Vancouver Fairmont, Granville Island and an Unusual Dinner

The Vancouver Fairmont is the epitome of the classic, luxury in city hotel—it's large, centrally located, provides all the amenities on could desire, has comfortable public rooms and very comfortable bedrooms.

We walked about a mile to the mini-ferry to Granville Island-about a 3-4 minute ride across “False Inlet. The Island is composed of old restored buildings with many shops and a large public market with a wide variety of ethnic foods, We had a delightful lunch that we bought from multiple shopkeepers. Afterward we took a mini-ferry for a “25 minute family fun filled” tour around the inlet-we saw some incredible condominiums lining the water, some huge luxury yachts and then the site of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games that is being developed.

We had dinner in Vij's Restaurant on the south end of Vancouver-the restaurant specializes in “Indian Fusion” cuisine and is democratic in that they take no reservations and everyone waits (45-90 minutes) to eat-BUT it's definitely worth it. The food was fantastic, the wine list crisp and imaginative and the service was excellent—12 of the 14 staff were women, all in constant motion. We all loved our food and the experience.