300c.com

Vancouver International Airport

Vancouver International Airport is situated on Sea Island, 13km south of the city centre. Its often-used coded abbreviation is YVR. International flights arrive at the majestic new main terminal; domestic flights at the smaller and linked old Main Terminal. If you’re an international passenger, you’ll find a tourist information desk as you exit customs and immigration and before entering the terminal’s public spaces (daily 7am-midnight; tel 688-5515). On the right just before this, before you exit to the public spaces, is a desk where you can book taxis, limousines and also buy tickets or obtain information for the bus shuttles to downtown and direct bus services from the airport to Victoria, Whistler, Bellingham Airport (Seattle) and Sea-Tac Airport in the US. There are also plenty of foreign exchange and other facilities, along with freephone lines to several upmarket hotels, in the area. Domestic passengers also have a tourist-information desk just before the terminal exit.

The best way to get into Vancouver is on the private Airporter bus (6.45am-1.10am; $10 single, $17 return; tel 946-8866 or 1-800/668-3141), which leaves from a bay to the left immediately outside the main door of the international arrivals; domestic arrivals can walk here if you need visitor information or wait at the domestic arrivals pick-up outside the terminal. You can buy tickets from the desk inside international arrivals, from the driver or from the stand set up by the bus stop at the international terminal departure point. Helpful staff and a pamphlet with a useful map help you figure out which drop-offs on the shuttle’s three routes are most useful. Note that if you’re headed straight for the bus depot on route #3 you need to transfer to another Airporter service closer to downtown: the driver will tell you all you need to know. Returning to the airport, buses run round the same pick-up points, including the bus depot.

Taxis into town cost about $25, limos around $32 plus tax. Public transport is cheaper, but slower and involves a change of bus - take the BC Metro Transit bus #100 to the corner of 70th Street and Granville (it leaves the domestic terminal roughly every 30min), then change to the #20 or #21 which drops off downtown on Granville Street. Tickets cost $2.50 rush hour, $1.75 off-peak, and exact change is required to buy tickets on board: make sure you get a transfer if the driver doesn’t automatically give you one .

It’s also useful to know that you can pick up direct buses to Victoria from the airport: ask for details at the bus desk in international arrivals, or go straight to the hotel shuttle bus stop outside the international terminal: Pacific Coach Lines (tel 662-8074 or 1-800/661-1725, www.pacificcoach.com ) run between one and three daily direct services from the airport to Victoria depending on the time of year (1 daily year-round; 2 daily mid-May to late June and early Sept to Oct; 3 daily late June to early Sept; $30.50).

Bus Terminal

Vancouver’s main bus terminal , which is used by Pacific Coach Lines (for Victoria, Vancouver Island), Maverick Coach Lines (Whistler, Sunshine Coast and Nanaimo) and all Greyhound services, is in a slightly dismal area alongside the VIA Rail Pacific Central train station at 1150 Station St; ticket offices for all companies are on the inside on the right as you enter. It’s too far to walk to downtown from here, so bear left from the station through a small park, to the Science World-Main St SkyTrain station and it’s a couple of stops to downtown (take the train marked “Waterfront”); tickets ($1.75) are available from platform machines. Alternatively, you could take a taxi downtown from the station for about $6-8. There are left-luggage facilities here and a useful hotel board , whose freephone line connects to some of the city’s genuine cheapies (but check locations) - some of whom will deduct the taxi fare from the terminal from your first night’s bill.

Trains

The skeletal VIA Rail services also operate out of Pacific Central Station (tel 640-3741 or 1-800/561-8630, www.viarail.ca ); they run to and from Jasper ($175), where there are connections for Prince George and Prince Rupert, and on to Edmonton and the east (3 weekly Mon, Thurs & Sat). There is also one daily VIA-Amtrak (tel 253/931-8917 or 1-800/872-7245, www.amtrakcascades.com ) service between Vancouver and Seattle (currently departs 6pm and arrives Seattle at 9.55pm).

A second train station, belonging to the provincial BC Rail , at 1311 W 1st St, in North Vancouver (tel 984-5246 or 1-800/339-8752 in BC, 1-800/663-8238 from the rest of Canada and US, www.bcrail.com ), provides passenger services to and from Whistler (1 daily; 2hr 35min), Lillooet (1 daily; 5hr 35min), and Prince George (3 weekly; 13hr 30min) via 100 Mile House, Williams Lake and Quesnel. Note that in the summer they also run very popular excursion trips to Squamish aboard the Royal Hudson steam train, sometimes combined with a sea cruise.