Vancouver Convention Centre: 5 ways to make the most of your break time

One great things about the Vancouver Convention Centre is that it's in a perfect spot, jutting out over Burrard Inlet, with floor-to-ceiling windows that give you a great view of the North Shore mountains. The bad thing is that you are all too aware of what you're missing out on while you're sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in yet another seminar. Which is really all the more reason to make the most of your break time.

Whether it's a 15-minute coffee break or an hour over lunch, here are five Vancouver experiences worth skipping the buffet line-up for.

1. The Seawall - Vancouver's seawall is legendary. Most people will tell you to rent a bike and follow it around Stanley Park. If you don't have that kind of time, VCC luckily sits right on the seawall so you can run downstairs and get a breath of fresh air as you walk around the outside of the building. You'll even find info signage around the perimeter so you know what you're looking at.

2. Flightseeing - You've probably heard the floatplanes taking off and landing in the harbour all morning. You don't need to be heading somewhere to experience one of these 'craft - both Harbour Air and West Coast Air offer 20-minute "flightseeing" tours, taking you over Vancouver with a spectacular view of mountains, city and water. You'll need to check in about 25 minutes in advance so this is really a lunch break option. Bonus: you'll get access to free wi-fi, 49th Parallel Coffee, newspapers and snacks before you take off. (Map here)

3. Bella Gelateria - As good as the coffee and pastries might be during your conference coffee break, they probably won't be as good as the gelato at Bella Gelateria across the street from the VCC. They use only the best ingredients and they usually have at least five different chocolate choices. For those with dietary restrictions, they have soy milk, yogourt and coconut milk options. As a bonus, if your session gets out late, they're open until at least 10:00 pm. (Map here)

4. Tickets Tonight - The Tickets Tonight booth in Tourism Vancouver's Visitor Centre is Vancouver's version of the TKTS stand in the middle of Times Square in New York. Offering half-price, day of performance tickets for arts and culture events in the city, a trip across the street to this spot could cheaply solve your question of what to do tonight. The Visitor Centre in itself is more than just a brochure distribution point - purchase sightseeing tickets here and enjoy a discount for most attractions. (Map here)

5. The Marine Building - In a city as young as Vancouver, the Marine Building qualifies as a bona fide historical landmark. Built in 1929, it's a shining example of Art Deco design. True to its name, the designs on the outside include crabs, fish, boats and starfish. Make sure you push through the revolving doors and have a look at the embalmed lobby. (Map here)

I'm back...

It's rather fitting that the very last line of the post of this blog mentioned how much trouble I have keeping a journal. Turns out that the same is true of a blog. But I'm once again filled with the feeling that I really can do this. I mean, why not? Lots of other people do it, and while there are plenty of them that are better at travel writing than I will ever be, there are plenty of them that really are not.

Here are some of the things that have happened since the last time that I blogged:
- I spent three weeks in the south of India, having all kinds of amazing experiences with my amiga, Emily.
- We hosted the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, and I was plenty busy working with international media that came to the city to cover it.
- I spent a month in my beloved Mexico City attempting to improve my Spanish.
- I left my job at Tourism Vancouver and started my own media relations company, Fever Pitch Marketing Communications.
- I spent two weeks in Germany for a conference, and I had sparkling wine (and a whole lot of other things) every single day that I was there.

Things are different since the last time I was here. And so, I am going to try again.

I won't blog about my Fever Pitch clients, even though they're fantastic. The journalism student in me just won't let me do it. But I will likely write a lot about Vancouver, which is where I spend the most of my time. So if you stumble across this blog and have questions about Vancouver, drop me a line. I know it pretty well.

(If you're interested in what spurred me to come back, it was the TBEX '11 conference, held in Vancouver this weekend. All that talk of travel blogging just made me want to get back on board.)

Travel traditions

I saw this slideshow on World Hum and had to post it. It's on "eight endangered travel traditions" and it really made me smile because on our last trip we sent postcards for the first time in ages and they were a hit! I forgot how satisfying it is to sit down with a beer, a pen and a handful of postcards, scratch out some kind of "wish you were here" update, and stick them in a mail box. (Actually, it was kinda difficult to find in a mail box in Manhattan of all places. Weird.) Anyway, people loved them.

The other one I love on this list is the guidebook. True, I do a lot of my planning and research online these days, but when I'm on the road, it's the guidebook that keeps on getting pulled out. When we were in Boston, we had an iPhone and a Blackberry between us, but our Moon Guide is what we relied on. And yes, they make pretty great souvenirs after the fact.

I don't know about the journal though... I've never been able to keep one for more than about four days. Sigh.

Hoarding those pennies

I've always felt that, for most of us, travel is a choice and not a luxury. Years ago, when my husband and I quit our jobs to travel for six months, people were constantly saying, "Oh, I wish I was lucky enough to do that." This annoyed me no end! We weren't handed an inheritance or a winning lottery ticket. We saved up, went without things we enjoyed and managed to find enough money to go and do it. We also had to quit our jobs, give up our apartment and put everything we owned that didn't fit in our backpacks into a storage locker.

We chose travel over career advancement, stability and material possessions like cars and stereos that had two working speakers. AND IT WAS WORTH IT!

We can all do with a little shove in the right direction when it comes to finding our travel budget, so I was thrilled to find this travel savings calculator from TravelMuse. It goes through your spending to find things you can save on this year, giving you more money to travel, and all in a user-friendly, non-spreadsheet-y format.

