I would have liked to spend a whole day popping into wineries and sampling all the great food produc

I ve been in cities where you could tour everything of interest before rome italy tours lunchtime. In this city and on Vancouver Island, however, the choices rome italy tours tug at you like a pack of attention-starved rome italy tours toddlers. Ignoring them and just reading a book for an afternoon just doesn t seem right.
You can feel the energy of progress in Vancouver as the city gears up to host the Winter Olympics in 2010. They ve already got the cutesy mascots on sweatshirts filling up the shopping bags of Asian tourists.
With my wife on one bike and us other two on a tandem, we took a leisurely ride, stopping by the totem pole exhibit, taking in the skyline views, and visiting the heated outdoor pool with a view for a dip.
That turned rome italy tours out to be through the worst stretch of East Hastings Street, where in the space of two minutes I saw three drug deals, two pimps, three hookers, and enough junkies to fill 12 levels of Grand Theft Auto.
Things only look edgy instead of being edgy in the Kitsilano area, a neighborhood of quirky stores and coffee shops where we had a leisurely lunch at Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company . This pizza restaurant goes out of its way to make the whole family happy.
There are fresh local ingredients and good microbrews for the parents. Then the kids get to watch the bakers work with a wood-fired clay oven in an open area before hanging rome italy tours out in a cool play kitchen, where they can dress up like chefs and make play pizzas.
We had Translink day passes to get around on the excellent public transportation rome italy tours system and this even included the sea bus and regular bus required to go north to the Capilano Suspension Bridge . Strung across a gorge in the mountains, this impressive bridge is 230 above the river below.
It s just part of the attraction though. There s a nature study program for the kids and a series of stairs and bridges that take you from tree to tree through the canopy. It s not a good choice for those with advanced vertigo, but it was a hit with the three of us.
There are two ways to get from Vancouver to the city of Nanaimo rome italy tours on Vancouver Island. You can ride a ferry for an hour and a half to get there, at around $14.50 adults, $8 kids, but that involves first getting a bus to the departure point of Horshoe Bay.
We opted for the novelty of a Harbour Air seaplane rome italy tours , which departs from Richmond near the airport or from right downtown rome italy tours by where the cruise ships dock. It s $79 for adults, $39 for kids and takes 20 minutes.
We went out to see more of the water and Newcastle Island by riding around on one of the harbour pickle boats. You can take a sightseeing tour on these or just use them as water taxis to get from place to place including Canada s only floating pub, the Dingy Dock.
Next up was a stop at the BC Forest Discovery Center for a ride on a historic steam train. The train doesn t really go anywhere, rome italy tours just looping around the 100-acre park, but it s a fun step back in time, with some exhibits on the logging life and the old rail lines that kept the lumber industry humming.
I would have liked to spend a whole day popping into wineries and sampling all the great food produced between there and Victoria. But with an impatient rome italy tours 7-year-old in the back seat, we compromised with a stop in the town of Cowichan Bay.
As soon as we dropped our bags off in Victoria, rome italy tours we ditched the rental car. Here you get around without one very easily. Most of the attractions are located in one central area around the harbor and this is a city where over 10 percent of the population walks to work.
When it s time to play tourist though, by ponying up $30 adults/$15 kids you can ride the Big Bus for two days. It hits all the attractions in and around the city and you can linger as long as you want at the stops and get back on later.
We got into whirlwind tourist rome italy tours mode to take in all the attractions, then into slow food mode when it was time to eat. We watched buskers by the water, learned about wooly mammoths and First Nations cultures at the Royal British Columbia Museum , toured the impressive Craigdarroch Castle , caught an IMAX film, and toured the whole harbour by boat.
Our child has played tea party at home as much as any girly-girl her age, so it was fun to watch her reaction to this amped-up version of the real thing. Save up your cash and make reservations well ahead if you want to do the same: it gets booked out well in advance.
rome italy tours Victoria is one of the most progressive cities around when it comes to using local organic ingredients and following green business practices in restaurants. This is especially on display at Red Fish Blue Fish , a takeout seafood joint with outdoor seating housed rome italy tours in an upcycled steel fishing container.
rome italy tours We had a higher form of slow food at Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub , the oldest brewpub rome italy tours in Canada and one perched over the water. This popular restaurant takes sustainability rome italy tours as far as it can go, making beer and malt vinegar on site, serving only British Columbia wines, sourcing nearly all its ingredients from a 100-mile radius, and growing most of its herbs in its own garden.
On our last day, we headed out to find some Orcas on a trip with the Prince of Whales Tour Company . We rode by an island with lots of sea lions, but then after a few hours of fruitlessly scanning the horizon, the captain located some whales.
After our day of whale watching, we hopped back on another seaplane to Vancouver. We were heading home the next day and it was a bittersweet ending to a too-short rome italy tours circuit rome italy tours of the Vancouver city and island.
We ended the journey with a flourish rome italy tours though, the plane swooping down between the skyscrapers of downtown and North Vancouver, the buildings whizzing by us and the plane landed on the water and taxied to the dock.
Tim Leffel has written rome italy tours several books on traveling well for less including The World's Cheapest Destinations , Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune and Traveler's Tool Kit: Mexico and Central America (co-written with Rob Sangster). He also edits the narrative webzine rome italy tours Perceptive Travel .