Tips for Visiting Granville Island in Vancouver, BC

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A food market? Check. A brewery? Check. Beautiful views of Vancouver? Check! How could we not add Granville Island to our Vancouver weekend getaway? You could probably spend half a day just wandering past the food stalls at the market sampling all the local goodies, or even a full day exploring all the shops the island has to offer. We did a little self-guided tour of the island and here’s how our day went.

Getting to Granville Island

If you’re staying in the Downtown area of Vancouver, getting to Granville Island is quite easy. If you aren’t interested in taking a taxi, you can opt for one of the water ferries that will get you across the water to the island, accompanied by beautiful waterfront views of the city.

From our hotel, L’Hermitage in Downtown Vancouver, we took a nice walk through the Yaletown neighborhood and down to the Aquabus stop at David Lam Park. Current pricing in 2023 for a one-way from David Lam to Granville island is $8.00 CAD. Or, you can get a day pass for $17.00 CAD if you think you’ll be cruising around to other stops in Vancouver.

The Aquabus has a few different sizes, the larger of which can accommodate strollers or wheelchairs. For schedules and additional/up-to-date fares, check out the Aquabus website.

There is also public parking available at Granville Island if you are planning on driving, but on a nice sunny day, it seems that it can get pretty crowded unless you get there nice and early.

We were lucky enough to get one really sunny day during a cold and cloudy Vancouver fall, but the blue skies really made the beauty of this glass city stand out, especially from our viewpoint on the Aquabus.

Granville Island Market

The giant indoor Granville Island Public Market has so many things to offer. You’ll find vendors of fresh fruits and veggies, flowers, baked goods and pastries, chocolates, fresh pastas, seafood, etc., not to mention the hot meals in the food court area.

If you think you might be a little overwhelmed with all the food offerings, or just really want to get in-depth knowledge of all the foods at the public market, you can take a foodie tour like this one from Vancouver Foodie Tours. I think I’ll add this to the itinerary when we return!

We picked out a piece of the smoked salmon from the market that we enjoyed for breakfast one morning.

I also spotted a few places that were selling macarons. Ever since we visited Paris, I’ve wanted to sample macarons wherever I see them. These (below) are from Bon Macaron and while they have some really unique flavors, they weren’t quite as tasty as the ones we had from Angelina in Paris but they sure are pretty! Will you settle for second place, Bon Macaron?

Granville Island Brewing

Adding another notch to the brewery belt, we had lunch and beers at Granville Island Brewing, Canada’s first microbrewery, which opened in 1984!

For our beer flight, we had:

• Maple Shack Cream Ale
• Lion’s Winter Ale
• Infamous IPA
• Small Batch 1: So-Cal Style IPA
• Small Batch 2: Strange Brew Sour

The IPAs here are not quite like the super hoppy beers we get in the States, but overall, not bad for our first Canadian beer experience! Our favorite was definitely their small batch Strange Brew, which we got an extra pint of each. If they still have that available, make sure you get a sample! At the time of our visit, flights of 4 were only $7.00 CAD but are now $12.00 CAD. They do now also offer a full “map” tasting flight with 10 beers for $24.00 CAD so you can taste them all!

Granville Island Brewing Food

Ah, our very first experience with poutine, a well-known Canadian favorite: gravy smothered fries with cheese curds (ours was also topped with pulled pork). Our server informed us that their poutine is a good “first-timer” poutine, and my husband was pretty much in agreement. He devoured the whole thing!

I had the seasonal veggie tacos with squash and peppers, topped with crispy fried onions, queso fresco, and guacamole. They were tasty! I was trying not to fill up too much before grabbing a little snack at one of the stalls in the market, so these four little tacos weren’t too bad (I took off the extra tortilla on each one).

Wandering Around the Island

Aside from all the foodie activities, there are a TON of shops all around the island selling items ranging from souvenirs and clothing, to artisan crafts and storefronts for boat tours and rentals. You can also wander through a large variety of different arts and crafts galleries. Shopping-wise, I picked out a Vancouver magnet from one of the little souvenir shops to add to my collection, but we were more interested in the food rather than shopping.

TIP: Do a little research ahead of time on what shops are located on the island. That way, you can map our your walking excursion between all the shops and it won’t be too overwhelming. We don’t plan out every detail, but sometimes a little research ahead of time comes in handy. Some of the things I’m sad I missed out on (because I did not do my research ahead of time) were sake tasting at Artisan Sake Maker and sampling spirits at The Liberty Distillery, which I didn’t even know were there! Guess what’s going on my to-do list for next time? You can check out the Granville Island Directory for a list of all the different shops to see.

Also, if you get the chance, catch a glimpse of these painted silos next door to the market area. You can also see them from the water if you are taking one of the ferries. Pretty inventive to add some color to the island!

It’s pretty clear that there is a lot to do and see on Granville Island! So much so that I feel it warrants a second trip there to experience the things we missed out on. If you’ve been to Granville Island, what are your favorite spots to stop at?

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