Century Plaza Hotel and Spa, Vancouver

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The Century Plaza is pretty much was the heart of the shopping and eating area of downtown on Burrard Street and so is ideally placed for the tourist. This end of Burrard Street had several restaurants and coffee shops, as well as a Market Place supermarket which had lots of excellent foodstuffs as well as a café which serves nice paninis. Just a short walk to the north was Robson Street, which had lots of shops such ...
...'''CONTACT DETAILS'''

Century Plaza Hotel and Spa
1015 Burrard St.
Vancouver, BC
Canada
V6Z 1Y5

Tel: 604-687-0575

You can leave Messages for Hotel Guests via email, which is new to me, sounds like a great idea. Messages can be delivered Mon-Fri when received during office hours (Pacific Time) to: info@century-plaza.com

General Enquires: reserve@century-plaza.com
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INTRODUCTION

It was the first time Ms Larsbaby and myself had been to Vancouver, and without first hand experience of knowing where to stay, we had a look on the net and took this hotel booked for us by the excellent Trailfinders, which was one of their options.

LOCATION

The Century Plaza is pretty much was the heart of the shopping and eating area of downtown on Burrard Street and so is ideally placed for the tourist. This end of Burrard Street had several restaurants and coffee shops, as well as a Market Place supermarket which had lots of excellent foodstuffs as well as a café which serves nice paninis. Just a short walk to the north was Robson Street, which had lots of shops such as Gap & Banana Republic, and a lot of Asian restaurants. There was also an interesting looking hot dog stand very close by which claimed to be the best Japanese hot dog in Vancouver, and even had a complicated diagram of it showing the beef, teriyaki sauce, wasabi and so it, which I regretfully didn't have the chance to try. Chinatown, Gastown and Stanley Park were about a 20 minute walk away from the hotel. All in all then, a very accessible location.

CHECKING IN AND OUT

We checked in at reception which took about 10 minutes. There was a slight delay as the computer system broke down, but this wasn't a big problem and the receptionist was very apologetic. Ms Larsbaby gave her credit card details for any extras we might use, as our bill had already been paid via Trailfinders. We discovered that our Trailfinders Bonus (an additional extra that came with our travel package) was that our room was a studio suite, what was in effect a 1 bedroom apartment! So this was a nice discovery upon check in. We didn't always experience nice surprises on checking into hotels that holiday, but that will be dealt with in another review!

Checking out was just as simple; since we didn't incur any additional charges, we were on our way pretty quickly after a cursory check of our bill.

THE RECEPTION AREA

As we entered the hotel we were immediately greeted with an immaculate, roomy, sparkling reception area. The square, sparkly chandeliers imposed over the high ceilinged area. The shiny cream floor tiles gleamed, with some black tiles showing the way to the bar area. There was also a doorway to the right of the reception desk leading to the hotel spa. There were some green leather benches around the pillars to provide some seating, backed by some brown leather on the pillars, as well as a small tabled area. There were also some grey easy chairs dotted around. The pillars and walls were mostly painted cream, with some blue panels too. I have to say I was pretty blown away by the reception. It was quite sparse relative to the space given to it, yet well furnished; very contemporary and classy.

THE APARTMENT

Seeing as the room was a small one bedroom apartment, I was even more impressed by this. The door led into a corridor which led to the living room area, bedroom and bathroom. A complimentary copy of "The Globe and Mail" was left outside the door every morning. This was actually a pretty good read, as it had a lot of world news in it.

THE LIVING ROOM

This had open plan kitchenette and lounge sections.

KITCHENETTE

The open plan kitchenette was really handy in case we didn't want to eat out all the time. As breakfast wasn't included, this was really useful as we bought some cereal, milk and fruit juice from the nearby Market Place supermarket.

A small, square wooden dining table sat by the window near to the kitchenette. This had 2 wooden chairs back with a yellow seat, and blue plastic bin next to it, which seemed to be the only one in the living room and bedroom. It was encouragingly written on this that the hotel recycled.

The kitchenette area floor was cream tiles, and there was a lot of equipment here:

• large white fridge containing 4 water bottles (which would be added to the bill, if consumed)
• small freezer compartment containing a blue ice tray
• cooker with a 4 ring electric hob and an extractor fan above
• "Silvania" brand microwave oven
• cupboard above the fridge and cooker containing 2 wine glasses and 2 glass tumblers
• sink area with cupboards containing some cutlery, 2 small plates, 2 big plates, 2 bowls, 1 big casserole dish, 1 small saucepan, 1 medium frying pan, 1 larger, deep frying pan, (all pans were metallic). On the top was also a kettle, toaster, teapot and ice bucket, coffee machine, 2 mugs and some tea bags and instant coffee sachets.

THE MAIN LOUNGE AREA

This was the largest part of the flat and I thought it was very large! There was a comfortable turquoise carpet and cream walls. A cream patterned sofa sat to the right as you entered and a matching easy chair was positioned at the corner near the window. The sofa could be folded out into a sofa bed. Next to the chair was a small table seating the telephone and a small lamp. This also had the leather covered guest directory book, which contained hotel and local information as well as some paper, a pen and some envelopes. To the middle of the room was a small dark wooden coffee table.

