My husband and I just returned from a well over due vacation. This vacation was acutally suppose to be our Paris trip ( for my 40th birthday but I decided to do Vancouver and have a Big Four - Ohhhh shin-dig with about 100 guess), we decided to explore beautiful Vancouver!

It was without a doubt a lovely time. The Pacific Palisades was in the PERFECT area. The hotel was nice - quite impressive to see return guest; that makes a big difference to me. It tells me they are doing something right! I got a chance to speak with a couple of flight attendants and an Air Canda pilot and his wife. They too enjoyed staying at the hotel when in Vancouver.

The hotel staff go out of their way to make your stay relaxing and exciting ( if that is what you are looking for), and any travelling arrangements to any of the neighboring cities taken care of. If you need a car for the day and information on sites to see, just as. They are prepared to take care of you. My husband and I were in fact a bit concerned being African American - and not knowing just how diverse Vancouver was... but our negativies turned into positives. SORRY HOTEL STAFF, I CAN'T REMEMBER ALL OF YOUR NAMES BUT YOU ALL MADE OUT STAY MEMORABLE - THAT INCLUDES OUR MAID AND OTHER SUPPORTING STAFF. VERY FRIENDLY HOTEL. KEEP THE ALL DAY SMILES AND " WAITING TO SERVE YOU" ATTITUDES.

Another great but really important item to know is that you don't really need a car. We took the bus or skybus or waterbus( ferry) when necessary. Most of all, we only had to go to the gym one day on our vacation because we walked EVERWHERE!! I mean on our first day, we walked from about 3:30pm and returned back to our hotel at about 8 pm or there after from just site seeing. Robson Street, where the hotel is located is one of the main drags. We went from there to the east ( gas town), south ( china town), to the west ( yaletown). Just how great the bus system is: WE TOOK THE BUS ALONG WITH OUR 2 SUIT CASES AND 1 DUFFLE BAG AND RODE THE BUS TO THE AIRPORT FOR OUR RETURN HOME. Cost for that trip on our departure date: $5.00. Cost to take the cab from the Airport to our Hotel: $30.00 + $5.00 tip. CRAZY!!! Try it believe me it is NOT at all difficult and it is the best thing to do. The bus drivers are just as friendly. You can use that same ticket the entire day. Well actually they do expire but just show your ticket most times the drives will let you on without paying; but if you have to pay $2.50.

Now coming from LA, one would think that we would be use to paying the extra cost for eating out. It is so expensive their. I mean I know it was much cheaper than our Paris Vacation would have been but to really enjoy the fine dining restaurants and the drop til you can get up shopping you need about $1000.00 A THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR THE WEEK. We took $600.00 and exchanged at LAX gave up $49.95 to get $500.00 Canadian Dollars. But dang!!!

We wanted to do something different. RACHEL RAY girl .... you have rubbed off. We did just about $45.00 per day. Not quite $40.00 per day for two. She does $40.00 a day for one. Okay, so we didn't eat breakfast each day, but we did eat lunch and dinner and dessert daily. Breakfast at Roscoes Grill just north and a maybe 3 block walk from the hotel you will find this great, cheap restaurant - Roscoe's!!! Food was great, service good - only 1 server she was quite attentive but kinda dry like she had just woke up from a hard days work. Place and server was very clean, had a vintage kinda feel. Nice place.

All in all, we had a great relaxing time. We are in our 40 to mid- 40's. We enjoy having a good time, hanging out, dancing and just having fun. This was a nice relaxing vacation. Vancouver has something for everyone. Only thing we were so tired from walking that we didn't get a chance to go over to the other hotels like the Fairmont on the water in gastown, or Sutton Place or Hyatt for nightly Jazz. If you want to do that go for it. We decided for this vacation to pass - we usually go out dancing but just wanted to bring lazy clothes no dressy, dress stuff for this vacation. Also, the hotel has a great, swimming pool, sauna, weight room, and good cardo machines. The Spa are is really night. Oh yeah, I think the Hotel Restaurant Zin is a bit pricey but not a big deal just went else where and ate. Room service is always a rip off. But nice to have when you want it!

