City overview
Vancouver's Orthodox community is centred on Oak Street, which runs south from Broadway through South Granville, Shaughnessy and Oakridge. Congregation Schara Tzedeck stands at 3476 Oak Street, Beth Hamidrash, the Sephardic congregation, is a few blocks east at 3231 Heather Street, the Ohel Yaakov Community Kollel is on West Broadway at 1965, and Chabad Lubavitch of British Columbia has its head office further south at Oak Street and 41st Avenue. Kosher food follows the same line: a bakery on Oak Street, a dairy café at the Chabad building, a dairy restaurant inside the Jewish Community Centre on West 41st Avenue and a meat restaurant next to the Kollel on West Broadway, with a butcher and deli and a kosher grocery warehouse in East Vancouver on Fraser Street and Kingsway. Richmond, across the Fraser River to the south, has its own smaller community: The Bayit on No. 3 Road, which is inside the Richmond eruv, and Chabad Richmond on Blundell Road, which maintains that eruv. Downtown Vancouver has Chabad of Downtown on Howe Street, which holds a Shabbos morning service and helps visitors. For a visitor who keeps Shabbos, where you stay matters more than anything else. Most hotels are downtown, a long walk from the Oak Street shuls, and Chabad Lubavitch of BC says no hotels are within walking distance of its building at 41st Avenue. The Holiday Inn Vancouver-Centre on West Broadway at Heather Street is inside the Vancouver eruv and within walking distance of Beth Hamidrash. In Richmond, the hotels along Westminster Highway are outside the Richmond eruv. Book with the Shabbos walk in mind before anything else.
Chabad of Downtown
Vancouver, BC
Rabbi
Rabbi Binyomin Bitton and Mrs. Malky Bitton
Phone
778-688-1273Serves downtown residents and visitors from its shul on Howe Street, with a Shabbos morning service followed by Kiddush and help for tourists. It does not hold Kabbalat Shabbat services or organize Shabbat meals, and is contacted through its website rather than by text or WhatsApp.
Getting Around
Public transit
TransLink runs buses, SkyTrain and the SeaBus across Metro Vancouver.
The Canada Line is the key route for a Jewish visitor: it runs from Waterfront downtown through Vancouver City Centre, Yaletown–Roundhouse, Olympic Village, Broadway–City Hall, King Edward, Oakridge–41st Ave, Langara–49th Ave and Marine Drive to Bridgeport, then splits into a Richmond branch (Capstan, Aberdeen, Lansdowne, Richmond–Brighouse) and an airport branch (Templeton, Sea Island Centre, YVR–Airport). Trains run from about 5:00 AM to about 1:00 AM daily, every 6 minutes on each branch at peak and every 3 minutes between Bridgeport and Waterfront. The Expo and Millennium lines serve Burnaby and points east. Useful buses include the 99 B-Line along Broadway, the 17 Downtown/Oak along Oak Street and the R4 RapidBus along 41st Avenue. The Broadway Subway extension of the Millennium Line is not yet open; its public opening is planned for fall 2027. NightBus routes leave downtown every 20 to 30 minutes from about 1:30 AM, including the N10 to Richmond and the airport. Adult fares by zone are $3.50 / $5.10 / $6.70 for one, two or three zones when paying with cash or tapping a contactless Visa, Mastercard or American Express card, or $2.85 / $4.20 / $5.40 with a stored-value Compass Card ($6 refundable deposit). All bus trips, and every trip after 6:30 PM on weekdays and all weekend, are charged as one zone. An all-zone adult DayPass is $12.55, transfers are valid for 90 minutes, and children 12 and under ride free. Trips leaving the airport carry a $6.50 YVR AddFare. Downtown, the Oak Street corridor and central Richmond can all be covered without a car.
Rideshare
Uber and Lyft both operate across Vancouver and Richmond and are authorized at YVR, where rideshare pickup is on Level 2 at both Domestic Arrivals and International Arrivals, with a third pickup area at the South Terminal.
Taxis from YVR charge a flat fare by destination zone, which includes a $4.00 passenger load charge, and trips to the airport are metered.
Car rental
At YVR, Avis, Alamo, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National and Thrifty have desks on the ground floor of the parkade, a short walk from the terminal.
Europcar, Routes, SIXT and West Coast Car Rental are off-airport and reached by shuttle from the courtesy shuttle zones. There are no bridge tolls in Metro Vancouver. In the City of Vancouver, street pay parking runs 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM seven days a week, including holidays, at demand-based rates with typical one- or two-hour limits. Meters no longer take coins, so pay by card or with the PayByPhone or HotSpot apps.
Airport
Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is on Sea Island in Richmond, and it is the airport nearly every visitor uses. The Canada Line reaches Waterfront downtown in about 25 minutes, Oakridge–41st Ave on Oak Street in about 15 minutes and downtown Richmond in about 18 minutes. Flights to the United States clear US Customs and Border Protection preclearance at YVR before departure. Abbotsford International Airport (YXX), served by WestJet and Flair, is in the Fraser Valley east of the city. Bellingham International Airport (BLI) in Washington State is about an hour's drive south, across the US border. Harbour Air seaplanes fly from Coal Harbour downtown to Victoria and to Seattle's Lake Union, and Helijet flies from the Vancouver Harbour Heliport to Victoria and Nanaimo.
Good to know
Best time to visit
July and August are the driest, warmest months, while November through January is the wettest stretch. Cruise ships call at Canada Place from late winter to mid-October, with most arriving between May and September, so downtown hotels fill and prices rise through the summer.
Insider tips
The Fraser River separates Vancouver from Richmond. The Oak Street Bridge carries Oak Street directly into Richmond, and the Arthur Laing Bridge connects Vancouver with the airport on Sea Island. Downtown sits on a peninsula joined to the rest of the city by the Granville, Burrard and Cambie bridges, with the Lions Gate Bridge leading north through Stanley Park. The 28 km seawall runs from the Vancouver Convention Centre around Stanley Park to Spanish Banks. The 9 km Stanley Park loop takes 2 to 3 hours on foot or about an hour by bike, with walkers on the path nearest the water. Lifeguards cover English Bay, Second and Third beaches, Sunset, Kitsilano, Jericho, Locarno and Spanish Banks from mid-May to early September. Tap water is safe to drink. Restaurant meals carry only the 5% GST. Vancouver hotel bills add 8% PST, a 3% municipal and regional district tax and a 2.5% major events tax on top of GST. Canada uses metric units, so distances are in kilometres and temperatures in Celsius.
Safety & emergency
Call 911 for police, fire or ambulance. The Vancouver Police Department covers the City of Vancouver (non-emergency 604-717-3321), and the Richmond RCMP Detachment covers Richmond (non-emergency 604-278-1212, main detachment at 11411 No. 5 Road). For non-urgent health advice, call HealthLink BC on 8-1-1, available 24 hours a day with translation in over 130 languages. Vancouver is generally safe for visitors, but the Downtown Eastside, around East Hastings Street east of Gastown, has visible drug use, homelessness and street crime. Avoid walking through it, especially after dark, and take ordinary care with belongings and parked cars citywide.
Local time
1:34 PM
−3 hrs from NYC
Plug
Type A/B
120V, 60Hz
Currency
Canadian Dollar
Kosher map of Vancouver, BC
Pick a place on the map or search an address or hotel to see what is kosher around it.