Yaletown Walk

Date of Walk: November 23, 2001

Length: About 1 1/2 mile
Time to Walk: 45 minutes (not counting shopping time)
Type of Walk: Library/Shopping/Restaurants
Location: Downtown Vancouver
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Map

Parking
As with most downtown areas, your best bet is a pay parking lot. We were lucky and found a metered spot on the street near the corner of Davie and Hamilton. It costs $2 per hour at a meter.

Let's Go!
Yaletown is an old warehouse district that has been refurbished into up scale shops, restaurants and night clubs. We started at the intersection of Davie and Mainland. We arrived at lunch time and there is a Quizno's Subs on Davie. David is a big fan of their subs so he introduced them to Bill. Strengthened, we headed across Pacific Boulevard to the Roundhouse Community Centre. It holds an old BC Rail steam engine. We carried on to the shore of False Creek, which intersects the False Creek North Walk, and turned right to get to Drake Street. You can catch an Aquabus Water Taxi near the Roundhouse.

We headed away from False Creek on Drake. It's a short 2 block walk to get to one of the two streets that are the heart of Yaletown, Hamilton. When you turn right off Drake you are confronted with a bustling narrow street. Half the stores are located above the street on what used to be loading docks for the industries that used to operate here. Bill preferred strolling the raised walk.

We continued on Hamilton until we reached Nelson. We turned left and went one block to Homer and turned right. A short two block walk takes you to Homer and Robson where the Vancouver Public Library is located. The library is an interesting architectural design, almost Roman. The inside of the library houses shops and restaurants as well as the library itself.

We left the library by exiting at the far end of the shopping area. This takes you to Dunsmuir and Hamilton. On the northeast corner you will find the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and the Vancouver Playhouse, the home of the Vancouver Opera and the Vancouver Ballet. On the southeast corner is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation building with an interesting totem pole in front. We headed south down Hamilton. As you cross Robson, intersecting the Robson Street Walk, you get a view of BC Place Stadium.

We headed down Hamilton to Smithe. As you cross Smithe, Hamilton turns into Mainland (ask the city planners, not me). There are some interesting shops built like old houses to your right as you walk from Smithe to Nelson. At Nelson, you have to turn to your right as Mainland doesn't go straight through but jogs to your right.

On the other side of Nelson, Mainland returns to the refurbished industrial area that we saw on Hamilton. David found many interesting shots.

This block of Mainland also holds some interesting art galleries. We visited the Coastal Peoples Fine Arts Gallery. Afterwards we crossed to the Yaletown Brewing Co. They make several excellent beers and it would have been an insult if we didn't sample a couple. The south end of Mainland is Davie St., where we parked our car.