Travel Tips from a Local

Vancouver

My tripadvisor GoLists

Perfect Vancouver Weekend on a Budget
Vancouver's Great Eats on a Budget

My lounge favourites
Jupiter Café - D&B live DJ, pretty big space, love this place, it's by Mac's convenience store on Davie
Subeez - downtempo stuff, live DJ, really cool interior and cool crowd
Wazubeez (on Commercial) - east vancouver, sometimes live DJ, open patio, cheap food and drinks, also cool place

Places to walk around and hang out
Denmen street and Beach Avenue (English Bay)
Robson Street
Gas Town
Kitsilano area (West 4th, think SF's Marina District)
Granville Street (think Haight in the daytime, club area by night)
Spanish banks/Jericho Beach
Whistler

San Francisco

Places to walk around and hang out
Twin Peaks for a view of the whole city, very romantic, must see
Union Square -- standard shopping area
The Haight -- home of the Grateful Dead. If you're not into the hippy stores with costumes and hash pipes scene, dont bother
Fisherman's wharf...the standard tourist thing, worth a walk through and a bowl of clam chowder in a sour dough bowl and some fresh crab
Napa Valley or Sonoma if you're into wine and spas -- there's a Premium Outlets up there too.
new DeYoung Museum at Golden Gate Park
new Asian Art Museum (by Civic Centre)
(The MOMA here is not so good, go to the one in NYC instead)
Palace of Fine Arts (mostly for pictures, the inside is a kids science centre)
Marina District -- nice little shops and stuff, very yuppie like kerrisdale
Japantown -- small, cute shops, OK to skip but nice place to get some noodles for lunch
North Beach and Chinatown - really big, lots of food, lots of character.
Golden Gate Bridge - everyone goes over it, so may as well head up to Sausalito and have lunch there too.