All I can say is that after using the calculator, I have NO excuse for not travelling this year...

Twitter Takes Flight

I will admit that I'm new to Twitter, but I like to think that I've embraced the technology wholeheartedly. I ended up joining because (a) even my bank is on Twitter, and (b) I'm a sucker for peer pressure, even from a bank.

There are lots of great ways the service can be used for travel. I've heard of one mother getting her travelling college-age daughter to tweet every four hours so she knew she was OK. The girl got back home and realized her timeline served as a great "diary" of her trip.

But following specific tourism industry suppliers is probably the most obvious way. Visitor bureaus in a lot of city's now tweet, giving you up-to-date deals and ideas for things to do in their destination. Hotels have also taken up the Twitter challenge.

WorldHum reports that a number of airlines have also taken up Twittering - some successfully, some not so much. United Airlines have been advertising "twares", which are short term seat sales, through the medium. So it makes sense that if you're planning on heading to a particular destination sometime soon, it could be worth following specific airlines and hotels to see if you can catch a break. Me, I need to wait for Air Canada to get on-board. Sigh.

Vermont

I posted a few times here and here about the trip we were taking in April: New York, Boston, Vermont, Portland, Cape Ann, and then back to New York via Boston again. I even managed to squeeze in one post about Boston food before I went "off air".

So let me quickly tackle Vermont. The Vermont leg was spent in and around Hardwick - a place that Kurtis' cousin says used to be known as "Little Chicago" (Diane, I hope you don't get shot for saying this). Lots of family time was garnished by farm visits and a fantastic brunch at Claire's, a co-op restaurant that has now been recognized by Conde Nast Traveler. My frittata is in the photo.

It was fantastic to spend time getting to know parts of Kurtis' family that I had never met before, and be introduced to a place on a very personal level. Often when you travel, you're meeting a town or city for the first time in the most impersonal way - hotel rooms, group tours, tourist attractions and guide books. But the way we were introduced to Vermont was through a wooden canoe kept in the loft space, meeting the very cow that produced the milk in our coffee, and having someone point out their favourite creemee stand.

I won't go into any more detail because there's already a fantastic blog post about it here. A big thank you to Diane, Lucian, Emmett, Miss Beazy and all of their friends and family for their hospitality.

Apologies

I have been lame. I've been back from vacation for a month and haven't posted a thing. My apologies. Where are my manners?

However, I've come to realize that posting five times a week is unrealistic for me. Instead, I will aim to post once per week, and in between, I'll be on Twitter - you can follow me at http://twitter.com/WennoU. Is that OK?

Sorry.

Boston bites

When you look at the map, Boston looks spread out and a little ungainly. I mean, Harvard is not even IN Boston - it's in Cambridge. But in fact, a short walk takes you virtually anywhere. All the better for working up a thirst and an appetite.

The main attraction in Boston is free (almost). It's called the Freedom Trail and it's essentially a self-guided walking tour of historic sites, mainly relating to the American Revolution. Having not grown up in North America, I've found it very educational (Samuel Adams - not just a beer guy, it turns out) but I've since found out that Canadians don't necessarily know much about US history either.

The Quincy Market is conveniently located in the middle of the trail. Perfect for a lunchtime chowdah. Yes, Bostonians like to make fun of their accent before you do. Finish the trail and you'll be in the mood for a solid dinner. Located just over the bridge near Pier 4 is Sportello, Barbara Lynch's counter-style spot. We had seen a piece on the restaurant's gnocchi in Saveur magazine, and while it lived up to the food porn photography from the article, a chicken liver tortellini really took us by surprise. A shared appetizer, main and dessert, three glasses of wine and two coffees (and two really full bellies) set us back about $30 each, plus tip.

The Bruising-full Game

One of the best ways to get in touch with a culture is go and see a game. In most of Europe, that would be soccer (yes, I know, they call it football) as it would be in South America. In the US, you have quite the selection: baseball in the summer and either football or basketball in the winter. In Canada, there is no doubt that it's hockey that you have to see.

There is a National Hockey League team in most of the country's larger cities, and if you can get a ticket, then you're in for a slick, action-packed evening of entertainment. But it can be hard to get tickets, and even if you get them, they're plenty expensive. The Vancouver Canucks have sold out about eight seasons in a row, and you can not purchase two seats together anymore.

So what's the alternative? A couple of weeks ago I went to see the Vancouver Giants play and remembered how fun it was to see a game at this level. The Giants are part of the Western Hockey League, a feeder league for the NHL. The players are young and they play like they have nothing to lose. The 14,000 seat arena was packed with vocal fans of every age, but because the best seats in the house top-out at CAD $19.50, there are loads of families and school groups in there too.

So it made me think about experiencing these sports on a more local level when I travel. I'll be in Boston net month and would like to see a baseball game, but the Red Sox are playing the Yankees, and, well, good luck getting tickets for that. But there must be a Minor League team that we could catch somewhere. In India, we're going to try to find a cricket game, and if you're ever in Australia, I highly recommend an Australian Rules Football game, especially those played at the regional level (like the mighty South Fremantle Bulldogs).

After all, what makes a sport quintessential to a nation is not that it is played at a professional level, but that it is played at every other level as well.

(Photo by willowbrookhotels via Flickr)