Here is a guide to how to get around the city:
Train
Vancouver’s new Canada Line, opened in summer 2009 in time for the Games, is a rapid transit system that connects Richmond and the Vancouver International Airport with downtown Vancouver.
Its $2-billion price tag may be debated among locals for years to come, but as Canada’s first and only fixed link between a city and a major airport, the Canada Line is now one of Vancouver’s best assets. The line finally puts a Canadian city on par with places like London, Zurich and Munich, major airline hubs that move passengers downtown quickly and efficiently.
For the Vancouver visitor, the Canada Line is an inexpensive airport transfer, with one-way fares costing around $8. The Canada Line links with two more SkyTrains, 1,400 city buses, and a fleet of sea buses, all of which step up to move riders over a challenging mix of land and water — terrain that is unique to Vancouver.
The Canada Line may evolve into a sightseeing venture as well. In the next two years, watch for owner TransLink’s roll out of an automated headset program that will give visitors a summary of the region’s history and landmarks as they travel from point to point.
Highway
Another huge Olympic legacy is the improved Sea-to-Sky Highway that connects Vancouver to Whistler. Once a precarious two-lane road that hugged the rocky Pacific Coast, the route’s width has been widened considerably, in some spots to as many as four lanes.
While the travelling time between Vancouver and Whistler is not necessarily quicker (approximately two hours), improvements have rendered it safer and a lot less scary.
The new route, which snakes through the breathtaking oceanside communities of Horseshoe Bay and Squamish before reaching the mountain town of Whistler, now has fewer curves, much better sightlines for drivers, rumble strips on the shoulders and centrelines, more pull offs, plus 88 km of new passing lanes.
All of it makes the road more accessible for drivers unused to navigating mountain roads, allowing more travellers to discover the gem that is Whistler.
Bike Path
While Vancouver’s bike paths have not undergone significant changes as a result of the Games, Vancouver has long been cycle-friendly. The city has 300 km of bike route, the jewel of which is the Stanley Park Seawall.
Most visitors start their journey renting bikes at waterfront bike rental spots such as Bayshore Bike Rentals, then ride counter-clockwise around the Seawall toward English Bay. The 10-km route takes in Vancouver’s Brockton Point totem poles, the Lions Gate Bridge, two of the city’s most popular beaches, plus the unspoiled atmosphere of Stanley Park — an oasis of tall trees, rock and sea in the midst of a major metropolis.
Vancouver may be ringed with snow-capped mountains, but the terrain for sightseeing on a bike is flat and complicated, and the routes are clearly marked for first-time visitors. The two-hour journey is a quiet, more simple method of touring Vancouver — a city now equipped to move Olympic-sized crowds from land to sea to mountain.
Lori Knowles is covering the Olympics live from Vancouver and Whistler for the Toronto Sun’s Travel section, and blogging daily at loriexploring.wordpress.com
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