When we travel, we like to take advantage of touring options that meet two specific goals.  The first is that we don’t view our chosen travel destination through the window of a vehicle and the second is that we see and learn as much as possible in the time allotted.

For example – We experienced both Barcelona and Copenhagen via Segway tour and those experiences were educational, entertaining, and covered a lot of ground!  We did a walking tour of Bergan, Norway that taught us about the city’s amazing history.  We learned a good bit about Alesund and Geiranger, Norway by sea kayak and mountain bike respectively.  You get the idea.  We like a bit of adventure with our history lessons.

Disney Cruise Port Activities – Vancouver Food Tour

Vancouver presented a challenge for me.  I knew the weather would likely be rainy, so I searched online for an activity that fit the criteria and would still be enjoyable in wet weather.  When I came upon the Gastronomic Gastown Tour, I knew I’d found a winner!  This three-hour walking tour combined both the history of Vancouver’s oldest neighborhood with the opportunity to taste the fare at four different restaurants.  This sounded perfect to me and Raymond agreed. 

With some careful time-calculations, I figured we could make the 3:00 pm tour on arrival day.  Our plane was scheduled to land at about 11:45, I figured an hour through customs, an hour to our hotel and we’d have plenty of time!  I figured wrong.  Or I should say…I didn’t allow enough wiggle room for a flight delay, which we had.  We landed 30 minutes late and customs took 90 minutes. If our driver hadn’t been waiting for us (thank you Disney Cruise Line ground transfers!), we would never have made our tour.

We rushed into the Fairmont Waterfront at 2:45, checked in, ran our suitcases to our room and hit the street; arriving at the Gassy Jack Statue to meet our tour group at exactly 3:00! 

Vicky, our guide, was friendly and knowledgeable and was equally as excited about Gastown’s revival from near demise in the 1970’s as she was about the neighborhood’s awesome food scene. (I found this link about Gastown history with a wonderful collection of photos.) Vicky had us introduce ourselves and say where we were from and what our favorite food is. 

Our first stop was at La Mezcaleria, an authentic Mexican restaurant for tacos and cocktails.  The flavors of the Carne Asada tacos we chose were delicious and well-seasoned.  The cocktails were not too strong (considering this was the first stop) and a bit exotic for Raymond and I who are not typically mixed-drink kind of people.

Next up was Nickli Antica Pizzeria for pizza and beer and we were thrilled with the quality and flavor.  This was my favorite stop on the tour.  The pizzas were absolutely wonderful!  Not too heavy and with perfectly cooked crusts.

Third stop was at Tuc Craft Kitchen for pork belly with dipping sauce, a Scotch egg, and parsnip fries.  We enjoyed glasses of red wine with our dishes.  This was by far Raymond’s favorite place.

Finally, we dropped in at Wildebeest for dessert.  Crème brulee with rhubarb jelly on top was served with..uhm…a pretty pink drink (for the life of me I can’t remember what it was!).  The crème brulee was an incredible combination of sweet and tart and I ate WAY too much of it.  The rhubarb was a perfect compliment to the sugary, crusty-topped sweet custard.  If you know me, you know I don’t have a sweet tooth and normally skip dessert.  I was so glad I was all-in for this one!

As we walked between restaurants, Vicky directed our attention to points of interest and wove stories of Gastown’s history throughout the experience.

The three hours flew by and before we knew it, our appetites for both food and information were completely satisfied.  We wrapped up the tour with a lesson about the famous Gastown Steam Clock.

Sure, it was still early when we arrived back at the Fairmont, so we made time to enjoy a whisky at the bar before turning in.  The next day would be our 29th anniversary – the main reason for our getaway and we had so much planned!

Follow along for more about this trip as we enjoy our anniversary dinner at Notch8, sail away on the Disney Wonder and make our first ever visit to Disneyland!