If you only have an afternoon in Vancouver, Stanley Park is a great place to spend it. The Park is right in the city’s downtown and offers visitors 400 hectares of green space including rainforest, beautiful formal gardens, sports facilities, biking and hiking trails, beaches and the Vancouver Aquarium. In fact, an afternoon isn’t really enough time to do the Park justice.
We spent some time walking the Seawall, taking in the view of Vancouver across the water. Apparently there’s a square mile or two in the city which is among the most densely populated in the world.
We also spent some time admiring the Stanley Park totem poles – a beautiful collection of coastal Salish artwork. For generations, Stanley Park was home to the Coastal Salish people of three First Nations. The totem poles which were installed in 2008 bring together today’s Park with this centuries old heritage and culture.
Given that we were short of time and had a ferry to catch, we opted to take a horse-drawn horse tour which allowed us to see a lot and learn a lot in a very short space of time. Stanley Park is rich in history and tall tales – one of which is the story behind the Girl in the Wetsuit statue. The story goes that the gentleman who donated the statue had recently returned from Copenhagen and wanted to make a replica of the Little Mermaid. Understandably the original sculptor was not keen and so the clever Canadian asked a local artist to ‘adapt’ the original, adding a wetsuit and mask to make Stanley Park’s ‘mermaid’ unique!
While we had only a short time in Stanley Park, we were impressed with how beautiful and accessible it was and would love to visit again. My final tip is a quirky hot dog stand for a quick lunch – Japadog is one of the food cars in the Park and serves Japanese hot dogs! Surprisingly tasty.