So I’ve been  here for a month now and through word of mouth and general exploring I’ve learnt a few helpful tips about things to do in Vancouver. Here’s a few of them:

Vancouver Art Gallery – Go on a Tuesday

If you don’t fancy spending $20 admission for Vancouver Art gallery then you don’t have to. Rather just wait until Tuesday at 5pm and you can go the gallery for ‘donation only’. They advise you to donate $10 but you can get a way with 5 and if you’re lucky you might even be able to see an exhibition or a talk too.

Urban Grind

Throughout March you can climb the 593 steps of the Harbor Centre for the wonderful price of $5. However it gets even better because you get a free beer at the top and the $5 entrance fee actually goes towards a food voucher at the food court. Not only do you get your exercise in for the day but you can get your dinner too! Next Tuesday is the last day you can do this so head on down and climb the stairs to get a gorgeous view of VanCity.  You can do this any time between 4pm to 6.30pm at the Harbour Centre which is located at West Hastings Street.

Drinking

Drinking is a common ritual in Vancouver and there are some great bars to explore. Happy hour occurs daily between 3 pm to 6 pm, the Canadians like to start early!

Get a dose of Literature with poetry Slam!

Every Monday in the beautiful Cafe Deux Soleils, located on Commercial Drive, you can listen to some people battle it out with their words at the longest running poetry slam in Vancouver. This takes place every Monday except on the 4th Monday of the month where there is still a poetry slam but for the young un’s, this being 14 – 22 yr olds. We were supposed to go on Monday night, however the poetry had been moved up the road ten blocks and we got sidetracked by the lovely booths and pitchers of beer. The cafe is vegan friendly (which Canadiasn loves) and not only holds cool events such as Poetry Slam and Open Mic but serves some lovely looking burgers and sandwiches too.

Mingle with the stars (or perhaps see them from afar)

Vancouver is known as Hollywood North. If you’re living in Vancouver there’s a good chance you’ll probably come across a film set at some point. Loads of shows are filmed here such as Supernatural, The Flash, Once Upon A Time and Arrow. I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity working on Arrow and it’s been pretty cool! Very long days and lots of standing around but there’s a really nice feeling being on set, you meet lots of people who are really passionate about what they do, get given numbers on pegs but the best thing is the amazing food! Oh my goodness after 2 says working on set I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that I’d put on a stone! Donuts, muffins, breakfast burritos, waffles, fish and chips, stew, sweet potato salad, Caesar salad, nuts, crisps, chocolate, I could go on. It’s like food heaven. All the guys who work here don’t know how to cook because they have all their meals on set throughout the week. We have a food station called Crafty which is on set throughout the day and it is extremely dangerous for the waist line but also a fabulous idea too! But yes so there’s lots going on in Vancouver. You can keep up to date with what shows and films are in production from looking at this wonderful list.

Cheap Travel

Travel caps at $2.75 after 6 pm so even if you want to head to zone 3, if you’re travelling after 6 you only need to pay zone 1 fair. Pretty neat.

Sushi

You can find this absolutely everywhere but there are some wonderful places where you can get it really cheap. My favourite is located on Granville street and is called Umeda Japanese Cuisine where you can get an extremely filling bento box from as little as $6.95.

So there you have a few helpful tips of things to do on the cheap in Vancouver. I’m sure there will be plenty more and I’m looking forward to finding them out!