We needed a little break and to maximize our time, I booked a hotel in our home town of Vancouver. Grandparents were babysitting and we had one night. I must say that we’ve gotten quite good at quickly moving into relax mode. You have to be when you both work full time, have two busy kids and try to fit in the rest of life around the edges!

We stayed downtown in an older hotel but our room had been renovated and had a fabulous view of the north shore mountains, Stanley Park and the harbour. I realized that although I’ve traveled a lot and in many big cities, I’ve never stayed downtown in a major city with such an incredible view. It really felt like more than 24 hours.

The rest of our mini-break was spent out for dinner (gift certificate), biking around Stanley Park ($17), breakfast ($12), coffees ($30) and the hotel was on sale ($184). We took a Car2Go to and from as we knew we didn’t need a vehicle once we were downtown ($7.50).

Very enjoyable and great value!