We were on the 15h floor and had a balcony, which had the air conditioner extractor unit on it. I am not good with heights and so didn't venture out much, but it gave a spectacular (if somewhat skyscraper obscured) view of the city as it faced north. Thanks to the balcony there was a lot of light entering the room, and some big window near the kitchen added to this. Above the chair was the air conditioning unit.

For such a fancy room the TV was a bit old fashioned, but this was perhaps in keeping with the classic look of the room. It was a CRT TV housed in a wooden cabinet matching the tables, with 3 drawers below the TV, the top one containing some phone directories. The room was decorated with some portraits of old fashioned houses dotted around.

In the hallway leading to the bedroom and entrance was a mirrored built in wardrobe, which had a clothes rail and some hangers, as well as a foldable metal suitcase stand (well that's what I think it was anyway).

THE BEDROOM

A large double bed (which was very comfortable) with a dark wooden headboard had a small wooden bedside table to each side, with 1 drawer and a bedside lamp on each one. One of them contained a Gideons Bible.

There was a wooden chair and large wooden desk to the left of the room. A wide wooden chest of drawers was in front of the bed, containing some laundry bags. A high mirror was above this, to give the illusion of the room looking bigger than it actually was. There was a fair amount of space around the bed, so even without the lounge this would have been a pretty decent room. A picture similar to that in the living room of an old style house hung on the wall.

THE BATHROOM

The bathroom was tiled with white tiles with a cream regular pattern on each of them. It was actually quite small, but who cares when the lounge was so big.

The bath contained a shower head which was controlled by a mixer tap in the bath. This was a bit fiddly to get the right temperature, but once you managed this, you simply twisted a handle to divert this to the shower head from the bath taps. The cleanliness was excellent, and some toiletries such as shower gel and shampoo were provided. There was small plastic bin next to the toilet. The bathroom also contained a hairdryer and socket for an electric shaver. Towels hung from a metal rail.

BREAKFAST

As I said this wasn't included in our deal so we never had it, but the menu included various kinds of eggs, cereals and baked goods. There were a few choices of coffees and fresh juices. Looking at the menu, I reckon it'd set you back about $15 for enough items to keep you going.

BAR

This was a sports bar, with 5 or 6 LCD widescreen TVs lining the walls, showing sports channels which mainly focused on American football, baseball and boxing. There were some comfortable cream leather sofas to sit on, with some round leather stools. Some low wooden tables with candle seated any drinks. The bar area itself had some high bar stools and yet more LCD screen above the bar with showing sports. You could also order a limited selection from the restaurant menu, mainly the lighter dishes such as burgers. We went there on a Tuesday night and it was pretty empty. We had table service from a waitress so it was a nice place to just chill out quietly.

RESTAURANT

We didn't use the restaurant ourselves so I can't comment on the quality of the food. The lunch menu has some small dishes such as soup, spring rolls and quid. Salads include chicken, tuna and shrimp salads. There are also several egg dishes. Pizzas, sandwiches and burgers complete the lighter dishes. Mains include seafood pasta, fish and chips, steak with fries and vegetarian noodles.

As for the dinner menu, starters include salads, crab and lobster. Dinner mains include lamb, salmon filler, vegetarian meatloaf, chicken with potatoes and halibut. Desserts include mini brulees, mixed berry sorbet and cheesecake.

There are also a range of cocktails available. I liked the look of Beyond Cubano Mojito, which was "Havana club rum, muddled organic mint, raw cant sugar and soda".

SPA

Something which I thought Ms Larsbaby might use but in the end she didn't. The in hotel spa was a chain called Absolute Spa which also had branches inside several other downtown Vancouver hotels, with treatments varying between them.

I had look at the list of treatment and they included waxing, hairdressing, make up services, wraps (I thought you ate those), spa packages, facials, advanced face treatments, Microdermabrasion on body and face (eh?), massage, massage therapy, hand and nail care, foot care, tanning, buffs and scrubs, water spa therapies, "mom 2 be" treatments, and absolute teen and men spas.It also had other facilities for men which included facials, hand foot and body massages, and body scrubs, hydrotherapy baths, water massages, purifying back treatment … what? All these ranged between $35 and a few hundred dollars.

GENERAL BUSINESS FACILITIES

There were six newly renovated meeting rooms. There was also internet available (thought I didn't have my laptop so am unsure if it was wifi and free).

PRICE

$714 for 6 nights between us is, I think, pretty cheap. That comes out at about £60 each per night which really is great value for money for a downtown apartment.

CONCLUSION

I was very impressed indeed by the deal Trailfinders had got for us in this hotel. The apartment really couldn't have been better, the service on the few occasions we needed it friendly and the location perfect. If you can get a deal as good as ours, I fully recommend this hotel. Even if you can't, it's still well worth considering.

CONTACT DETAILS

Century Plaza Hotel and Spa
1015 Burrard St.
Vancouver, BC
Canada
V6Z 1Y5

Tel: 604-687-0575

You can leave Messages for Hotel Guests via email, which is new to me, sounds like a great idea. Messages can be delivered Mon-Fri when received during office hours (Pacific Time) to: info@century-plaza.com

General Enquires: reserve@century-plaza.com

Website : http://www.century-plaza.com/ 

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