VANCOUVER – The Parq Vancouver complex has only been open a year, but it’s already left an indelible mark on this city.
Parq Vancouver is a major development in downtown Vancouver, just a few steps from False Creek and adjacent to BC Place Stadium; home of the Vancouver Canucks hockey team and terrific concerts. It’s a game-changing complex that consists of the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver and The DOUGLAS, a Marriott Autograph Collection property. There’s also a glittering (and thankfully subdued) casino, the only one in downtown Vancouver, a massive convention centre with the city’s largest hotel ballroom, a terrific spa, eight top-notch restaurants and a 30,000 square foot rooftop garden with towering pines, native shrubs and a pretty fountain. (You know they can use their fountains year-round out here, right?)
It’s a massive story to wrap one’s head around; almost a city in and of itself. The fact they were able to do the project in one of Canada’s biggest cities is nothing short of remarkable. And not only did they do it, they did a superb job from top to bottom. I recently spent two nights at the hotel, checking out the casino and the restaurants, experiencing the spa and generally wandering about getting a brief feel for the place.
The posh lobby of The Douglas Hotel at Parq Vancouver. PHOTO COURTESY PARQ VANCOUVER
Both of our nights were at The DOUGLAS, a beautiful hotel with a thousand and one great touches that remind visitors they’re definitely in British Columbia. Perhaps the most notable feature is in the lobby, where they’ve taken a huge Douglas Fir tree and cut it into sections, laying it lengthwise inside panes of glass at the check-in counter. Vancouver was pretty much founded on the harvesting of fir trees, so it’s a very suitable – and very British Columbia – approach.
Our room was quite good-sized and decorated in shades of gold, soft beige and grey, with an exposed concrete ceiling I quite liked. There were lovely gold accents throughout, and a series of repeating circular, spherical shapes that tied the rooms together with the lobby bar area and other parts of the hotel.
We also had a superb rain-shower in a bathroom that had glass walls and a nice view of the city (don’t worry, you can close things up for modesty purposes), as well as Aesop bath products in refillable, environmentally-friendly containers. All rooms have espresso coffee makers and free bottled water.
There were two USB ports on each side of our bed so we could charge our phones overnight, and the desk in our room had a wooden box with note paper and two pencils. The entire Parq Vancouver project is LEED certified gold for its environmental programs.
A studio suite at The DOUGLAS Hotel in Vancouver. PHOTO COURTESY PARQ VANCOUVER
The Parq Vancouver property is on Squamish/Lil’wat land, so they’ve gone out of their way to provide elements that harken to nature and native customs, including the rooftop park. There are thick wooden doors, and the pattern on the wallpaper in the halls is meant to evoke the rippling bark of a tree.
The sixth floor lobby bar/restaurant at The DOUGLAS, called D/6, is quite extensive and lovingly decorated. There’s even a bookcase that you can push open a la James Bond, revealing a private space in the back for small gatherings that would be well away from the paparazzi.
The bar area spills out onto a partly covered patio that’s adjacent to the rooftop park, with glass panels that can be closed so the light comes in but not the cool or rainy winter weather. It’s a great feature.
It was warm and lovely when my wife went there for lunch, snacking on a terrific lemon chicken salad with fresh greens, avocado and toasted chickpeas, as well as a nice turkey panini with cranberry jam and homemade barbeque chips. Waitresses were decked out in shrink-wrap black dresses for a very Vegas kind of look you might not expect in laid-back Vancouver.
The delightful D/6 bar and restaurant at The DOUGLAS Hotel in Vancouver. JIM BYERS PHOTO
When we want back that night for a drink, there were velvet ropes outside the bar and tons of wait staff roaming the patio, where we tried some lovely, house-made cocktails. I had something called a Smoke and Tonic, with sombra mezcal, chartreuse, cointreau, pineapple juice, lime juice, Bittermens elemakule bitters, and tonic water; nice and smoky and just a touch sweet. My wife loved the Douglas Fir drink, with Douglas Fir gin, limoncello, campari, fresh grapefruit juice, bitters, chamomile and, just for fun, a honey popsicle in the bottom of the glass.
Suites at both hotels are remarkable. At The DOUGLAS, we viewed a two-story suite with a grand piano on the lower level and a spiral staircase, as well as a fabulous terrace.
At the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver next door, there’s more of a residential feel, but still plenty of great, artsy touches and soft, woodsy colours not to mention huge windows. The pattern of the drapes in the rooms we saw resembled the bark of a birch tree. One of the suites we toured had gorgeous views of BC Place and False Creek, with tiny boats darting to and fro on the deep blue water.
A cool washroom at The DOUGLAS Hotel in Vancouver. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“Classy luxury is the general concept,” one Parq worker told me. “Kind of a ‘nature meets city’ feel.”
I’d say The Douglas has a bit more edge and a more youthful vibe, while the JW Marriott perhaps attracts a slightly older crowd. One manager we met described The Douglas as Johnny Depp, while the JW Marriott is more Meryl Streep.
