| Sightseeing Overview Downtown Vancouver is a compact area full of activity, day and night. Robson Square is a focal point, with a series of landscaped terraces, a congress centre and the Vancouver Art Gallery. To the west lie the shops and restaurants of Robson Street, while to the southeast are the renovated warehouses of Yaletown (website: www.yaletowninfo.com), where trendy shops, galleries and restaurants continue to open up. A view of the mountains to the north of the city can be had from Canada Place, which houses the city’s convention centres and whose striking sail-like roof echoes its role as a cruise ship terminal. East of here lies Gastown (the reconstructed old centre of Vancouver) and Chinatown, the third largest in North America, where a variety of ethnic eating places and shops can be found. Beyond that, Commercial Drive (website: www.thedrive.ca or www.thedrive.net) offers a more alternative scene, interspersed with the older Italian cafés. |