begun treating its sewage.

Thanks for bringing this to people's attention. I'm going to boycott all
products from Victoria, as soon as I can find a product from Victoria.

"SMS" wrote in message
...
Dennis P. Harris wrote:

Until they start treating their sewage like everyone else does,
I'm not visiting Victoria.

The other bad boy, Halifax, has finally begun treating its sewage.

Thanks for bringing this to people's attention. I'm going to boycott all
products from Victoria, as soon as I can find a product from Victoria.

Their main product is tourism. Just do NOT go there.