The Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre hotel: another fabulous place to stay if you’re in Vancouver BC with kids

I can’t figure out if I call Vancouver my hometown or my home away from home nowadays but it’s where we spend a lot of time and it’s where the hubby and I grew up.  We usually hang out with family in Coquitlam or Richmond BC when we’re not at Granville Island, or reminiscing at UBC or hanging out downtown and we love staying in hotels if we are there for a little while so we can pretend we still live there and visit all our old haunts.  Over the winter break we stayed at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre hotel in a club level room for the first time and found it really comfortable and relaxing so I thought I better share some details just in case you’re looking for a great place to stay in Vancouver for a family downtown.

A Club level room has lounge access at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel

I do my research for places using instagram hashtags (#veryvancouver #vancouverhotels #vancouverhotel #dailyhivevancouver #igersvancouver #vancouvereats #curiocityvan ) and somehow stumbled on a picture of a spiral-like staircase heading up to the club lounge at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre hotel.  I instantly knew I needed to book a club level room so we could see this amazing lounge for itself.  We used to get lounge privileges at Starwood hotels with our American Express Platinum card but now are only gold-level members so I actually had to book some kind of upgrade in order to get access to the lounge.  The lounge is 24/7 and has breakfast, tea and snacks throughout the day and with a family of 4 booking a club level room might actually save money. There was enough hot and delicious food from the lounge that we didn’t really feel like eating full meals out so for dinners we ordered in Stephos (a favorite of ours since college) and Japadog and ate snacks from the lounge and were very content. We’ve found that when we travel and stay in hotel properties vs airbnb style with their own kitchens it’s nice to have something like lounge access to take the stress out of figuring out what to eat at each meal.  Because a lounge is less formal than sitting down in a hotel restaurant too, it’s a comfortable way to eat out with kids who might be tired after a long day of sight-seeing.  (We appreciated this in Hong Kong and Amsterdam on trips when the kids were younger.)

But does it have a pool?

Our room was on a higher floor and the kids had their own bedroom with a double bed over looking the city as well.  This was nice because many suites we’ve booked in Vancouver usually have a sofa bed for the kids so they were pretty happy with their room.  The hotel had a pool but it was a little far from our room and the kids were more into ice skating and watching hockey on tv at Christmas time and didn’t feel like swimming which was a welcome shock to us (and I was glad not to have to wear a swimsuit in the winter.).  We took a peek though and the pool was a good size and seemed to have a pretty well-equipped gym nearby so maybe if we come back in the summer we might utilize this a little more.

And an Absolute Spa across the street

I love the Absolute Spa at the Century Plaza hotel simply because it was the first one I went to with my sister when I was younger so it’s very nostalgic.  It is right across the street from the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel, so one night I walked over and got a pedicure while the guys watched hockey on tv-ALL BY MYSELF.  It was such a relaxing way to spend an evening and I was happy I could even book my appointment last minute.  Robson street is also right nearby the hotel and if I had more time or energy I probably would have shopped there a bunch too.  Lately, I’ve really enjoyed going to the Muji store and  checking out what’s different at the Vancouver Nordstrom than what we have in Seattle.  It’s always tempting to pick up pastries from Thierry bakery near there too.

But parking though….

Parking is always one of the spendiest parts of any Vancouver hotel but I guess that’s how it is in most big cities.  The nice thing was we didn’t have to move the car at all because everything we wanted to see or do was right nearby the hotel so we didn’t have to drive and buy MORE parking.  I think we paid around $30 CAD for our parking each night so you need to factor that into the cost of booking in this area too.  (If you want to save on parking, staying in Richmond is a good alternative to Vancouver and you can take the skytrain into the city.). Also, if you are driving electric there was no Tesla charger or other electric charger at this hotel when we visited but we charged a little at Granville Island and at the Supercharger downtown.

Have you ever been to Vancouver BC?

(PS. if you are headed in the other direction from Seattle, we recently stayed at the Sheraton Portland Airport and had a really comfortable stay too.  This hotel might also have reasonable airport parking or airport parking included with a stay.)

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)