PS: The ONLY negative would be the computers - getting online very slow to print out boarding pass and the costs to use the computers. But I guess that is everywhere??

We typically try to stay at Kimpton hotels. They may not be the most "luxurious" hotels or have the most updated interiors, but we can always count on the service to be excellent and to feel welcome when we arrive. Plus, I really appreciate what they are trying to accomplish by taking older properties and breathing some life back into them instead of tearing them down to build hideous new chain hotels.

When I first attempted to make a reservation for our stay, the Pacific Palisades was booked and the only room offered was the penthouse sweet at $1k/night. That was beyond our travel budget so we decided to stay at another hotel. That experience was not great, so I called PP at 8:00a the following morning to see if they had availability. We were able to book a Queen Suite and I found a great PRIDE room rate discount. We quickly packed up our belongings and headed over. Since it was early in the a.m, we did not expect anything to be available (they did have room) but we were advised by the Front Desk agent to wait until later in the day. She was "trying to work something out". When we came back she had "upgraded" us to a King Suite. I think she took pity on us for the terrible experience we had the night before.

If you like Kimpton hotels, join the Kimpton In-touch program. They left me a cute amenity with a nice hand written card. It's the little things that they do that keep us coming back.

My daughter and I stayed three nights at the Pacific Palisades Hotel. We had a 1BR suite on the 14th floor, which had a balcony overlooking Robson St with nice city and distant water views. It was spacious with a sofa bed in the living room, TV armoire, chair, desk, dining table, and kitchenette. The furnishings and the room in general were a little worn, but clean. Coffeemaker with supplies were complimentary; other mini-bar items were for sale. The bedroom had a king sized bed, closet, small dresser & TV, but no safe or drapes (miniblinds only).

The reception staff were friendly, although they seemed overwhelmed and busy most of the times we passed through the lobby. We needed to do some laundry and there was a coin operated washer & dryer on site ($2 each), and they provided change and a package of detergent.

The main negative was noise from the street, even with the windows closed. Earplugs were sent up when I phoned reception, which helped a little bit. I guess there’s not much they can do about the noise until they renovate and/or install multi-paned widows. We were also next to an elevator which made a thumping noise while running. Luckily it wasn’t too busy and stayed off most of the night. Maybe a different location would be quieter.

The air conditioning unit is the living room, so we needed to leave the BR door open to keep it comfortable. This was okay for us, but could be a problem for someone needing privacy.

The housekeeping staff is exceptional. The sofa bed was pre-made, and when we opened it up, I noticed the mattress pad looked used. I phoned and someone came up immediately and very cheerfully remade the bed with fresh linens. The day after we checked out, my daughter realized she had left her change purse and wallet (with about $30) in the dresser. I called the hotel and they were already aware of it and had tried to contact me (but we weren’t home yet). They mailed them back to us, and all of the cash was there.

I booked the room via our corporate travel, so got it for a reasonable price but I wouldn’t pay the rack rate. I wouldn’t stay here again because of the noise and the fact that I’m a light sleeper. Others probably love the location.

Staying here depends on your needs. If you want to be close to shopping and restaurants this is a good choice. The property used to be a condominum, so the king suites are very spacious--the room included a living and dining area with a sink and counter...so a good choice for families and extended stays. However, this hotel is really, really run down. The room was very worn, shabby, dated and had a very odd musty odour. The bathroom was very grotty--although it was cleaned--the room is so old that it would be hard for it to look clean. They try to sell it was a funky, modern property by modern art prints on the walls and bright cushions prints...it does not work...it looks like a motel.The balcony was falling apart and dirty --not for sitting and relaxing. Consistent with a review below..i think they have a problem with security as the vancouver police were present in the morning searching for an intrudor. The room service menue (Zin restaurant) is limited and very expensive for the poor quality you get.
the staff appear to be very young and tried to do their best.