Food is a huge part of travel these days, and Parq Vancouver has gone out of its way to make sure their restaurants are of the highest quality.
Victor, which is at the JW Marriott and is run by renowned chef Kim Canteenwalla, is a truly tremendous restaurant that features ocean-wise seafood and fresh herbs harvested just a few feet away. I’ve dined at his restaurant, Andiron, in Las Vegas and loved it.
At dinner I opt for the Porterhouse steak, which is as tender and flavourful a cut of meat as I’ve ever had. We also had super-sweet, tender crab cakes, with tons of fresh Dungeness crab held together only with an egg and a tiny dusting of panko crumbs on top for crunch. The dynamite roll sushi was explosively good, with tempura shrimp, avocado and mango for a touch of sweet. The Hokkaido Scallops also are tremendous, with snow peas and bits of fig. And don’t’ miss the waffle mac and cheese, which is exactly what you’re conjuring up in your mind and comes out with a perfect crunch and gooey, melting cheese.
Delicious dynamite roll at The Victor Restaurant, located at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The restaurant is decorated in shades of bright green, and they have a patio that borders the rooftop garden and BC Place.
For breakfast the next day we check out Honey Salt, also in the JW Marriott. It’s a wonderful, bright and sunny place decorated in pale green, with fruit jars and knick-knacks spread around the room for a homey feel. The menu is quite varied; with influences of Quebec, the Southern U.S. (chicken and waffles) and India, to mention a few. The avocado toast comes with watermelon radishes, tiny, sweet, red peppers and a few hot Serrano chilies we mostly sweep away to be safe. My galette was a deconstructed quiche of sorts, with eggs, gruyere cheese, ham and spinach on a marvellous puff pastry.
Other Honey Salt options (it’s a very extensive menu) include potato latkes, brisket hash, muesli, a BC smoked salmon board and strawberry French Toast. Hey, you can’t argue they don’t have enough choices.
There are five other restaurants I didn’t get to try, including Mrkt East (an elegant dining spot based on a Singapore night market) and BC kitchen, billed as the city’s best sports bar.
Tuna poke at Honey Salt, located inside the JW Marriott in Vancouver. PHOTO COURTESY PARQ VANCOUVER
The spa at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver is terrific, with a nice relaxation room overlooking False Creek and several types of TWG Tea (I had one that was Vanilla Bourbon; quite different). I had a truly wondrous massage, a “jet lag” treatment that included a light exfoliation with gritty bits to stimulate my blood flow, followed my a relaxing massage of my back, feet, legs, arms, hands, fingers, neck and scalp. Heavenly.
The men’s shower area has a nice shaving station with hot towels, as well as a shower with a Eucalyptus spray and a hot steam room, where they’ve provided cold towels just outside the door.
There’s also an enormous gym with all kinds of new, high-end workout equipment and a rooftop hot tub and relaxation area.
I’m not much of a gambler, but the public relations folks at Parq Vancouver offered to give my wife and I a casino lesson. I didn’t know what to expect but they had a very nice young man named Ishrad explain the ins and outs of baccarat, a game I knew absolutely nothing about. After perhaps 10 minutes, we had a pretty good idea how it worked and played a few games. It’s remarkably easy, but I have to report my wife cleaned my clock in our game with pretend chips.
The rooftop “Aqualounge” at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver. PHOTO COURTESY PARQ VANCOUVER
Later we went to the casino floor, which is quite striking and relatively quiet (and thankfully smoke-free) and tried some games on our own. We came out a little ahead, which allowed us to try a penny slot machine that somehow paid me about $50. I’m not, however, suggesting this will happen to you or that the odds are great at a slot machine. Ishrad told us baccarat is mostly luck, as you bet on the banker or the player to win, and that the odds of winning in baccarat are probably the most favourable to gamblers of any casino game. It’s also a fun, relatively pressure-free game in that you aren’t relying on other people at the table to help you out, and they’re not relying on you. Mind you, folks with proper clearance can drop $100,000 on a single game of baccarat at the Parq casino, so it’s not penny ante stuff.
A casino lesson at the Parq Vancouver casino. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The casino folks take good care of their customers, with private rooms if they like, plus free snacks and drinks and even slippers. The main bar on the second level of the casino has lovely drinks, including a wine selection of whiskies. There’s even a direct passage from the casino into BC Place (and vice versa, of course).
The convention space is huge, with modern, flexible meeting rooms and breakout rooms with floor-to-ceiling window. There’s 60,000 square feet of space in all, including Vancouver’s largest hotel ballroom (15,604 square feet).
All in all, one outstanding resort/hotel complex with something for just about everyone.
MY STAY AT THE DOUGLAS HOTEL AND PARQ VANCOUVER WAS PAID FOR BY PARQ VANCOUVER. PARQ VANCOUVER OFFICIALS DID NOT READ OR APPROVE OF THIS STORY PRIOR TO PUBLICATION.
Got a comment or a complaint? Drop me a line: jim@jimbyerstavel.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @jimbyerstravel and on Instagram at @jimbyerstravel1
